Dr. Horrible Prequel is Not Horrible
Now that we live in a YouTube society where essentially anyone can pick up a camera, film something, transfer the footage to a computer, and edit it in a quick amount of time, a lot of decent amateur films are being produced. Unfortunately, just because nonprofessionals have access to professional-quality technology, this doesn’t mean that they automatically have professional-quality ideas. Thus fan movies were born… amateur films that use characters and concepts from an already-known famous work. I am not saying this is a bad thing; after all fan fiction has existed for years and is not going to die any time soon. I’m also a huge fan of a particular Star Wars fan webseries known as Chad Vader.
Today while I was browsing Facebook I noticed one of my friends updated her status to mention a prequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which my closest friends and I absolutely love and is one of the better products of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Strike. Extremely curious, I googled “dr horrible prequel” and I discovered that the fan-made prequel Horrible Turns was released only two days ago. Since I was sitting in a friend’s room at the time (I had left my card key in my room and had to wait for my roommate to get back to open the door), we sat down and began watching this film. I went in with some slight negative expectations, but towards the end my opinions were completely different. I figure that by tomorrow, there’s going to be a million reviews of this production. I wanted to get a head start on the bandwagon… hopefully it will bring traffic to my blog.
Here’s a quick synopsis. May contain spoilers! Horrible Turn traces the origins of how the lovable “Billy Buddy” became Dr. Horrible with a PhD in Horribleness, as well as how Captain Hammer became a corporate tool. The story takes place in high school, and Billy is preparing for a math competition. But that’s not the only thing on his mind… he wants to impress Australian exchange student Katie Kitty (no wonder he wants to give Penny “a shiny new Australia” several years later!). He also wants to change the world and stop all violence, especially now that he’s aware that a mysterious Evil League of Evil is forming and committing various crimes. But neither the Evil League of Evil nor his crush are the worst of his worries. His douchebaggy egocentric math teammate Kenny Hammerstein (Jewish?) is. Need more to get you interested? The infamous Johnny Snow is another rival of Billy. Still not enough? How about a cameo from Dead Bowie? Alright, I hope I have you hooked now.
The first thing that really stands out about this is its high production value. Elaborate soundtrack, well designed sets, HD cinematography, even the casting isn’t all that bad. I can’t help but wonder how much this cost, or where they possibly got the money from. A senior thesis film at Chapman University can cost around $20,000–if not more–and that’s only a 20-minute film. Horrible Turn is about an hour (which is longer than its predecessor). I’m sure the guys that made this realize how unlikely it is to make a profit off an unauthorized adaptation of a copyrighted work, so there must have been a motive other than money. Perhaps the director (as well as the actors) will use it as part of their film reel and resume to get legit jobs.
The songs were well written and performed, even if they aren’t quite as catchy or memorable as the music of the original. Although I wonder if I listen to the music more than the songs will get suck in my head. I’ve noticed there are two types of musicals: shows with songs that progress the plot (think Sweeny Todd) and shows with songs that are quite catchy but simply branch off of characters’ conversation and could easily be skipped over without leaving plot holes (think Grease). The original Dr. Horrible is the former type. Horrible Turn unfortunately is the latter type. This didn’t take away from the film, but a show is always more clever when the songs can be naturally placed into the plot rather than being like “I need to use the bathroom. LET’S SING A SONG ABOUT IT!” I also noticed that many of the songs have a very similar “sister” song in the original:
“There’s No Place on Earth Like Australia” = “My Freeze Ray” (both are about a certain female interest)
“The Australian Consulate Chorus” = “Bad Horse Chorus” (both have a chorus… duh!)
“She Talked to Me” = “My Eyes” (both involve Billy and his love interest in a duet, even though they don’t appear onscreen together)
“I am Handsome” = “A Man’s Gotta Do” (both involve Hammer singing about his ego)
“You’re All Winners to Me” = “Everyone’s a Hero” (now Hammer sings in front of a dais)
The Creepy Final Song = The Creepy Final Song (both are creepy final songs)
On an ending note about the music, I really enjoyed Johnny Snow’s post-credits ballad to Hammer. Great laugh out loud moment.
The cast was not bad, but it was not Oscar-worthy either. The actors performed their characters well, not trying to impersonate Nathan Fillion or Neil Patrick Harris yet developing enough so that we the audience can truly accept that these were in fact the teenage versions of the characters we have learned to love. This holds especially true for the boy who played Kenny Hammerstein. I thought the casting for Billy was a bit off; his physical appearance gives him more of a bully look than the “lovable geek” look. It wasn’t a distracting thing though. And Katie Kitty is absolutely stunning (I was crushed to see what happened between she and Billy at the end, but I won’t give that away). Some of the lines were a bit cheesy, but I wonder if this was intended to give it a “fan fictiony” feel.
This “origins” storyline was very clever and kept well with the continuity of the characters. Could this film work as a standalone, or is it dependent on its predecessor? Much like The Godfather III, I think viewers would like the story but not appreciate it fully if they did not see the original. I did enjoy all the clever references to the original Dr. Horrible film as well as other Joss Whedon works, and then some early 90s references as well. To name a few:
- the competing math team is from a school called Serenity
- there is a garbage company called DahlHaus (Dollhouse)
- look closely for the Buffy poster hanging on a wall
- “You want to go out for frozen yogurt?” “I’m allergic to frozen yogurt.” “I meant pie.”
- there is a character named Felicia Night
- brick cellular phones (“It’s so tiny”)
- a newspaper with a headline saying the digital music industry is bound to fail
- Billy looks us info on CompuServe and Prodigy
And speaking of references, I bet this production will bring up the issue of copyright. The film’s website explicitly states: “Any similarity to characters created by Joss Whedon is, like, totally a coincidence. And by ‘coincidence’ we mean accidental. And by ‘accidental’ we mean fortunate. And by ‘fortunate’ we mean intentional. And by ‘intentional’ we mean unauthorized.” When thought over, nothing in this film mentions any copyrighted name (even when Billy starts saying his new name “Doctor…” it cuts out before he says “Horrible”). I suppose only intellectual property has been preached upon. Would Joss Whedon make a fuss over that though? Actually I’m really curious to know what Joss Whedon thought of Horrible Turn. Hopefully he will release an official statement about it in the next few days. I also wonder if he’d be willing to consider this story canonical, especially as the authorized Dr. Horrible sequel is in the works.
Overall, Horrible Turn does not match up to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in any way. The original web film explored a mishmash of bizarre themes… a supervillain (who is really the hero) blogging about his daily life dealing with the superhero (who is really the douchebag antagonist) as well as pursuing a girl in a laundromat… on top of that, the characters break out into song every few minutes. As soon as “My Freeze Ray” begins, the average viewer has that WTF look on that face yet is compelled to keep watching. The prequel is not WTF in that way, nor does it dive into the philosophical questions of what is good and what is evil. It is simply a tribute to an excellent Joss Whedon production.
Do I have any regrets watching Horrible Turn? Not at all. I began watching it thinking it would be pretty bad, but I finished watching it and concluding that it was enjoyable. I even had some moments where I laughed out loud. I think it can only be appreciated if you are as obsessed with the Dr. Horrible universe as much as I am.
Now it’s your turn to comment. Watch the entire movie, directly embedded below this line. Then post your own thoughts.
