Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Conceived as an "online miniseries event" during the 2008 writers' strike, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 42 minutes of musical romp that bears the distinctive stamp of Joss Whedon. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) plays the title character, who video-blog on his twin goals of joining the Evil League of Evil and win the right to Penny (Felicia Day of Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and in The Guild), a woman he met on site laundry. Dr. Horrible is foiled on both fronts, however, by his arch-nemesis, self-absorbed superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion, Castle and Whedon's Firefly).

Dr. Horrible was written by Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharoen, and the songs were written by Joss and Jed (who also produced, orchestrated, played, etc.), with some lyrics by Tancharoen. (Jed and Tancharoen have backup singing roles.) The offbeat, off-the-cuff humor is laugh-out-loud funny, and as Dr. Horrible wants to take over the world, the songs will take on its head: they're engaging ( "My Freeze Ray"), exciting ( "My Eyes") and sweet ( "Penny's Song"). "So They Say" is particularly evocative of Jonathan Larson's Rent, but with Joss Whedon's musical episode of Buffy, "Once More with Feeling", the influences are diverse. It is difficult to imagine a better cast. Harris, who is singing Sondheim on Broadway, is a great leader and clearly the best singer, Day is completely charming, and who better than Captain Tightpants to play the gallant hero? We could argue about the ending, and shows the independent budget, but Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a completely enjoyable romp for everyone, especially for those who like music with quirky humor. You will watch this over and over again!

If you watched or downloaded Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, there are a number of bonus features on the DVD that may interest you. There are two commentary tracks: Harris, the three Whedons, Tancharoen, Day, and Fillion have a spirited discussion of the movie, and there are also "Comment! The Musical," which ignore the movie altogether and sing about the writers' strike and each other (Fillion sings "I'm better than Neil") - the songs are not as good as the songs in Dr. Horrible, but good silly fun. A 20-minute making-of discusses the cast, the recording sessions, as the film became a phenomenon, videos, and 10 (half an hour total) were recorded by fans who want to join the Evil League of Evil.