Tales of the Black Freighter (2009)

When they finally turned the classic comic book series Watchmen into a movie, they had to leave a lot of stuff out. You may find that surprising if you've only seen the film, given how long, detailed and dense it was already. But as one of the most complex stories every written in comic book history, there was a lot they had to skip. Instead of simply forgetting about that stuff, they've taken most of it and turned it into two short films. They're both must-sees if you were a fan of the movie or the comic. Taken on their own merits, however, one of them is must better than the other.Tales of the Black Freighter was a comic-within-the-comic that told the story of the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the infamous Black Freighter and the horrible, mad lengths he goes to in order to save himself and protect his family. They've turned the comic story into roughly a half-hour long cartoon with some decent animation and good voice work by Gerard Butler as the sole survivor. In making it into a cartoon, unfortunately, the writers and directors leave out most of the powerful and creepy narration that make the original work so striking. The comic-within-the-comic was also thematically connected extensively and intimately with the main story of Watchmen and severing that union robs Tales of the Black Freighter of a lot of its purpose and force.Under the Hood is based on text pieces that ran in the original comic concerning the autobiography of Nite Owl I, Hollis Mason (Stephen McHattie). That was the old guy talking with Dan Dreiberg at the start of the movie. He was one of the original masked adventurers of the 1940s who eventually hung up his mask and tights and wrote a book about what he did and why he did it. In the comic, excerpts from the book were used to flesh out and reinforce many of the themes Alan Moore was driving at in the series. It's been adapted for the screen as an episode of a TV news show about Hollis Mason and his book. Host Larry Culpepper (Ted Friend) talks with Mason, the former Silk Spectre, Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), former super-villain Moloch (Matt Frewer) and others about the book and the nature of super-heroes in the real world.Under the Hood is much better than Tales of the Black Freighter. It deals more directly and explicitly with much of Alan Moore's deconstructive take on super-heroes and heroism in general, and is therefore hampered less by being detached from the main story. There are also some very good performances by Stephen McHattie, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer and Rob LaBelle as Doctor Manhattan's former sidekick. They show the twin sides of the super-hero as presented in Watchmen; the human dimension concerned with celebrity and personal drive and desire, and the sociological perspective of how the existence of such entities would interact with and change the larger world.I imagine the idea is that both these films will eventually be re-integrated into the main Watchmen movie in a special edition DVD. Hollywood loves to sell people the same thing over and over again. I'm not sure it'll be worth getting that DVD because adding this stuff into the movie would make it 4 hours long or more. These works, especially Tales of the Black Freighter, would also not fit alongside some of the changes made in adapting the comic to the screen.If you liked Watchmen, the comic or the movie, I suggest you give this thing a rent and enjoy this stuff on its own.

I am glad that this short film exists. I am also glad that it was not crosscut into Watchmen - it would have further fragmented a narrative already suffering from flashback fatigue. What worked on the page, where you got go back and re-read, does not necessarily work on screen.Taken on its own merits, Tales Of The Black Freighter works well as a macabre horror pirate story. The story, though slight, is solid, the animation is fine, and the voicework - primarily Gerard (SPARTAAAAA!!!!) Butler - is very good.However, I can't conceive of a 25 minute animated pirate horror movie ever being commissioned if it wasn't for the Watchmen connection.Does this matter? I don't think so.

I've been a fan of Watchmen ever since I first saw the movie in March.I have since read the graphic novel, bought a Rorschach poster and watched this short.I personally did not care for it when it was in the original graphic novel, so I was skeptical about watching this.It's a short 25min animated feature about a man who'se crew gets murdered by these evil demonic pirates on a "black freighter"(hence the title).The pirates then go to the hometown of the man, to slaughter the people there, which include this wife and child.So, he follows them, intent on saving his family and taking revenge on the pirates.The animation is the best part of this short. It's simply excellent.The story is kind of hard to follow, and I personally never saw how it fit in with "Watchmen".It's decent enough, if you're a fan of 300, Watchmen or any violent animation, then this is worth a look.Apparently, this short will be inter-sped into the "Watchmen" film for the Ultimate Edition DVD.

So I haven't seen The Watchmen yet, nor have I read the graphic novel.This was a very cool, well done little piece of psychological horror.In the vein of Hitchcock or The Twilight Zone with copious amounts of blood and gore, and with pirates. There is a very nice sense of tension throughout the story and there are more than a few shocking moments.Even though animated, I still found myself unintentionally cringing at some points. The animation is done well, I'm glad its not done in an Anime style. It reminded me a little of Ralph Bakshi which was nice and the twist or climax at the end left me satisfied.I will definitely be recommending this to everyone I know. Especially the ones who enjoyed The Watchmen. I was planning on seeing it soon and this has certainly added to my anticipation. But whether Watchmen turns out to be awesome or not, this is a great piece of animation and absolutely stands on its own. Even if you didn't like the movie this was extracted from you should check this out.