Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Posted by Stropp on July 15, 2008

Now here is something truly bizarre. Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a new media production from Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. It stars Neil Patrick Harris (remember Doogy Howser?), Nathan Fillion (Mal from Firefly), and Felicia Day (the star of The Guild.)

Is Doctor Horrible the future convergence of the intarweb and TV entertainment? Perhaps. This is what Joss Whedon has to say from his Master Plan.

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

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.

This little film is in three acts, each to be released within a couple of days of each other. Today (the 15th) sees the release of the first 13 minute act which I’ve just finished watching. It’s all free to view, with only one 2 second ad at the beginning. Later, when all three acts have been released, you’ll be able to purchase the DvD. Acts 2 and 3 will be released on the 17th and 19th of July respectively. All three acts will be removed at midnight on the 20th of July. So you have to be quick, or you’ll need to purchase the DvD or download it for a fee.

I’m not going to give anything away, you really need to see this for yourself to appreciate it, but it’s enough to say that Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a tale of super-villainy, unrequited love, and heroism set to the tune of a musical extravaganza.

This is one of the reasons why I love Whedon’s work. He takes risks with ideas, and not just ordinary average boring ideas. He works with the wacky. How else could a movie and TV series about a diminutive high school cheerleader who slays vampires ever be made? How about taking a full blooded western, costumes, guns, horses, and all and transplant it to a spaceship? These things would never be made without the sort of vision that also comes up with Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Now if we could get someone with the same sort of style, vision, and pull creating MMO games…

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