Tales of the Black Freighter

A sea captain (Gerard Butler, 300 and RockNRolla) is the single person to survive a slaughter upon his ship by savage pirates aboard a black freighter, this 25 and a half minute animated adaptation of the secondary story in the Watchmen comic mini-series tells the macabre, heart-wrenching tail of his journey back to the Davidstown before the pirates can arrive there to pillage his homeland. While using a somewhat minimalistic animated stylization, the story as well as the visualizations work triumphantly and one can't help but be drawn into both. Not so much a companion piece to "Watchman" (although the case for that has been made ad nuaseum) as much as a brilliantly conceived piece that can indeed stand on it's own.

My Grade: A

DVD Extras:Under the Hood (a 37 and a half minute faux news interview with Hollis Mason about his book) a 225 minute featurette on the making-of; the first chapter of the Watchman motion comic, a first look at "Green Lantern: First Flight"; a prerequisite ad from Blu-Ray; and trailers for "Terminator: Salvation", "Watchmen" & the video game adaptations of Terminator & Watchmen

Tales of the Black Freighter is set within The Watchmen universe but there are no superheroes to be found here.

With Gerard Butler as the voice talent we see a tale of a mariner who is the sole survivor of an attack on his ship by pirates and his efforts at survival and getting home to his family.

Standing at little over 20 minutes this little short actually manages to tell a story competently, but make no mistake it isn't a very nice one.

Grim, dark and harrowing this is a tale of desperation and a tale of madness and there was never going to be a happy ending here.

Depressing and hard hitting this is a watchable little piece but one that will stay with you afterwards and for all the wrong reasons.

Watch at your peril.

The Good:

Well animated

Very well written

The Bad:

Not the easiest viewing

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

This was an extra on the Watchmen (2009) dvd, I think it's better than the actual film

Anybody who's familiar with the Watchmen graphic novel will recognize the significance of the Tales of the Black Freighter. This was originally the comic-within-the-comic, having nothing much to do with the events of Watchmen, but offering a stark thematic parallel.

This animated feature translates that segment of the comic to accompany the Watchmen film (and if you watch the film's Ultimate Cut, this cartoon will be spliced into the main feature). On its own, the cartoon is short, bleak, and pretty gnarly. It runs pretty fast and it tells a heck of a story.

Following the Watchmen comic closely, this feature tells a very dark and violent story full of hideously ironic twists. The story is simple, but highly effective. It offers the bare minimum characterizations, but it digs deeply into the main character's psyche and madness to dig up strong themes of humanity's savagery; themes that are effectively echoed in the Watchmen film.

This feature uses pretty decent animation quality: movements are a little stiff and cheap, but it looks sharp, clean, and well-rendered. Voice-acting is not bad, and the writing is good. Designs for the characters and settings are good, and some scenes show good imagination. Music is alright.

Recommended for anybody interested in the Watchmen film.

4/5 (Entertainment: Good | Story: Good | Film: Good)

I regard this more as something stand alone than something that accompanies The Watchmen. It is the perfect example of an animated short. The entire plot is chilling from start to end especially with Butlers sterling performance as the Sea Captain. The animation i was quite surprised how much i actually liked it as i did not expect a great deal of detail- but it looks extremely effective. I can only hope in the directors cut of Watchmen that it makes an appearance between the film as it did in the graphic novel. Though it is unfair to constantly relate this back to the film as it is its own work and has its own merits.

For me it is exactly what i wanted it to be, a haunting exploration of the inner mind.

As someone who takes delight generally in the DC animations I was hugely impressed by Tales of the Black Freighter. There are a couple of instances where the action is a tad lacking in flow but even that's occasional. The animation is very detailed and atmospheric, with well-done character designs. The music is appropriately haunting and never overdone, while the writing is intelligent and thought-provoking. Most of the action is very well-choreographed and paced and the story is dark in tone, very compelling and quite suspenseful and even chilling. The characters are engaging, not stock and with a sense of conflict that gives them some dimension. Gerard Butler's voice work is superb, a perfect balance of gruff and sympathetic.

Overall, a simply great DC animation short, that more than stands up on its own. 9/10 Bethany Cox