Comments on: More on Dr Horrible and Joss Whedon

By: stephanie b

stephanie b — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:32:23 +0000

And the criminal continues with…

Surging like the sea
Wanting you so helplessly
I break with every swell
Lost in ecstasy
Spread beneath my willow tree

What? The ocean has trees? And wasn’t it clever of Joss to refer to a willow tree since her lover’s name is Willow and all?

By: moley75

moley75 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:07:50 +0000

I thought I must have misread your first comment because I remember you saying “Under Your Spell” didn’t suit Amber’s voice. It is pretty corny rather than porny (as Joss mentions in the commentary) and I think the rhyme

But your power shone
Brighter than any I’ve known

is borderline criminal.

By: stephanie b

stephanie b — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:05:12 +0000

I just wanted to make sure I was clear — I really dislike “Rest in Peace” and “Under Your Spell,” even though it’s pretty. I really like/love all of the other songs in “Once More, With Feeling.” I was just trying to make the point that not even the opus that is “Once More, With Feeling” is completely solid musically, in my opinion.

By: moley75

moley75 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:05:41 +0000

Thanks for your comments everyone.

Can’t say I disagree too much with any of you except I think Stephanie is too hard on “OMWF” particularly since “Rest in Peace” is probably my least favourite song. ‘Walk Through the Fire” is one of the greatest ensemble songs with the best tailored line ever: “I think this line is mostly filler”.

By: stephanie b

stephanie b — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:59:51 +0000

Word. I just watched and was left thoroughly disappointed. I liked Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion’s take on their characters, but Felicia Day was completely boring and Penny was dull, useless, predictable, and, ultimately, not worth caring about. It probably didn’t help Penny’s case either that Felicia Day was one of those annoying potentials.

I get that Joss Whedon loves musicals and he likes to subvert the musical genre. But you can’t just throw together some songs, some campiness, and some dry humor and make a masterpiece. Even in “Once More With Feeling”, which I love, I didn’t think that all of the songs were particularly strong — “Rest in Peace” and “Under Your Spell” (though lovely) being the two stand-outs or actually not-so stand-outs. The songs in Dr. Horrible felt similarly uninspired, with the exception of Captain Hammer’s hero song, and undeserving of Neil Patrick Harris’ considerable vocal talents.

That being said, I want a t-shirt with a hammer on it and some of those nifty goggles.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:16:37 +0000

Agreed on all counts. I liked Dr. Horrible for the first two acts – quite a lot actually – but part 3 was quite disappointing (the “everyone’s a hero, but especially me” song notwithstanding).

First, because it was just depressing. But second, because it was depressing in a very unsatisfying way. Penny’s character turned out to be totally useless. She was thoroughly uninteresting, existed only to be fought over by the two men, and died solely to push the plot along. I enjoyed the idea that this was a parody of the superhero genre, but it ended up just being very traditional in most respects. It definitely would have been cool for Penny to turn out to be Bad Horse, but even without that, it would have at least been interesting for her to just decide that they’re both jerks and that she wants no part of either of them.

At the very very least, why not have her sing a self-aware song about how she’s just a plot device who has to die in order to have an effect on Dr. Horrible.

By: goya

goya — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:08:57 +0000

what a shame isint it.
what happened to the genius we grew to love?
hasnt he used the same trick too many times?
tsk tsk tsk what a pity!