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6.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Hell's Bells remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
So, Hell's Bells. Yeah, Disney made this in 1929. If you’re into old-school animation, especially the Silly Symphony stuff, you absolutely gotta check this out. It’s a riot. Anyone who thinks Disney always played it safe will find a little surprise here. But if you only like your cartoons super bright and modern, well, this might not be your cup of tea.
Right from the jump, you're in Hades. It's all flames and jagged rocks, and there are skeletons and little horned demons *everywhere*. They're all doing their thing, making music for a very large, very grumpy Satan. He’s got this huge throne made of skulls. It’s quite the look.
The whole short is basically a big, macabre musical number. Skeletons are playing their own bones like xylophones. There’s one guy using a rib cage as an accordion. It's incredibly clever for the time. You can tell they were just having a blast coming up with all these visual gags. One of the demons even plays a spiderweb as a harp. Like, how cool is that?
Honestly, the animation style is just *bouncy*. Everything moves with such energy, even the things that are supposed to be scary. Satan himself starts tapping his feet, then his whole body gets into it. The demons are just so committed to their performance, it’s infectious. You almost forget you're watching denizens of hell.
Then there’s this one little guy. A demon. He’s really small. And he's supposed to be thrown to Cerberus, the three-headed dog, as a snack. But he's got other plans. He refuses. This whole sequence is actually pretty intense for a cartoon from this era. The way he tries to escape, ducking and weaving, it builds up some real tension. It’s a great bit of character work for someone who has maybe thirty seconds of screen time.
The Cerberus scene itself is a lot. The dog is huge and slobbery and very menacing. It feels a bit like something from a nightmare, but still cartoonish enough not to be *too* scary. The small demon manages to outsmart it, which is a satisfying payoff. It’s kinda funny too, how this little guy just won’t give up.
I found myself wondering, how did this even get made by Disney? It’s got a surprisingly dark edge to it. Not in a scary way, more in a playful, mischievous way. It reminds you that early animation was a wild west, trying all sorts of stuff. And the music, oh man, the music. It’s a full orchestral score, very dramatic, perfectly matching the action on screen. It really pulls you in.
There's a moment when a demon tries to light Satan's cigar, and Satan just *gobbles* the demon whole. Then he spits him out, a tiny little charcoaled puff. That gag sticks with you. It’s so quick, but tells you everything you need to know about Satan's temperament. He's not just grumpy; he's dangerous. But also, kinda silly.
It’s really short, probably just five or six minutes. But it packs so much in. Every frame is full of something moving, or a funny little detail. You can pause it almost anywhere and find something cool happening in the background. It’s not just a historical curiosity; it’s genuinely entertaining. A fun, bizarre little gem.
IMDb —
1917
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