A fun family film for the entire family, “Hotel Transylvania” is a beautifully animated film from Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks, that will make children laugh from beginning to end! An entertaining animated film worth checking out!
© 2012 Sony Pictures Animation Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Hotel Transylvania
AIR DATE: 2012
DURATION: 91 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: PG (Some Rude Humor, Action and Scary Images)
RELEASE DATE: January 29, 2013
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
Screenplay by Peter Baynham and Robert Smigel
Story by Todd Durham, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman
Produced by Michelle Murdocca
Co-Producer: Lydia Bottegoni
Executive Producer: Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel
Music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Edited by Catherine Apple
Casting by Mary Hidalgo
Production Design by Marcelo Vignali
Art Direction by Ron Lukas, Noelle Triaureau
Featuring the voices of:
Adam Sandler as Dracula
Andy Samberg as Jonathan
Selena Gomez as Mavis
Kevin James as Frankenstein
Fran Drescher as Eunice
Steve Buscemi as Wayne
Molly Shannon as Wanda
David Spade as Griffin
CeeLo Green as Murray
Jon Lovitz as Quasimodo
Brian George as Suit of Armer
Luenell as Shrunken Heads
Chris Parnell as Fly
Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up and no humans are allowed. One special weekend, Dracula (Adam Sandler) has invited all his best friends – Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Werewolf family, and more – to celebrate his beloved daughter Mavis’s (Selena Gomez) 118th birthday. For Dracula catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem but the party really starts when one ordinary guy stumbles into the hotel and changes everything!
From Genndy Tartakovsky, director of “Samurai Jack” and “Dexter’s Laboratory” comes the Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Pictures Imageworks animated film “Hotel Transylvania”.
Featuring a screenplay by Peter Baynham (“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, “Bruno”, “Arthur Christmas”) and Robert Smigel (“Late Night with Conan O’Brien”, “You Don’t Mess with Zohan”, “Saturday Night Live”), the film was released in theaters in Sept. 2012 and with a budget set at $85 million, “Hotel Transylvania” would go on to make over $321 million in the box office.
The animated film would feature an all-star cast providing their voices. Featured in the film are Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz and Chris Parnell. The film was produced by Michelle Murdocca and executive produced by Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel.
“Hotel Transylvania” is an animated comedy about Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), who is the owner and creator of Hotel Transylvania, a five-star resort for fellow monsters, to keep them safe from human civilization.
On a special day to celebrate his daughter Mavis’ (voiced by Selena Gomez) 118th birthday, Dracula invites his friends Frankenstein (voiced by Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (voiced by Fran Drescher), Murray the Mummy (voiced by Cee Lo Green), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (voiced by Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), Griffin the Invisble Man (voiced by David Spade), Bigfoot, Steve the Blob and other monsters.
But for Mavis, what she wants for her birthday, now that she is grown up, is to explore the outside world and see the human world.
But being a single father and also a strict father to Mavis, Dracula doesn’t want her to because he believes the humans want the monsters dead.
But Dracula comes up with a plan, to let her wander out for her first time to a nearby village, but what Mavis doesn’t know is that the inhabitants are also monsters and part of Dracula’s plan to have his daughters stay home. And he succeeds.
But when a human named Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg), who is exploring the nearby forest, follows staff to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula tries to hide him from other monsters, worrying that a human might set off chaos as the monsters may think the humans are there to kill them. So, Dracula disguises Jonathan as a Flesh Golem named Johnny-stein and has Frankenstein thinking that Johnny-stein is a relative.
And with Jonathan’s presence in Hotel Transylvania, Jonathan is able to liven up the festivity by introducing them to modern rock and dance music and how to have fun and eventually charming everyone including Dracula’s daughter, Mavis.
Seeing that both Mavis and Jonathan are getting close, Dracula tells Jonathan to please stay away from his daughter. And when Jonathan wants to know why, Dracula reveals a tragic past of why Mavis’ mother is no longer living and how that tragedy ties to humans.
Not wanting to hurt Dracula, Jonathan is willing to do what Dracula says and distance himself from Mavis, despite her falling in love with him. But when Chef Quasimodo (voiced by Jon Lovitz) finds out that there is a human in Hotel Transylvania, he wants to cook him up. And with Jonathan captured, can Dracula save him from harm, but also keep his human existence hidden from the monsters at the hotel?
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Hotel Transylvania” is presented in 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen and English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. It’s important to note that if you want the best picture quality available for this film, you may want to check out the Blu-ray version. Also, “Hotel Transylvania” will be released on Blu-ray 3D for those who do have an 3D enabled Blu-ray player and television.
As for the DVD, let me just say that Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Pictures imageworks did a fantastic job with this film. From the character design to the amount of detail seen n the film, while those watching it in HD, will see much more detail, the DVD still looks good. Really good use of warm and cool colors throughout the film. As for audio, the soundtrack may not be in lossless, but still, there is a good amount of action in the film that you can hear through the surround channels.   Dialogue and music is clear and sounds very good on DVD.
Subtitles are in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Hotel Transylvania” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary – Featuring audio commentary by Director Genndy Tartakovsky, Producer Michelle Murdocca and Visual Effects Supervisor Daniel Kramer and the three really give good insight to the making of the film. Especially its more technical moments and what scenes were most challenging. Especially how certain plots evolved during the planning and making of this film.
- Goodnight Mr. Foot – (4:07) A short story directed by Genndy Tartakovsky in animated cartoon format featuring a Big Foot who traveled from North America and traveled far to Hotel Transylvania and wants rest and no noise and is constantly awaken by a witch.
- Deleted Scenes – (6:21) Featuring three deleted scenes: Prologue, Shadows, Caught in the Act
- Music Video – (3:27) “Problem (Monster Remix)” Music Video by Becky G featuring will.i.am.
- Behind the Scenes of “Problem (Monster Remix)” – (2:21) will.i.am discussing working with Becky G and Becky G discussing the making of the song and music video.
- DVD-Rom Games – If you insert the DVD in a DVD-Rom, you can access games for “Hotel Transylvania”.
EXTRAS:
“Hotel Transylvania” Ultraviolet code which allows one to download the film to their computer and select Apple and Android devices and the ability to stream to computers, tablets or smartphones.
“Hotel Transylvania” is a fun animated film that is a fun treat for an animated film. For children, the usually creepy characters such as Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Werewolf, etc. are presented in a non-threatening manner. If anything, the film tries to show Dracula and the monsters as fearful of humans and are trying to protect their kind from being killed by humans. In fact, Dracula doesn’t even suck human blood and if anything, the monsters are portrayed more as a non-threatening endangered species who just want to be left alone.
And part of the storyline revolves around a controlling and fearful father, Dracula, who cares deeply for his daughter Mavis. But as Mavis is old enough to explore the world on her own and wants to get out and see it, it’s about one father trying his best not to lose his daughter but also a fear that by exploring the world outside Hotel Transylvania, she may meet the same fate as Dracula’s wife, who was killed by humans.
But life changes for Mavis when she comes across a guy named Jonathan, who happens to be a human.
“Hotel Transylvania” doesn’t try to become an animated film that tries to tug on emotional sympathy. The characters are eccentric, while rated-PG, the characters were made to be more upbeat and naive. And parents, while rated PG, most of the film is not threatening. Possible scenes that children may get scared at is Dracula turning into a vampire bat, pretend zombies being accidentally burned by flames but there is no death but the story of Dracula discussing his wife’s tragedy.
Character animation is pleasing and for the most part, this film is upbeat, fun and just an entertaining film that is meant to entertain children. No deep or complex story, no emotional storyline, just a straight-up story about a human who accidentally wanders into Hotel Transylvania and Dracula trying to find a way to keep him concealed from his guests and also prevent him getting close to his only daughter.
Voice acting for the most part is done well by its cast of big names such as Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, David Spade, Fran Derescher, CeeLo Green, Chris Parnell to name a few.
As for the DVD, the Blu-ray release actually is better in terms of picture quality, lossless audio soundtrack and more special features. The DVD does look good but doesn’t come with all the special features as its Blu-ray counterpart.
Overall, “Hotel Transylvania” is a good film that features a lot of entertaining and fun moments. It’s a bit silly but children will love the fart jokes, the humor and the pleasing animation. Parents shouldn’t worry too much and there is no major violence or anything too scary but for those the scenes I mentioned earlier, parental guidance is suggested.
A fun family film for the entire family, “Hotel Transylvania” is a beautifully animated film from Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks, that will make children laugh from beginning to end!
An entertaining animated film worth checking out!
