If you haven’t heard about the latest offering from Joss Whedon, where the flip have you been? Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has been gaining quite a bit of attention online recently, partly because of who has been involved in the making of it, but partly because it was first broadcast for free, without ads, on their website. It was written during the writers strike last year as a way to still produce something without going against the issues that were being debated. As Joss said on whedonesquebefore the launch:
Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.
Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.
The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.
Its the story of a villian, the girl he fancies and the superhero that foils his every plan. Its an amusing story with songs that will end up stuck in your head, and that you’ll want to watch again and again. Trust me with that one – I’ve watched it so many times! (Of course, the problem with watching it so much is that you want to break into song with them… which isn’t such a good idea when you’re on a crowded train)
There are bits that will make you giggle, and exciting twists. Watching it a few times means you notice new things each time… like the identity of the soup man in the homeless shelter…
Unfortunatly, iTunes hasn’t yet got Dr Horrible available for download in the UK store, but that should be happening soon, and a DVD is also going to be released. At the time of writing, it is still available to watch on the Dr Horrible website via Hulu in its entire length, but it now has adverts.