Hotel Transylvania (2012) - Latest comedian as super villain animation comedy

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Humorous character takes on classic horror villains fill up this cheerful poster for Genndy Tartakovsky's Hotel Transylvania

A human male gets into Count Dracula's Hotel Transylvania by accident, a hotel exclusively for super villains, where humans are feared, and the guy Johnny falls for Dracula's daughter Mavis.

 

Hotel Transylvania is written by Peter Baynham (Arthur Christmas (2011)) and Robert Smigel (Jack and Jill (2011)), with Todd Durham (Tales of the Third Dimension (1984)), Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman (The Lego Movie (2014), both)) contributing story elements, and directed by debuting Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip, TV movie  (1999)).

Adam Sandler (Blended (2014)) here follows in the footsteps of his peer funny-men Steve Carell and Will Ferrell with an animated role as a super villain, although in a film that might score under the similar roles from his two colleagues, (the superior Despicable Me (2010) and sequels and Megamind (2010), the latter of which is arguably as good as Hotel Transylvania.)

The animation is good-looking, and some of the jokes and gags amuse, (many, - though they are kept tasteful, - are only meant for the film's adult audiences.) The story places weight on some nice values. It is colorful, silly fun and rumpus; light, musical escapism and feel-good fun, mostly based on Universal Pictures catalog of monsters, which have been rendered without their frightening sides. Sometimes the characters fly around in order to give the audiences something for their 3D bucks, - but one must look far for a story-related reason behind these sequences. Still Hotel Transylvania is fairly good entertainment, which is sure to excite especially children.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 85-104 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 358.3 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.79 times its cost)

[Hotel Transylvania premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. Production took place in California. The film opened #1 to a 42.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weekends in the Top 5 (#2-#4-#4-#3), grossing 148.3 mil. $ (41.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Brazil with 15.4 mil. $ (4.3 %) and Spain with 15.1 mil. $ (4.2 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe. The film spun 2 more theatrical releases and a 4th film as VoD. Tartakovsky returned with Goodnight Mr. Foot (2012, short) and theatrically with Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015). Sandler returned in Jessie (2013, TV-series) and theatrically in Grown Ups 2 (2013), prior to his Hotel Transylvania return, along with almost all of the other voice actor stars. Hotel Transylvania is rotten at 44 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hotel Transylvania?