dr horrible's sing-a-long blog

Kevin Quan

Tim Posada

Freshman Writing

Blog

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along-blog

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along-blog is a short internet series that features an unsuccessful evil doctor trying to win the heart of a girl, Penny, he sees regularly at the Laundromat. However his attempts to flatter Penny are often thwarted by a hero named Captain Hammer, who also has feelings for her. Dr. Horrible narrates this blog and we see the series from his perspective. There are certain instances in this series when Penny was showing legitimate interest in Dr. Horrible and reached out to him. Oddly enough, at those instances Dr. Horrible is always in the middle of working on his gadget to gain Penny’s attention when she was a bit interested in him all along.  What he does not realize is that Penny has already been flocking over to him but he never gave her a chance. He was so caught up in being the most evil villain in the world to impress Penny that he was blind to her interest in him. At the end of the series, Captain Hammer starts to boast about this relationship with Penny and she, embarrassed, begins to quietly leave. However, before she leaves, Dr Horrible appears with a Death Ray and shoots at Captain Hammer. The Death Ray misfires and injures him slightly but stabs Penny in the stomach, killing her. This is interesting because think of what might have happened if Dr. Horrible hadn’t tried to invent the Death Ray. If he had let his angry feelings subside, he would not have made the evil invention and barged in, stalling Penny’s exit. It boils down to Dr. Horrible’s reaction to certain things. Even with the heroic and handsome Captain Hammer wedging himself between him and Penny, eventually she would leave him. Because of the arrogance he demonstrated towards the end of the series. If Dr. Horrible had not let vengeance control his life, he would have developed self control as well as avoiding the loss of Penny and developing a close relationship with her.

Music is an important factor in this blog series. Every time during or after an important scene, one of the characters would begin singing a catchy song that emphasizes what’s going on in the scene. For example, Dr. Horrible sings “My Freeze Ray” when he’s in the Laundromat and becomes nervous because he is next to Penny. He then begins to sing how his freeze ray would improve his status with Penny; it can stop time and find the words to tell her how he feels. Not only is the tune of this song catchy, but it also has meaning behind it. That meaning is his earnest desire to impress the girl of his dreams, even by ridiculous means such as stopping time. The use of songs is very supportive and helps drive home the key idea in the story.

It’s no secret that this Internet blog series was on a low budget to work with. Captain Hammer’s dull grey shirt with a plain hammer is a dead give away that the producers were being frugal with the money. Also the scenes are in pretty simple places such as a Laundromat, an banquet room, and some random streets, all of this points back to a low budget. However this certainly did not hinder the series from success. In fact, it was a big hit and gained critical acclaim. Time Magazine named it #15 in top 50 Inventions of 2008 and it also won the People’s Choice Awards. In total it won 7 awards and 1 nomination, which is very impressive, considering the directors were shooting for a simple yet There’s also a sequel in the works which may come out in 2011 and I’m curious to see what Dr. Horrible will do after he has become a member of the evil villain league.

I thought this series as a whole was excellent because it was clever, funny and was not too complicated. The show was split into 3 episodes totaling into 42 minutes which is not long at all compared to weekly shows that total in the same time. The show has a lot of themes that can be discussed and I really appreciate that. At first I thought it was purely entertainment and did not think much about it. However in freshman writing class, we, as a class, had to dig deeper into the underlying message to see what the show was trying to explain. By doing this, it had turned something I viewed as entertaining into something with a much bigger and deeper meaning: vengeance does not solve anything. I truly hope the sequel to Dr. Horrible will have just as captivating songs, themes, and laughs as did the first Dr. Horrible.

week 11 blog

The Dark Knight is a 2008 film that raises questions about exception. The exception that I found most intriguing is the heights Batman will go in order to stop evil. This is interesting because most other superheroes tend to abide by the law. In the film, Batman creates a device that taps into every cellphone in the city in order to create a sonar. This is an invasion of privacy and it shows how much Batman is pushed to the limit in order to stop evil. Even his assistant, Lucius Fox, doesn't find his methods, ethical which shows that Batman has crossed the line. However, it is understandable to see how Batman could go to such heights, considering how chaos has already occurred. The Joker has been killing people everyday that Batman does not reveal his true identity and also has been targeting banks, hospitals, judges, and the police force. This can be linked to why Batman must do something so unethical in order to stop the villain. Also another thing that Batman does to add to the exception is the way he unleashes his anger against the Joker when he asks Batman "does Harvey know about you and his little girlfriend?" The Batman let his emotions get the best of him and lashed out against the Joker in a fury of punches and throws, which wasted a lot of interrogation time. This is significant because if Batman had not beat him, he would have had more time to find out the location of Harvey and Rachel and could have possibly saved both of them.

week 10 blog

Buffy makes power a feminine issue because she changes the way power is viewed. Usually male superheroes are the ones portrayed as the hero in movies, books, and TV shows. However in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy is the heroine and she is good at what she does. She dominates with her powers and the way she fights is much different than than the traditional male superheroes. First, her attacks are personal and physically intimate. Her attacks are mostly against demons and villains she knows by names, not the anonymous attacks that occur in most other superhero stories. This is one thing that is different with a feminist power; they tend to be less reckless. Also one unique thing about feminist power is that in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy wants to work together. Male superheroes tend to want to work alone: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern. This changes because often Buffy refuses to take on the role of the Slayer and instead works together with her friends. This says a lot about feminist power because it says that it wants to stay together and values community and friendship.

week 9 blog

The Incredibles is a fantastic film that incorporates family with superheroes. The Incredibles are not the perfect family; the parents and kids fight, the daughter struggles to fit in, the son wants to do well in sports, the dad is fed up with his nine to five office job and the mom stays at home to take care of the kids. The film does a great job of relating the Incredibles family to most families in America, mine included. Even though the Incredibles had super powers, they still struggled with the uses of it and still set rules on the super powers. Just like any thing with great power in every day life whether it be money, cars, or in this case super powers, there has to be rules. For example, the son is not allowed to use his super speed in sports at his middle school, and the son and daughter are not allowed to use powers carelessly. Even though the Incredibles may not seem like the average family they do struggle with some of the same issues as my family.  Also the Incredibles share happiness like a regular family, when they open up and start to trust each other and work together and succeed, they grow closer as a family. And this happens with any family, mine included.

week 8 post

The film Hero emphasizes the power of words. Even before digging deeper into the meaning of the words I can tell by the characters names that the director had some meaning behind the names of the character. Nameless, Broken Sword, Flying Snow, and Long Sky are some of the unique names given to the characters in this film. Also there is a part in this film where the main character, Nameless, goes to a temple to have the word "sword" be written in Chinese. This takes a while because there are about 80 ways to write this certain expression. This shows the importance of not only of a word, but also about the way it is written. This film has a big emphasis on words and it is proven in a scene where a grand army marches towards the temple where the calligraphy is taking place. The people in the temple are painting characters and the army shoots hundreds of thousands of arrows at the temple hoping to kill everyone inside and thus preventing them from writing characters. Nameless fights alongside Flying Snow to fend off the arrows so that the word "sword" could be properly written. From this scene, I can tell that the film has a big focus on words.

week 7 blog

China's All-Seeing Eye was written to emphasize on the amount of control and surveillance China has on its country. It relates to the movie V for Vendetta very well because just like the amount of surveillance China is implementing so too is this country in this film. There are very strict rules on how much freedom a person is given and the government in this film is run very much like a dictatorship. China's All Seeing Eye takes a look at how some of these total control issues in literature, movies, and history are starting to become a reality in some countries, namely China. The article shows that 20,000 mini cameras are installed in this small city in China called Shenzhen and all of the surveillance will be linked to one grand network. I feel this is an invasion of privacy because people should be allowed some privacy and alone time and if there are mini cameras everywhere, it would make for a very bad place to live, I think. If this happened at Azusa Pacific University, I would probably transfer because I am not happy with security cameras monitoring me 24/7. It's not right and the line has to be drawn somewhere and I feel Shenzhen has crossed that line.

AD: COCA COLA

Coke Commercial
This coke commercial aired as a super bowl commercial and presents the soft drink as something that can bond two opposites into something great. It begins in a televised debate with a republican and a democrat arguing and amidst their debate they both say the same word. The republican jinxes the democrat so they go out and buy a coke at a nearby stand. Slowly, the mood of the commercial changes. The two rivals are beginning to relax and do enjoyable things together such as riding a bus touring Washington D.C. , discussing the meaning of a painting which catches the eye of a security guard, getting their faces drawn in a caricature, appearing on a jumbotron at a basketball game, riding a segway through out the streets and finally sitting down on the steps of the lincoln monument and enjoying life together while sipping on a bottle of coke. Now, the commercial isn't implying that if you drink a coke, all of these amazing things will happen, but it does suggest that when you're having a good time with the gang, coke is the best way to relax. If you drink coke, it will make those fun times that much better and at the end of the day our thirst and you will walk away feeling content.