Comments on: Dr. Horrible

By: sylvia

sylvia — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:02:14 +0000

My son (fourteen) is listening to the soundtrack over and over and over again. I thought he’d stop it once the weekend ended but of course it’s all on YouTube and so he’s still playing it constantly.

I loved the concept and went in expecting tripe but willing to embrace it on principle. Then to my surprise I loved the actual piece (and wanted to cry at that final look at the camera) but christ, I’m sick of hearing a brand new day at this point.

He (my son) talks about irony and perspective and yeah, I’m glad that he’s pushing beyond his standard black and white but for gods sake someone give the child a headset before I kill him.

Good stuff, I have to admit.

By: Mike Weldon

Mike Weldon — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:20:11 +0000

At every convention I got to, it seems like people are always suggesting that the game industry is becoming more and more like the movie industry (as if that is a good thing). Well here is an area where it seems the opposite might be happening. IMO, the day Steam was introduced began the long, slow death of store-bought games in favor of downloadable, disposable, digestible, internet-based content. It stands to reason that frustrated filmmakers might attempt something similar.

I wonder if Tom Cruise will take time during the Oscars to suggest that filmmakers look to the video game industry as a role model. I’m not holding my breath for that one.

By: Producer

Producer — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:54:26 +0000

The budget started at $100 but quickly ballooned to “low six figures”. That’s still low by most independent film standards, but pretty high for a 45-minute web video. Given the number of hits Joss & co received in the first hour, they will probably not have a problem making that back.

By: Michael Chui

Michael Chui — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:36:40 +0000

Quoting his Master Plan:

Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic.

By: Brent Michael Krupp

Brent Michael Krupp — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:46:27 +0000

They actually thanked Ben Edlund in the credits, so they’re probably well aware of their Tick homage/theft.

A bunch of minor screen roles were people that had worked behind the scenes on other Whedon shows. I wonder how many of the crew were similar and how many might have worked cheap.

By: len

len — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:41:29 +0000

I didn’t mean to sound like I was slagging the songs. They did a very good job with the soundtrack. It is just a style: stage musical singing with a rock beat. I don’t care for it myself, but it works well here and elsewhere Whedon has done this. I think this genre hits its peak in Rocky Horror and hasn’t done much since.

@rik: I wonder if this is a throwaway. There are a lot of Whedons’ working on this, even Marti Noxon, so it kind of feels like a ‘what the Whedon family did with their summer vacation’ fun project.

It’s still cool. Webisodes are coming along nicely as a genre.

By: Rik

Rik — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:49:03 +0000

…. But the story doesn’t end there, right? Right? …

By: Michael Chui

Michael Chui — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:31:48 +0000

If I had a signature here, it would now be, “Wow, sarcasm. That’s original.”

By: Eolirin

Eolirin — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:16:23 +0000

@cliff, definitely, and I love how much more sympathetic a character Dr Horrible is than pretty much everyone else, and how well realized the inner conflicts are there. The acting jobs given were amazingly well done. The emotion portrayed in the very last shot of the third episode is almost entirely through Neil Partrick Harris’s eyes, and it’s *powerful*.

By: cliff

cliff — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:57:26 +0000

I was particularly impressed with the ending – it’s rare for an American producer to be willing to go the direction Whedon did. The “path of the hero” is an incredibly common plot device, but with Dr. Horrible we’ve been given the “path of the villain.”