Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Mini Series) Review

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a 2008 musical tragicomedy miniseries in three acts, directed by Joss Whedon and produced exclusively for Internet distribution. The musical is really quite good and I liked the story as well, not much of a musical loving guy but I don’t mind the odd one that I appreciate and a comedic take on super villains can’t really be missed. The series came out over 4 years ago but I only saw it recently and so I will not be presenting many spoilers and any I am will have a bold warning. The visuals weren’t that bad considering the lack of any real budget and that nobody got paid for this until about a year after it was made. I found the cast to be fantastic and got the comedic take on the superheroes and villains rather well, so I will say well done to Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day and Simon Helberg. I am a fan of their work and as they did this for free I am happy they have all gone unto other successful projects.

Dr. Horrible, an aspiring super-villain with his own video blog, is attempting to join the prestigious Evil League of Evil (led by the legendary “thoroughbred of sin”, Bad Horse), but his plans are usually foiled by the egotistical superhero Captain Hammer. Horrible’s life is thrown for a loop when he falls in love with Penny, a beautiful and optimistic advocate for the homeless he meets at the laundromat, a situation which complicates itself even further when Penny begins dating the boorish, oafish Hammer after he apparently saves her life. Faced with the task of impressing the League, can Horrible overcome his own incompetence to ruin the day, kill the hero, and still get the girl?

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Story: 80%       Acting: 90%      Visuals: 70%      Dialogue: 95%

Comedy: 90%      Style/Sound: 95%      Characters: 90%

Total: 87%

I instantly got it within the first minute because of the way he talks to the camera, acting on the side of Neil Patrick Harris is fantastic and I have always found him to very funny. When he starts to read out comments they do it in a very clever way that actually shows every aspect of his personal life without him specifically talking about it. I think one of the best things about watching this series is that each time you see it you notice jokes you might have missed before, as I am currently watching whilst writing this review “Didn’t you go on a double date with the bate and switch?” I loved the story of a not so bad guy who is the bad guy but you still hope for him to win, I think that is right. I think this story has a lot for everyone, the comic book fans have the super heroes and villains, musical fans have the many sing along music scenes which are pretty good, the romantics have a love interest and competition from Penny played wonderfully by Felicia Days and there is plenty of comedy all over this series, it has a classic Whedon signature.

I have to say that in terms of comedy I would find it difficult to choose between Dr Horrible and Captain Hammer. What I liked about Dr Horrible is nervousness around a girl he likes and how ridiculously unsuccessful his attempts at doing evil are, the hero’s reading his blog and knowing his plan before he did it was a favourite. What I liked about Captain Hammer was his ridiculous manor and way he acts, Nathan Fillion can make his hero character into the bad guy with impressive speed. My favourite scene with Captain Hammer would have to be his reaction around the homeless or when he sees Dr Horrible at the laundry mat (Won’t spoil that). The characters and dialogue were so funny and smart you could tell that this was a passion project and that everybody got their role. From the Dialogue to the songs it had such speed and intelligence as to its delivery that it’s hard not to laugh and connect to the characters.

So let’s talk about something more fun like the visuals. The special effects, physical props and visual landscape shots where both really quite good considering near to no money. They used some pretty interesting techniques for some of the scenes like the laser guns and tech used by Dr Horrible; they had some very fun designs almost like they pulled them straight out of a Saturday cartoon. Obviously they had a low budget and so there were constraints but I don’t think it really affected the story at all. The music was really fun and worked fantastically with the story; singing wasn’t bad either but any flaws I think added to their characters flaws. My three favourite songs would be “My Eyes”, “Brand New Day” and “Slipping”. So make sure you check them out in the full video below, please enjoy.

The Must Watch Complete Video:

Not got any critic reviews so here are some user reviews I found good.

“Exceptional dialog, music, humor, pathos…yes, one of those again! Whedon and crew are reshaping “television” into the 21st Century and hopefully will carry the “industry” along with them in their wake (I know…I’m mixing metaphors but what the hell!). I can’t wait for the next episode (I pray one will follow)!”. Gormanme. Love the dialogue and humour, sadly been 4 years and I haven’t seen this series change anything but I still find it a wonderful series to watch.

“Dr. Horrible is fun. It’s outside the box. It’s quirky and adorable and several more synonyms for zany that I wont get into right now. It’s how my friend (who’s never heard of Whedon)described it “Cute…but than kinda depressing.” A lot of people were disappointed by the ending, but I say that’s the magic of Mr. Whedon (The sick man that he is…) he made us care for these characters in only 40 minutes! Usually he has seasons upon seasons to make us love a character (before he ruthlessly slaughters them…that sick bastard) but somehow he managed to do it in 40 minutes!” YoSafBridge. He is damn good at killing off beloved characters and I am also a fan of everything he has done, he has said he is working on a sequel so maybe we can see the characters again.

My favourite scene would have to be the duet musical singing between Dr Horrible and Penny as one sings of lies on the rise and other of harmony on the rise, fantastic musical sequence but also brilliant dialogue for the characters about their lives.

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