Much cheaper. Still the best trailer ever...

With Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Joss Whedon may have wittily deconstructed the superhero genre (as well as our hearts with the ending), but The Avengers trailer proves that heroes aren’t over with.

And now, with only a video camera, some homemade costumes, and a sense of enthusiasm (well, presumably), some fans have assembled an awesome parody of the awesome trailer for The Avengers, complete with their own sound effects. For every day, there is a night. For every world, there is an underworld. For every epic, big-budget superhero blockbuster, there is a cheaper, fan-made homage to it.

Essentially, it’s ‘sweded’; as in, remade with a low-fi aesthetic, as in Be Kind Rewind. Not as in concocted by the Swedish Chef from The Muppets. Though that would be funny. You can just imagine him making this: “Avengery, ‘vengery, ‘vengery… Edity, edity… Captainy Americy hmmhmmm Iron Man… Hmmhmm Thorslaugh hmmhmm… Trailery, trailery, trailery… Awesomey, awesomey, awesomey…”

This remake is very much in the style of Empire’s Done in 60 Seconds competition. In fact, these guys should enter, and they deserve to win (assuming it's open to US entrants, and they're prepared to give up the rights, etc). In fact, they run their own such contest, Swede Fest, for which the deadline for submissions is this coming Tuesday, November 1.

As Joss Whedon says, “You know, anything that inspires people to make their own little version of something be it puppety, be it crafty, be it a high school production of lip synching, whatever it is, it’s the best kind of review you could ever get for any works. It’s just cool. I always want things to become plush.”

Maybe after Joss Whedon has finished directing The Avengers (which looks to be the best film ever), he should make a low-budget remake of it, a bit like this. And it would actually be awesome. If there’s one thing Joss Whedon excels at, it’s storytelling. He has plenty of experience of wringing the most out of whatever budget he has available, having made the brilliant Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog on a low budget, and delivering a significantly improved Dollhouse Season 2 despite budget cuts.

Of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer benefited hugely from having its paltry Season 1 budget doubled for Season 2. However, by its very nature, every Joss Whedon show improves over time, as it builds on and furthers the character arcs and story arcs already established. It could even work as a companion piece, adding layers of nuance to the film itself. Perhaps a silly, light-hearted, meta-textual one, like Commentary! The Musical for Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog.

Marvel have made some one-shot short films, centring around Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson (who Joss is a fan of), so if Joss wanted to do something fun like this, they’d probably let him.

Would Joss Whedon even be interested in something like this, though? Well, he’s said that he wants to make the upcoming Wastelanders web series (with Warren Ellis) because "Right now, [the internet is] the punk rock of filmmaking. And I want to be a part of that.” However, he also believes that extending franchises should be motivated by story and character reasons, rather than fan or commercial pressure, as he sings in "Heart, Broken" from Commentary! The Musical.

In any case, whether or not Joss Whedon revisits the franchise after 2012’s The Avengers, even if it’s only in the conventional form of big-budget sequels, we’ve got this wonderfully delightful, small, silly, fan-made effort. As Joss Whedon said in an interview on Crafts and Craftiness, “…grab a video camera, tell a story. Be stupid, be something, just… It is no longer the time of sitting around and thinking about doing something.”

If this inspires you, be sure to enter the Sweding contest by November 1, 2011.

Whedonesque

See also:

The Avengers trailer is the Best. Trailer. Ever.

Joss Whedon's secret Shakespeare film adaptation

Doctor Who fan Charlie McDonnell gets 1m regular YouTube viewers

Doctor Who parody makes Ke$ha’s Tik Tok actually tolerable

Gritty Casey Jones fan film: Taking the TMNT mythos too dark?

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW:

If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.