Review - Hazbin Hotel (2024)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. And, back in January, Amazon launched an animated series that was one of my more anticipated animation projects in recent memory: Hazbin Hotel. Created by Vivienne Medrano, who famously also created the YouTube animated series Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel is produced by A24 and Bento Box Entertainment, and features the likes of Erika Henningsen, Stephanie Beatriz, Keith David, Kimiko Glenn, Amir Talai, and Blake Roman. 

        The series is set, oddly enough, in Hell, where we meet Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, who is working to open a hotel, called the Hazbin Hotel, where sinners can be rehabilitated and put on the path to redemption. A major reason for her charitable efforts is, due to overpopulation in Hell, denizens of Heaven hold a regular purging of Hell, where Adam leads an army of angels to Hell and they kill demons. Charlie, who is upset by the senseless violence, hopes to find a more peaceful means of solving the overpopulation issue by having guests in the Hazbin Hotel be redeemed and "check out" of Hell for good. 

        Also residing in the Hazbin Hotel along with Charlie is her girlfriend Vaggie, who was previously one of Adam's Exorcist Angels, but lost her job for sparing a demon child. Charlie found Vaggie one night, and the two were inseparable ever since. Also at the hotel are bartender Husker, cleaner Niffty, host Alastor the Radio Demon, and residents Angel Dust and Sir Pentious, souls Charlie begins on the path of redemption. We, also, get to see other individuals residing in Hell as the series goes on, including Charlie's father Lucifer, whose appearance was easily one of my favorite episodes of the series, and big kudos to actor Jeremy Jordan for his portrayal of Lucifer in the series. 

        Now, the animation style of Hazbin Hotel is very much like the animation style of Helluva Boss. And, yeah, it's a very fun, energetic style of animation that many fans of Helluva Boss have come to expect from Vivienne Medrano and this universe. Now, something worth noting is that the original pilot for Hazbin Hotel, which released on Medrano's YouTube channel VivziePop in October of 2019, went over so well with viewers that she created the pilot for Helluva Boss, which was quickly followed by the series of the same name. And, given that Helluva Boss is extremely popular on YouTube, it's not a surprise that Amazon would have success with Hazbin Hotel.

         And, much like its companion series Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel is a musical, with at least two songs per episode. And, I gotta give props to both Vivienne Medrano and the production team at A24 for casting actors who are also skilled singers. I especially enjoyed hearing both Erika Henningsen and Stephanie Beatriz singing throughout the series. And, I gotta give major props to Blake Roman, the voice of Angel Dust, for the song "Poison," which was a highlight song of the series for me. And, I absolutely loved the song "More Than Anything," which was a duet with Jeremy Jordan and Erika Henningsen. Major props to the team responsible for writing the songs and the music for this series, became it's just fantastic. 

        The performances by the voice cast were absolutely fantastic, with Erika Henningsen and Stephanie Beatriz really standing out as the main duo of Charlie and Vaggie. Keith David, Blake Roman, and Amir Talai were also entertaining as Husk, Angel Dust, and Alastor, with Alastor being my personal favorite of the three due to his mannerisms and vintage sounding voice. Jeremy Jordan, who I enjoyed in his role as Winn on the TV series Supergirl, was an absolutely fantastic choice to portray Lucifer in this series, and he was just a ton of fun. Honestly, I would like to see Lucifer eventually meet Stolas from Helluva Boss. As far as the various guest and supporting stars, Hazbin Hotel has a lot of Broadway caliber talent, with the likes of Alex Brightman, Christian Borle, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Krystina Alabado, Lilli Cooper, Patina Miller, and so forth. 

         This series, for me, was a ton of fun. If you have Amazon, and you can appreciate good quality hand-drawn animation, then I definitely recommend giving this one a shot, even if you're not already a fan of Helluva Boss. I'm giving Hazbin Hotel a rating of 5/5. 

        Anyway guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I think I'll save my review of Helluva Boss for this October during HallowScream. But, I'll see you guys in the next review, which will be the new live-action series Avatar: The Last Airbender.