"Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"

[hermionesviolin]

I had no real interest in Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but fandom was all over it, with strong reactions both pro and con, so I watched it. 

First off: Dr. Horrible = Barney Stinson (NPH's character on How I Met Your Mother).  So much of the actual text felt shout-out ("BTW," "tell your friends," blog, bonus: moist, volunteering at the soup kitchen), but it was more than that.

The first two acts were enjoyable.  The musical numbers were very evocative of OMWF.  (Every time the Bad Horse chorus popped up, I thought, "My master has the Slayer's sister hostage at the Bronze.")

I literally laughed out lout at, "The hammer is my penis."

Given the sense I'd gotten from reaction posts, I was expecting an unhappy ending come Part III and my guess was that Dr. Horrible would accidentally kill Penny.

I appreciated that Penny realized Captain Hammer's sleaziness, but why is her last line, "It's okay, Billy.  Captain Hammer will save us"?  Out of everything, that's what really bothered me.

I laughed out loud at Captain Hammer's "Someone maternal!" line but thought at the moment that he was actually physically wounded.  I didn't realize anything had happened to Penny until we literally saw it.  And I think I didn't really realize that was what Captain Hammer was so pained about until we saw him on the therapist's couch (which I didn't entirely know what to make of, since we know he doesn't really care about her as a person -- is it just that he's never lost anything he wanted before?).

It's an interesting critique -- that Dr. Horrible finally gets recognition as a Big Bad Evil because he killed Our Hero's girlfriend, whose name the newscasters mostly don't even know (or care about), but I feel like that critique is too brief to really be noticed and that on the whole it's just a very unsatisfying ending.  I am really intrigued by the last moment of the film when the video feed cuts to just Billy (not Dr. Horrible) on camera -- as if this had all been a fantasy sequence or something.

Heh, the newscasters were David Fury and Marti Noxon.  And the Evil League of Evil included Doug Petrie ("Professor Normal") and Drew Goddard ("Fake Thomas Jefferson").  And Jed Whedon was "Dead Bowie" (and Bad Horse Chorus #2).  And Ben Edlund gets first billing in the "With a very special thanks to..."

And of course Penny was played by Felicia Day, who played Vi (one of the S7 Potentials) on BtVS.

Comments

[athene.livejournal.com]

Her last line had to be that because it was the final braking point for Billy. Even with everything, she still thought of the hero over him.

As for the last shot, at first, Dr. Horrible was Billy to the outside world and only Dr. Horrible once in a while. Now, he's Dr. Horrible all of the time, so where can he be Billy? Only in private.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

*nods*

I completely agree.

Also, it's so freaking poignant for the words on her dying lips to be the praises of Bily's archnemesis.

When I watched Act 3 the first time, it really upset me (in that awesome way that NFA upset me LOL) and when I made my husband watch the last bit today his comment was, "Well that was a perfect story." And it really, really was. *sniffles*

Also, where are y'all getting these awesome icons? *wants one*

[towards.livejournal.com]

I giggled hardcore when I saw Marti and David. I was half-hoping they'd sing about dry cleaning. The whole laundry theme would have been very full circle. =D

[theatre-pixie.livejournal.com]

But the Hammer-fans did sing about dry-cleaning! "Four sweater vests!"

[towards.livejournal.com]

That is an amazingly awesome point. I am filled with glee yet again.

And, hee, sweater-vests.

[trijinx.livejournal.com]

I attributed a lot of what Penny said in her final moments to blood loss/confusion over having been impaled. Though she made the connection minutes earlier, she didn't seem to understand that Billy was a villain while talking to him. Something similar could have happened with Captain Hammer.

I also took it as a nod to the fact that Penny, was, to some extent, overly optimistic.

[sarah-p.livejournal.com]

I appreciated that Penny realized Captain Hammer's sleaziness, but why is her last line, "It's okay, Billy. Captain Hammer will save us"? Out of everything, that's what really bothered me.

YES. Like you, I had kind of predicted where this was going, and I really enjoyed the project as a whole, but Act III felt really rushed to me. I get that it had to be a certain amount of time, but, it was like, half of the entire segment was Captain Hammer singing at the dedication, and then BOOM, let's wrap it ALL UP IN FIVE MINUTES. I can justify everything else, but it's Penny's last words that still confuse me (and, yeah, I buy she may have been confused/disoriented/whatever, but after everything, and all of the build-up with her less-than-stellar feelings about CH and her warn fuzzies for Billy, I guess I missed the significance).

Still. FAKE THOMAS JEFFERSON IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. OMG!! :):)

[theatre-pixie.livejournal.com]

I love this. Just so full of squee. Because if someone can hand me a project that involves Joss Whedon's writing, Neil Patrick Harris (especially NPH singing!!!), Nathan Fillion, singing and dancing... well, I don't get much happier.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

I really, really liked Acts 1 and 2. And then I remembered that Joss Whedon wrote it and the characters were not going to live happily ever after. In some ways I felt that Dr. Horrible showed the side of Jonathan, Warren and Andrew that we didn't really see on Buffy.