Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter DVD Review

Rating:

From the moment the Watchmen movie was announced, fans knew that some things simply wouldn’t make it to the screen. While director Zack Snyder did an amazing job at adapting the graphic novel, the extra content in the original comics suffered the most.

Under the Hood was a text-only piece that accompanied several issues of the comic. This autobiography by Hollis Mason (the original Nite Owl), was a history filled look back at the origins of the Watchmen universe. Detailing his time with the original superhero group the Minutemen, Mason reveals little details (the Comedian’s attempted rape of Sally Jupiter, Captain Metroplis’ sexuality, etc) that shape the narrative of the comic.

Similarly, the comic-within-a-comic of Tales of the Black Freighter serves as a moral parallel to Ozymandias. The Captain in the B;ack Freighter story is clearly a man driven mad by his surroundings and environment. Moore used this story to show the true nature of Ozymandias. While clearly the “villain” of the film, he does not suffer the typical fate of a villain. Quite the contrary, some of his colleagues agree with his decision—or at least decide to live with it. The Black Freighter story shows the true villainy within the character.

The Warner Home Video release Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter not only presents an animated adaptation of its namesake, but also a live-action adaptation of the book Under the Hood.

These integral parts of the comic are perfectly recreated on this DVD. While named after the Black Freighter comic, the Under the Hood feature (37-minutes) is easily the most revealing and relevant to fans of the film.

Presented as an episode of the television news program The Culpepper Minute, it features “old” news footage of an interview with Hollis Mason as a springboard to the rest of the content in the original text piece.

Viewers are treated to archive footage of the heroes from the Minutemen, interviews with Sally Jupiter, comments from other characters in the book, and many more treats. It’s an excellent way to adapt the source material. It’s a shame this wasn’t added to the finished film in some fashion, although it will likely make it into a future DVD version.

The Tales from the Black Freighter short is equally well done. At 21-minutes, it’s a taut examination of one man’s madness as he as attempts to make his way back home and rescue his family from an ill-defined threat.

Compared to the tame Under the Hood documentary, this short features ample scenes of gore and decay. The Captain’s construction of his life raft from the corpses of his fallen men is tough to watch, even in animated form. Even more than Under the Hood, this would have made a nice addition to the final film.

The are a few extras included on this disc that is essentially extras. The best extra is the documentary that details the making of these two Watchmen related shorts. This 25-minute short features interviews with many of the team behind Watchmen, as they describe the reasoning and process behind bringing both of these supplemental shorts to DVD. It’s an informative look at what goes into creating related content for a massive media production.

The first episode of the Watchmen: Complete Motion Comic is included on the DVD. These shorts were  originally available on iTunes and just recently were released as a set to DVD. Using the art from the comic by Dave Gibbons, the entire series is narrated and animated is a stilted form similar to the old 1960’s Marvel cartoons. It’s 100% true to the comic and quite entertaining. Well worth checking out if you’re a fan.

The final extra is a short look at the next DC animated direct-to-DVD feature—Green Lantern.

Overall, this is a great DVD of extra content relating to Watchmen the movie. While most of it may appear on a later DVD of the film, it’s well worth purchasing if you’re a fan of the comic or film. Each short has been given the attention and production that it deserves.