Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Is a Beastly Beauty

Last week, my brother came downstairs and announced, "There's something we need to watch." As both of us had a small stack of DVDs given to us at Christmas, this was an ambiguous statement, so I waited for him to elaborate. Instead of making for the tree, he headed over to the computer and started up Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which I'd seen referenced in Entertainment Weekly but knew little about. Written and directed by Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, in collaboration with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, it's a series of three 15-minute-long video blogs created during the Writers' Strike. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible (otherwise known as Billy), Felicia Day as Penny, the girl of his dreams, and Nathan Fillion as his nemesis, Captain Hammer.

The first part begins with Dr. Horrible at his blogging station, answering mail from fans. He returns to this position occasionally, but most of the blog follows him, Captain Hammer and Penny around town as they strive to achieve their individual goals. Dr. Horrible's aims are clear: to finally be accepted as a member of the Evil League of Evil and to get up the nerve to have a coherent conversation with Penny at the laundromat they both frequent. Meanwhile, Penny spends her time petitioning to save an old building so that it can be transformed into a homeless shelter, while Captain Hammer does his best to thwart Dr. Horrible (and Billy, too).

This is an unconventional superhero story because we're meant to root for the villain, whose evil aspirations rarely match up with his mousy personality (or his anemic villainous laugh). Scrawny Billy is an angsty but pensive and gentle soul who considers killing inelegant and passes on an invitation to duel because the chosen location is within sight of children. Muscle-bound Captain Hammer is a narcissistic lunkhead reminiscent of Cartoon Network's Johnny Bravo. Saintly Penny, unaware of Billy's "Ph.D. in horribleness," is caught in the middle. The only other semi-major character is Moist (Simon Helberg), Billy's wet blanket of a roommate, who seems kind but ineffective.

I wasn't completely sold on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog until the singing began. At that point, I found myself entirely delighted with My Freeze Ray, Billy's jaunty tune in which his villainous dreams and his infatuation with Penny merge: "With my freeze ray I will stop the world. / With my freeze ray I will / Find the time to find the words to / Tell you how / How you make / Make me feel..." I never knew that Harris was such a talented singer, though my brother informed me he's been on Broadway. He has a very pleasant tone to his voice and expresses emotion quite well with his vocals. This cheerful tune is my favorite of the seven songs in which he plays a prominent role, but I'm also a big fan of the brooding My Eyes, in which he alternates with Day as Billy and Penny separately reflect on her new relationship with Captain Hammer.

Fillion, whose baritone reminds me of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, has three songs in which to shine, most notably the overblown We Are the World-style Everyone's a Hero, in which he condescendingly explains to an adoring crowd how Penny has transformed him into a humanitarian and how he now appreciates the struggles of the less fortunate: "Everyone’s a hero in their own way / Everyone’s got villains they must face / They’re not as cool as mine / But folks, you know it’s fine to know your place." Day's voice is soft and whispery, and her big solo truly is inspirational, in a much quieter way: "Even in the darkness / Every color can be found / And every day of rain / Brings water flowing / To things growing in the ground." All three, along with several minor characters, come together for So They Say, a group song that again reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, this time the show-stopping Belle, as it involves the whole town reacting to a juicy bit of news involving Captain Hammer and Penny.

To make comparisons to that exquisite Disney musical is to pay Whedon and company a sincere compliment. These are some of the most cleverly written songs I've encountered in a while, full of complex rhymes, catchy melodies and character-revealing moments. Story parallels exist as well. Penny is as compassionate as Belle, though she's more of a damsel in distress than that spunky heroine. Captain Hammer is just as self-involved as Gaston and engages in charitable deeds half-heartedly to win the girl. Dr. Horrible, instead of being condemned to a beastly fate, seeks that alteration himself in response to a world that he feels has been cruel to him. In addition to the elements of musical, comedy and romance, the tale becomes an examination of what drives otherwise decent people to embrace evil deeds. Even more pressing than the question of who winds up with Penny is the question of whether Dr. Horrible can - or should - truly pursue both goals simultaneously and hope for any degree of success. They certainly seem incongruous, and the answer provided by the finale offers food for thought and plenty of room for further exploration. That's why I'm thrilled to hear that Dr. Horrible will be back. Though I don't know whether his next adventure will take the direction I would like, I'll most certainly be watching the continuing journey.

A Movie as Unappetizing as the Greasiest White Castle Burger

I just got back from San Diego, where my family and I soaked up as much of the city as we could in three short days. We weren't left with a whole lot of down time, but after our first long day on our feet, we found ourselves back at our hotel around 9:30. It was too early to go too bed, but we weren't quite up for more adventure. So my brother Nathan and I decided to observe someone else's adventure instead. More precisely, we wanted to watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

I'd never seen the movie before, and wasn't particularly interested, having heard it was pretty crude and having a deeply ingrained prejudice against White Castle burgers thanks to the negative experience of my parents, who lived in Minnesota for a while. Nathan had, however, and he'd found it amusing. At the least, he lauded the title as one of the most informative film titles ever. "Who's it about?" he asked. "Harold and Kumar! What do they do? Go! Where? To White Castle!" Ah, yes. An entire movie boiled down to seven words. Promising.

Harold and Kumar is a typical quest movie, a road trip with the most ridiculous of objects and a ludicrous series of events that transpire before the goal is reached. One of its key players is Harold Lee (John Cho), an awkward, nerdy, soft-spoken Korean-American investment banker with a hopeless crush on Maria (Paula Garces), an attractive young woman who lives in his building. The other is his roommate Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), a smart-alecky young Indian-American genius doing his best to sabotage his father's demands that he attend medical school. Both men are in their early 20s with foul mouths, raging hormones and an excessive fondness for pot.

The epic journey begins one night when Kumar, weary from his latest purposely disastrous interview, complains of hunger and decides, after viewing a commercial unappetizing enough to turn me off White Castle for life, that only those tiny little burgers will satisfy his pangs tonight. Harold, who's overloaded with work, is unenthused but reluctantly agrees to join his friend in his quest, little knowing that what should be a quick half-hour outing will stretch out into a night-long journey fraught with peril.

I kind of like Harold despite his crudeness, which isn't as pronounced as Kumar's. I feel bad for him, getting sucked into this increasingly ridiculous scheme, while I question Kumar's sanity in going to such extreme measures for such shoddy-looking food. But he's a man on a mission; once he decides what he wants, he's going to go for it, doggone it, and in some respect, I guess that's a good thing, because his life has been pretty aimless in all other respects. If he could apply himself to a worthwhile purpose with the fervor with which he pursues these burgers, he'd do pretty well for himself.

It seems the movie is trying to make some bold statements about ethnicity; racially oriented humor gets tossed around throughout the film, not only with the title twosome but also their Jewish buddies Goldstein (David Krumholtz) and Rosenberg (Eddie Kaye Thomas), the members of a club for Asian students and Tarik (Gary Anthony Williams), a man arrested "for being black." One especially uncouth example: an enthusiastic Goldstein describing Katie Holmes' ample bust to Kumar as the opposite of the Holocaust. "See, he's Jewish," my brother informed me, "so he can say that." Maybe the jokes are cutting-edge, but I found them much more emptily vulgar than illuminating.

The car gives them problems throughout their ordeal, particularly when Neil Patrick Harris - who flags them down while wandering aimlessly, walking off the effects of an especially rowdy party - drives off with it when Harold and Kumar are in a convenience store. Whenever he is on screen, the racial humor is replaced with a barrage of uncomfortable references to the Doogie Howser star's sexuality. I'm all for self-effacement, but why Harris would agree to portray himself as such an oversexed burnout is beyond me. I certainly hope his behavior is not an accurate reflection of who he really is; if so, I don't think I want Neil Patrick Harris within a hundred feet of my car...

We watched this movie on TBS, so we were treated to all sorts of very obvious dubbing; that's a good thing, because I don't know if my sensitive ears could have handled to real deal. It didn't take a genius to figure out that half of what they were saying had been sanitized - and what they were saying was bad enough. What they were doing was pretty bad too, from stealing lab coats from a hospital in order to acquire medical marijuana to attempting a three-way tryst with the gorgeous wife of the hideously ugly, psychotic but oh-so-friendly redneck Freakshow (Christopher Meloni), who gives them a lift when their car blows a tire, though I wouldn't say either of them quite deserved all of the misery they racked up during their ridiculous road trip. Harold especially gets the short end of the stick in the movie, though all his unpleasant experiences at least arm him with a little gumption that may just serve him well in certain future interactions. I'm almost happy for him when the inevitable meeting occurs.

But do I recommend the movie? Oh, ecstatically. With all the fervor with which I daydream about those luscious little White Castle burgers.