Thoughts on Dr. Horrible

[thewhitelily]

benpayne has made it "Blog your thoughts on Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog Day", so... well, here I go.

I'm a sucker for musicals. I'm a sucker for superheroes. I'm even more of a sucker for supervillains. I was always going to love a musical about a supervillain made by Joss Whedon. Add in the acting talent on this thing? Be still, my beating fangirl heart!

If you haven't seen it during its limited free-to-internet engagement, you have seriously missed out. Personally, I've seen it um... let's just say enough times that I hope I've got the songs memorised until the DVD comes to Australia. That way I won't have to compromise on my moral objection to giving money to Apple. :P

I'm not going to say it's a searing inditement on the tropes, or an unparalleled parody of the genre. I'm just going to say it was absolutely awesomely rewatchably enjoyable, and I can't sleep because "Slipping" keeps running through my mind, caught like every 3/4 tune always is, and I keep trying to say the line: "Because the world's a mess, and I just need to... rule it" in a way that's even one tenth as good as the original. Not to mention the very fact of introducing the evil plan by means of a love song just warms the cockles of my flowery heart.

There's something delightfully Gilbert and Sullivanesque about some of the rhymes, as well - rhyming words in the middle and then just keeping on going with the line. Nothing quite paralleling their trademark broken words ("... occupied in crime (pied in crime!)") or ridiculous non-words ("I'm plucky and adventury"), so I'm not sure why it's so reminiscent to me - perhaps just the grinningly clever rhymes in there, along with a few unexpected rhyme schemes to keep us on our toes. Nice.

I found Penny annoyingly vacuous, but I think she was meant to be, and it didn't interfere with my emotional connection with Billy's adoration of her. I loved the pie metaphor, which applied just as well to Billy, who was nice on the outside, just a veneer over Dr. Horrible, who in turn was a veneer over the Billy inside who only really wanted to be not a screwup so he could deserve Penny and honestly couldn't have pulled the trigger on the incapacitated Captain Hammer - who exactly was he trying to fool, anyway, with that "no mercy" self-talk?

Regarding the end: there are a number of ways it could have gone. The best alternate theory I think I saw was Penny turning out to actually be Bad Horse. That sparks my imagination with her delivering his rejection from the Evil League of Evil in person (with the chorus around her, of course), and poor Horrible realising that she's just completely out of his league as far as evil goes (no pun intended).

I was horrified, and a little disappointed when the way it would all end became clear. But after walking away with my world rocked, it kept resonating in my head - those last two words from Billy, looking into the camera for the last time, all pride and artifice stripped away. And I don't feel... a thing. Such a brief flash, but... you know what, I think that was the most powerful moment in the whole story.

I guess that's what every artist would wish for.

So be careful what you wish for, kiddies.

Comments

[kittyrainbow.livejournal.com]

OMG YAY FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO WATCHED IT *GLOMPS*

I TOTALLY LOVED IT. IT'S TAKEN OVER MY BRAIN.

BILLY WAS ADORABLE! AND NPH'S ACTING + SINGING = BOTH WIN. ♥ AND THEN "...A THING." :'( :'( *CLINGS TO BILLY* (I feel kind of bad actually because I sort of love broken!Billy more than nonbroken!Billy? :/ )

[/incoherent]

I soooo badly want to write fic for it. (I have an idea for one but it is utterly cracked.)

PS: The hammer is my penis.

[iviolinist.livejournal.com]

Dr. Horrible rocks my socks!! I love NPH and was amazed at his awesome singing voice. (At least I assume he was really singing, but I could be incredibly wrong.) I loved the whole story. I'm a sucker for a happy ending so I was hoping for Billy to turn against his evil ways and be with Penny. However, the final line was so brilliant, I forgive the non-happiness. :-)

BTW, I've been meaning to tell you: John McCain came to speak in Muskegon or something last week sometime and first stopped for a corn dog at the Pronto Pup in Grand Haven! ;-)

[thesurvivalist.livejournal.com]

...who exactly was he trying to fool, anyway, with that "no mercy" self-talk?

That was the hottest part in the whole musical.

The ending mad me sad, mainly because I liked Penny's singing voice. I remember being vaguely bored during the whole thing, but I did watch it at about one in the morning.

[thebellman.livejournal.com]

Love Dr Horrible. Want to have Joss Whedon's babies. Well, to be entirely precise, want to practice baby making with Felicia Day, but that's posted in the sealed section, in a brown paper envelope, under ice.

Agree with you except for one point: I did not interpret Penny as vacuous, but as so desperately lonely that she would suppress her own personality and character to conform to the ideals of whoever she was with.

I was equally horrified at the ending, but then remembered: this is Joss Whedon. Joss does not do happy endings. Joss definitely does not do happy endings for his leading ladies.

I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall. The people who built this have thrown down a rather large and shiny gauntlet in front of the traditional flim/television industry, and seem to have shown that you can make money out of free-to-air content. To put it another way, depending on how the money works out from DVD and iTunes sales, and T-Shirts and similar, they may have demonstrated the truth of the argument that you can make serious money out of selling rich media content to the long tail.

[ex-benpayne119.livejournal.com]

I can see the G&S parallel (although Whedon's more immediately influenced by Sondheim, whose influence is also quite apparent).

I thought the last line was great too...