Aug. 4, 2009 at 6:23pm Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)

A "cult musical", a "superhero spoof", an all-around whimsical joy


During the writer's strike in 2007/2008 Joss Whedon decided that since he could not legally write for television or movies, he would write a three-part miniseries for the Internet. Originally the clips for each of the three parts could only be accessed on the Web and they were released starting July of 2008. The response was overwhelming, and the servers crashed under the weight of 200,000 hits per hour as fans of Whedon's previous works tried to watch.

I am not generally a fan of musicals. I do like Gilbert & Sullivan, but modern musicals don't suit my taste. When I first heard about Dr. Horrible my initial reaction was, "Are you kidding?" But, this musical is so quirky and full of pathos that I couldn't help but sing along.

Dr. Horrible (aka Billy) is working hard to achieve his aims of world domination and admittance into the Evil League of Evil. Meanwhile, he's pining for the girl of his dreams, Penny, who he only sees at the local laundromat. Due to a coincidence Dr. Horrible's nemesis, Captain Hammer, steals Penny away from him and sets up a chain of events that leads to terrible consequences for all three characters. A lot of story and song for a 42 minute movie.

The DVD includes another 42 minutes of musical commentary on the movie. It is well worth watching, or at least listening to while you do something else. There are a good number of jokes referencing the movie and the actors who play the wonderfully campy characters. The library also owns a copy of the music CD for the soundtrack of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, although the CD does not include the music from the commentary.