Despite being more than two and a half hours long, the Watchmen movie didn't manage to fit in everything from its original source material. With so much to work with, it's hard to imagine how the filmmakers could have done more to get everything in, but it's nice to know they tried. Evidence of that is coming on Tuesday, March 24, with the DVD release of Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood.

If you've read the book, you no doubt recognize these two titles. Tales of the Black Freighter was the dark, foreboding pirate tale that was interwoven through the main plot of the series and told the story of a man trying to get home before an evil death ship killed his entire family. The entire storyline provided a breathless analogy for the mystery unfolding in the rest of the book's pages. That this pirate story came about in the pages of a comic-book story within a comic-book story (because writer Alan Moore reasoned that pirate comics would be big in a world in which superheroes actually existed) was just icing on the metatextual cake. And Under the Hood, of course, was the autobiography of Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl.

Although I thought the Watchmen movies was flawed, my respect for it continues to grow. It's because of things like this: solid bonus material for true fans to enhance their enjoyment of the movie. Sure, it comes with a price tag, but it seems obvious that Warner Bros., after taking so long to bring the movie to light, wanted to do it right and took all the steps necessary to make it work. This DVD features voice work from Gerard Butler as well as live-action appearances from many of the "golden age" heroes of the movie. It'll be a nice collector's item.