Directed by
Genndy Tartakovsky
Written by
Peter Baynham, Robert Smigel, Todd Durham, Kevin Hageman, and Dan Hageman
Genndy
Tartakovsky’s treatment in recent years hasn’t really been the best. After Dexter’s Lab and Powerpuff Girls,
Samurai Jack managed to never get a conclusion despite its popularity, and
Sym-Bionic Titan was on TV for such a short time that I still haven’t seen an
episode. Mix this in with various film
projects falling through, and I simply didn’t know how Hotel Transylvania would
turn out. Turns out it’s a pleasant
surprise.
After
Dracula (Adam Sandler) loses his wife and has to take care of his daughter
Mavis (Selena Gomez) on his own, he ends up building a hotel where he can keep
her, and all the other monsters, safe from humans. And even as she’s turning 118, he’s still not
ready to let her go out into the world. Things
become worse when a human, Jonathan (Andy Samberg) manages to find the hotel
and starts shaking things up.
Here’s
the obvious thing: some of the story points clearly aren’t the most original. Let’s just point to the overprotective father
angle taken right from Finding Nemo, and monsters being afraid from humans just
like Monsters Inc. The overall idea
though provides plenty of imagination.
Having a getaway for monsters is just interesting and funny. The hotel itself is filled with plenty of
different monsters, from classics like Dracula and werewolves to flying brains,
and they’re always doing something.
Particularly in lobby scenes, there’s just so much stuff going on to
take in. Even background monsters have
been given some sort of personality and keep showing up. You get familiar with each one of them and
learn to like them.
One
of my biggest fears going into this movie was the all-star voice cast. Adam Sandler, I can count a handful of movies
he’s in that I’ve liked, and most of those are in spite of him rather than
because of him. He does a surprisingly
good job here, keeping up the Transylvanian accent and giving the uptight
Dracula a lot of humor and pathos. His
regular cohorts Andy Samberg, Kevin James (as Frankenstein) and David Spade (as
the Invisible Man) are all also doing fine jobs. It almost makes me wonder if the camaraderie
between them has simply made them stronger, such that, even in an animated
space, they know how to play off of each other.
Their characters, along with Steve Buscemi as a werewolf and Cee Lo
Green as a mummy, just come off as best friends. It’s enjoyable to watch them. Maybe this is what Sandler was trying to do
with something like Grown Ups, but as monsters, they’re much more enjoyable to
watch.
Tartakovsky’s own touch can be seen in the
animation. I don’t think he’s ever worked
in a CG space before, and yet you can see it come through. The characters will be moving and dancing and
suddenly you realize that you’ve seen that style in one of his shows. It helps that he really knows how to make
things big. Characters will make big cartoonish
movements, dramatic gestures, Dracula talking normally until it suddenly goes
to a close-up of him hissing. The movie
has no worries about fully realistic character movements and just wants them to
be cartoons, and it works.
Not
only is Hotel Transylvania surprisingly good, but it continues the theme of
good Halloween movies for families this year.
It might not reach the emotional heights of ParaNorman or Frankenweenie,
but it’s funny, imaginative, and most importantly, shows that Tartakovsky is
still around and just as good as you remember him.
No comments:
Post a Comment