Entertaining from start to finish

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2015)

"Hotel Transylvania" is an animated movie from almost 3 years ago that features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez for the central characters. The movie managed a Golden Globe nomination in the animated feature category, but came short at the Oscars. It runs for pretty much exactly 90 minutes, but if you exclude the very long closing credits sequence, it's really only around 80 minutes. I have to say this film was a success. Even if it almost never reached moments of true greatness, it managed a pretty perfect mix of dramatic sequences and hilarious comedy. The more serious topics include the death of Dracula's wife, the struggles in his relationship with his daughter and, directly connected with this one, the very negative and outdated perception these "monsters" have from humans in general.
I will not name any particularly funny sequences, but there were quite a few. I enjoyed the humor from start to finish and the love story between the two younger characters was pretty sweet as well. It's certainly a good watch for animation lovers and I'd even recommend this film to fans of the horror genre as this film is packed with references about all kinds of known horror movie characters residing in Hotel Transylvania. No less than five people worked on the script and this time it is no example of how too many cooks spoil the broth. Other projects these writers worked on include "Borat", "The Lego Movie" and "Saturday Night Live". The director is Genndy Tartakovsky, not born in Romania where Transylvania is usually located, but at least in Eastern Europe. He has also finished directing the sequel which will be released in roughly 4 months from now and Adam Sandler worked on the script this time. I am fairly curious about this second installment and hope it will be as good as the first one, which I definitely recommend.