Hotel Transylvania 3D
DIRECTOR: Genndy Tartakovsky
CAST: Voices of Selena Gomez, Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Cee-Lo Green
CLASSIFICATION: 10 VMA
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Helen Herimbi
Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, such a lovely place… for monsters.
In the Eagles’ iconic song, one could check out of Hotel California, but they could never leave. In Hotel Transylvania, there’s a particular guest who is not only encouraged not to check in but to leave immediately if he turns up.
That’s because the guest is a human being and has wandered into a palatial paradise for monsters. Owned and run by the control freak that is Dracula (Sandler), this hotel is a haven for popular characters like Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The (obese) Mummy, who is voiced by singer Cee Lo Green.
On the occasion of the 118th birthday of Dracula’s only child, Mavis (Gomez), all these monsters not only go on vacation, but head straight to Hotel Transylvania to help their buddy Dracula and his child celebrate the big day.
Having remained a secret from the human world for centuries, Dracula goes crazy when he finds out that Jonathan (Samberg), a human male – 21 years old and attached to his backpack – has found the secret spot without even trying.
Dracula makes it his mission to drive Jonathan out of his hotel without the other monsters noticing that Jonathan is not one of them. But then Jonathan falls in love with Mavis and you can guess how the rest of this story goes.
The hues of blue, black and gray are omnipresent in the film, because Dracula can’t really be out-side chilling in the sun, you know. But the colours also add a nice air of cool as opposed to darkness to the scenes.
This is one of the reasons that this animated film won’t be scary for children. That and the fact that there is plenty of slapstick comedy.
There’s a little something in there for the adults who have to accompany these kids into the cinema too.
For instance, Dracula catches Jonathan watching one of the Twilight movies on the in-flight television. Rolling his eyes, Dracula says: “This is how we’re represented? Unbelievable!”
There’s a lot of sass coming from the do-not-disturb heads hung on the doors of the hotel rooms and as expected, Gomez has the innocent, perfect daddy’s little girl game down to a T.
Hotel Transylvania is definitely not a film you’ll want to watch if you’re not accompanying kids, but you won’t mind it if you are.
If you liked… ‘Brave’ or Scrooge McDuck from ‘Duck Tales’… then you may like this.