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STUDIO: Mutant Enemy
MSRP: $14.99
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 43 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Featurettes
Commentary! The Musical
Normal commentary
Evil League of Evil application video
The Pitch
Supervillain wants a lady.
The Humans
Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day and Simon Helberg
The Nutshell
Joss Whedon didn’t rest on his laurels during the WGA strike. He brought his brothers together to form a tale of a young man that desperately wants to unleash evil upon the world. But, why is young Billy so evil? Through song and flashback, we learn of a lost love and jealousy of a major hero. Plus, there’s a freeze ray.
The Hollow Man doesn’t like it when they’re ready.
The Lowdown
Neil Patrick Harris has come a long way from hanging out with Wanda and Vinnie. Hell, he’s come along away from demeaning the Brain Bug on Klendathu. NPH teaming up with Joss Whedon is a geek dream come true. Whedon plays to Harris’s strengths with one hell of a musical buffet. But, what doesn’t gel is the supporting cast.
Nathan Fillion plays a great douchebag. Captain Hammer however seems stuck in that mode. We never get to see another side of the douchebag rather than a perspective drawn upon 1-D input given to us by the surrounding players and our perception. Then, there’s Felicia Day as Penny. She read her lines and did a decent job at singing. Other than that, I’ve seen Day do more impressive work via The Guild.
This little bag of shit means more to me than Max Casella. I’ll name him Bochco Deuce.
The
plot is pretty straightforward. A loser guy uses his genius and PHD smarts to cook up a freeze ray. Teaming up with a sidekick named Moist, he applies for membership into the Evil League of Evil. Meanwhile, his day-to-day life is dominated by his attempts to get a pretty girl named Penny to notice him. One day, Dr. Horrible fires up one of his devices and Captain Hammer has to save Penny from it. Penny falls in love with Hammer, thus leading to the two getting to fuck.
The next two episodes focus on the freaky trifecta that Dr. Horrible inadvertantly created. Unable to find a proper outlet for his private and public abilities, the mad villains has to find a new way to get Penny to fall for him. That is before her second date with Captain Hammer. Captain Hammer is looking forward to the second date, as that’s where you get to do the freaky stuff. If you look like Nathan Fillion and have super powers, that means that Penny better get ready for some ass play.
Grow a dick and then aim that hand a little lower, sweetheart. Also, call me Barney.
The music didn’t really wow me. Sure, it served its purpose and helped to forward the plot. But, you don’t have that many memorable musical cues like there were in Once More with Feeling. It’s quick jabs that show multiple writers trying to maintain their preferred cues for their favorite characters. Everyone is left fighting each other for the spotlight, while trying to remain true to their nature. When you’ve only got three installments running around fifteen minutes each, that’s not a lot of time. I wish that there had been a tighter focus and more of a push to fewer grander music moments.
Normally, he only lets dudes watch him tug on his sack.
Dr. Horrible is one of the few Whedon creations that I can stand. It’s short enough to not delve into his usual melodramatic crutches. Throwing away the female know-it-all is fun to see in a Whedon production for once. I’m all for girl power, but how’s about getting the Y-factor kicked up a notch. Nathan Fillion is an easy fill, as he gets Whedon’s material. But, seeing NPH taking the music and words, then elevating the scenes was a thrill. The guy’s got chops, but sadly it’s not enough to overpower the short-failings. Too much material in too short of a runtime. The weird second act that doesn’t move easily into the finale. Hell, there’s the whole issue of toss-away ELE stuff. It’s all too much.
Pseudo Harrison Ford is here to give you a hug, little man.
As a bonus, you also get Commentary! The Musical on this release. Nobody gives a shit about what’s happening onscreen. They sing about what led to the production, the people in the cast and what they’ve been doing since. NPH continues to blow everyone away, but Nathan Fillion gets in a few choice moments. It makes for a fun supplemental to the main show, but not something that should make this a blind buy. After all, there’s ninety minutes of special features.
The Package
The
DVD release is pretty packed for an Internet mini-series. You get to see people sending in submission videos for the Evil League of Evil. There’s a look at the making of the internet mini-series, plus you get a real commentary that covers all three episodes. Were you expecting more for less than an hour of original content? Well, go dig up your Chosen Collection. This is all you are getting.