"Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog"

[Doktor Estrella]

I came across this intriguing project from one of my favorite writer/director/producers, Joss Whedon..."Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog." During the Hollywood Writer's Strike he became a bit frustrated with the corporate machine and enlisted the help of a lot of friends to create *hopefully* a new Internet phenomenon. The first episode comes out on July 15th followed by one on the 17th and the final one on the 19th. The episodes can be viewed for free for until the 21st.

The story is about a mad scientist/supervillain wannabe played by Neil Patrick Harris who faces off against his archnemesis played by Nathan Fillion, but faces complications from a love interest he met at the laundromat. Anyway, the trailer (http://www.drhorrible.com/) was cool...

[Lillie]

Yeah!

The trailer is well cool!!!!!

[The Colour of Heartache]

Neil Patrick Harris +NATHAN FILLION + JOSS WHEDON = !!!!

The more Whedon I get to know, the more I kind of worship him. He's getting up there with Tom Stoppard, and that's saying something. Thanks for the link! I've heard of this but I had no idea it was Joss Whedon.

[segundus]

Oh, I SO want to see this.

I've never been a terribly big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (mainly because the name is TOO silly even for ME and perhaps the material was too teenagery to boot), but I do very much like and respect Joss Whedon.

I've still got to see Firefly and Serenity as yet, though..

[Doktor Estrella]

Sacrilege! You must go out and get Firefly! The characterization was wonderful and memorable and the episodes were immensely well-written. While I liked the movie version and recommend seeing it, it had some slight deviations from the direction in which the show seemed to actually be heading.

I liked Buffy and Angel for a while, but mostly for the secondary characters. Admittedly, though the best episode of Buffy was the one in which she was psychoanalyzed as having an inferiority/superiority complex by a recently turned vampire psychiatrist. :D

[Doktor Estrella]

Has anyone else watched the first two acts so far? If so, what did you think?

[The Colour of Heartache]

I think that I love NPH more than ever and that I want more Nathan Fillion and that I'm really excited for Acts II & III and that if the Whedons write a musical and sent it to Broadway I will so be there.

[Doktor Estrella]

I watched Act II early this morning and I really enjoyed it--I'm amazed at the quality of NPH's singing voice. The first act seemed like sort of a show start, but I felt that NPH was a lot more dynamic once he was facing opposition from Fillion's character. I really have to question though how rattled she was to "fall in love at first sight" with Capt. Hammer after he knocked her into piles of garbage...

[The Colour of Heartache]

Oh yeah, Neil Patrick Harris has a fantastic voice. His "Not While I'm Around" is gorgeous, maybe even my favourite version. It's on YouTube if you're curious. He was also in Assassins among other things. Looking forward to watching Act II tonight.

[Doktor Estrella]

I watched the video and I have to agree with you...that was so much more than the versions that I've seen before. YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt0A4-d7Kk)

[Doktor Estrella]

:confused: I've now watched all of "Dr. Horrible" . . . and I'm not sure how I feel about the ending other than I liked Captain Hammer's comeuppance. What are everyone else's thoughts on it as a whole and what feelings do you have about the resolution?

[The Colour of Heartache]

That was sad but I looved it. I much prefer unhappy endings and that one was terrific. As a whole, I love it just as much. The music is great, Neil Patrick Harris especially cannot be beat and I'd say the same for the rest of the company. It was quirky, it was funny, it was not what I expected. In short, it was EVERYTHING I'd want from a Joss Whedon internet musical about supervillians and superheroes.

[Lillie]

I've just watched the last one.

That was so good!
I really enjoyed watching it.

The end was sad.
But also fitting.
It had to end like that, I suppose.

I don't see how it could have had a happy ending.

[Doktor Estrella]

I guess that ideally, supervillains don't get happy endings and the bittersweet irony of it was a fitting end for the project.

[Lillie]

Well, all the way through I thought that a super villain wouldn't end up with a nice girl like her.
She just wouldn't have understood why he wanted to do that stuff.
She wouldn't have been able to accept it.

So, the only thing would have been if her love had redeemed him, made him good.
But that wouldn't have worked either because he wanted so much to be a super villain.
He couldn't have both, his ambition and his love.

And at the end, the loss of her has made him into everything he wanted to be, but didn't realise he would need to be, in order to achieve super villain status.
The ability to feel and the desire to love, the last vestiges of his humanity, had died with her.
Only then could he become bad enough to achieve his ambition.

There was just no way it could have worked out well for him.

[Doktor Estrella]

Very true and a wonderfully eloquent way to put it, Lillie :)

[Lillie]

:)

Thank you!

[The Colour of Heartache]

You pretty much summed up my thoughts, Lillie.

I love that it ends with him as Billy. "I won't feel . . . a thing" is almost the saddest part.

[The Colour of Heartache]

It's official! There will be an Act IV. (I'm praying that Fake Thomas Jefferson will get more screen time.)

[Doktor Estrella]

Isn't it fantastic news? I'm hoping for an evil robot clone of Penny (or her reappearance as Dr. Horrible's last vestige of conscience)... Did you also hear that they're accepting applications for further Brotherhood of Evil members? I think that people can shoot a YouTube video with their creation and that person would be featured in the next act!

On the fansite (http://doctorhorrible.net/), they said that the soundtrack will be available soon!

I also found an interesting website that Felicia Day (Penny) created to make videos about obsessive computer gamers: The Guild (http://www.watchtheguild.com/)

[Doktor Estrella]

Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to let everyone know that "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" is still able to be viewed for free on the site (with commercials now added) because they received a sponsorship from Honda.

[Martin Pale]

Act 3 was so sad, and yet so awesome... It was especially bittersweet when he arrived in the highest levels of the ELE...
There's going to be an act 4? I hope there's not, it would just be an anticlimax after that wonderful, terrible, perfect ending...
By the way, where did you find out about the fourth act?

[Doktor Estrella]

I'm sure that it will be set a few years down the road; they set up Dr. Horrible's origin story, the next one should be during his reign of terror. I wouldn't be surprised if he hatches some sort of coup attempt at unseating Bad Horse.

Here's the link to the fansite for Dr. Horrible that gives updated info: link (http://doctorhorrible.net/)

[Martin Pale]

Oughta be fun. Here's hoping Fake Thomas Jefferson puts in an appearance!

[Martin Pale]

Incidentally, if you're wondering which League member is which, this seems to be pretty accurate:
http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/001511.html

[Doktor Estrella]

Very cool; I think the final line-up is the most accurate--the woman in white seems like a "Fury Leika" to me.

[Martin Pale]

I agree, but more because the cowled lady is obviously Snakebite.

[segundus]

Unfortunately Hulu/Dr. Horrible causes my Internet router to crash something chronic. I'm actually having to write to my ISP and tell them that Dr. Horrible is causing my router to go 'blip'. Unbelievable! :)

[Doktor Estrella]

How frustrating! I hope that it works out soon so that you can give us your opinion on it, Segundus.

[Martin Pale]

Is Hammer really as great as he pretends to be?
At first glance, he seems to be a pretty major superhero: I mean, he's extremely strong, presumably can fly (drops out of the sky onto the courier van bearing wonderflonium), and has an impressive array of hardware (Hammercycle, Hamjet). No other superheroes are even mentioned, besides Johnny Snow (and he's obviously not much of a hero... even Horrible describes him as a "poser in a parka").
However... If Hammer is so great, why does he keep going after Dr. Horrible, a low-rent wannabe? Shouldn't he be taking on the likes of Professor Normal and Fury Leika? Is he just a small-timer with a monstrously overinflated ego?
If so, who are the heroes that match up against the giants of the ELE? Who's Bad Horse's opposite number? Rodeo Man? Is there some sort of organization that combats the League?
Also, where does the story take place? I think it's L.A., as Horrible references the LAPD in one of his videos, and palm trees appear in the background at the beginning of "On the Rise." However, the only results for Dooley Park (Johnny Snow mentions this in his e-mail) on Google Maps is in Chicago.

[Doktor Estrella]

I suppose the best way of looking at Captain Hammer is that he's a local superhero--nothing spectacular like a member of something like the Justice League. As a local superhero, he's merely responsible for the "low-rent wannabes;" if he's even a member of a league of superheroes, he probably too low on the echelon to deal with the "big bads" like Professor Normal and Fury Leika.

I think that the Evil League of Evil probably has an opposite superhero league that fights against them. If I were to guess at the name/type of superhero that would be Bad Horse's archnemesis, it would be something like "The Wrangler."

I would consider the setting to be in a parallel universe that has a Dooley Park in L.A. ;)

[segundus]

At long last, I've just gotten around to watching all three acts through iTunes. Quite a wonderful little story. Loved the whole "bad horse" thing. I could see what was going to happen at the end a mile off, but it did not detract from the quality of the whole thing.

[Doktor Estrella]

I received the DVD and the CD for Christmas--and both were wonderful; "Commentary: The Musical" was extremely hysterical!