Wednesday, November 13, 2019

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Hazbin Hotel

In production for several years, Hasbin Hotel is a crowdfunded pilot/ONA movie created by Vivienne Medrano(also known as "VivziePop"). Originally starting her career from doing webcomics like Zoophobia, she also created several short animated films for various school thesis. From there, she gathered a large following conceiving her supernatural comedy about life in Hell. The pilot has gone on to be one the most talked-about animated projects in internet history.

Set in modern day Hell, the princess of the underworld, Charlie, is under the impression that Hell is in fact a "temporary" placement for souls outcast from upstairs, so she sets up a hotel meant to rehabilitate souls in the hopes of ascending. Despite the stunning Disney Princess-esque music number she performs on live TV to pitch her idea, nobody seems to give into her idea. This and her sole patron Angel Dust is not really as noble as he seems when its shown he's currently involved in a turf war between two of Hell's finest. Charlie's friend/partner Vaggie is pissed with Angel on how he made their promotion look bad, but the hotel regulars are visited by the charismatic but overtly sketchy Alastor, also called "The Radio Demon". The pinstriped fast-talking Alastor is an infamous figure in Hell, and despite that seems to want to help Charlie operate her hotel. Vaggie is profoundly skeptical about Alator's true intentions, but Charlie arranges for him to bring in a cycloptic neat-freak and an alcoholic winged cat as acting hotel staff. From there, it appears Alastor has his own agenda for what direction this new "Hazbin Hotel" will take, even though he protects it from invading gangsters like the snakeman, Sir Pentious.

Hazbin Hotel struck the internet like a comet through a wet paper bag, and has gained an unwavering select group of fandom not seen since Homestuck. The animation is very much in the style of shows like Ren and Stimpy and Invader Zim, while giving separate homage to old Terrytoons similar to like the hit Cuphead game. There are catchy music numbers in the spirit of songs from the Disney renaissance, although it should be made apparent that this is not intended for younger audiences. There is a free spoken approach in the dialogue and subject matter, but not intended to offend any specific social group or lifestyle. If anything, its one of the more open-minded projects as it has openly gay, pan-sexual, and asexual themes, which doesn't triangulate itself making viewers think that "only gay people go to Hell". The pilot is currently not picked up by any specific network or major backer, even though chances are that with the spinoff web series of Helluvaboss will help it gain even more notoriety.

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