Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Best piece of entertainment I've ever seen
Disadvantages:	It only lasts 40 minutes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Dr Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is probably the greatest piece of entertainment that I have ever seen. My suggestion is to stop reading this review now and go watch it, but I’d prefer it if you paused to rate this review on your way.

Several of my friends recommended that I watched this but I thought that the concept didn’t sound that great and the name is frankly weird, so I didn’t bother. It was only recently, when yet another friend told me that it was brilliant, that I went to YouTube and did a search. The entire thing is up there, so I watched the show through. I seriously regretted not listening to the first recommendation and watching it ages ago. Over the next few days, I watched the show several more times. Then I went to the website and ordered both the DVD and the soundtrack CD. I watched the show online a few more times while waiting for the DVD to be shipped from America.

~~~ A Bit of Background ~~~

During the writers’ strike in America, Joss Whedon (better known as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly) wrote Dr Horrible and streamed it over the internet for free. The show was made up of three acts, which were put up over the course of a couple of weeks.

There was such a high-level of interest from Whedon fans that the site received well over 1000 hits per minute during the first day. In fact, there were so many people logging on to view the show as it went live that the server crashed. It was due to be screened at a convention in a room that could seat about 500 people. Hours before the screening, there were over a thousand people queuing and other screenings had to be set up by the convention’s organisers.

If you do a search on YouTube, you won’t just find the official show, you’ll find a load of fanmade videos as well. The show became incredibly popular extremely fast and has spawned quite a lot of internet activity.

Fairly recently, the DVD, CD and various bits of merchandise went up for sale.

~~~ The Plot ~~~
The story is one of a villain trying to take over the world and a superhero who wants to stop him and get the girl. What makes Dr Horrible different is that the whole thing is flipped on its head and you actually root for the bad guy.

Dr Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is a scientist whose inventions don’t always work as planned. He feels that the world is a mess and that everything would be better if he were in charge. He’s trying to be a real villain and get into the Evil League of Evil (ELE) but he’s actually a nice guy. In the opening sequence, he makes a comment about not fighting someone because, “There are kids in that park.” As well as being somewhat sweet, he’s also slightly pathetic. He has a major crush on Penny, a girl he sees at the Laundromat, but can’t work up the courage to talk to her.

Dr Horrible has a video blog in which he talks about his heists, his plans to rule the world and his attempts to get into the ELE.

His nemesis is Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion (aka Captain Reynalds from Firefly). Hammer is a self-absorbed superhero who cares more about how his hair looks while fighting crime than whether anyone is getting hurt in the crossfire. He is utterly unpleasant in an amusing way.

When Hammer attempts to stop Dr Horrible from stealing some Wonderflonium, Penny ends up believing that he saved her life. The two start going out, much to Dr Horrible’s dismay. From there, the conflict can only get worse. The story lasts about forty minutes and the plot remains strong throughout.

~~~ The Characters ~~~
Dr Horrible’s real name is Billy. He is a very likeable, sympathetic character. While he makes claims about wanting social change, it’s quite obvious that he’s also after the fame and the money. He’s a surprisingly rich character that only touches on cliché for the sake of humour and remains very sincere.

Captain Hammer is slightly over-the-top. Just enough to be really funny, but not enough to get annoying. Nathan Fillion plays the role to perfection, giving the impression of someone who is completely cheesy and who acts the hero just so that he looks good on camera.

Penny, played by Felicia Day, is incredibly nice. Her character is written to be absolutely sweet and caring. She’s someone who’s had some problems in her life but whose reaction to suffering was to try and help those who suffer more. She works for the Caring Hands Homeless Shelter.

Those three are the main characters, but there are few others who are worth mentioning.

Moist is Dr Horrible’s friend. He has the ability to make things damp and comes across as even more pathetic than Dr Horrible. He’s best summed up by his own comment: “At my most bad ass, I make people feel like they want to take a shower.” It’s possible he’s a member of the Henchmen’s Union.

The Bad Horse Chorus are three guys dressed as cowboys who appear from nowhere when Dr Horrible gets a message from Bad Horse, the leader of the Evil League of Evil. They turn up, sing out the message and then vanish again. It’s incredibly well done. It’s probably worth noting that the songs are performed by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Zack Whedon.

Then there are the groupies. These are two girls and a guy who wear Captain Hammer t-shirts and are clearly obsessed with him. One even has his dry-cleaning bill laminated.

There’s also some nice references to other heroes and villains. There are some who appear briefly on screen, my personal favourite being the Pink Pummeller. He has no lines and is only on screen twice, but he really amuses me. This guy wears a pink mask and bright pink boxing gloves. The first time he appears, he’s in a very pink bedroom filled with stuffed animals. Even the Evil League of Evil, who are only on screen for a handful of seconds, have their own names listed in the credits.

~~~ The Songs ~~~
The show is called Dr Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, so it’s hardly surprising that there’s singing involved. There’s no real dancing (except for in Dr Horrible’s fantasy), but the songs are excellent and I have all of them now on my mp3 player.

1. Horrible Theme. This is a very short instrumental piece that’s played during the opening titles.
2. My Freeze Ray. A sweet and occasionally amusing song sung by Dr Horrible.
3. Bad Horse Chorus. A short, very amusing song by the Bad Horse Chorus as Dr Horrible receives a letter from Bad Horse.
4. Caring Hands. Another very short one. This is sweet and sad as Penny tries to collect signatures for a petition.
5. A Man’s Gotta Do. A fantastic song by Dr Horrible, Captain Hammer and Penny. This is the first appearance of Captain Hammer on screen and it’s absolutely perfect. Musically, it’s brilliant with various layers of lyrics, but it’s also got some really funny moments.
6. My Eyes. Another fantastic song. This is sung by Dr Horrible and Penny and the two halves contrast perfectly. Dr Horrible despairs at the filth and lies in the world, while Penny delights at her growing relationship with Hammer and the fact things seem to be improving. This is one of my friend’s favourite songs.
7. Bad Horse Chorus (reprise). Dr Horrible gets a phone call from Bad Horse. Short but extremely funny.
8. Penny’s Song. Short and sweet. Penny sings about the importance of hope.
9. Brand New Day. Epic and funny at the same time, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. Sung by Dr Horrible.
10. So They Say. This is a song sung by just about everyone and it’s incredibly well put together. It manages to have humour, sadness and plot all in one place.
11. Everyone’s a Hero. Captain Hammer sings this slightly cheesy piece to please a crowd.
12. Slipping. Considerably darker, but still with traces of humour. Dr Horrible makes his move.
13. Everything You Ever. The finale song. This is my personal favourite. It’s sung by Dr Horrible and is incredibly moving and beautiful.
14. Horrible Credits. This instrumental piece plays during the final credits.

The songs were written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

~~~ The DVD Features ~~~
The feature is only forty minutes long, so you’d hope that the DVD comes with plenty of extra entertainment to make it worth your money. You’d be right.

~ Commentary: The Musical ~
This is a DVD commentary with a difference. For the length of the feature, the cast and crew perform this scripted and sung commentary. It’s extremely funny. The only reason it’s not as entertaining as the main feature is the fact that the main feature is so utterly awesome. A lot of the time, the commentary has little relation to what’s showing on the screen, so it’s possible to just listen to this like a radio play.

It comes with several new songs. I’m actually disappointed that these songs aren’t included on the soundtrack, because some of them are really good.

1. Commentary. An introduction to the commentary, sung by the cast and writers.
2. Strike. A very amusing song, sung by the writers, about the strike in America.
3. Ten Dollar Solo. This is a song performed (mainly) by one of the groupies about how she didn’t get enough screen time and had to pay Joss Whedon $10 to be allowed a solo on the commentary.
4. Better than Neil. Nathan Fillion sings about how he’s... guess what... better than Neil.
5. The Art. Felicia Day sings about performing, art and (briefly) her own internet series.
6. Zack’s Rap. A very funny song. Zack Whedon raps about how he doesn’t like musicals and was tricked into taking part in Dr Horrible by his brothers.
7. Moist. Sung by Simon Helberg, who played Moist. This is an apparently deleted song about the problems the character Moist has. It’s really quite sweet, as well as being pretty amusing.
8. Ninja Ropes. Probably my least favourite song in the commentary. It’s a song about playing a game on Jed Whedon’s phone, performed by Jed Whedon, Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris.
9. All About Me. The background cast members sing about the contributions they made to the show. This is a strong contender for being my favourite of the commentary songs.
10. Nobody’s Asian in the Movies. Maurissa Tancharoen sings about how she ended up being a groupie instead of Penny, despite writing Penny’s songs and playing her in the demo.
11. Heart, Broken. Another one that is fighting for the position of being my favourite. Joss Whedon sings about how everything gets analysed and picked apart in commentaries.
12. Neil’s Turn. Another great song. Neil takes over the recording studio.
13. Commentary (reprise). Closing off the main part of the commentary.
14. Steve’s Song. During the end credits, the male groupie sings about his position in the movie.

~ Cast and Crew Commentary ~
Commentary’s are a fairly standard feature of DVDs and this is no exception. The cast and crew discuss the movie, the processes behind it, how scenes were made, anecdotes from filming and so on as the main feature plays. As far as these things go, it was entertaining enough, but I’m not in a rush to go and watch it again.

~ Making Of Featurettes ~
There are three featurettes which last about twenty minutes if you play them all. These talk about making the movie, making the songs and “what just happened?” which takes about how it became an internet phenomenon. Again, these are fairly standard background features with interviews and explanations. They’re pretty good when compared with the same sort of feature on other DVDs, but nothing I’ll be racing to watch again.

~ ELE Applications ~
These are a series of ten videos made by fans. They are all presented as a supervillain trying to apply to join the Evil League of Evil. Some have songs. Some have a lot of jokes. Some clearly took a lot of effort (particularly the one where the villain’s head caught fire half-way through). The one that I think wins for originality was Duchess of Defeet. This is about a chair leg, with an animated face, whose evil plan seems to be to wait until people stub their toes against her. This video has a song which includes backing singing from the other chair legs.

These are pretty amusing. There’s a list of Dishonourable Mentions at the end, so presumably they picked the best out of a whole load to be put on the DVD.

~~~ The Easter Egg Hunt ~~~
There are hidden features, known as Easter eggs, on the DVD that you have to hunt around to find. And buy hunt, I do mean hunt. I noticed something I thought was odd on one of the DVD menus, checked it out and got the first clue. In trying to figure out what it meant, I got a couple of other clues and came across various forums where other fans were trying to work out how to get to the features.

It seemed considerably too complicated for my liking. Because I was watching the DVD on my computer, I was able to explore the files on the disk and open up the specific video file. This is probably cheating, but I didn’t think it would have been worth the effort to get to the files the way I was supposed to. I wasn’t willing to go to the lengths needed to access these videos properly, but I know that for some people, the puzzle is the point, not the reward. If you like puzzles and challenges, you may find it fun to try and figure this out.

What you get, when you succeed, is a short outtakes video and some interviews with the members of the Evil League of Evil. The outtakes are amusing, particularly Captain Hammer on the psychiatrist’s couch and Joss Whedon singing bits of A Man’s Gotta Do. The ELE interviews weren’t that great but they had a couple of good jokes and it was interesting to learn about the identities and backgrounds of these characters who are barely seen in the film, but vital to the plot.

As someone who just wanted to watch the videos, the Easter egg hunt was unnecessarily complicated, but I know that, for some people, that’s the whole point. If you’re one of those people, have fun! Just avoid the countless Dr Horrible forums that are discussing the clues and what they mean.

~~~ The Merchandise ~~~
Unless you include the soundtrack, I haven’t bought any merchandise for the show. That’s just because I generally don’t but there’s quite a lot to tempt you if you’re into that sort of thing.

There are various t-shirts from men and women. Some have images on, some have quotes. The quote t-shirts have things like “I don’t go to the gym, I’m just naturally like this,” and “We do the weird stuff,” on the front and the Dr Horrible Logo on the fact. There are a few of the notable quotes, including, “You are not my nemesis.” The images are standard show pictures, or things that are actually used in the show. You can buy copies of the t-shirts the groupies were wearing, as well as Captain Hammer’s shirt.

There’s a hat with the show logo on. There’s a bag, a key ring and a mug. There are also bundles, where you can buy several items at once and get a discount.

Not my sort of thing, but available from the website if you want to show to the world that you’re a fan.

~~~ Value for Money ~~~
The DVD costs $9.99 plus shipping from Amazon.com which, given the current exchange rate, seems like a lot for a film that’s only forty minutes long. But the DVD does come with plenty of extra entertainment. I think it’s worth it, but that’s because I think the show is amazingly good. My recommendation would be to watch the show on YouTube first and then make up your mind about whether or not it’s worth spending the money.

Personally, I’d gladly spend money on this show because I want it to be a success. If the creators can make Dr Horrible as big a success from a monetary perspective as it already is from a fan reaction perspective, then maybe that will open the door for other such brilliant creations. This sort of show puts the power in the hands of the writers, rather than network executives so you wouldn’t get a situation where a show is cancelled half-way through (not that I’m still bitter about Firefly).

~~~ Overall ~~~
In case you haven’t got the hint by now, I absolutely love this show. I think this is the greatest thing Joss Whedon has ever created. Given how much I like Firefly, that’s saying something. I acknowledge that this won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s not going to cost you anything to go over to YouTube and give it a try. The show is somewhat geeky, but you don’t have to be a comic book nerd to get the jokes and laugh at the situation.

As well as obvious jokes, there’s a lot of subtle humour and attention to detail that make me smile. There are little things which aren’t clear on YouTube due to the video quality (watch the background carefully in the soup kitchen scene in My Eyes). As well as the humour, there is a very strong plot. The story starts off a little slow, with a long blog post from Dr Horrible, but once it starts going, it builds to an incredible climax.

The writing is fantastic. The acting is incredibly. The songs are great. The actors are good-looking. Why not give it a go?

If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. If you do, you may find yourself heading over to order this DVD.