Bloodless and toothless kiddie faire

Rating: 5/10 (19 October 2012)

With its plot lifted shamelessly from "Finding Nemo" and its overly familiar standard Halloween-mask characters, the basics of "Hotel Transylvania" pose no threat to the younger set and no challenge for anyone older. Dialog and plot development match the toothless motif with a big, friendly daddy Dracula defends his monsters-only hotel a la John Cleese in the old British "Fawlty Towers" television show (or "programme") and tries to keep his daughter from coming of age. The main plot follows precisely the sequence you expect from this premise with the characters growing and coming to terms right on cue. The big name voice actors (Sandler, Samberg, Gomez, etc.) appropriately phone it in given a lack of interesting dialog or witty one-liners. The animation style brings us a lot of warm colors but no technical virtuosity. In short, a non-offensive essential neutral time killer for the five to ten year old set.