In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t wise to wait three weeks to release Tales From The Black Freighter on DVD. The movie, while still more successful than a good chunk of comic based films (it has certainly out-grossed any other Alan Moore adaptation, as well as Sin City), was not quite as financially successful as Warner Bros may have hoped, and thus the fanfare they assumed would be greeting the March 24th release of the spinoff will mainly be limited to the same die hard fans that would have bought it whenever it came out. Luckily, for them and for new fans, it’s a great disc. Read on for a full review.
Sometimes the extra features are better than the film itself, but I think that Tales From The Black Freighter may be the first DVD in history in which the bonus features are LONGER than the film itself. While Freighter, ostensibly the main feature (as judged by the DVD cover, which is 90% Black Freighter related), only runs 24 minutes, the disc also contains a 38 minute mockumentary based on Hollis Mason’s “Under The Hood” novel, as well as a making of featurette on both stories that runs about a half hour. Hell, the disc also includes the first issue of the Watchmen Motion Comic (reviewed HERE) which runs a couple minutes longer than Freighter as well.
That’s not to say it’s any lesser an effort. On the contrary, the Black Freighter story is well told with traditional hand drawn animation. Zack Snyder originally wanted to put these segments in the Watchmen feature, utilizing the same stylish greenscreen approach he used on 300, but budget/time concerns jettisoned that idea. I couldn’t be happier with that decision, as not only did it keep the movie from ballooning into a length that prevented the film’s point from getting across, but it also allowed Snyder to reconsider and give a job to old school 2D animators, many of whom are probably facing layoffs with the ever increasing focus toward 3D CGI animation a la Pixar.
Plus it’s a good story to boot. Like Rorschach and Veidt in the main film, the unnamed protagonist of Black Freighter is a guy who simply misses the forest for the trees, and ends up doing reprehensible things in order to do what he thinks is right. I thought that the panels presented throughout various issues of the original “Watchmen” series would be fleshed out into a more complete tale (such as, if nothing else, giving the guy a name), but if you’ve read the comics, there isn’t much new here in terms of the story. However, it’s far more exciting to see certain events, like the shark battle and return to Davidstown, in full blown animated sequences. Plus, Gerard Butler provides the voice of the main character, bringing a sense of gravitas that the Motion Comic (which also included the Black Freighter panels) lacked.
It’s also exceedingly gory. It’s rare to see a 24 minute DVD get an MPAA rating, but it certainly earns the “R for violent and grisly images” tag. Bodies are torn apart, folks are beheaded, seagulls are eaten in gory detail… it actually gives the film (itself gorier than I expected) a run for its money, in about 1/6th the time. Needless to say, anyone doubting that this tale belongs being reviewed on a horror site should know that it offers more gory violence than half of the films we cover. Also skeleton/demon dudes.
As said though, Black Freighter makes up less than