Hazbin Hotel - Journey to Hell.

HAZBIN HOTEL (PILOT), 2019

Follow Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom.

- Vivziepop on YouTube.

If you decide to watch this show disclaimer: strong language, adult themes and violence, can be potentially offensive to closed minded/highly offensive people (so, give a try anyways *wink* *wink*).

Hazbin hotel is a short animated pilot by channel Vivziepop on YouTube with 2.16 Million subscribers. Vivienne Medrano is a 27 year old animator and cartoon maker with a very unique drawing and animation style. She has a big portfolio of high quality made cartoon videos on her channel, one of which is viewed over 50 Milion times.

Before my review, I just want to say WOW. This little pilot is such a big achievement for such a small cast and crew. When I first clicked on it (thank you, for once, YouTube recommendations) I was expecting either something extremely cheesy or just something to play as your background video to do some chores or work. But, oh boy, little did I know this wild roller coaster of events will consume my little innocent mind.

Everything from animation, character design, clean ups, sound design and voice acting.... just made me feel all sorts of emotions.

First animation. Like I said, the crew is rather small to make a 30 minute pilot. And somehow they all did an incredible job. It looks very professionally done and I genially thought it was made by big budget studio or something. I am more of a filmmaking geek and I don't know whole a lot of animation. But just from the looks of it, I could never tell this is an independent aniamtors' work. I honestly thought this was a already a TV show of some sort. Colors go so well with a theme, characters look especially amazing and the soundtrack brings the whole thing this classic cartoon feel. Attention to details in both character design and how they were voiced is worth of its own round of applause.

Speaking of characters *devils*. I enjoyed every little interaction they had with each other. The relationship that was built between them didn't feel weird or random. But instead very intimate. Charlie, Vaggie and Angel Dust give out an early 2010's Nickelodeon or Disney Channel sitcome two girls-one boy trio feel. Instead here we have a chaotic and unpredictable demon-trio who have every potential of killing one another. Even without knowing the full background of said characters, somehow it feels like you already met them and know how they will react to situations. And of course, the red-strawberry pimp-smiling "Radio demon" Alastor has, indeed, stole the show. Extremely charismatic and charming from the first second of his introduction. He is defiantly will be the one interesting subject to observe and how his rela intentions will reflect on future story of this world.

The story and characters are very intriguing and it is kinda of a topic a lot of storytellers touched upon. But I don’t think that it was done THIS good before. The idea of hell and demons can be really controversial among highly religious people. However, trust me this whole thing is more then just your stereotypical visions of hell. It was done on purpose. The whole point of this - is to make something that was considered taboo, into something that people can laugh about and connect with characters. I may make this story more then it seems but every story in some form or another has a meaning. At least for me, Hazbin Hotel became a great escape from all of the useless, over-reapiting content on Youtube, continues Disney remakes and overall popular media.

Although, with a great success comes great criticism. A lot of reviwers and just casual watchers may argue that the show is "a missed or wasted potential" or "highly offensive". Of course, to each their own. But the whole point of the show is a risk. The offensive jokes, offensive topics and dark humor is what makes it more special. In the past couple of years, storytellers, filmmaker and animators alike stopped taking risks with their works. Everyone became offended of everything and it is very exhausting to watch same written and overly played romantic comedies. Hazbin Hotel crew took a risk and it was well made. They made jokes extra dark but they did it in the way that it felt very natural and, I would say, relatable. Althoug, surprisingly, they were not pushing any dangerous boundaries.

After reading some comments under the video, I've noticed one person wrote something that goes like this: "This made me feel real, unadulterated joy - like I'm a kid all over again". And I felt that. I knew exactly what this random person on the interent wrote feels. Honestly, being an aspiring storyteller and student at the same time, it was very hard to find something to be inspired by. Or it just felt anyhting that I will write will be not good enough and will never see day of light. But thanks to this wild journey to hell, I found courage to write again and stay motivated. This show is defiently not the greatest of all time but I think it deserves every little bit of recognition it is getting right now. A lot of love was put into this and I am inhumanly excited to see what will follow.

[Links to the show, official website and creator will follow this article down bellow]

To Vivienne and the whole crew, huge congratulations and a big thank you on your hard work and dedication. You earned a new fan, subscriber and fellow art fanatic.