Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5635 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-04-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 63 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on a comic within the Watchmen graphic novel, Tales Of The Black Freighter was cut out of the big screen version of the story, and is set to reappear in an extended cut of the film on DVD. For those who simply can’t wait, however, the 26-minute animated story has been given a standalone release, attracting the voice talent of 300’s Gerard Butler too.

Tales Of The Black Freighter is actually, in the Watchmen graphic novel, a comic book that we see being read reasonably regularly. It concerns itself with pirates, and the story is that of a man who survives an attack from the Black Freighter of the title, only to then have to try and get back home and warn people at home it’s coming. His journey, and this is some understatement, isn’t an easy one, and for good reason this was the story deemed to be the most tricky part of the Watchmen graphic novel to realise on screen.

It turns out that animation has proven to be a wise way to go, though. Tales of the Black Freighter works well as a cartoon, and it’s able to contain much of the material from the graphic novel as a result. Its effect is a little dampened when taken in isolation, but it’s still a welcome and well-realised version of the story, and a faithful one too. Well worth picking up. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
They’re in the book. And on this disc. Executive Produced by the Director of Watchmen and 300, here are two tales from the most celebrated graphic novel of all time that do not appear in the extraordinary Watchmen Theatrical Feature. Tales of the Black Freighter (featuring the voice of 300’s Gerard Butler) brings to strikingly animated life the graphic novel’s richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmen’s world. Stars from the Watchmen movie t eam up in the amazing live-action/CGI Under the Hood, based on Nite Owl’s powerful firsthand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence. Two fan-essential stories.

Customer Reviews

Great - but should you pay for it as a stand-alone item..?
Much as I respect him, Alan Moore can say what he likes this time: Watchmen was a great movie, and a great comic-book adaptation (dodgy incidental music aside). Moore is well known for distancing himself from the films created from his graphic novels after the event, sometimes with cause, other times, not so much. Watchmen however succeeded on practically every level, the film being a near panel-for-panel remake of the book version. Even where the plot diverts from the original story and uses Dr. Manhattan as a scapegoat rather than the comic's Outer Limits derived plot device (subtly referenced in the film's conclusion) of `humans unite in the face of extraterrestrial threat', it is - I maintain - an improvement. They did themselves proud with this one. The only thing left for fanboys to bemoan was the obviously necessary exclusion of Black Freighter comic-within-a-comic segment. After all, the film is already pushing three hours long.

It's true that the metafictitious Tales Of The Black Freighter comic story was a marvellous little additional plot device which nicely mirrored The Watchmen's main story and was allegorical of many of the main characters' - specifically Ozymandias' - bloody paths to becoming what they most hated, all paved with good intentions. It fitted nicely within the pages of the comic books and all was well-and-good. Tales Of The black Freighter was never likely to make it into the movie-proper though and - as much as those purist geeks may disagree - it is far from an essential part of the story, however much I may personally have liked to see it on celluloid. I was delighted, therefore, when I heard that, so dedicated were Zack Snyder and Co. to providing the closest possible rendering to the source text/art, that they would be releasing a near-coinciding straight-to-DVD animation of Black Freighter.

Surely this will appease the rabid purists, no? Well, perhaps: Tales Of The Black Freighter is, like Watchmen, a painstakingly accurate re-telling of the meta-comic on which it is based, but I'm sure that this time the complaint will be that, when no longer juxtaposed in context to the principal narrative, the once well-timed symbolism somewhat loses it's impact. They may well be right, of course, and maybe releasing this separately sold DVD - which also includes a well-conceived 1985 period-themed Under The Hood author's spotlight feature - could be construed as a little cynical when the Black Freighter itself is a mere 20 minutes long, but then if it weren't made available until bundled with the Watchmen's DVD release then it couldn't be viewed as a companion piece until long after the film had left the cinemas.

As an addendum to The Watchmen movie, Tales Of The Black Freighter entirely succeeds, I just hope to see these features included in the Watchmen's extras when the film does come to DVD, as it shouldn't really warrant separate purchase. Perhaps it could be re-inserted into the movie itself should there be a special edition or director's cut release. Please.

J Capeling

Frightening
By this point we all know about the new live action super hero movie, Watchmen. We have all experienced the hype around it and even if we haven't seen it yet, we all have the urge to see it eventually. Those who, like me, have not read the comics will be very unaware as to what "Tales of the Black Freighter" is all about.

Within the comics, Tales of the Black Freighter is told as a comic within a comic which within the Watchmen series is known as "Marooned". This short animation focuses around a Mariner Captain who is the soul survivor of his ship which is attacked and destroyed by the murderous crew of the Black Freighter. Stranded on an island amongst the dead, rotting corpses of his fellow sea men, he becomes desperate to get to his homeland before the Black Freighter to warn his family of their impending arrival.

He proceeds to construct a raft out of the corpses and the broken pieces of his destroyed ship. On his journey, thanks to the starvation and reclusion he endures during his trip, the captain delves deeper and deeper into insanity to the point if which he starts to have conversations with one of the corpses that make up his raft.

Gerard Butler of "300" fame lends his voice to this feature as the captain who narrates the entire piece, as well as lending a bit of voice acting to it in the dialogue between the captain and his dead friend. The voice acting is haunting, yet effective. It remains almost monotonous throughout and somehow helps to maintain this idea that, thanks to his desperation to get home before the freighter, his mind seems to deteriorate more and more.

The animation is also something that is used to its maximum potential in a way that presents a realistic picture, without becoming overly detailed. There are a number of moments that I think the depiction of gore is a bit much, but I believe that the Watchmen movie and its accompanying short film keep extremely loyal to the comic, so it's understandable why it would be depicted in a way.

The whole idea about the way in which the mind of the captain is displayed in this feature is ultimately very clever. The reason it's frightening as it's not just a focus on the individual character, but more of an observation into human insanity in general and what levels we would stoop to in situations of pure desperation. This engagement of the captain's mind is also made that much more effective in the way the entire story is narrated by the fantastic Gerard Butler.

I would say that you're best waiting until the Watchmen movie DVD comes out as I believe this will be included with it as a sort of set. As a stand alone DVD I don't really see the point, but it certainly was an entertaining watch, even if it is only about half an hour long.

Ok, but predictable
As title states - it's ok, but very predictable. Don't think the live-action movie missed anything but not including this side-line story within it. If you're a big fan of Watchmen then give it a shot, but for everyone else you won't really be missing out if you don't buy/see this.