Joss Whedon Works His Magic Again With Dr. Horrible Act I

by Josh Roth @ 6:13 pm July 16th, 2008

Before I begin, let me prefise by  that I may be biased because of my extensive love for the works of Joss Whedon, which includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and even Alien: Resurrection. Whedon is always abe to suprise me, with his quick whitted writing, clever mixing of genres, and all around brilliance. When I heard that Whedon and company were making a new media, online only musical series about a supervillian in love I was thrilled. I’m a huge fan of Whedon, sci-fi and musicals. I knew it be great, but would it be popular? Here we are a few weeks later and Dr. Horrible has graced our computer monitors. And it is as brilliant and clever as always, and it’s looking like it’ll be an economic success as well!!

Neil Patrick Harris first came on my radar with How I Met Your Mother, which I might add is easily the best sitcom in years. He is a comic genius, but I had no idea he was such a great singer! He obviously steals the show as Dr. Horrible, his performance is comical, quirky, and awkward in all the right ways. He makes the world of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog work, it feels like a live action comic book, where the Evil League of Evil and Captain Hammer rule. His character is endearing and interesting, while also being hillarious.

Felicia Day, from the last season of Buffy and her hit internet series The Guild, stars opposite Harris as Penny, Dr. Horrible’s love interest. We don’t get to see much of her in the first Act, but she does have a terrific voice, and she’s perfect for Penny, can’t wait to see more of her in the upcoming Acts! And of course there’s Nathan Fillion, from Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity, Waitress, and Slither (all of which are hidden gems). He’s always been one of my favorites, and I’m itching to see him in more roles. Fillion plays the obnoxious corporate sellout superhero Captain Hammer. He’s not in the first Act all that much, a bit more than Felicia Day, but like Felicia I’m excited to see where he takes the character. Not to mention, Fillion has a surprisingly great voice!

This isn’t Joss Whedon’s first musical, there was the brilliant Once More With Feeling from Season 6 of Buffy. The music was catchy and incredibly well written, the same stands for Dr. Horrible. I can’t get the lyrics out of my head, I can only hope they release a soundtrack like they did for Once More With Feeling. From a technical standpoint the production values are incredible. It was made on a shoestring budget, consisting mostly of favors and out of pocket money. I can’t help but wonder what it was shot on, because it looks terrific. The cinematography, lighting, and production design adds to the overall quality, these are always important aspects to make media more professional.

Dr. Horrible is important, not only because it’s more work from Joss Whedon (which is always welcome), because it’s one of the first examples of professionaly made media just for the internet. The sheer force behind Joss Whedon’s fans could be enough to rocket launch Dr. Horrible into the internet media hall of fame, as the first successfull internet only media. Leave it to Joss Whedon to help create a viable media market on the internet. The website for Dr. Horrible broke under the pressure of so much interest, and it shot to number one on iTunes. I’m so happy for the series success, and thrilled to have something new from the mind of Whedon. Head on over to the website or iTunes to check out the first act, and stay tuned for Act II which launches at midnight!