Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

I really enjoyed watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Although I wasn’t I missed class I did watch the movie outside of class on my own. I am a fan of Josh Whendon and have wanted to see Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog for a while and was excited to find out that it was on hulu for free. Watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog has probably been my favorite assignment of the semester.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog begins with an internet video blog from Dr. Horrible, who is applying to be in the League of Evil. All the while he is attempting to impress the League and Bad Horse with his with evil cunning genius he struggles to talk to the girl of his dreams, Penny. During his first heist he accidentally brings his nemesis Captain Hammer together with Penny. Penny has no idea that Dr. Horrible is really the guy she begins to hang out with at the laundry mat. As Penny and Captain Hammer’s relationship progresses Dr. Horrible decides to kill Captain Hammer in order to keep him away from Penny and to impress the League of Evil. In the end his plan goes awry and instead of kill Captain Hammer his death ray malfunctions and kills penny instead. Dr. Horrible is heart broken and joins the League becoming truly evil.
I found the whole movie to be well written and incredibly comical. Making the movie a musical added significantly to the humor of the story. It was ironic at times to have characters singing the same song from opposing points of view, such as Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both singing “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” while one attempts to commit a crime and the other attempts to stop the crime. Throughout the movie Dr. Horrible can’t seem to catch a break where everything seems to go wrong for him. The way the movie is written however makes all of these tragic events appear comical. I think this is important for people to bring into their everyday lives. Things go wrong everyday and if you don’t have the ability to laugh it off you’re going to have a very miserable life.
One theme I found very interesting in the movie was the motivations of each character. Dr. Horrible, although attempting to do evil, did it with a desire to impress someone else. He was motivated by changing the world, self improvement and impressing the girl he was in love with. On the flip side, Captain Hammer, the hero of the story, was only interested in pleasing himself. He only helped others to gain more attention and glory for himself. I think Josh Whendon might have been trying to make a statement about who is really a ‘good guy’ in real life as part of this.