Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

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Television broadcast
Original title Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Country of production United States
original language English
year 2008
length 43 minutes
Episodes 3 in 1 season
genre tragicomedy
production Joss Whedon
David Burns
Michael Boretz
music Joss Whedon
Jed Whedon
First broadcast July 15, 2008 at www.drhorrible.com
occupation

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a three-part, 43-minute tragicomic musical mini - web series . At the center of the story are Dr. Horrible, an aspiring supervillain and the alter ego of Billy, his archenemy Captain Hammer, and Penny, into whom Dr. Horrible is in love. The series was written by screenwriter and director Joss Whedon , his brothers Zack Whedon (a television screenwriter) and Jed Whedon (a composer) and Jed's fiancé Maurissa Tancharoen during the WGA strike . The basic idea was to make a small and cheap but still professional video while avoiding the problems the strike was aimed at.

action

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is divided into three acts, each approximately 14 minutes long.

Act 1

Billy aka Dr. Horrible ( Neil Patrick Harris ) talks in his video blog about how he wants to be accepted into the evil league of evil and Penny ( Felicia Day ), with whom he is secretly in love, although he never dares to speak to her in the laundromat. He wants to change this with his stop spotlight, but he still needs "Wonderflonium", a fictional element that is to be transported in a delivery truck the next day. He installs a remote control on the van, but meets Penny, who is collecting signatures for a homeless shelter. They talk, whereby Billy is very brusque to her because he has his goal in mind, so that Penny turns away. After the "Wonderflonium" has been invited, Dr. Horrible the delivery truck with the mobile phone, but the superhero Captain Hammer ( Nathan Fillion ) appears and destroys the remote control on the truck, which is getting out of control. Billy tries to stop the car racing towards Penny, but Hammer pushes her aside first. Hammer seizes Dr. Horrible and starts beating him up, but when he sees Penny he lets go of him. Dr. Horrible flees unmolested with the "Wonderflonium".

Act 2

Billy laments the state of the world while Penny sings about how great it is with Captain Hammer. They later meet at the laundromat and talk about Penny and Captain Hammer. In his video blog, Billy states that his action was successful (because he achieved what he wanted, although he accidentally introduced his archenemy to the love of his life) and that the stop spotlight was ready. He also announces that he is planning his next move. Shortly afterwards he is seen in front of the camera again, this time badly beaten up because the police and Captain Hammer also follow his video blog and therefore knew what he was planning and could surprise him. Bad Horse, the leader of the Evil League of Evils, calls and tells him that the only way he can get into the league is if he commits murder. In the laundromat he meets Penny and Captain Hammer, who recognizes him and tells him that he really wants Penny for himself now because he knows that Billy wants her. As a result, Dr. Horrible to conclude that he wants to kill Hammer to win Penny and get into the league.

Act 3

Captain Hammer got involved in Penny's homeless aid project and got the mayor to transfer a building for it, which met with enthusiasm among the population. During his speech on the occasion of the handover of the building and the unveiling of a statue of Captain Hammer, however, Penny realizes that Captain Hammer was anything but unselfish. Rather, he seems to want to distinguish himself with his good deed, as he puts his person at the center of the event and insults both Penny and the homeless people present with double-edged compliments. For example, he tells the homeless that a real hero wouldn't mind that they are just a bunch of alcohol-addicted bums, and mentions that Penny, whom he introduces as his great love, is usually not his type, but he is her anyway think it's nice and have already slept with her. When the disappointed Penny starts to leave the room, Dr. Horrible and lets Captain Hammer freeze with his stop spotlight at the lectern. While he hesitates to kill him with his death emitter, the stop emitter suffers a defect, so that Captain Hammer wakes up again and Dr. Horrible knocks down. Hammer wants to kill Billy, who is lying on the floor below him, with his own death beam, but it explodes when trying and hurls Hammer across the room, after which he leaves the room crying and calling for his mother. Dr. Horrible is initially satisfied with the result until he sees Penny, who was hit and fatally injured by the fragments of the spotlight flying around. He laments sadly that he has achieved his goal of being accepted into the League of Evil, while his archenemy Captain Hammer has disappeared from the scene for the time being (he is with a psychiatrist), but not without his great secret love for Penny to lose.

occupation

  • Neil Patrick Harris as "Billy / Dr. Horrible ”: A super villain of the“ crazy scientist ”type with a“ PhD in Horrible ”. He wants to become a member of the Bad Horse-led Evil League of Evil and tries to use his inventions to take over the world and bring about social change for the benefit of mankind . As Billy, he tries to develop a romantic relationship with Penny.
  • Felicia Day as "Penny": Dr. Horrible secret love he meets regularly in the laundromat. She is idealistic and volunteers for a homeless shelter. Her optimism is in stark contrast to Billy's cynicism.
  • Nathan Fillion as "Captain Hammer": A self-centered superhero with superhuman strength and Dr. Horrible archenemy. He takes a liking to Dr. To bully horrible even when the situation does not give cause for it. Outwardly, Hammer is a superhero in the Superman tradition with a distorted idea of ​​heroism that the public does not notice.
  • Simon Helberg as "Moist": A friend of Dr. Horrible that has the unimpressive ability to moisten things. He is a member of the henchmen union.

Joss Whedon's colleagues have cameo appearances in the film. Marti Noxon , who worked with Whedon as co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer , plays a newscaster alongside Buffy screenwriter David Fury . Two other Buffy writers, Doug Petrie and Drew Goddard play super villains Professor Normal and Fake Thomas Jefferson. Jed Whedon appears as a member of the Bad Horse Choir as well as super villain Dead Bowie, and Maurissa Tancharoen plays a groupie from Captain Hammer (and later Dr. Horrible).

production

According to Joss Whedon, he self-financed the project with a sum "in the low six-figure range" and enjoyed the freedom to act as his own studio. "Freedom is glorious," he said. “And the fact is, I've had very good relationships with studios, and I've worked with a lot of bright managers. But it makes a difference when you can just go ahead and do something. "As a web project, there were fewer restrictions and Whedon had the" freedom to let the plot decide how long it gets. We didn't have to cram everything in - there is a lot in there - we have as much action in as we wanted and let the time work around it. We targeted 30 minutes and came out at 42 and that's not a problem. ”The music was influenced in part by Stephen Sondheim .

An online comic called "Captain Hammer (Nemesis of Dr. Horrible)" was also published in 2008 by Dark Horse Comics .

distribution

Joss Whedon announced on November 29, 2008 on the fansite Whedonesque.com that they had managed to recoup the production costs and pay the crew. After the initial publication on the Internet, the individual acts were published in the Canadian and American iTunes stores , followed by a DVD release with “wonderful extras” on December 19, 2008 exclusively on Amazon.com.

The individual files were first seen on the official Dr. Horrible website. The videos were hosted on Hulu and were available internationally. In addition to a regular commentary, the DVD extras also include “Commentary! The Musical, “a sung commentary. Jed Whedon announced during an interview at San Diego Comic Con that they would be accepting video applications from fans for the Evil League of Evil. The producers then selected what they thought were the ten best videos to be released on DVD.

Soundtrack

The musical contains 14 pieces, the titles of which are not mentioned during the broadcast. The soundtrack was released on September 2, 2008 in the iTunes Store and on CD on December 15, 2008 (exclusively on Amazon.com).

The pieces are:

  1. Horrible theme
  2. My Freeze Ray
  3. Bad Horse Chorus
  4. Caring hands
  5. A Man's Gotta Do
  6. My eyes
  7. Bad Horse Chorus (reprise)
  8. Penny's song
  9. Brand New Day
  10. So they say
  11. Everyone's A Hero
  12. Slipping
  13. Everything You Ever
  14. Horrible credits

Awards

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog received the People's Choice Award in the Favorite Online Sensation category in 2009 . At the Streamy Awards , a prize for web series and web TV productions, awarded for the first time in the same year , the show was recognized in a total of seven categories.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joss Whedon: Comment on "Doctor Horrible website is live" . In: Whedonesque.com . June 28, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  2. ↑ Matt Roush: Exclusive: First Look at Joss Whedon's “Dr. Horrible ” . In: Roush Dispatch . TV guide . June 30, 2008. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
  3. ↑ Laura Sydell: 'Buffy' Creator Proves Doogie Howser Can Sing . NPR. July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 18, 2008.
  4. ^ Drew Baldwin: Joss Whedon Interview: The Web Has Been Wonderful For "Horrible" . Tube filter. July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
  5. ↑ Emily Nussbaum: Joss Whedon on 'Dr. Horrible, 'Stephen Sondheim, and Bad Horse . NY Magazine. July 21, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  6. ↑ Captain Hammer . Dark Horse Comics . Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  7. ↑ Joss Whedon: Whedonesque comment on “Dr. Horrible DVD available for pre-order on Amazon ” . November 29, 2008. Accessed December 31, 2008.
  8. ↑ Ian Spelling: Whedon's Dr. Horrible Almost Done . In: SCI FI Wire . SCI FI. May 19, 2008. Archived from the original on July 27, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
  9. ↑ Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Amazon.com Exclusive) . Amazon.com. December 19, 2008. Retrieved December 25, 2008.
  10. ↑ Erick Davis: Joss Whedon To Record First Ever Musical DVD Commentary . In: Cinematical . Weblogs Inc .. July 1, 2008. Retrieved July 1, 2008.
  11. ↑ Dr. Horrible Writers, Hot Zombie Love, ARG Mania . Epic Fu . July 31, 2008. Retrieved August 6, 2008.
  12. ↑ Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Amazon.com Exclusive CD) . Amazon.com. December 15, 2008. Retrieved December 25, 2008.
  13. ↑ Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Liner Notes . drhorrible.com. September 2, 2008. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008. Retrieved on September 6, 2008.
  14. ↑ Streamy Awards Winners : Streamys.org. Retrieved August 8, 2009.

Web links