Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog

[JonClarke]

This won the Hugo for short film in 2009. The synopsies I can find make it seem unbelieveably lame. Has anyone seen it? Was it actually any good?

[Gillianren]

It is hilarious. I bought it for a friend for Christmas, in part because it was $10 on Blu-Ray, and I always feel bad that nothing I want to give him is in that format, but mostly because it's really funny and he needs that from life sometimes.

Though actually, I also think it explores some things not everyone thinks of. Why does Dr. Horrible want to join the Evil League of Evil? Can Captain Hammer, when you get right down to it, really be called a hero? Is it Captain Hammer's fault that Dr. Horrible doesn't turn to good instead? There's a lot of deep thinking crammed into forty-five minutes.

Oh, and "Brand New Day" was our opening theme at faire a year and a half ago. Right before opening cannon, we'd cue it up on the boss's MP3 player, sing it together, and get ready to face a day of customers.

[Moose]

This won the Hugo for short film in 2009. The synopsies I can find make it seem unbelieveably lame. Has anyone seen it? Was it actually any good?

The "lameness" you're detecting in the synopsis is intentional and very much a part of the story. By rights, it should have been horrible[tm]. Instead, the kitch and silliness of the action hero vs villain (and the immense strength of NPH's performance in either mode) is what really sells the more serious Billy and Penny story. Pure (evil) genius.

[Trakar]

The "lameness" you're detecting in the synopsis is intentional and very much a part of the story. By rights, it should have been horrible[tm]. Instead, the kitch and silliness of the action hero vs villain (and the immense strength of NPH's performance in either mode) is what really sells the more serious Billy and Penny story. Pure (evil) genius.

It should be noted that the series (which I was instantly hooked on) was created by the Whedon brothers and their long-time best bud Neil during the writer's strike back 2007, I didn't realize it had been repackaged and released as a movie short, for a long time it was simply an internet series broken up into short segments. Great stuff.

[Gillianren]

It should be noted that the series (which I was instantly hooked on) was created by the Whedon brothers and their long-time best bud Neil during the writer's strike back 2007, I didn't realize it had been repackaged and released as a movie short, for a long time it was simply an internet series broken up into short segments. Great stuff.

The DVD also comes with not one but two commentary tracks, including Commentary: The Musical.

[Noclevername]

This won the Hugo for short film in 2009. The synopsies I can find make it seem unbelieveably lame. Has anyone seen it? Was it actually any good?

So lame, it's awesome!

[JonClarke]

Thanks for the comments, maybe I will check it out. Although "So lame it is awesome" does not fill me with confidence.....

[Grey]

You can still watch it on Hulu free (take a look here), if you want to see it without financial risk. I'll add my voice to vote for its excellence.

[Gillianren]

Thanks for the comments, maybe I will check it out. Although "So lame it is awesome" does not fill me with confidence.....

Yeah, I disagree with that summary. It takes a rather hackneyed idea and explores it in a different way. The plot sounds lame; the movie itself isn't.

[R.A.F.]

Neil Patrick Harris' performance in Dr. Horrible makes it well worth watching.

Check out the on-line web series The Guild to see what a fine actress Felicity Day is...the Guild also occasionally features (the evil) Wil Weaton.

[LotusExcelle]

I do NOT have a thing for Felicia Day. Nope. Not. At. All.

[starcanuck64]

I loved it but then I'm a big Joss Whedon fan. Check out Firefly for a great sci-fi series that got killed off long before it deserved.

[korjik]

I do NOT have a thing for Felicia Day. Nope. Not. At. All.

Do you want to date her avatar?

[Noclevername]

Meh. She's cute, but IMO doesn't live up to the hype.

[Tog]

She has a strong appeal to Geeks* in the same way that Kari from Mythbusters does for Nerds*. She isn't an actress turned Geek, she's a Geek with a day job. She was an online gaming addict to the point that she stopped going to auditions. That was the inspiration for The Guild.

She's also got a certain genuineness about her that makes her more like a real person than any sort of celebrity.



*When capitalized, Nerd and Geek are terms of respect for an accumulation of knowledge well outside the norm.

[jamesabrown]

It has a great premise, and NPH is excellent. It's fun to see "Captain Malcolm Reynolds" in a not-quite-heroic role.

But the ending falls flat, and contrary to Whedon's other female characters, Felicia Day's character is wasted.

[Gillianren]

I don't think she is. To me, she's just your standard female superhero love interest. She's filling the Gwen Stacy slot.

[Van Rijn]

Spoilerish comments below:







Without her character, nobody would have been sad about the fate of What's-her-name, and Dr. Horrible would not have fully embraced the dark side.

[Moose]

Without her character, nobody would have been sad about the fate of What's-her-name, and Dr. Horrible would not have fully embraced the dark side.

True, but more so, the entire point of the ending is that Billy only inadvertently won by losing absolutely everything that meant a lick to him: defeating Captain Hammer (he didn't), legitimate entry into the ELoE (it wasn't), and Penny. His last word on his blog shows pretty clearly that he considered his "victory" utterly Pyrrhic.

[jamesabrown]

To me, she's just your standard female superhero love interest.

Exactly. Which is the opposite of Whedon heroines, in general. I've discussed this with other fans and we agreed that we were expecting her to be revealed as the main villain, or to kick Dr. Horrible's butt after Captain Hammer was defeated, or something. Instead, she just sighs a lot. Not very Whedon-esque for his female leads.

[Gillianren]

I don't know. I was actually talking to my best friend about Whedon heroines, and we've come to the conclusion that their reputation for toughness and independence is exaggerated. However, the story wouldn't work if she fit even the Whedon definition.

[jamesabrown]

An acquaintance of mine on another board was the one who turned me on to it when it was just an internet download, and he was disappointed by the ending as well. Here's what he said:

I guess, because it was evidently a comedy, I was looking for some kind of comic resolution. My coworkers were kicking around a variety of ideas, including any of these elements:
* Penny becomes a supervillain
* Penny is really Bad Horse all along
* Horrible saves Hammer from Penny
* Horrible and Hammer fall in love

I'm familiar with Joss's work too, and I'm a fan, but does a major character *really* have to die all the time? Sure, the ending is poignant and stuff... but I don't think the rest of the show put me in a frame of mind where I was looking for poignant.

[Gillianren]

Frankly, I think the ending may well be the best part. I mean, it provides resolution to the character without redeeming him. I don't think it really is a comedy. Arguably, it's a Shakespearian tragedy with fewer deaths.

[Moose]

In a way, it resolves her character as well. She'd been in a rut (of a sort) the entire time, with no real means of escaping her situation, nor any real hope of lasting contentment on the arm of either Horrible or Hammer. From a story perspective, her end was the only possible resolution.

[Gillianren]

Which is actually something I read about Hamlet in one of my favourite books--it has the happiest ending possible in the circumstances.

[Van Rijn]

An acquaintance of mine on another board was the one who turned me on to it when it was just an internet download, and he was disappointed by the ending as well. Here's what he said:

I guess, because it was evidently a comedy, I was looking for some kind of comic resolution. My coworkers were kicking around a variety of ideas, including any of these elements:
* Penny becomes a supervillain
* Penny is really Bad Horse all along
* Horrible saves Hammer from Penny
* Horrible and Hammer fall in love

I'm familiar with Joss's work too, and I'm a fan, but does a major character *really* have to die all the time?

There apparently have been rumors of a sequel, with the possibility of Penny coming back being mentioned. That would be typical Joss too. I could see her back as:

- PennyBot

- The Evil Clone

- Magic gone wrong

- an alternate timeline replacement

[Gillianren]

I really hope she doesn't. Now, that's a cheat and a waste of her character. Frankly, I don't really want a sequel at all.

[Van Rijn]

Spoiler warning again . . .

True, but more so, the entire point of the ending is that Billy only inadvertently won by losing absolutely everything that meant a lick to him: defeating Captain Hammer (he didn't), legitimate entry into the ELoE (it wasn't), and Penny. His last word on his blog shows pretty clearly that he considered his "victory" utterly Pyrrhic.

I would say he did defeat Captain Hammer. Sure, it wasn't the way he wanted to do it, but CH seemed to have something close to Superman level invulnerability, so actually managing to hurt him was a very big deal. CH obviously never had had to deal with being hurt before, and his response was to run away. At the end of the show, it wasn't clear whether CH would get back to the superhero business and if he did, I suspect he would run at the sight of Dr. H.

[Moose]

Captain Hammer defeated Captain Hammer, Van Rijn. First morally by actually being willing to use the DR prototype unhesitatingly on a stunned and helpless foe where Dr. Horrible was clearly unable to bring himself to use it, and then physically when the damaged DR prototype did what a damaged DR prototype is prone to do.