Ever wanted to freeze the world, join an evil villain league, and talk to a girl at the Laundromat but your arch nemesis just keeps getting in your way? Dr. Horrible understands. In this 2008 musical comedy, Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, a truly evil villain out to prove his evilness to everyone. All Horrible really wants is to join the most prestigious society for super villains: the Evil League of Evil. But in order to join the League, he must prove that he’s bad enough to join their ranks. And so he hatches a plan: steal some wonderflonium to create a time-stopping freeze ray and take over the world! The only problem? As Horrible is carrying out his super evil scheme, that cute girl from the Laundromat appears. Penny, played by Felicia Day, is a sweet, generous volunteer at the local homeless shelter who comes looking for signatures on a petition to turn a condemned building into a homeless shelter. While Dr. Horrible is distracted he is interrupted yet again, this time by someone much worse: his arch nemesis Captain Hammer. Played by Nathan Fillion, Hammer is a hero with super strength, invulnerability, and an ego to match. Just when he thought that Captain Hammer couldn’t get any worse, he steals Dr. Horrible’s girl! Not that she was really his girl, but they talked a few times at the Laundromat so it was pretty serious. Now Dr. Horrible has to impress the Evil League of Evil and try to win Penny over. And it will not be an easy feat.
This hilarious, 40 minute movie was written and produced during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon in correlation with his brothers, Zack and Jed. The entirety of the movie was filmed in only 6 days. Though the movie was just meant to be small, inexpensive, but professional film, it quickly became quite popular and acquired a loyal following of fans. Several colleagues of Joss Whedon make cameos in the movie including the executive producer of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Simon Helberg (Howard from “The Big Bang Theory”). Helberg plays Dr. Horrible’s roommate Moist whose superpower is, you guessed it, making things moist. Fans of the cancelled Fox drama “Firefly” will note Joss Whedon’s many references to the beloved show.
“Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” is a very quotable and funny movie. Along with its great one liners, the movie features catchy, well-sung songs and great acting (what else would be expected from a movie featuring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion at the same time?) The movie is shot from the perspective of Dr. Horrible as a supposed “blog” that he is publishing to the Internet for his loyal followers. Viewers will feel for Dr. Horrible as he tries to live up to his “PhD in horribleness” and prove himself to the Evil League of Evil while balancing the fact that he loves a woman who works at a homeless shelter. The movie is overall quite short, and can be watched on Youtube or Netflix. Overall it is an excellent and fun movie to watch just for kicks, but the ending will leave viewers’ mouths agape.
