1. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)
Best. Title. Ever. If you're not familiar with the exploits of Dr. Horrible, allow me to present a brief history lesson. 2007 saw the start of the Writers Guild of America strike. Production ground to a halt on many films and TV series, and left many other people involved in filmmaking temporarily unemployed. Faced with sudden gobs of free time, geek lord Joss Whedon and his crew decided to produce a self-funded project and release it in three stages online. It was created, directed, written, and scored by the three Whedon brothers (Joss, Jed, and Zack) and Maurissa Tancharoen, and starred Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day among others. It tells the story of protagonist Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), a mad scientist trying to be accepted into The Evil League of Evil. They like the looks of his application and tell him they're watching, so pull off a successful bad-guy scheme, and you're in. Unfortunately, he gets stopped by his nemesis, the city's hero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). Captain Hammer learns of Dr. Horrible's crush on a girl at his local laundromat, so simply out of spite Hammer steals her from him. At this point, the relatively peaceful Doctor (who refuses to kill anyone or endanger children) finally settles on what he'll do to get inducted to the Evil League of Evil. Kill Captain Hammer at his next public appearance. The film/video/miniseries is presented in three parts equaling a total of only 42 minutes run time, but packs more story into it than most big-budget productions do. A tragic comedy science fiction romance musical for the ages.
What do you think? What other musicals are worthy of inclusion? Any of these ones overrated? Sound off in the comments below.