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 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 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...

Hotel Transylvania is the latest animated movie from Sony Pictures Animation. The story is pretty straightforward. Years ago Dracula built a hotel far from mankind. The idea was that monsters from all over the world could come to the resort, free from persecution, and relax together. 118 years after the birth of his daughter Mavis, and tragic death of his wife, Dracula throws a party for his baby girl (well 118 is young in vampire years). She's at that age (in human years she'd be 18) where she's interested in humans. Since she was born her father has warned her against the danger of mankind, but she is drawn to finding out for herself.

However, the unthinkable has happened. A 21-year-old human boy called Jonathan has managed to find his way through the spooky forest, haunted graveyard, and traverse the giant moat and stumble into the foyer of Hotel Transylvania. Dracula quickly spots him and warns him that if the other monsters find out a human is in the hotel all hell will break out. Dracula alters Jonathan's appearance to make him look like a relative of Frankenstein and everything is going well until the young man meets Dracula's daughter and the two start to form a friendship.

While the story is paper thin and the writers struggle to balance that fine line between a kid friendly film that can also hold an adult's attention for the duration (it does, but only just), the movie does have a certain charm.

Adam Sandler, providing the voice of Dracula, does his best Bela Lugosi impression and helps hold the movie together. However the standout acting talent here is Andy Samberg as the young clueless Jonathan.

Extras include an audio commentary with director Genndy Tartakovsky, producer Michelle Murdocca and visual effects supervisor Daniel Kramer; Goodnight Mr. Foot (3 min, 59 sec animated short by Tartakovsky that's based in the Hotel Transylvania universe); Deleted Scenes (6 min, 10 sec rough storyboards); Problem (Monster Remix) Music Video by Becky G Featuring will.i.am (3 min, 20 sec music video); Behind the Scenes of Problem (Monster Remix) (2 min, 17 sec behind the scenes featurette on the making of the music video); and DVD-Rom content which links you to the Hotel Transylvania website.

So, not a bad movie, but not one that will be enjoyed by adults as much as the young.

6

Darren Rea