Overall Rating:
Score: 7.8/10
Grade: B
Family-Friendliness Scale: Level 4 (Great)
Kids ages 6+
Monsters need a vacation, don't they?
Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is a vampire who, after losing his wife in a fire, is raising his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez). No longer trusting humans, Dracula builds a hotel for all monsters in order to keep his daughter safe. But several years later, Mavis, who is turning 118, is now wanting to see the world and not be cooped up inside a hotel, to her father's dismay. Dracula then sets up a fake village and fake humans to make Mavis believe the outside world is a dangerous place (does that remind you of Tangled or is it just me?). So when a human named Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg) mistakenly comes into the hotel, its' more than Dracula can handle. Its' up to the leader of the hotel to hide Johnny before his human identity is revealed to all the monsters. But its' not that easy.
Positive Notes
While meant to entertain, Transylvania does have some solid statements about growing up and true love. Mavis is wanting to leave and see the world, while her father wants her protected forever. Later on, for her 118th birthday, Mavis opens up a present that was supposed to be given to her by her late mother, a book that illustrates true love as a "zing" that only happens once in a lifetime. Hearing that humans can't mingle with monsters, Johnny willingly leaves the hotel in order to protect Mavis. But its' Dracula later on that realizes his daughter loves Johnny and learns to accept it. There's also a message about not judging others by how they were, but how they are now.
The animation is colorful and cartoony (so are the characters), and we are shown a few exquisite backgrounds. The top-shelf cast does a fine job, with the main stand-outs being Gomez, Kevin James (as a similar-looking Frankenstein), Steve Buscemi (as a werewolf father) and The Voice judge Cee Lo Green (as a musical mummy). Mark Mothersbaugh delivers on the music score, and there's a fun rap/song at the end of the film. Several hilarious moments.
Negative Notes
Various moments of mild cartoonish silliness. A few toilet humor giggles and a couple of (very) lightweight suggestive laughs (honeymooning fleas caught in bed kissing and Johnny putting his hand in a female skeleton's chest [unknowingly but out of curiosity if the skeletons were real]). A few scenes of slapstick violence, but its' not scary (except for four or five times Dracula [briefly] lets out his red-faced rage). Johnny interjects God's name once [in shock to seeing a vampire], but the only additional considerable interjections include "heck", "idiot", "shut your hump hole!" and "holy rabies!". Dracula puts his daughter in danger (on purpose). Zombie workers briefly ogle a female zombie passing by.
Conclusion
You can tell that Hotel Transylvania has been through many directors, before finally settling on cartoon TV series director Genndy Tartakovsky (most famous for creating Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and working on numerous other Cartoon Network shows). Tartakovsky's intuitive touch is certainly in this monster mash. The characters are colorful, the theme is wonderfully cartoony, and the monsters are playfully creepy, not scary creepy. Those are the qualities that make the film surprisingly distinctive.
Then again, there are also elements in the film that don't make it distinct from other animated comedies. Because the films' first 10-15 minutes is mostly rambunctious and silly, with bits and pieces of toilet humor and fast-paced goofiness. Fortunately, the movie quickly becomes much more entertaining after that, as it focuses more on its' letting go-like story as it goes on (but it doesn't flick away the goofiness completely).
And then again, I also think about Adam Sandler's involvement in this, as a headlining actor and executive producer (he's tried for a while now to connect with family audiences). And I must say, compared to his recent tries to do a true family-friendly movie, this one improves leaps in bounds over Bedtime Stories and Jack and Jill. Any suggestive jokes present are lightweight and there's zero real foul language.
Plus, despite having a monster mythos front and center, the movie's creatures don't have a spiritual emphasis, explanation, or origin, which is a very good thing. And despite having a "scary images" advisory in its' PG rating, the movie probably will only give the most sensitive of younger ones something to scream about (just be ready for the four or five moments of Dracula's rage).
Hotel Transylvania may end up one of this year's weakest animated efforts. But, in a strange way, the movie is a lot like the character Dracula himself. A few times he gets into a rage, then run off and cause a monstrous banter. But once we look past that, we see someone who is just like any other dad. And if we look past the films' silly moments, we get a film that is fun, colorful and light-hearted.
(A DVD postscript: Another strange thing, Hotel Transylvania is one of those rare films that actually is funnier, more enjoyable and much less annoying the second time you watch it, so I have pushed the score up a couple notches).
