Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 26, 2025

One of the fundamental questions humans have to face is the often asked "is there life after death?", but Hazbin Hotel might suggest there's a somewhat different query to be asked, namely "is there death after death?" While the machinations of that particular idea in this often snarky series aren't overly detailed, there is indeed death after death, at least insofar as a major foundational element of the series, which takes place in Hell, is that Heaven sends an angelic force led by Adam in an annual, well, Purge of the nether regions due to overpopulation by all those sinning types. Somewhat hilariously some opening narration gives a veritable (Un?)Holy Book of background information, including this series' gambit that Lucifer and Lilith hooked up and gave birth to the show's focal character, Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen). Charlie wants to try to ameliorate the effects of the yearly extermination by opening the titular facility, which she hopes will attract denizens whom she can rehabilitate, perhaps even getting them a Fast Pass (or whatever the ticketing equivalent might be) to enter those vaunted Pearly Gates.

Hazbin Hotel is, evidently somewhat like Hell itself, overstuffed with characters, and while that gives this first season an undeniable variety, it may also lead to a sense of dispersion, as attention is repeatedly diverted left and right as various characters enter the fray. Charlie's girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) is probably the most recurrent, though the hotel's sole existing resident, former porn star Angel Dust (Blake Roman) is also repeatedly on hand. The fact that there's a character named Vaggie and another one who was a porn star may be initial indicators of the general level of humor in the show, which is at least interstitially on the supposedly edgy envelope pushing side, something that may clash more than intermittently with what are some pretty drastic shifts in tone from comedy to more substantial items like trauma and sexual abuse.

As admittedly ludicrous as it may sound, the basic (as in very basic) setup of this series actually reminded me of the little remembered sitcom The Bill Dana Show, wherein Dana portrayed his iconic (if now politically incorrect) character of Jose Jiminez, who worked as a bellhop in a crazy hotel which had any number of both eccentric other employees and guests. That show also had a somewhat manic tone which Hazbin Hotel mirrors, though this show is definitely a good deal more potty mouthed and (again, ostensibly) provocative than anything that managed to air on a major broadcast network in the sixties. The sheer glut of characters in this first season at least provides a certain sense of momentum, even if it may be the circular movement of a whirlpool rather than any true forward trajectory.

While plot machinations unfold which bring in any number of subplots involving both residents, other denizens of both Heaven and Hell, as well as a major underlying subplot involving Charlie's "missing" mother Lilith, what may initially seem like it's going to set this series apart from any other "Adult Swim" adjacent cartoons for grown ups is the fact that the series is a putative musical. The song score is by two probably less than universally recognized names, Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg. Haft has probably had the higher profile career thus far, having already achieved a certain amount of renown for his work with the duo The Living Tombstone, and for having provided both music (and voices) for a number of other properties. That said, it may be Underberg's work for Disney which may provide at least some referent for the general "sound" of a lot of the pieces, probably most notably for Charlie. The score is actually quite varied in style, and is frequently better than the average "straight to video" work that adorns even some Disney projects, and the voice cast features several stellar Broadway performers who sing very well indeed, but I couldn't help but wonder what an "It Team" like Pasek and Paul might have done with this material.

Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hazbin Hotel: Season One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I might jokingly describe the series' aesthetic as neo-Powerpuff Girls, with overexaggerated angles predominating in both character and background elements. As can probably be seen in many of the screenshots uploaded to accompany this review, there's an emphasis on appropriately Hellish tones toward the red and purple sides of the spectrum, and the palette is continually quite impressive throughout all of the episodes of this first season. In terms of character design, I'll only mention in passing that a brief look at an angel in the opening vignette documenting the backstory is actually amazingly "accurate", at least according to some Biblical representations, where instead of winged human-like figures, there is instead a kind of scary assortment of wings and giant eyes (see screenshot 6). Line detail is precise throughout and what almost looks like minor noise at the edges of the frame in some shots appears to be an intentional stylistic gambit.

Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps just a little surprisingly given that this is an A24 release and a quasi-musical to boot, there's no Dolby Atmos mix on the discs in this package, and instead a perfectly well rendered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The sound design here is maybe minimally less "busy" than both the plot and the character design aspects, but there's a good deal of surround activity in every episode, including a lot of the Hawks-ian interchanges between characters who crowd the frame, but probably understandably most noticeably in some of the musical moments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Commentaries with Vivienne Medrano, Sam Miller & Skye Henwood are available for each episode on the disc.

Disc Two

• Commentaries with Vivienne Medrano, Sam Miller & Skye Henwood are available for each episode on the disc.

The keepcase also includes a foldout mini-poster as well as what is described as "an exclusive premium foil or cracked ice promo card for Hazbin Hotel Trading Cards. I'm assuming the one that came in my package is a "premium foil" rendition called Hate Watch. Packaging features a slipcover.

Hazbin Hotel: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hazbin Hotel is arguably a bit too convoluted for its own good, and it tends to operate with such manic energy even when pacing can be iffy that watching the series in binge mode may actually lead to a kind of Hellish overdose. Things are set up for a big showdown between Lilith and Charlie for Season Two, and that may help to focus things. Technical merits are solid and the accompanying commentaries chattily entertaining. With caveats noted, Hazbin Hotel: Season One comes Recommended.