Hazbin Hotel’s creator credits these shows for inspiring Prime’s hit

Hazbin Hotel’s frenetic first season completed up on Friday, with a dozen reveals and dangling plot threads, all primed for a second season. The devilish comedy comes from creator Vivienne Medrano, who first posted the pilot episode on her YouTube channel, and follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, who opens a resort in hopes that demons will rehabilitate and get to heaven. Oh, and it’s additionally a musical!

The first season completed with a bang, but it surely could be a while earlier than we see the second season of Hazbin Hotel. So when you want one thing to sate your devilish needs for now, Medrano handpicked a few of the present’s largest influences.

Invader Zim

Image: Netflix

Where to look at: Paramount Plus

Merdano calls this one a “huge one” and it’s not onerous to see why: Both shows share an identical form of feverish sensibility, together with a robust, vibrant colour palette. The spindly type of Invader Zim feels clearly at play in Hazbin, with characters like Alastor and Angel Dust feeling like they might pretty comfortably roll between shows.

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

Image: Cartoon Network Studios

Where to look at: Max

The different childhood present Merdano cites is about two children (one a clueless happy-go-lucky oaf, the opposite a cynical and smart-ass tomboy) who summon the Grim Reaper and beat him at a sport of limbo, thus making him their everlasting servant finest buddy. They get wrapped up within the paranormal world of demons, gods, and different supernatural creatures, but it surely’s all carried out with a goofy spin. The infernal through-line from Grim Adventures to Hazbin Hotel is fairly apparent.

BoJack Horseman

Image: Netflix

Where to look at: Netflix

While there have been different shows she watched when she was youthful, Medrano says Netflix’s BoJack Horseman — about an anthropomorphic, depressed washed-up sitcom actor (who can be a horse) — is the one which got here on the “perfect time” to point out her that she might inform a sophisticated emotional story in grownup animation.

“[It’s] actually one of my favorites of all time; phenomenal show,” Medrano says. “It form of confirmed me that grownup animation cannot solely simply be raunchy comedy, however it may be a narrative that has intense growth of its characters. It can have extremely flawed characters. It could make you cry. It can actually get deep and darkish.

“It had just started around the time that I was like, really making the pilot and they kind of made me go, Oh, wow, adult animation is starting to change. And it’s starting to evolve.”

South Park

Where to look at: Paramount Plus

Medrano calls South Park a “huge turning point” for her with grownup animation — an expertise lots of people had round Comedy Central’s basic. The present tackled topical concepts and occasions, all with a gleeful, jaded humor that has stored it working since 1997. “From that point on,” Medrano says, “I kind of just kept watching [adult animation].”

Rick and Morty

Image: Adult Swim

Where to look at: Max

Similar to BoJack, Medrano cites this ever-popular Adult Swim comedy as a proponent of the depth and humor she tries to steadiness together with her work. As anybody who has watched Rick and Morty can attest, there’s extra to the present and extra to Pickle Rick than the status it provides. “Something like Rick and Morty that is still very raunchy, and vulgar, and shocking in a lot of ways — it went this direction of like, Yeah, but let’s go a little deeper, let’s get a little darker. I think that also helped shift the space kind of more towards Oh, that works! That has an audience that did really well.”