Hotel Transylvania: A BIG Hit For Sony & Director Tartakovsky TIFF 2012

Hotel Transylvania, with an all star lineup of voice talents - Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Molly Shannon, Andy Samberg, David Spade, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher and CeeLo Green has beaten the odds to be one of the most enjoyable family films of this year’s TIFF so far. Development hell usually dooms films to mediocrity and a level of hype that cannot possibly be lived up to. After having numerous directors attached to film this seemed the case with Hotel Transylvania. Luckily, the 7th time was the charm for Sony who brought on Genndy Tartakovsky, a legend in the animation industry to the project. Tartakovsky’s tenure with children’s cartooning lends both a sense of maturity (which many children’s films fail to incorporate) and a sense of character across the films elements. With Samurai Jack, Tartakovsky introduced the world to his sense of composition, pacing and depth, which works amazingly well in this 3D endeavor.

I’ve often thought that the realism of CG characters depended on their animation, gesture and facial animation. These traits have long been the dominant realm of larger animation studios like Pixar and Dreamworks and with Hotel Transylvania Sony has honestly rivaled their efforts. Characters look lively, motion fills the screen and the principles of design stand against the best in the industry. I was quick to compare the film to Disney’s recent effort with Tangled,  a film that in my opinion lacked the smooth animation of Hotel Transylvania. Amazingly Tartakovsky’s style translates well from his past 2D animation to the CG world of Hotel Transylvania.

The plot of the film draws monsters of popular fiction to a hotel every year for the birthday of Dracula’s daughter, Dracula being the owner of the hotel. In a classic coming of age type of way the plot revolves around a taboo love between young Mavis Dracula and a Human who wanders into the kooky world of monster vacationing. The voice acting is superb, with some notable nods at Fran Drescher that had the older audience in stitches. Sandler as Dracula hands down stole the show, bringing classic Adam Sandler to the max as a singing, rapping, hilarious original Vampire. The characters, while faithful to their classic origins have a modern and often hilarious sensibility to them and it’s not since encountering Dreamwork’s Shrek that I’ve fallen so utterly and completely in love with the entire ensemble. Hopefully on that note, Sony will take a cue from the Shrek empire and franchise Hotel Transylvania, these loveable characters have at least a sequel left in them. Go see Hotel Transylvania, bring the whole family and get ready to fall in love with some of the best monsters to hit the screen.

-Max Romano