Hotel Transylvania : Movie Review


Proof positive that the makers of "Hotel Transylvania" did not do their research: Frankenstein's monster is named Frankenstein. It's a small detail, but a crucial one for a film that takes its inspiration from vintage Universal creature features and, loosely, the classic literary works of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker. Lest younger viewers in the audience learn a little something along the way, director Genndy Tartakovsky and screenwriters Peter Baynham (2011's "Arthur Christmas") and Robert Smigel (2008's "You Don't Mess with the Zohan") are either content to provide dumbed-down information to the masses—it is a wide misconception that Frankenstein is the actual resurrected creation rather than the scientist who invents him—or they are hopelessly misinformed. This irksome aside notwithstanding, "Hotel Transylvania" is only sporadically diverting as far as computer-animated family films go, neither sharply written nor dramatically confident enough to compete against the upper echelon of such features. What it does compare to is Adam Sandler's last foray into animation—2002's Hannukah-themed "Eight Crazy Nights"—if only for their similar mediocrity.

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Author : Dustin Putman