If you want to talk about the hot topics in the animation circle recently, then "Hell Inn" is a well-deserved top stream.
Let's introduce the background of this film: In 2019, American animation director Vivien Medrano made a 30-minute "Hell's Inn Pilot Episode" without the investment of the producer, and put it on YouTube for free.
The anti-routine setting of Heaven and Hell + ** cute characters + large-scale yellow storm plot + ** drama form has attracted the attention of animation lovers around the world at once. At the time of writing this article, the number of pilot episodes has exceeded 100 million.
With such a high popularity, Vivien also successfully obtained investment from the film distribution company A24 and announced the filming of an official series.
This is more than four years of waiting, and finally in January this year, the first season of "Hell's Inn" was launched on Amazon, and it was announced that the second season was in production.
At present, all 8 episodes of the first season have been broadcast, and compared with the one-sided praise of the pilot episode, the reputation of the first season is actually not as expected. Rotten Tomatoes has a freshness rating of 79%, which is a moderately biased score.
For reference: The freshness of "True Detective Season 4", which is generally not highly rated, is 78%, and the recent well-received animations such as "Blue-Eyed Samurai", "Crooked Boy Scott", and "Invincible Young Man" all start at 95%.
What's the problem?
After watching one season, I think this film has a very bright longboard, and many clips of the early unit drama are simply refreshing. But when the later stage enters the main line, the fragmented conflict between the theme and plot of the whole story will be too big to ignore.
The production team is like filming a Spring Festival Gala sketch with *** settings and characters, and it is awkward everywhere.
Let's take a look at the setting and characters of this film first.
The story takes place in Hell, where there are two types of inhabitants: one is the natives of Hell, known in the film as the Primordial Demons. The other type is the sinners who do evil in life and go to hell after death, which is called the sinner demon in the film.
What kind of life do demons live in hell? Please let Angel, the popular character of this film > pseudo-girl** movie star & sinner demon Angel show you.
One day, Angel followed the instructions of his boss to serve a prostitute client, and then turned around and bought a bag of drugs from a vending machine on the street.
Before he could hold it firmly, the drugs were snatched away by a street thug, but the thugs didn't take a few steps before they were smashed by a flying boulder.
While lamenting the drugs he had spilled, Angel looked up and saw that other demons were fighting with his acquaintances for turf, so he grabbed his machine gun and joined the fray.
The hellish life of the demons is so instinctive, so lawless, and they live a very exciting life every day, whether it is pornography, gambling, drugs, or dismemberment of corpses on the street, it is as natural as eating and drinking, and they will burp at any time if they are not careful on the road.
At the same time, every year, the angels led by Adam will go down to hell to carry out the great **. The ostensible reason given by the angel is to control the demon population and prevent people from blowing up, but in fact, they are afraid that there will be too many demon populations and threaten the safety of heaven.
Maybe it's because they're used to the life of burping at any time, and the demons all have an indifferent attitude towards the big ** "There is wine today and drunk today": Lao Tzu can live how he should live, and I am unlucky if I am killed.
The only exception is the heroine of this film, the original demon Charlie Morningstar. Charlie is a noble woman, the daughter of Lucifer, the ruler of hell, and the only one who cares about the life of demons, and her kindness and optimism seem to have traveled from Disney animation.
In order to solve the big ** problem, Xia Li came up with an idea: open an inn in hell to help the demon reform himself. She firmly believes that every demon can be a good person again and then enter heaven.
The idea was ridiculed by all the demons. Not to mention the specific methods and success possibilities of reform, the biggest problem is that the demons are not interested in reforming at all, they didn't want to be good people when they were alive, and they don't care when they die.
At the moment, the only demon staying at Xia Li's Inn is Angel, and Angel is just looking for a place to live for free, and has no intention of reforming at all.
While running into a wall here, Charlie enlists the help of the radio demon Atlas. Atlas is one of the most powerful demons of sinners, and he is willing to help run the inn as a manager, and he also brings in the maid Neferty and the bartender Heska as employees.
Atlas's motives are very simple: he is a happy man, he just wants to see how you fail and despair.
To add insult to injury, because of the accidental death of an angel who slayers demons, Adam doubted that the demon was capable of killing angels, and decided to shorten the big ** to once every six months.
So Xia Li has two problems in front of her: one is how to help the demon turn over a new leaf, and the other is how to deal with the next big **.
But for most of the first season, the production team didn't deal with either of these issues, instead spending most of the time on bringing in new characters and building relationships.
In the first 6 episodes, the production team introduces a bunch of interesting new characters, including Adam, the leader of the demon slayer angels
Seraphim Sera and Emily:
A bunch of awesome-looking helllords :
and Lucifer of the daughter-controlled and so on:
The chemistry between these new and old characters is also interesting: Emily and Charlie will team up against Adam, Lucifer and Atlas will fight each other, and the Lords of Hell will fight each other.
The production team also didn't forget to strengthen the relationship between the old characters, so we can see how Angel opens up to the bartender Heska, how Sir Pencius in the pilot episode becomes the second resident to integrate into the inn, and how Charlie and her girlfriend Vicky go further emotionally.
Relying on such a bunch of interesting characters with distinct personalities, the first six episodes of the unit drama are quite pleasant to watch. Not to mention the infectious ** singing, which is also the biggest selling point of "Hell Inn".
There are two wonderful inserts in each episode of this film, and the characters will use ** to express their moods, express their concepts, and attack each other.
From electronic music, rock music to jazz and Latin dance music, "Hell's Inn" has a variety of styles, or tender, hot-blooded, or crazy. And the melody is durable, the lyrics are well written, and with the MV-style gorgeous performance, it is absolutely refreshing.
My favorite episode is Adam's rock song "Hell is Eternal", the lyrics of which portray Adam's refutation of the devil as a new man and Adam's own narcissistic hubris
Because hell is eternal, whether you like it or not, they have had a chance to perform, and now they can only boil in a pot Because the rules are black and white, it's useless to try to resist Their lives are burning until we take them again
The most important thing is that this rock thief is dynamic and energetic, and it perfectly matches Adam's husky voice, and Adam is more promising to become a rock singer instead of an angel.
Even better, in the sixth episode, Charlie and Emily use the same rock variation in Heaven to refute Ya, and even the lyrics correspond:
If hell is eternal, then heaven is just a big lie If the angels do whatever they want, they will stay in heaven forever This rule is no longer monolithic, when what you do is not what you say You make the unfortunate people suffer, just to make them die again
This kind of boomerang callback that returns the other way to the other has exploded!
But here's the problem, the first season of "Hell Inn" has a total of 8 episodes, each episode is more than 20 minutes, aside from introducing new characters, establishing character relationships and two songs per word, there is basically no room to solve the two major problems mentioned above (helping the demon reform + dealing with the big **).
So the more you get to the main line later, the more hurried and sloppy the story becomes.
In terms of helping demons turn over a new leaf, other characters have raised a lot of questions that need to be answered seriously by Xia Li.
Atlas and Adam expressed similar views: "Why do you pity demons who have sinned in their lives and who deserve to go to hell?"
The hostess also asked Xia Li: The demons themselves don't want to be good people, what's the use of you doing this?
However, Xia Li did not answer any of these questions.
We don't know why Xia Li thinks that the demon who kills people and sets fires all day is worth saving, and we don't know how she plans to convince the demon to stay at the inn, but the only two occupants in the ** room have impure motives so they stay in.
Even by the end of the first season, Xia Li did not come up with a feasible plan to help the demon turn his ways, and the various methods she came up with (truth or dare, learning to say "sorry", acting in a play, etc.) only served to provide jokes.
Angel and Pencius, who are positive transformation cases in the film, actually show the change: they have established friendship and trust with their inn mates, and are willing to open their hearts and care for and help others.
But the problem is that this is completely different from "rehabilitation". Human nature is complicated, the party can also be very brotherly, and murderers can also help grandmothers cross the road, and these behaviors cannot cancel each other.
Since it is to rehabilitate, at least you have to repent of your past crimes, but ** didn't mention this stubble at all, the audience didn't know why Angel and Pencius went to hell, and it was naturally impossible to talk about reform.
Director Vivien once said in an interview: The world is not black and white, I like to explore the gray area and the complexity of human nature.
But judging from the finished film, the director doesn't even dare to let the demons of the protagonist group do something bad that really hurts others, maybe in her eyes, a few swear words and a few glasses of wine are enough to show the complexity of human nature......
So to put it bluntly, the characters of the protagonist group are just templated good people with a "demon" label, they may be a little quirky and speak harshly, but they are simple and kind in their bones, and they will shine when they give a little sunshine.
Where does such a character need to be reformed? It's the most suitable to knock CP. It's also sad that some people say that this film is "Rainbow Pony" in the coat of ***.
As for the second question faced by Xia Li, "how to deal with the big **", the solution of this film is simple and rude, and it is outrageous.
Originally, the demon couldn't hurt the angel, but the protagonist group found that the raw material of the angel** "angel steel" could kill the angel, so they asked the arms company to make a bunch of angel steel **, and then fought with the angel, and won and stabbed Adam to death.
At the end, everyone sang in unison: We have a smile on our faces, and tomorrow is another happy day in hell!
Uh......Have you forgotten that Adam was big in advance because he doubted that the devil could kill angels? Now that you've killed a bunch of angels and stabbed Adam to death, isn't that a solid threat to heaven from hell?
According to this development, shouldn't tomorrow be the whole army of heaven touching and destroying hell? Why do you think you've escaped? The situation is obviously more critical than before, I don't know how many times!
So as I said at the beginning, this film is really like a Spring Festival Gala sketch after seeing it: throwing out a theme that seems to have room for discussion, but the whole process of gags and changing the topic is unwilling to face the problem directly.
In the end, the reunion was forcibly ended, and everyone wrapped it together! Dumplings! Smash! Ignoring the fact that the problem persists and even worsens.
Although I have complained so much, if this film comes out with a second season in a few years, I should still watch it, after all, ** is really good