Movie Info
Movie Name: Hotel Transylvania
Studio: Sony Pictures Animation
Genre(s): Animated/Comedy/Family
Release Date(s): September 8, 2012 (Toronto International Film Festival)/September 28, 2012 (US)
MPAA Rating: PG
Why are you singing the Hanukkah Song, Daddy?
Count Dracula has raised his daughter Mavis in isolation while running a popular hotel where monsters can escape the horrors of humanity. When a hiker named Johnny accidentally finds the hotel, Dracula must hide Johnny from the rest of the monsters…but Mavis finds herself falling in love with the strange monster that doesn’t seem like any monster she ever met…can monsters and humans ever live together?
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania is a family animated comedy. The movie was a box office success and received average reviews. It was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.
Don’t mess with Dracula’s daughter!
Despite the average reviews, I kind of enjoyed Hotel Transylvania. It feels like a real kids’ movie that was made for kids first and adults secondary…something I feel that a lot of animated movies forget in today’s age where adults must be as entertained as children.
The plot and story are predictable but that’s ok…the movie isn’t for me directly. I happened to enjoy the movie that was made for kids. I knew how it was going to end and the paths that the characters would take but there were still enough jokes and laughs mixed in that it wasn’t painful to watch.
Part of what made the movie fun was all the voice actors. Adam Sandler is a divisive actor (some would argue that labeling him an actor is where he becomes divisive), but this movie he’s almost toned down because he’s not on screen. He’s joined by a lot of his regulars like Steve Buscemi, David Spade, and other SNL vets like Molly Shannon, Jon Lovitz, and Chris Parnell. Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez play the loving couple and other voice actors include Kevin James, CeeLo Green, and Rob Riggle.
Johnny knows how to rock!!!
The movie also has rather slick animation. Sometimes non-Disney and non-Pixar film seem to take shortcuts in their look. Hotel Transylvania doesn’t seem to take many shortcuts. It looks good and it has fun character designs.
Hotel Transylvania might not be the best animated film ever, but it isn’t as bad as you’d think. It is important to remember back when a movie was made for kids. It is ok for a movie to be entertaining to a certain age…a kid isn’t going to like On Golden Pond so why should you like every movie made for them? Hotel Transylvania’s success led to a sequel in Hotel Transylvania 2 released in 2015.
