Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Why did Joss do this?
Joss Whedon wrote this during the Hollywood writters strike of 2008, and filmed it in 6 days on a minimal budget and relying on the lots of family and friends and calling in many favours. Instead of be broadcast on the traditional medium of Television, this project was shown to millions around the world via the Internet.

"Whether this has any impact on the Internet is unclear to me. It will be something that hasn't been done. And although some people came up with a plan on how to monetize this right away, our first priority was to put this out. We do it for the fans, we do it as an advertisement for itself and for just this culture, this idea of people who are doing something smaller scale but hopefully in such a way they can reach a lot of people.

source: review by TV Guide

What is it?
This is a musical comedy in three parts, featuring the wannabe mad scientist Dr. Horrible bent on taking over the world (played by Neil Patrick Harris). There is also Penny (Felicia Day), the cute girl he really likes, and Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) who keeps beating him up.

These three characters all get big numbers, from lyrical ballads to soaring comic anthems, written by Joss with his brother Jed. If you've seen the Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling", you'll already have an idea what it could be like.

To quote the master plan: "We will put the complete short epic out on DVD - with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We'll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we're changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD".

A review of the DVD by NewTeeVee said: "As for special features, the centerpiece of the DVD is definitely Commentary! The Musical, a full-length commentary track that is a completely original musical in its own right. Commentary! is actually a fun, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the production, heavily laced with inside jokes set to music very nearly as good as that in the actual production."

» For more information about this, visit the Dr. Horrible DVD page.

Joss Whedon's Emmy award-winning musical tragicomedy tells the story of Billy, aka Dr Horrible, a budding supervillain who wants to beat superhero Captain Hammer and take over the world... and pluck up the courage to speak to his laundromat crush Penny. With exclusive new material from Joss and the production team, new photos, sheet music and more, this official book is a must for fans!

"This book is a treasure that belongs on any fan's shelf." - SciFi Mafia

"You'll definitely have a smile on your face from this book's beginning to its very end." - Blogomatic 3000

Based on the Emmy Award-winning web series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, this collection of stories written by Zack Whedon (Deadwood, Fringe) chronicles some of the earliest adventures in the lives of archenemies Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible. This anthology solves many unanswered questions left over from the show.

For instance: What event inspired Dr. Horrible to become the world's greatest criminal mastermind? Why is Penny, the beautiful girl from the Laundromat, still single? How can you, the reader, be like blustering do-gooder Captain Hammer? And why is Horrible's sidekick, Moist, so... um... well, you'll find out!