Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood [Blu-ray]

Animation brings book to life and extras are awesome

Before I ever sat down in a movie theater to the "Watchmen" motion picture I read through the Watchmen Graphic Novel. When I did so I was introduced to the concept of a superhero that does not always do the right things and does not always save the world without so much as a single casualty. I was introduced to men and women who are flawed in many ways, but who had the skills and the charisma to do what they considered the right thing to do for the benefit of the world's people's. Within the pages of Watchmen was a side story that mirrored the main story and it was called "Tales of the Black Freighter." Though I read through the story of a shipwrecked sea captain whose determination to save his loved ones drove him to the brink, I felt that the dvd brought new life to the story. In the graphic novel you are focused on the Watchmen story while this other one slides in and out of focus. With the story being told in one cohesive storyline along with Gerard Butlers emotional narration made me really feel and care for this story and its bitter ending. I would also suggest this dvd for people who are also just simply looking for good emotional story telling. The "Under The Hood" documentry ,if that is what you could call it,is also an interesting piece to watch for fans of the movie or graphic novel and it also makes this alternate timeline that the novel and movie are based around feel real by adding in commercial breaks with referances for people who know their "Watchmen."

Essentially, Tales of the Black Freighter (along with Under the Hood and the behind the scenes footage) is either an epilogue for those who have just seen the movie or a preview for those who cannot await the Watchmen special edition DVD which will contain all three works (movie, Hood and Tales) all woven together the way they were in the book. As such, the price is a bit steep, which is the only reason I've rated this at four stars instead of five. Tales is beautifully rendered and voiced. Under the Hood is a bit slow, but then it was all text in the book, and in essence provided a break in the pacing of the story, so I'm not sure that this is a mark against it.A note on Blu-Ray: Tales is supposed to feel like a comic book. The Animation harkens back to 1970s/80s fare such as Heavy Metal, and really doesn't benefit from the hyper-sharpened, line-for-line picture of my Blu-Ray copy. I'd actually suggest DVD format for this one if you have a less than 40" TV or a good upscaling DVD player.[...]

My review is of the documentary and not the cartoon of "Tales of the Black Freighter", because I completely skipped it over since it never attracted my curiosity. However, "Under the Hood" was the reason I bought this video, and I really enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of documentaries, and watching this "documentary" lol was an enjoyable experience. I got to learn a little more about the characters and the differences between the characters in the film and in the comic book as well as the contradictions in each. For example, you see that the Night Owl of the film was in love with the Silk Spectre while in the comic series he was in love with Silhouette. Looking over my purchase I probably should have just rented this rather than purchased.

When i read Watchmen, the part I found most engrossing was the comic book that one of the characters was reading, Tales of the Black Freighter. When I found out there was an animated version of the story, I had to see it. Unfortunately, the drawings in the graphic novel are very richly illustrated, while the animated film is much simplified, leaving out much of the detail that made the comic book within Watchmen so good. If you've never read Watchmen, this isn't bad on its own, but I found it disappointing.

As a newly introduced fan to the Watchmen Comic novel, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Captain's tale against the Black Freighter but I appreciated the story even more so in the "Watchmen Motion Comic" because one could see the parallels in both stories. That of the captain and the watchmen."Under the Hood" was also pretty good. For those of you who have only seen the movie, you will enjoy it because it tells the story of the original super heroes "The Minute Men."So again, watchmen fan, must have. Not that big of a fan, not so much!!!!!You decide....

For fans of the graphic novel, the idea of a supplemental feature following the Tale of the Black Freighter was an exciting one. Naturally, I (along with many others, I'm sure) pre ordered the blu ray. Having just finished watching it, I have to say I am supremely disappointed.NOT, at the quality of the ~25 minute graphic epic, NOT, at the documentary style "Under the Hood" special, but the very fact that they asked me for 25 of my hard earned dollars for something that could have and SHOULD have been supplementary content on the Watchmen Bluray. I'm astounded. I feel cheated, ripped off, angered.DO NOT waste your money on this. If you must, rent it. The short Pirate feature is entertaining for sure, and fun. The Hollis Mason documentary is slow moving, but chock full of additional info and plays to the fans.The bottom line is, this should have been a supplementary disc in the official Watchmen release, NOT a stand alone bluray. All I have to say is that the official Watchmen bluray better have some amazing special features, if these two extras were the fat that got skimmed off.

I bought this for Black Freighter and the best part of this is the Under the Hood fake documentary. If you are a watchmen fan go get this, if you are a anime fan you will love this. Ive heard that the future release of black freighter which comes with Watchmen is coming but i heard it doesnt come with the all the extras, so i suggest you buy this and Watchmen Directors cut on blu ray  Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray ]

Hi, this is a very high quality Blu Ray which acts as a companion piece to the Watchmen Movie directed by Zack Snyder & Deborah Snyder. It features Gerard Butler who narrates the story of the Sailor who is cast adrift on a raft in the middle of an ocean during what appears to be a time of war set sometime around the 18th Century. Upon his survival he catches glimpse of a dark and mysterious vessel passing him by apparently heading for his home port and he struggles to rush home in order to protect his loved ones and his townsfolk, only to eventually be damned upon his arrival. The story is incredibly unique, specific only to the Watchmen verse, a purely one-off story and is supposed to mirror the existential journey of Rorschach from the Watchmen movie as he moves through his own story arc. Tales of the Black Freighter is sprung from the pages of the comic book being read by the young man by the news stand not only in Zack Snyder's Ultimate Edition Blu Ray edition of the movie, but also from the original Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel. Also on the Tales Blu Ray are 2 documentaries about the making of the Black Freighter short and another about the wider making of the movie plus some content about the Watchmen verse itself. This is a unique and high-quality Blu ray production and is very welcome.

This Blu-ray consists of two short films: first and foremost, "Tales of the Black Freighter"; and, secondly, "Under the Hood". These are part of the wider "Watchmen" universe, and contribute to that saga. Note: if you have the "Ultimate Edition" of the film, these are already included."Tales of the Black Freighter" is an animated film, about 30 minutes in length. It is based on the comic book as seen in the movie (which, in turn, is based on the original graphic novel). Within the alternate universe of the "Watchmen", super-hero comic books didn't emerge (as the costumed vigilante happened in real life) - so kids read comic book stories about pirates. And the Black Freighter is the most popular of these comic books. This short film tells the story of a man - voiced by Gerard Butler - who survives an attack by the Black Freighter, but is lost at sea ... he desperately seeks to get home, to save his family, and along the way is driven insane. It's an interesting short film, but - in my opinion - is the least important of the two pieces found here."Under the Hood" is a supposed biopic of an ex-costumed vigilante hero (who dealt out justice in the late 1930's through to the 1950's). He's now retired, and has written an autobiography. The film is intended to be a documentary about the publication of this book. It involves a series of interviews with characters from the "Watchmen" film, and in so doing it adds to our understanding of the world depicted in the movie. It's not a long film, about 40 minutes in length, but I found it quite enjoyable.If you enjoyed "Watchmen" and want to learn a little more about the fictional world shown in that film, then these two pieces will be of interest to you. If you didn't enjoy "Watchmen" then I don't recommend this Blu-ray.

This DVD is a deeper look into the world of "Watchmen" and it explores the comic book universe of "The Black Freighter" as well as "Under The Hood" (The pseudo documentary of Night Owl). During the late eighties and early nineties "Watchmen" graphic novels and comics appeared in local comic book shops around the world and appealed to people who liked their comics dark and ironic. "Tales of the Black Freighter" is an animated story not suitable for children as it has graphic horror and violence with a very dark sense of humour. The format is "Motion Comic" and is quite well done. Gerrard Butler does the voice for the protagonist and is amazing. If you love animated movies with a really dark twisted sense of humour and irony to spare buy this DVD!

Tales of The Black Freighter is the story-within-a-story from Watchmen, the genre-defining graphic novel from the 80s and film of 2009.In Watchmen, the story is being read by a young boy at the newsvendor's stand, throughout the main action. It was decided not to include it in the film for sake of brevity and manageability of the on-screen version.The story is a black one, indeed, set around the animated travails of a pirate ship and its crew, the lead character voiced by Gerard Butler in a thickly-accented, throaty growl. Much death and mayhem ensues.The limited animation technique and wash of thick colour treatment works well, but the atmosphere is not quite as well maintained as on the page.I enjoyed it and am glad to have it for completeness of the Watchmen film.The extras on the disc include a chapter of Watchmen itself in limited animation of the book. That's also worth having, but again, return to the printed page for the real thing!

20 minute animation and a poor one at that narrated by Gerard butler. why its called watchmen no idea