You'd think the talented cast could have done a little more with the material.

Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2013)

'HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA': Three Stars (Out of Five)
Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher, Molly Shanon, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, Chris Parnell and other comedy talents voice this computer-animated kid's monster movie directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (of 'SAMURAI JACK' and 'DEXTER'S LABORATORY' fame). It was written by Peter Baynham (co-writer of movies like 'BORAT' and 'BRUNO') and Robert Smigel (a long time veteran writer of 'SNL' and 'LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN') as well as new writers Todd Durham, Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman. The film tells the story of Dracula running a hotel for monsters, to get away from humans, and his daughter, who wants to venture out and see the world. The movie was a huge blockbuster around the world grossing $321 million on a budget of just $85 million. Despite it's immense popularity it only received lukewarm reviews from critics. I thought it was good for a kids movie of it's type but nothing spectacular. I'd put it in the same league as the animated kids monster film 'PARANORMAN'.
Adam Sandler voices Dracula and Selena Gomez voices his daughter Mavis. Dracula is throwing a 118th birthday party for Mavis at his hotel and has invited monsters from all around. Monsters like Frankenstein (Kevin James) and Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi) bring their families to vacation there away from the evil humans. Dracula and the rest of the monsters are afraid of humans and do their best to hide from them. So when Mavis tells Dracula she wants to travel out and see the world he freaks out and goes into overprotective father mode. Especially when a 21-year-old human (Andy Samberg) stumbles on to the castle and Mavis shows interest in him.
The movie is really simplistic and uninspired in it's story structure and character development but the animation is cool and the actors are great. I don't usually enjoy kid's cartoon movies like this at all (for the problems I listed about this one) but it is funny at times thanks to the cast. Sandler and his friends do a good job of adding character and a little more flare to an otherwise pretty generic animated movie. Tartakovsky adds some nice visual style to the material as well but you'd think the talented cast could have done a little more with the material.
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