Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (2008)

“He has a Ph.D. in horribleness!”

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) is an aspiring supervillain who is trying to join the prestigious Evil League of Evil, chronicling his adventures through his video blog. He concocts a magnificent plan that will allow him entry to the Evil League of Evil, but his affection for Penny, a beautiful fellow laundromat goer, affects his evil judgment and disrupts his plan. When Dr. Horrible’s arch nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) thwarts Dr. Horrible’s plans for both the Evil League of Evil and Penny (Felicia Day), Dr. Horrible is faced with the task of overcoming all the obstacles in his way to ruin the day, kill the hero, and get the girl.

I was traveling throughout China when Dr. Horrible was released via iTunes last summer, so I missed the majority of the hype. However, I had continuously heard good things about it, so I finally got round to watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog last week. I love Neil Patrick Harris¹, so I hoped that he, as well as the rest of the cast, would impress me with all things related to horribleness and evilness.

I was quite pleased with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and liked it more than I thought I would. I’m not really familiar with Joss Whedon’s work, so I didn’t know how much I would like Dr. Horrible prior to watching it. I really like the low-budget aspect of the film², and some parts were very, very funny. I loved Neil Patrick Harris’ performance as expected, and I was impressed by Nathan Fillion as well. Actually, Captain Hammer reminded me a lot of Gaston from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, except Captain Hammer did not have a sidekick like Lefou. I’m neither here nor there with the character of Penny, but the three leads did an excellent job with the singing component. Of course, Dr. Horrible was my favorite character. I wish I had him as a best friend in real life, he’d make things exciting!

At roughly 45 minutes, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is an internet film that’s definitely worth watching. After all, it didn’t win the People’s Choice Award for “Best Online Sensation” for nothing!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

1. I adore him as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother; Barney is my absolute favorite! [↩]
2. Dr. Horrible was created during the writer’s strike. “The idea was to create something small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike” [source]. [↩]

Tags: movies