Hotel Transylvania

I was reading an article written by a supposed film expert, and they said that they expected Hotel Transylvania to under perform because Adam Sandler’s last few movies have underperformed. But this is an animated monster movie, so needless to say that writer is wrong. Hotel Transylvania does star Sandler, but as the voice of the animated Dracula, who owns a hotel resort for monsters to escape the taxing threat of human interference. The hotel also helps the overprotective vampire keep tabs on his teenage (118 year old) daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez). So when a human (Andy Samberg) happens upon the place just when Dracula’s monster friends (played by Sandler’s real life acting friends) show up for Mavis’ birthday party, the Count is understandably paranoid.

The film may star the monsters you’re used to, but it’s quite family friendly. There is hardly an inclination of anything scary, except during one Dracula flashback to an angry mob. In fact, the angry mobs prove to be the main fear of all of the monster characters. They consider the humans to be bullies who threaten them without warrant. This isn’t a new idea. Even August’s ParaNorman used a similar anti-bullying, give monsters a chance premise. But this one is much lighter in tone with physical comedy, fart jokes and exploiting cinematic stereotypes, like Frankenstein (Kevin James) being afraid of fire. The laughs come often, even more so with the young viewers.

The monster hotel idea is a fun one, which the script takes full advantage of. However after that runs out, there is the standard Shrek-like ensemble sing along and Corpse Bride similar skeleton band, but you can’t blame them for going with what works. It’s a kid movie, which successfully caters to its target audience all in the two month confines of the plot mirroring Halloween season. Bingo!

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.