A welcome change from the masterpieces

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2020)

"Hotel Transylvania" is a 2012 animated feature directed by Genndy Tartakovsky with the voices of Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg. There are only a few animated feature films aside that don't origin from the power conglomerate Disney/Pixar that actually entertain me. Next to a few DreamWorks films, such as "Shrek", "Kung Fu Panda" or "Mega Mind" or the Illumination hit "Despicable Me" it is this movie from Sony that I actually like a lot. Even if it isn't the awesome film I considered it to be when I was only twelve years old, I still think it is worth giving a watch and a welcome alternation from all the masterpieces from the other studios, even from a today's point of view. And since it was the birthday of my younger sisters and they got to decide what to watch, I thought I would join them. As I said before, I like to watch it from time to time, even if it has some undeniable massive flaws I cannot close my eyes to. What I think makes this film so cute is how it introduces children to the classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein etc. and gives them the chance to get to know them for the very first time in their life. For avid horror fans it probably is also a nice welcome to see their favourites in a child appropriate way and it might even be some sort of fun to try to spot all the Easter eggs and variety of classic creatures used in this flick. I mean, you even get some middle-aged Gremlins that want to relax at the pool. How cool is that? Even when the premise of "What if monsters are actually scared by humans?" was famously illuminated in the Pixar classic "Monsters Inc." it is still tolerable in this case, as it adds another facet to it: racism. Yes, indeed, this film deals with the problem of stereotypical thinking and the general danger of racism and teaches the younger ones about it in a child friendly manner. On top of that it depicts the monsters as harmless and gives them human characteristics. The Werewolf is an exhausted family father with God knows how many children, Frankenstein's monster looks like a middleclass man with a middleclass job and the Invisible Man is ... well, he is invisible, but the main focus of course lies on Dracula and the close bond with his teenage daughter Mavis. Who would have guessed that the bloodsucking count is actually a caring and worried father, if not control freak? The animation style and narration are far away from being as deep as the titles from its competitors, but still it conveys an easily understandable message for both kids and parents: sometimes you got to let your kids decide on their own and sometimes it is necessary to rethink about specific things. Like, you probably don't want to be responsible for your child missing their Zing, right? This film could have been immensely better if it wasn't for one thing: Sandler. While I am personally able to laugh about most of his films, each has this typical Sandler thing to it. Any film contains at least on moment of sheer stupidity and this film makes no exception. It has this typical pinch of "I am trying to be funny" Sandler-esque nonsense in several scenes that made it extremely cringey and disturbed the experience a lot. Oh, and don't get me started about that dance party at the end of the film. I absolutely hate autotune and the music genre attached to it. It makes me break out in spots in the matter of seconds. Urgh. All in all though, this film is a decent flick I like to rewatch from time to time and even when it is far away from reaching the high quality of the other studios, it works for younger children and that's the audience this film has aimed for. It is cute, has a lot of good ideas and most importantly, doesn't lack any heart. It is nothing an adult would probably consider to be the best, but a fun flick to watch in between with your kids. To be honest, I am going to check out the sequels as well. Let's see if they are at least as enjoyable as this one.