Vivienne Medrano's animated adult series proves the growing popularity of independently produced stories.
If you're like me, adult animation isn't particularly your thing. I cannot be bothered to watch any of the obvious ones I'm sure you've heard of, like Family Guy, The Simpsons, or Bob's Burgers. I tend to dislike their typical animation style, along with many other things such as the raunchiness. There are just simply some genres I avoid, and adult animation is one of them.
In a lot of ways, Hazbin Hotel, created by artist and animator Vivienne Medrano (aka Vivziepop) is similar to the average adult animated show. It's wild, raunchy, with plenty of coarse jokes, cursing, and innuendos. You would think that is the end of the story, at least for someone like me, and that I wouldn't even consider watching it, let alone review it as well. Strangely enough... it's not.
So let's dive in and find out why it didn't end a lot sooner with a "not interested." Note: if you are not yet old enough (18) to watch the show's pilot episode, skipping reading this review is recommended, but in case I am ignored, certain specifics of the plot and setting will not be explained or talked about. However, it won't be detrimental to the review.
Part 1 - Background
One of the most important things to note about Hazbin Hotel is that it is an independent series. In other words, it was not produced by Hollywood or any other major film industry. The pilot episode was instead produced by SpindleHorse Toons, an animation company founded by Vivienne Medrano, who is the show's creator, director, and also one of the writers. Much of the staff who worked on the show are freelance animators, and the series was largely funded by fans and Patreon followers of Medrano. Hazbin Hotel was in the works for years before the 31 minute episode was finally uploaded to YouTube in late 2019, and at the time of this writing, it has amassed just shy of 75 million views. Its incredible popularity for a 31 minute pilot did not go unnoticed, as the entertainment company A24 signed on in 2020 to produce a full season of the show which is still currently in the works today. Hazbin Hotel even spawned a sister-series set in the same universe, also created by Vivienne Medrano, which already has a pilot and 7 other full episodes released on YouTube.
For what it is worth, it is not every day that an independent project has so much success. There is indeed a market for things outside of Hollywood, and Hazbin Hotel proved that there is a path for self-reliant people of the arts to survive in a world where most entertainment is controlled by top businesses.
Images are cool, but gifs are cooler (totally didn't just figure out how to add gifs)
Part 2 - Animation
I am picky with animation. I've watched many different animated shows of all sorts of genres over the years, as a kid and as an adult, most with different styles of animation. Over time, the modern, heavily computerized 3d style that most animated movies use became less and less interesting to me, and in contrast, I cannot quite get enough of older animation which was much more 2 dimensional and often required more handrawing.
Art was in fact how I first found out about Hazbin Hotel. When browsing for inspiration one day, I stumbled upon the drawing of a character made by Vivziepop. The style caught my eye, and thus I was sent on a journey to find out who the character was and what they appeared in. It in fact took me quite a long time, but after a few days I arrived at the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel on YouTube. I decided to give it a shot, being the only episode was 30 minutes after all, and I watched the entirety of it on my iPhone.
2 minutes in, opening sequence complete, I was completely hooked and intrigued by the animation style, I wanted to see more. The drawing style was unlike anything I had seen before, and high quality too. Everything from start to finished looked incredibly smooth and well made, each movement from big to small practically perfect for each scene. There were so many small details scattered throughout in the backgrounds, it takes more than one watch to find them all. The gestures, slow or sudden movements and expressions of any character in any given moment lined up perfectly and nothing felt missing. Those things alone helped set the proper pace that each scene and sequence required and gave the episode a distinct and attractive feel. The angle from which many scenes were "shot" were professional and allowed for the animators to do all sorts of things that overall made the episode a feast for the eyes. This was a lesson for many people, artists, animators, and writers alike, how to make and show and describe a scene.
There were other things that made the animation even better, such as the unique and recognizable color palette. Red dominated practically everything, and I've never seen it used to such a great effect before in television. It fit the theme of the show well. Even the lighting was great. I loved how certain places looked when dim, but even more so when I could see the light-yellow eyes of a character glowing. Pacing was phenomenal for an overall fast-paced show, opting to be a joyride of maximum fun and as opposed to being slow and methodical.
But actually, two images are just as cool as a gif
Part 3 - Story and World
As promised, this section will not elaborate on what the show is actually about or where it occurs, but it is still enough to say that this part of Hazbin Hotel was the most mindblowing. I have absolutely nothing I could compare it to, the plot is unique, and doubly so combined with its setting. I would dare say that for the year of 2019, Hollywood didn't have an idea that was as original as Hazbin Hotel.
But from a more subjective, opinion-based standpoint, this unique story and theme can still be hated by many people. Uniqueness does not mean it's necessarily good, in fact, I myself have reservations about it. Pretty much everyone I have mentioned the show to either wasn't interested after I explained the plot, or watched the pilot episode and hated it. It's not just an acquired taste, you have to be okay with what Hazbin Hotel is all about, and what it is through and through. Or, like me, you can watch it, not pay too much attention to certain things, and mindfully consume what you see and hear and not let too much of it get to your brain. If you're not in the first category, you may think watching it is not worth it at all, understandably. It's not something I'd recommend to certain people, it is definitely not for everyone.
Part 4 - Characters
Arguably the most powerful driving force of the show, the characters are reason the single, 31 minute pilot episode has sustained a large fanbase for over 3 years. Here is where the artists get their best chance to shine. The characters of Hazbin Hotel are quite different from what I've grown so accustomed to seeing in other animation, thus, I found it difficult to identify any stereotypes. They are indeed present in some characters, but a one-of-a-kind appearance design and superb voice acting masked them so well. Mixed with the signature Hazbin Hotel style, standard character archetypes felt so different. There were also a few characters with interesting twists on these tropes. For example, we are all familiar with villains who do what they do for money or power, but not so much with villains who do what they do for entertainment, to cure their boredom. Add that to a unique appearance, personality, well-written scenes and other quirks, and you've got yourself one heck of a character.
Granted, not all are likeable, but it depends. There are some popular characters I can't be remotely bothered with for various reasons, mainly who they are, but there are others I find impressive. My favorite is the main protagonist, and I also like a supporting character who appears in the latter half of the pilot.
The voice acting, which is tremendously good for an independent show, makes all the characters stand out, and stand out from each other. Each actor and actress was perfect for the character they voiced, a large contributing factor to the overall feel of the show. One of the most notable things about the characters in general was how they interacted with one another, something that strangely isn't talked about much. The dialogue between characters was great, and the way each voice actor spoke their lines helped blend two very different character personalities in a phenomenal way. It's not rocket science, just plain fun (excluding some excessive swearing), and more entertaining than a lot of recent big-time shows and movies that feature star actors, which fall flat a little on character design, interaction, and dialogue.
Conclusion
Hazbin Hotel has some questionable things and might not please a lot of viewers, but it's impressive that an independently created show has this much firepower behind it. Its not every day that 31 minutes of animation can keep a dedicated fanbase for years. Would I watch the eagerly awaited full season when it finally releases (supposedly later in 2022 or in 2023)? I don't know. Maybe not.
The pilot episode was nothing like I expected, and it has enough going for it to have kept me watching until the end, unlike other adult animation which can disinterest me at a glance. I struggled to come up with a rating since there are some things I enjoyed a lot and other things I didn't care for at all, but I think somewhere in realm of 6.4 out of 10 is reasonable, given fans would rate it higher and haters would rate it lower, and I'm drifting somewhere in the middle.
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