''Watchmen Chapter I'' is a 2024 American adult animated superhero film directed by

Brandon Vietti Brandon Vietti (born in Fresno, California in 1974) is an American animator, director, and producer. Vietti developed and co-produces the animated television show '' Young Justice'' with Greg Weisman. He has also worked on various other animat ...

and written by

J. Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ( ...

. It stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

including Matthew Rhys, Katee Sackhoff, Titus Welliver, Troy Baker, Adrienne Barbeau, and Michael Cerveris. Produced by DC Studios, Warner Bros. Animation, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, and distributed by

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

, the film is based on the DC Comics limited series '' Watchmen'' co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, with co-creator and author Alan Moore choosing to remain uncredited. Gibbons served as a consulting producer on the film. Animation for the film was provided by Studio Mir.

Plot

''Watchmen Chapter I'' faithfully retells the story of the first 6 issues of the original 12-issue maxiseries from DC Comics, cover-dated September 1986 to October 1987.

Voice cast

Production

It was reported in April 2017 that Warner Bros. would develop an R-rated animated film based on the comic book series. It was officially confirmed in 2023 that an animated film adaptation was in development and would be released in 2024. A teaser trailer was released on June 13, 2024, with it being revealed to be a two-film adaptation. Director

praised the animation work done by Studio Mir, stating in an interview that "It was a kind of material and filmmaking that I don't think the studio had approached before, but we had a lot of great discussions about it and they really rose to the challenge."

Release and reception

''Watchmen Chapter I'' received a digital release on August 13, 2024. The film was released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on August 27, 2024. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt that the film respectfully adapted the story, but struggled to properly convey its complexity and described the visual aesthetic as "serviceable but not entirely effective". Brad Cook of ''Flickering Myth'' agreed, calling the film a "very faithful adaptation" with a visual style that "hews closely to artist Dave Gibbons' well-regarded depictions of the characters and the alternate 1985 timeline they inhabit".

Sequel

A single sequel entitled ''Watchmen Chapter II'' is expected to cover the second half of the story, completing the retelling of the 12-issue maxiseries. It was initially reported that ''Chapter II'' would be released in late 2024, but this was later pushed back to sometime in 2025.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, 2020s, Film, Animation, United States, Speculative fiction, Comics 2020s American animated films 2020s direct-to-video animated superhero films 2020s English-language films 2024 animated films 2024 direct-to-video films 2024 films American adult animated films American superhero films DC Animated Movie Universe DC Universe Animated Original Movies Paramount Pictures animated films Paramount Pictures direct-to-video films Warner Bros. Animation animated films Warner Bros. direct-to-video animated films Watchmen English-language action films