Hazbin Hotel

Hazbin Hotel is an American adult animated musical comedy television series created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. The series revolves around Charlie Morningstar, princess of Hell, on her quest to find a way for sinners to be "rehabilitated" and allowed into Heaven, via her "Hazbin Hotel", as an alternative to Heaven's annual "Extermination" of souls due to Hell's overpopulation. The series is produced by SpindleHorse Toons in collaboration with A24, Amazon Studios, and the animation studio Bento Box Entertainment.

The pilot episode, released on YouTube on October 28, 2019, was made entirely by freelance animators and was mainly financed by Medrano's Patreon followers. The first season premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 19, 2024, with its first episode also released on YouTube a day earlier for a limited release. A second season is confirmed to be in production. It has received generally positive reviews from critics.

The popularity and success of the pilot allowed Medrano to create a spin-off series called Helluva Boss, which premiered on October 31, 2020. The series features a different cast of characters within the same in-universe setting.

As of January 2024, Hazbin Hotel was the largest global debut for a new animated series on Prime Video. In February 2024, the pilot episode surpassed 100 million views on YouTube.

Premise
The series follows Charlie Morningstar, the princess of Hell, as she sets about fulfilling her seemingly impossible dream of opening a hotel called the "Hazbin Hotel", which aims to rehabilitate sinner demons. Due to overpopulation, Hell goes through an annual purge where angels, led by Adam, descend from Heaven and kill sinners. Charlie finds this upsetting, and wants to find a more peaceful solution to the overpopulation problem. Her goal is to have her clients "check out" from Hell as redeemed souls and be accepted into Heaven.

With the help of her devoted manager and girlfriend, Vaggie, and their reluctant first patron, pornographic film actor Angel Dust, she is determined to make her dream become a reality. But when her proposal on live television goes awry, her plan attracts the attention of the powerful "Radio Demon" Alastor who, despite finding her belief in redemption laughable, wants to help Charlie run the hotel for his own amusement.

Main

 * Stephanie Beatriz as Vaggie
 * Alex Brightman as Sir Pentious and Adam
 * Keith David as Husk
 * Kimiko Glenn as Niffty and Susan
 * Erika Henningsen as Charlie Morningstar
 * Blake Roman as Angel Dust and The Egg Bois
 * Amir Talai as Alastor and Tom Trench

Recurring

 * Jessica Vosk as Lute
 * Brandon Rogers as Katie Killjoy
 * The Vees:
 * Christian Borle as Vox
 * Lilli Cooper as Velvette
 * Joel Perez as Valentino
 * Daphne Rubin-Vega as Carmilla Carmine
 * Jeremy Jordan as Lucifer Morningstar
 * Krystina Alabado as Cherri Bomb

Guest

 * James Monroe Iglehart as Zestial
 * Don Darryl Rivera as Travis
 * Sarah Stiles as Mimzy
 * Darren Criss as Saint Peter
 * Patina Miller as Sera
 * Shoba Narayan as Emily
 * Leslie Kritzer as Rosie

Discography
The score of the pilot episode was released on November 3, 2019.

The day after the release of each episode of the first season, the songs featured within them were released on a soundtrack EP through A24 Music, starting with Part 1 on January 19, 2024. Two songs from the first two episodes were released ahead of the series and are not present on any of the EPs; "Happy Day in Hell" was released on October 20, 2023, following a preview at New York Comic Con and "Poison" was released on January 5, 2024. Following the release of the series, "Poison" debuted at number 34 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, having accumulated 2.7 million US streams in the week following the show.

Webcomics
From October 27, 2019 to July 7, 2020, a webcomic titled "Chapter 1: Dirty Healings" (which showed how Angel Dust learned of the hotel) was completed, containing twenty-two pages and hosted on the official Hazbin Hotel website. Another comic entitled "A Day in the Afterlife (The Radio Demon)", which focused on Alastor's daily life in Hell, was posted to the website on October 19, 2020, containing sixteen pages.

Music
In February 2020, Gabriel C. Brown, Alastor's pilot singing voice, covered the songs "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" and "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" in character. He reprised the role in several fan-made music videos for original songs, including "Insane" in June 2021, which was reviewed by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda as his "second-favorite song of 2023". In July 2020, Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss songwriter Sam Haft released "Alastor's Game", in which Haft voiced Alastor. In February 2024, a Hazbin Hotel emote entitled "Reaper's Showtime" was released to the video game Fortnite by Epic Games, allowing the player character to wield Alastor's iconic cane, while playing the song "Insane".

"Addict" song and music video
"Addict" is an animated music video released on July 17, 2020, on Medrano's YouTube channel, based on and featuring the Silva Hound song of the same name. It centers around Angel Dust's relations with his best friend, Cherri Bomb, his abusive boss, Valentino, and their experiences with addiction. The song was performed by Michael Kovach and Kelly "Chi-Chi" Boyer. Tito W. James of Comicon.com described the video as giving viewers a "deeper look" at the lives of Cherri Bomb and Angel Dust, and praised the "world of Hazbin" for being "paradoxically provocative and empathetic". The song ranked as the #3 dance song on iTunes on July 21, 2020. Additionally, the song #14 on the US Dance/Electronic Songs chart, #4 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Songs chart, and #77 on the Dance/Electronic Songs Year-End.

Helluva Boss
A spin-off series, Helluva Boss, unveiled its first season on October 31, 2020, almost one year after the release of its own pilot. Helluva Boss takes place in the same fictional universe as Hazbin Hotel, the Hellaverse, but it has a different cast of characters and story. As Medrano described it, while both shows share the same setting, Hazbin Hotel is about redemption and consequences of past actions, while Helluva Boss follows "characters and societies that already exist in Hell", focusing on relationships between characters.

Production and release
Some characters of the pilot had been around for years when Medrano began working with people at School of Visual Arts on what would later become Hazbin Hotel, as the "Misfit Demon Gang" in Medrano's webcomic series ZooPhobia. Originally, the pilot was meant to be an adult comedy "with a raunchy, demonic aesthetic". It took over six months to write the episode, and over two years to animate it, with teasers released in that ensuing period to garner an audience of fans. The series contains various LGBTQ+ characters. This includes a gay character named Angel Dust, a bisexual character named Charlie, a lesbian character named Vaggie, a pansexual character named Husk, and an asexual character named Alastor.

The show's pilot episode was released on Medrano's YouTube channel in October 2019, and it gained 54 million views by early February 2021. Almost a year later, A24 picked up Hazbin Hotel for the production of a TV series in August 2020.

On December 21, 2021, the official Hazbin Hotel Twitter account teased the release of the first season. It was later reported that the cast from the pilot was not asked to reprise their roles for the A24 production, though these voice actors showed support for the show despite their removal. Medrano said that she loves her characters "more than anything" and that they are "in good hands".

Several main characters had been redesigned from the pilot, including Charlie, Vaggie, Alastor, and Angel Dust. Along with SpindleHorse Toons, Bento Box Entertainment co-produced the series for A24. Princess Bento Studio, a Melbourne-based studio jointly owned by Bento Box Entertainment and Princess Pictures, alongside Bento Box both handled animation production, with SpindleHorse Toons and Toon City both handling digital animation services. According to Medrano, many of the artists who worked on the pilot would be returning for the first season, and argued that the "indie spirit of the pilot lives on".

On October 28, 2022, the third anniversary of the pilot's release, a teaser trailer was released on Medrano's YouTube channel promising a summer 2023 release date for the first season, but this was later stalled due to the 2023 strike of actors and writers. On September 28, 2023, a trailer was posted on the series' official Instagram account and Medrano's YouTube channel announcing its first season's premiere on Amazon Prime Video in January 2024, while also announcing that "Season 2 is coming". In November 2023, it was announced that the series would premiere on January 19, 2024. On December 13, 2023, the official season one trailer was released. It was also confirmed that the pilot would remain canon to the story with the show itself acknowledging it in multiple episodes while continuing plotlines that were established in it.

Pilot reception
The pilot episode has been critically acclaimed for its animation quality, music, and characters. Matthew Field of ''Go! & Express'', argued that the pilot was part of the "animation renaissance" on YouTube, and said there may be "a lot more projects like Hazbin in the future". Lidia Vassar of the MSU Reporter praised the show, noting its "raunchy sense of humor and quirky art style". She also stated that she was looking forward to future episodes, enjoyed the "diversity of character designs", and stated that it is clear that the show's creators "put a lot of time and heart into this project". In December 2019, in an article about the current state of adult animation, CBR animation critic Reuben Baron stated that while the pilot episodes of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss had garnered "some warranted criticism" because of their inappropriate and edgy humor, they are still "clear labors of love from an animation standpoint". Another critic on CBR, Nerissa Rupnarine, pointed out that Alastor is on the small list of "canon asexual characters" within animation.

Some reviewers argued the series will have a positive influence on independent animation going forward, and argued that the success of Hazbin Hotel led to the success of Helluva Boss. Reviewer Sean Cubillas for CBR praised the show for "quirky, ambitious, and dark humor" and some of the "fastest, wittiest, and raunchiest dialogue ever seen in independent animation."

Series reception
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Erik Piepenburg of the Los Angeles Times said the show's universe is a "brazenly colorful, queer-inclusive and fast-paced mishmash" with "outlandish grotesque scenes and copious potty mouths", along with "a Broadway pop score". Christine N. Ziemba of Paste argued that the series is not "simply a rehash" of the pilot, is not for kids, and includes "wickedly pointed adult humor", characters which are eccentric or are sinners, and "Disney-esque musical numbers", and called the series "visually eye-catching". Hope Mullinax of Collider said series expectations were "easily smashed", praising the music, cast, and design choices. She was excited to see where the series went forward, but was disappointed that Cherri Bomb didn't get a bigger role. Joe Draper of Digital Spy described the series as explicit and including an "all-star cast of stage performers and TV favourites". Petrana Radulovic of Polygon described the series as a "character-driven musical with an overarching driving plot and a lot of deep world-building", also noting that it features "multiple female and queer leads".

Rendy Jones of Rogerebert.com said that some jokes are not as effective, and that the "ambitious wings" of Medrano were trimmed "by corporate streaming demands". He claimed the series has hit-or-miss gory humor and disorienting camera angles, but overall has stellar music, skillful voice actors, and a "balanced charm to round out its hellish setting", and called it a "sweet, raunchy time" that many adults will like. Rachel Leishman of The Mary Sue called the series special for its musical element and argued that animated series have a "special kind of magic to them", and stated that Hazbin Hotel 's shine is its own, and is a "fun series to take a dive into". Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant called the series "lively", praised the cast, characters, catchy songs, and "chaotic energy", while saying the themes of good and evil could be "more nuanced" and that the characters can act "extremely childish" at times.

In contrast, Alison Herman of Variety said that although the series has a "feel-good backstory belied by its grim premise" and original idea that's "easy to root for", it pays less attention to cosmological details or motivations of the protagonists. She said the series has retrograde morality, gets lost in "its chaotic, contradictory atmosphere," and is not far along enough to "function as a full season of TV", comparing it unfavorably to The Good Place. In addition, Jenna Scherer of The A.V. Club said the series has a "lot going for it", praising the premise, stylish and innovative animation, music numbers, and voice actors, but criticized the writing as lacking, and hoped the second season allowed the series to "slow down and find its groove", but noted that the series will "find its audience regardless".

Kristy Puchko of Mashable described the series as a "perky pink cartoon show about sinners and singing", but argued that the first three episodes are "unremarkable" to newcomers, and said that the dialogue is jarring when compared with an animation style which "seems to be aping Disney XD", as well as saying it is "not satisfyingly subversive". She hoped that the series will "overcome its growing pains" in the first season, and says this expansion of Medrano's works is "flashy but thin". The New Hampshire Union-Leader criticized the series as having an "utterly confusing backstory/mythology", frantic action, overall calling it a "headache of a show", as well as stating the dialogue sounds "more adolescent than shocking".

Following its release, Hazbin Hotel set a new streaming record for Prime Video, becoming the largest global debut in viewership for a new animated title on the platform.

Fandom
By August 2020, the show had developed a dedicated fanbase, with the 31-minute pilot receiving over 101 million views as of February 2024, a rise from 32 million views in May 2020. In a white paper about the increase in adult animation, John Evershed, founder of Mondo Media, described the series as a rare exception to shows on YouTube that are picked up by companies as a "long form TV series". He argued that the show generated enough attention and views to interest A24 in producing the show as a TV series. Medrano told Insider in February 2021 that she was surprised the show had gotten so big, saying that the fandom of Hazbin Hotel rivals those of shows with multiple seasons, even with only a pilot released, and that it "hit a chord with people" due to its art style, angst, and drama. Furthermore, she expressed excitement in the direction of the show, noting the demand for her content. Others called the series a "YouTube hit".

Some media outlets noted intense fan interest in the character Lucifer Morningstar, the king of Hell, who hadn't "physically appeared in any Hazbin Hotel work" prior to the show's first season. Sarah Laudenbach of Screen Rant noted that the series had developed a strong fanbase despite having "minimal content" available, with "longtime fans" praising the series for dealing with "dark topics like abuse and addiction". She also said that Medrano created an "entire Hellish universe" which gained a "fandom of its own". Kimberly Terasaki of The Mary Sue described the show as having inspired the "imaginations of thousands of fans" and noted that there are over 7,000 fan fictions for the series on Archive of Our Own, along with "thousands of fan comics and fandubs". Scholar Ben Mitchell described the series as "sensationally popular" and an effective use of Patreon to subsidize the show's art "through monthly tiered payments".