Hazbin Hotel (TV Series) Overture (2024) User Reviews

A good, servicable opening episode that does what it needs to do!

[kiwifruit-55991 · 8/10 · 19 January 2024]

Overture is definitely a setup episode that covers similar ground to the pilot, reintroducing us to the characters and setting the stakes for the season to come. It is a little heavy on the exposition and a little constrained in its runtime, but still does what it needs to do well.

And oh, the gorgeously polished animation and the musical numbers more than make up for any shortcomings; as do the characters voices. Erika Henningsen shines as Charlie in this episode; especially singing 'Happy Day In Hell' - it is very clear from the outset that these are still the same characters we loved from the pilot, the same story, the same tone. Hazbin is in good hands, and this episode lays a solid foundation for the season to come.

Absolutely Fantastic and lives up to the Pilot in Every way!

[lootloot-54554 · 10/10 · 19 January 2024]

After all of the waiting, I was worried that the show would miss my certainly overhyped expectations by a mile. Never have I been more wrong!

After Nearly five years since the pilot dropped, the show is out, and it was worth every second of the wait! While I was a little hesitant about new Voice Actors coming into the episode, they all absolutely blew me away. In addition to two of my new favorite songs to come out of the Helluverse, the episode had way more instore than I ever expected. While it does rush a tiny bit through the character introductions (the other episodes fix this problem very quickly), it was honestly an absolute blast.

Its amazing to see how much better the team over at Spindel Horse has gotten over the years and I can't wait to see what is in store next.

Weak

[mayasophiakali-56068 · 4/10 · 31 January 2024]

I love cartoon musicals. I loved Steven universe, Central Park, South Park The movie, and many many more. This show is a great disappointment.

Weak Points:

• Vaggie sounds like she is using a mid tier microphone in her home, while everyone else is in the studio using high end mics. You can hear the pitch correct when she was singing. Same with when Charlie was doing runs in the song. Its not her fault its just weird to pitch correct runs in my opinion

-The directing is often just a little off with the actors lines.

• The use of profanity is forced

• It just assumes you will agree that God is the bad guy and the people in hell are sympathetic vs moving you to understanding why this is the case. I think it is a good premise almost like the Gnostic Gospels "Demiurge" where the god of the old testament is really the devil, but this just goes into hell good, heaven bad.

• It feels like it is trying to hard by being quick in the lines to convey wit, but most jokes fell flat.

• Adam = Man with Power = Bad. This commentary is really poorly executed. It could be good like showing him be duplicitous or creatively bad, but they just chose to make him a frat boy because Adam = Man with Power = Bad

Strong Points:

• The sound design is good
• The backing track sets a good tone
• The animation is 90% good.

• It has a decent premise
• There is good acting.

Personally disappointing.

[wcallum-63767 · 4/10 · 19 January 2024]

Let me just say I'm a fan of vivzie pop. I think Helluva boss is a good show (even though there are some pretty big flaws) and I enjoyed the Hazbin pilot well enough, but honestly I really didn't feel this first episode.

Let me just say the things I liked first. The animation is pretty good, I do wish it was a little more cartoony and not so strictly on model, ends up a little bit stiff. But the animation still has great backgrounds, I love the colours and the designs are very creative.

The music was also pretty nice. I wouldn't say the songs will stick in my head, but they were very pleasing to listen and they were the only real parts of this pilot that felt like they had energy to them.

The voice acting was also decent, it was a little weird getting used to the voices, but everyone did a pretty good job and really fit their character and really gave each a personality.

Now the stuff I wasn't to into. The writing was not my favourite. The exposition, just like the pilot was very awkwardly done, but honestly maybe even more badly done than the pilot. In the pilot I could come up with a decent reason for the characters saying things and sometimes it didn't just feel like characters slowly explaining things, but here it felt like a lot of characters for no reason just shouted out "I'm like this, you're like that! This is like this." In a very unnatural way, like they're extra descriptive for no reason or just telling characters who already knew information, the information again.

The comedy is a really touchy subject when it comes to vivzie pop where people just say "all she does is sex jokes and swears and thinks that's funny." Honestly I think it's not as simple as these kinds of jokes being bad. It's more execution. Helluva boss has great comedic voice actors, great character dynamics. Honestly it's less what they are saying and more how they say it that gets a laugh and there are still lots of other comedy used which works. Like slapstick and good character interactions. The pacing is also a big factor, but I'll talk about that later. In Hazbin hotel (this episode) though...yeah the sex jokes do get a bit much and these are talented voice actors, but comedically and chemistry wise I personally don't think they work all that well and with now more than ever the comedy being focused on characters just swearing or saying something sexual, it just kind of gets a bit obnoxious. There is no real shock to the shock humour. One of the only jokes that made me laugh was Nifty just staring deeply at the camera, that actually caught me off guard and is funny animation wise.

I just don't feel like the characters work that well off each other, maybe because there are so many of them. Maybe because most of them barely know each other, idk? Lots of times it just really didn't feel like there was a joke.

The pacing was honestly really bad. Lots of the episode felt really slow and tedious with the same kinds of jokes over and over again. Many scenes having lots of slow dialogue or long winded talk. I was just kind of bored a lot of the time. This probably could've been 11 or 15 minutes honestly. I mean the Tv commercial subplot didn't really add anything tbh.

The set up was also not really done that well and honestly it's a problem I have with a lot of Viv's stuff sadly. In stuff like Helluva boss, she seems to think small, easy to miss details and characters talking once and quickly about their problems and everything being fine after is good progression, when really the former I feel is better for writing twists and the latter is just kind of lazy feeling (not trying to call Viv lazy, I know she puts in tons of hard work and so does her team, I'm just saying that something can feel lazy). In this pilot, it ends with a dead angel and the angels going like "oh they are gonna pay!" But honestly I don't know if this was even hinted at or built up to in any capacity. It just kind of comes out of nowhere as set up for stuff to happen later and nothing telling the episode really felt like it progressed naturally.

The background music also got a little overbearing a times, but that's a small issue really.

Overall. I think the show has tons of potential, I love the idea, the look and the sung music. But the writing and pacing is really holding it back for me. I just didn't find it funny, I just found it too slow, I just couldn't get intrigued and felt like nothing really happened. I hope these aspects aren't as bad as they are here in this first episode as the rest of the series. I really want to enjoy this show, but personally this episode was kind of a miss.

It's just fine

[lexarixvii · 5/10 · 30 January 2024]

I've been watching Helluva Boss and waiting for Hazbin but it was just... Not a great opening episode. Speaking of, the literal opening of the episode was very generic (maybe they figured it didn't need effort because people would skip it).

The new voices are... Acceptable. They're fine. I was distracted by Vaggie because I was hearing Rosa (Brooklyn 99); and both Alastor and Vaggie felt toned down- less personality in the performances. Meanwhile, Angel Dust was turned up to 11- which was a mistake.

Also, with the exception of the musical numbers and Alastor's shadows, the animation was really stilted and choppy at times. I'm not sure why so many people are saying it was amazing. It feels like 90% of the money was put towards the voices/music.

Personal preference alert- I hate musicals. The music was fine- the second song was ok- but they did not add to the episode at all. We just groaned and watched for anything interesting in the animation.

*Spoiler section (maybe?)* I knew, from the moment CHERUB was introduced in Helluva Boss, that I was going to have a problem with how Vivzie would do the executioner angels. Somehow, that was worse than I expected- the angels are just as sex obsessed and vulgar as the demons. And I get it "what if angels were the bad guys?" Is a popular trope right now, but there is a REASON they're typically depicted as pompous, stuck up, repressed, purists- that's what makes sense to distinguish them from the demons that are all about sex, drugs, and rock n roll. "Oh but maybe there IS no difference between angels and demons" yeah sure, cool. Maybe like... Foreshadow it instead of making the first angel awful? Ffs.

The addition of the "ticking time bomb" element is wholy unnecessary for the premise. But "monster of the week" stuff isn't popular anymore so guess we're doing that now.

*Spoiler end*

Anyway, I'm willing to watch the next episode, but I'm not optimistic. I gotta keep watching to figure out if I should finish or scrap my Sir Pentious cosplay.

Fun, but a messy start

[windywingpony · 5/10 · 20 January 2024]

So, I don't really watch Vivziepop's work or anything. I watched the first episode of Helluva Boss, but It wasn't my cup of tea. And I don't remember much from the Hazbin Hotel pilot. But when my friends turned the first episode on, I was intrigued.

I'll start with the animation. It's fine. The characters proportions are sometimes stiff, but it's far from bad.

I never really liked Viv's designs, but they are so unique. The stylized proportions, clothes and shapes are so distinctive from other cartoons. But I would add diversity to the colour palettes. They are all red, pink, white and black. And on paper they look cool, but most of the time, especially the scenes at the hotel, the backgrounds are the same shade of colours as the characters. It's really hard to make them stand out. And I know, it's Hell. The backgrounds will be red. But when Charlie is walking on the streets, she just doesn't stand out. Nor does Alastor or Angel. The scenes with Adam work way better, because Charlie stands out.

The backgrounds have a lack of depth. Why are the objects further in the background so overly detailed? They look scaled down.

The camera is sometimes all over the place and I would like to see the show playing more with the lighting and shadows.

Next, the music. It's fun overall. LOVE Charlie's song, but I didn't care for Adam's song. He was kind of too abruptly introduced, I didn't even know what was happening. Who is this guy, is this the main villain? Where is the gang? Why is he so annoying? And about Adam's design...is that the design for all the angel's? I was so confused that he was an angel, because he looks like a demon. Why does he have horns?

Anyways, the voice acting is AMAZING. I think it's my favourite aspect of the episode.

The pacing is messy. There is plot A - the gang is working on a commercial for the hotel. And then plot B - Charlie wants to win over Adam with the hotel idea. And it ends with someone killing an angel, who was exterminating the town? I had to watch that twice to understand that, since it wasn't building up to it at all.

I think they should have just stuck to introducing the hotel for the first episode. And slow down a bit with the character introductions. Introduce the hotel staff and Charlie's relationship with them. Maybe with a song. Show them working on a commercial. Make Charlie struggle, the staff is incompetent and each one of them has a different idea for it. They fight. Charlie is desperate to make everyone like each other, so she hires Alastor as a last resort and he has it done in a second.

Now, the humour. I loved the punchline at the end, where they cut the commercial short, because there was some build up to it. But the other jokes didn't work on me. It's trying to be funny all the time, including the useless swearing, Angel's flirting. It's repetitive.

Overall, it's 5/10 for me. Just because it's not the worst or the best. I love the fun premise. Being an animator myself, I LOVE seeing indie animation getting the attention it deserves.