Hotel Transylvania Review

Justin and I saw Hotel Transylvania on September 30, 2012. I had been interested in this movie since I posed for a picture with people dressed up like the characters at Comic-Con!!! I thought the movie was funny, had a good plot, and had some great animation/special effects. The movie follows the life of Dracula and his daughter Mavis. The hotel was constructed in order to save Mavis from the human world. The humans caused a major tragic event in Dracula's life and he doesn't want to see this happen to Mavis. That is why the hotel is constructed: protection. Only monsters are allowed!! Dracula is preparing for Mavis's 118th birthday and a huge party is going to take place. Mavis wants to experience the world, but Dracula keeps doing everything to keep her from moving from the hotel: He even sets up a mock town with zombies acting as humans to keep Mavis from going. I personally thought the Dracula plot blended a nice dramatic element to some fun physical comedy bits from characters such as Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman-and his 30 kids, and other great monster friends. I think my favorite character in terms of overall look was Mavis. A human named Jonathan (who can get annoying at times) infiltrates the hotel. It is interesting to watch the progress made by Dracula. He notices that all humans aren't bad. We witness some fun scenes including a Monster Comic-Con which was great. I thought this was great to show as people have become more accepting of monster culture. There are some subtle messages in there in terms of current social landscapes, and I like the way they approached it. The voice talents of Selena Gomez, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher and David Spade were excellent. Rob Schneider was missing, which baffled me. I am picky on animated movies, and I have to say the combination of placing the Universal Monster troupe in a more family friendly environment, along with great animation/visual effects-with great usage of color especially, and a good plot mixed with dramatic and comedic elements made this enjoyable for me. Everything meshed well together in my opinion. I give this a 4/5, and besides Grown Ups this is the first Adam Sandler project I've liked for a while.