SpindleHorse Toons, commonly referred to as SpindleHorse, is an American

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animation, animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales ...

founded by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano in 2018, based in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. It is responsible for the Hellaverse

shared universe A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where one or more writers (or other artists) independently contribute works that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, charact ...

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

, whose main series ''

Hazbin Hotel ''Hazbin Hotel'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated Musical theatre, musical comedy television series created by Vivienne Medrano, Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. The series revolves around Charlie Morningstar, crown princess, princes ...

'' is co-animated with

Bento Box Entertainment Bento Box Entertainment, formerly known as Bento Box Animation, is an American animation studio and entertainment company located in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2009 by executive producers Scot ...

and co-produced with

A24 A24 Films LLC, commonly referred to as A24, is an American Privately held company, independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. The studio is based in Manhattan. The company ...

. It is the sole animation studio of its spin-off series, ''

Helluva Boss ''Helluva Boss'' is an American adult animated musical black comedy web series created by Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano. It revolves around the misadventures of the employees of I.M.P., a company in Hell that offers hitman services in the real ...

''. SpindleHorse has also produced several animated shorts, including "Holidaze" and "Bad Luck Jack", all of which are available on Medrano's YouTube channel. Medrano has stated that the company's name comes from a childhood character of hers named Spindle.

History

Vivenne Medrano founded the

SpindleHorse, under which the pilot for ''Hazbin Hotel'', the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and first two seasons of ''Helluva Boss'', and several animated shorts would be released. Medrano serves as the director, lead writer and lead character designer for SpindleHorse. In an interview with

Cartoon Brew Cartoon Brew is an animation news website created by Amid Amidi and animation historian Jerry Beck that was launched on 15 March 2004. Cartoon Dump It also created '' Cartoon Dump'', a weekly podcast showing poorly made TV cartoons featuring ' ...

, she said that much of the ''Hazbin Hotel'' pilot was funded by money from her

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a monetization platform operated by Patreon, Inc., that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps artists and other creators earn a recurring income by provid ...

, rather than income from YouTube's algorithm. The company Horseless Cowboy assisted Medrano with voice casting during the first season of ''Helluva Boss'', with

Richard Steven Horvitz Richard Steven Horvitz (born July 29, 1966) is an American actor and comedian, best known for his voice work in animation and video games. His voice credits include the original Alpha 5 on '' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', '' Power Rangers Zeo ...

serving as the voice director. Cartoon Brew described her as a "paragon of indie success in animation". In October 2019, the pilot episode of ''Hazbin Hotel'' was released on Medrano's YouTube channel. In November 2019, the pilot episode of ''Helluva Boss'' was released to her YouTube channel as well. On December 25, 2019, a short entitled "Holidaze" was released. In July 2020, Medrano released an animated music video for ''Hazbin Hotel'' called "Addict", featuring the Silva Hound song of the same name. In August 2020, ''Hazbin Hotel'' was picked up for a full series by

. ''

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects. The print magazine is published 10 times a year in the United States. History ''Animation Magazine'' was f ...

'' said that A24 was taking a "bold step" by picking up the series. In 2023, scholar Ben Mitchell described Medrano's ''Hazbin Hotel'' and ''Helluva Boss'' as series which were "sensationally popular" and an effective use of Patreon to subsidize the show's art "through monthly tiered payments". ''Hazbin Hotel'' would go on to be released in January 2024 to critical acclaim. On September 30, 2020, Medrano released an animated short film titled "Bad Luck Jack", based on her webcomic ''

ZooPhobia ''ZooPhobia'' is an American webcomic originally published in 2012 by Vivienne Medrano, Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano, from which she later loosely adapted characters and plotlines for her Adult animation, animated Musical film, musical Animated ...

''. The short was nominated for and won for a Ursa Major Award in the "Best Dramatic Short Work" category. The short was also listed as a "Recommended Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work" on the Ursa Major Award website. From 2020 to 2021, Medrano released several "Voxtagram" animated clips of the characters of ''Hazbin Hotel'' and ''Helluva Boss'' in a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

slice-of-life Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to Naturalism (theatre), naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence ...

setting to a series of in-character

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

accounts run by SpindleHorse employees, alongside normal posts of character art depicting characters'

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph or a short video, typically taken with an electronic camera or smartphone. The camera would be usually held at arm's length or supported by a selfie stick instead of being controlled with a self-timer ...

Animation productions

Television series

Web series

Music videos

Shorts

References

External links

* {{Animation industry in the United States Adult animation studios American companies established in 2018 Mass media companies established in 2018 Entertainment companies established in 2018 Companies based in Burbank, California 2018 establishments in California Animation studios