When monsters want to go on vacation, they turn to Count Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) Hotel Transylvania, a luxurious castle resort where they can simply be themselves without the possibility of being bothered by humans. For one special weekend, Dracula invites some of his creature friends: The Invisible Man (David Spade), The Mummy (CeeLo Green) among others to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). Things do not go according to plan when a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) manages to crash Dracula’s party and then begins to fall in love with Mavis.
Since I plan on seeing Hotel Transylvania 2 tomorrow, I thought I would first look at Hotel Transylvania. Adam Sandler has not had too many good movies this millennium. Most of them are just bad, stupid comedies. This one is a little stupid but I wouldn’t call it bad. This is an animated kids movie so I wasn’t expecting highbow or too deep. I thought it did its job with what it was trying to do. The animation isn’t groundbreaking to say the least but I thought it was decent. The monsters all looked the way they were supposed to and their powers and abilities were well done as well. I can’t speak too much more about that seeing that the theatrical version was in 3D and had more bells and whistles and I just saw it on Netflix. I also thought that the voiceover work was pretty good all around. Adam Sandler was great as Dracula and had some funny moments and some good one liners while also having great chemistry with the other characters. He was supposed to be Dracula but he was really just another Adam Sandler character but I didn’t mind. What was also odd was the french accent Jon Lovitz used as Quasimodo. Being that this is an Adam Sandler film, the other characters are voiced by actors who have previously worked with Sandler in other films. The film did have other funny moments not involving Adam Sandler as most of its comedy comes from its portrayal of all the different monsters and their interactions with Dracula and one another. Most of the jokes were childish but I still found them funny. Underneath all of that is just a story about a father-daughter relationship where the father is just trying to raise his daughter and wanting what is best for her and trying to keep her safe. There’s also a good message on stereotypes and prejudice. Sure the story may be a little cliche but it is just so damn cute.
Score: 7/10
If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and like me on Facebook.
The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
