Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Genre

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

Director

Genndy Tartakovsky

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz, Luenell, Chris Parnell, Brian George, Brian Stack, Jackie Sandler, Sadie Sandler

Storyline

Dracula (Adam Sandler), who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a human boy (Andy Samberg) discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter (Selena Gomez).

Opinion

I had no expectations for this film considering that Adam Sandler - and his family - is all over the place. And usually nothing good comes out a film involving Adam Sandler. This time, however, I had to change my mind because "Hotel Transylvania" is actually a funny and entertaining family film.

Just like most of the time, the story is simple and quite predictable but at least it's easy to follow for kids. And just like in "Finding Nemo", the main topic addressed by the film is overprotective parenting, said parent being nobody less than Count Dracula. And there is also a predictable romantic subplot involving Dracula's "teen" daughter - she is 118-year-old - and a human boy.

Fortunately there is more to predictability. Not dull at all, the film indeed is very funny and it has some great moments that will have both kids and adults laughing. And there are a lot of genre references that are not necessarily brilliant but are fun to spot. And it was nice to see the monsters playing the good guys and the humans playing the bad guys - quite realistic, isn't it?

There isn't much of a character development here, and there are definitely a lot of supporting characters there are not so memorable, but they are funny, and they all deliver the funny dialogue - which is basically the films greatest strength.

The voice cast, which isn't very appealing for the most - I mean, didn't they have someone better than Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James and Fran Drescher? -, does a fairly good job. And Steve Buscemi as the Wolfman stole every scene he's in.

The animation is well done and the character design are nice to look at but a little unoriginal. It reminded me of "How to Train Your Dragon"'s characters, especially the bats.