Review of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, directed by Joss Whedon, is a super-hero musical tragicomedy produced in very limited budget. Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), the protagonist, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), the antagonist, and Penny (Felicia Day), the girl between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, are the main characters in this 40-mins miniseries. It won the People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Online Sensation” in 2008 and Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2009. What makes this movie so special?

Dr. Horrible is doing whatever he can to be a bad guy and to get into the evil league while Captain Hammer not only stops his evil plans but also takes Penny from Dr. Horrible. Finally, Dr. Horrible fails to kill Captain Hammer but Penny is killed accidently instead. The movie ends up as Dr. Horrible gets into the league but lost the girl he loves.

Characters in this movie are different as the characters we usually encounter. The bad guy is not bad enough and the good guy is neither good enough, which makes them less typical but more three-dimensional. For instance, instead of being serious and wicked as most of the bad guys did, Dr. Horrible is funny and even cute, only thing that makes him “bad” is his goal of getting into the league. He uses casual word like BTW or says “there are kids in that park”, which makes him a attractive person and less evil. Captain Hammer, however, is the opposite of Dr. Horrible, who is a super-hero but not that good. He does good things not because he wants to do such things but to enjoy himself in showing off and being mean to Dr. Horrible, and I love this character because he is super-annoying hero. As he pushes Penny to the dump while it is totally unnecessary, we can see his showy personality.

In the scene where Dr. Horrible meets Captain Hammer in the laundry, Captain’s arrogant and ostentatious personality is being well depicted. As he says, “I do not go to the gym, I am just naturally like this.” Along with his supercilious face, this dialogue shows how proud Captain Hammer is and makes him a very annoying character. This impressive scene puts this two main characters together and shows the distinction between them successfully by setting the conversation. Dr. Horrible’s humble behavior contrasts with Captain Hammer’s arrogant behavior also enhance audience’s feeling about two characters. Unlike Captain Hammer speaking in a high tone, Dr. Horrible in this scene is quiet and keeping his head down. We can hardly associate this character to villains like Joker and Voldemort who are quite defiant.

In my opinion, Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer represent two kind of people. People like Dr. Horrible fight for their goals but just cannot succeed. Sometimes powerful people stop them and sometimes they just headed the wrong direction. They have a firm objective but have little power to achieve it. And people like Captain Hammer have real, solid power but lack of a humble mind. They abuse their power or use them for their own purpose and make people feel disguising. This movie is definitely worth to watch because it brings audience a different kind of experience about hero and villain.