Hotel Transylvania (Movie Review)

‘Hotel Transylvania’ is like a kid that’s had too much sugar, since most of the beginning is all over the place, but when it finally settles down it’s somewhat enjoyable. The movie comes just in time before Halloween; giving us a comical glimpse as to what these famous monsters lives would be like in a real world if they existed. There are not many laugh out loud moments, but the story of an overprotective parent that needs to learn to let go along with goofy family members as monsters help keep you interested. If you are able to get past the hyper information overload beginning, then you can sit back and explore the world of Dracula and his monstrous family.

Dracula (Adam Sandler) has created a five star resort where monsters can go relax safely away from humans. All his friends and family such as Frankenstein (Kevin James) his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), the invisible Man (David Spade), Murray the mummy (CeeLo Green) and Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi);come together for his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) 118th birthday. Dracula knows how to handle a full house but when a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles into the hotel and gets Mavis’ attention, this is a crisis that will be hard for overbearing Dracula to handle.

I saw the movie in 3D, which offered very few scenes that would make the extra bucks worth it. The film has a lot of moments when it really goes out of context and it seems to have lost concentration in the storyline, such as a moment where the main two characters are playing a game of table surfing, which becomes like a video game. Unfortunately, Mavis is really just a secondary character although Gomez is the one that connects the two worlds in the story.

Russian director Genndy Tartakovsky has been involved in kids shows such as ‘The Powerpuff Girls’, ‘Dexter’ and ‘Star Wars Clone Wars’, this versatility is shown here, but not to its full potential. The kids will surely enjoy the array of colorful characters to choose from, funnily enough Samberg’s character is the coolest as he’s able to get monsters interested in the human world and his endless travels and curiosity. Sandler’s character is a puzzle that comes together as the film progresses and he offers the most sensitivity by delivering the film’s most valuable lesson: learning to let go.

This film has a lot of creativity, which gives it a lot of potential that perhaps wasn’t used entirely. The focus of the movie falls in between the cracks more than once, it is only at the end where it all comes into focus in a dramatic way. This definitely isn’t one of the best family films of the year, but if you’ve already seen the latest like ‘Finding Nemo 3D’ and ‘ParaNorman’ and still want to go to the movies this isn’t a terrible choice.

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