Hotel Transylvania Reviews

Hotel Transylvania was a cute cartoon. I enjoyed all of the different characters. It had some laughs. Of course Adam brought in a lot of his friends to do the voices for the characters. I didn't mind it so much this time since I didn't have to see them. My nieces and nephews really enjoyed it and said that the movie was really good and is now one of their favorites. So I guess all that matters is that the kids love it since it is, in the end, intended for the children.

Attention to detail is all important in animated films and the makers of Hotel Transylvania know this while many other animated films forget. The story is fun, not too preachy or cliched even when you expect it to be. It's not too schmaltzy either, another pit fall that seems rife in animation. I thought the voices were good too, the cast picked for how they sound rather than who they are but with some well known names just the same. The biggest let down for me, and it is a bit of a animation cliche, is the bloody awful music. All that attention do the visual detail just to let themselves down with the sound seems like such a shame. Still, its good and not the bad film as I'd heard.

The first half was lame, the last half seemed to pick up. But, it still wasn't as good as I had expected it to be. Ok, just not great...

I was very wary about this project. It starred a bunch of voice actors that have generally outstayed their welcome, and at the same time it is directed by an animation genius. What transpired is a rather mixed affair but for the first half I was totally entranced and laughing heartily at the visual humour and pretty clever jokes. The film has Dracula building a hotel for all his monster buddies to escape persecution. He also uses it to shield his daughter away from the outside world, but when a human shows up unexpectedly, things begin to change. Tartakovsky has a real eye for detail, which allows many funny goings on in the background. The voice work was also well suited, with even Kevin James and David Spade providing good performances, although Samberg's attempts to sound like your average 21 year old backpacker was a bit annoying and unconvincing. However, I can't really remember the second half of the film, which is odd because I was enjoying it so much. I guess it was just bland and formulaic after a while. Most annoying of all was the film failing to live by its rules, where we could have seen an emotional and painful moment for Dracula, instead he can just be in the sun for as long as he likes. Play by your own damn rules film.

Where monsters go to get away from it all.

Great animated movie!!! I think that is a movie that is fun for the whole family. Youngsters will like the characters, the older children will enjoy the jokes and plot, and the adults will likely enjoy the movie as well, being able to catch on to the more "adult" funny references and a story about a father-daughter relationship that can be appreciated. I think the moral of the story was trust your children to make the right decisions no matter what you think about them and from the child point of view the moral was to know your parents are always just trying to protect you. "Hotel Transylvania" deserves plenty of recognition, and most importantly, should be enjoyed. Go see it!

Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world's most famous monsters - Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more - to celebrate his daughter Mavis' 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem - but his world could come crashing down when a human stumbles on the hotel for the first time and takes a shine to Mavis.

1 1/2 stars go to the zombies. They were my favourite thing about this film. The remaining half a star goes to everything else. I would throw in a plus for the Count's sob story, if Flixster would let me.

The songs were horrible. Horrible! As much as I love musicals, I have to ask: Why do animations need to have musical numbers anyway? I had the misfortune of seeing a dubbed version of this film, but I doubt hearing the songs in English would've improved the experience in any significant way. Cursed be, autotune!

Took me longer than I thought it would, but I finally saw Hotel Transylvania. Hard to believe it was a Genndy Tartakovsky film. Maybe if he helped write it it would have been funnier and less dull. Other than a few decent jokes, it wasn't very fun.

For a movie with many fast-paced jokes, quick editing, and fluid animation, it felt a bit sluggish.

Jon Lovitz does an unrecognizably well job as Quasimodo which was most likely the best [side] character in the whole movie.

The idea of a Hotel for all the monsters from our myths and pop culture is quite great. Of course a story about that still has to contain the usual topics like family values and friendship. All that is handled rather well here, though, and never gets on your nerves. While not all the jokes work as well as they could and the human character can be a tad annoying at times, there are moments of genius. The details of the Hotel and its guests are particularly fun. A fun and touching showdown completes a very entertaining and charming film that offers quite a few good laughs. Only the rap party during the ending is really unnecessary.

This year is really a good year for spooky 'Addams Family' style halloween goth freaks like myself hehe. So far we've had 'ParaNorman' 'Frankenweenie' and now this Adam Sandler animated vehicle. Yes that's right...Adam 'I'm not funny anymore' Sandler.

After about 10mins into this film you can tell its clearly been made for kids. Nothing wrong with that of course but this isn't 'Toy Story' smart with little winks for the older folk, its way more tuned for the younglings. This is very evident with silly jokes, huge prat falls and a very loud in your face approach much like many kiddie cartoons, dare I say childish to the max.

Yes childish but did I expect more? well maybe yes, an Adam Sandler fronted film, I did think it might be a little more risky in places or even a tad scary judging by the concept. The best thing about the film in many sequences is the dialog from the brilliant voice cast line up. This is where adults will enjoy especially with the dry wit of Spade and Buscemi who give 'Werewolf' and 'The Invisible Man' some cracking moments of speech. Naturally Kevin James is in here too, can't have an Adam Sandler film without his tubby sidekick it seems. There was a time when it was Rob Schneider, not anymore.

The animation was 50/50 for me to be honest, at times some sequences and character movements looked fantastic. The flashback sequences for 'Dracula' were especially lovely with stunning colours, where as the best animated motion capture again was easily 'Dracula'. Some gorgeous looking work as we see 'Drac' glide across the hallways, flap and twirl is cape, slink amongst the shadows and sail through the air...its all in the cape work.
Other characters are well designed too, I like the blue collar look of 'Werewolf', the obvious simplicity of 'The Invisible Man', the gigantic foot of I presume 'Yeti' and 'Mummy' who looked a lot like 'Oogie Boogie' from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

There are an impressive range of monsters shown throughout the film from standard skeletons to a 'Pumpkin King' like character. The main guys are the best looking where as the rest don't seem quite as well crafted.

I must just add, is it wrong that I found the young female character of 'Mavis', 'Drac's' daughter, kinda hot?. I mean look at it from my point of view, I'm into the whole goth look and vibe. So for me the sight of an attractive slim pale female with black lips, dark eye shadow, black fingernails and raven black hair wearing a surprisingly sexy tight black number complete with arm stockings was really quite sexy haha. It was like watching a young animated Winona Ryder! rawr!!.

But I digress, the film is a simple love tale between 'Mavis' and a random human lad who turns up at the hotel, nothing more. Its very sweet, very charming and will thrill the kids. I did enjoy it mainly for the monster mash aspect and of course the kooky vampire/haunted mansion side of it (if you haven't already guessed).

The animation was a slight let down for me as I did expect something a bit more original, quirky or diverse from director Geddy Tartakovsky. It all looks good but too generic for me, nothing trailblazing like his 'Star Wars' work. Also was hoping for something a little more adult orientated in places with the monsters but alas. Jokes are a bit forced, hated the pop songs included and the horrendous ending almost ruins the entire film Jesus! but it still just about made me smile.

Not as unique, amusing or moving as 'ParaNorman', so far that is the front runner for fun halloween flicks. Watch out for Geddy's unique and much better hand drawn animation in the end credits, maybe they should have done the whole film this way?.

I love universal monster movies, and I love Adam Sandler movies. Mix the two together and you have this very funny animated movie. "Hotel Transylvania" is the story of Dracula(Sandler) who owns a hotel for monsters that no human can get to. He is throwing a massive party for his daughters(Selena Gomez) 118 year birthday and all their monster friends are coming. Invisible Man(David Spade), Frankenstein(Kevin James), Wolf Man(Steve Buscemi), Mummy(Ce Lo Green), among many others, when a human, Johnathon, wanders into the hotel. Dracula must then get the human out before the other monsters realize he is there, all the while Jonathon is developing a relationship with Dracula's daughter. I thought this movie was very funny, and a great way to introduce these classic characters to smaller children. Is it the best animated movie? No, but it is very entertaining, and one that adults will find a lot of humor in. All the Sandler regulars are here, and it is perfect for his fans, especially for the ones with kids. I'm sure some people will think this is dumb, and to them I'd say they take themselves way too seriously. Good fun Halloween movie for families with kids that may not be ready for actual scary movies.

Although it does still have the lame jokes and bland story that Adam Sandler films usually do, "Hotel Transylvania" is thankfully not a part of that trend. It does have it's fart jokes and isn't without a couple racist & offensive gags, but at it's core, it is really just a heartwarming story about Count Dracula and his daughter becoming old enough to explore the world, being safe. It is very by the numbers and plays it very safe, but it is effective and the animation is great. I enjoyed watching this film one time around, but I can't see myself going out of the way to watch it again, unless it's on tv or one of my friends rented it. I laughed and I felt a little tingle in my heart by the end, so it at least accomplished that. It's average, and even though it is effective at times, it is very very generic and dull. Still I give it credit for having heart!

Even monsters need a vacation

Spooky good

I knew right on that Tartakovsky was going to nail this film, and he did. Hotel Transylvania is a fun movie that moves quick and is definitely a fun time to laugh out loud.

When Dracula (Sandler) opens a Hotel for monsters like Frank (James), the invisible man (Spade) and Wayne (Buscemi) his one hope is that humans never find them. However, on the eve of his daughters birthday, Dracula discovers that Jonathan - a human - has infiltrated the hotel, and its up for him and his pals to get rid of him.

Okay I wont lie, I love this movie, even though it was made for the little ones. The movie is hilarious and the pacing in just great! There isn't much to say about it, but I really enjoyed it.

Jonathan: I'm allergic to scream cheese!

A fun, funny and sentimental family film that has a good amount of low brow gags and cleverness to entertain a family for an hour and a half. I love when movies cleverly use the horror element and make it funny (Good example: Beetlejuice). It's just a very fun time for families and animation-lovers alike.

The guy who directed Dexter's Laboratory brings us a vampire romance that isn't as stupid as the one in Twilight. Hotel Transylvania is about a hotel for monsters so they can stay safe from humans and relax. It's run by Dracula who is also dealing with being overprotective of his daughter who will eventually start a romance with a human. Hotel Transylvania has a very well known cast. The voice actors are Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher, David Spade, Ceelo Greene, Jon Lovitz and Andy Samberg. Adam Sandler voices Dracula and he actually does a good job. I think that Sandler is better off doing animations considering how most of his recent live action comedies have been nothing but crap. I will give the movie credit for making me laugh in some scenes. I was surprised at how enjoyable the movie ended up being. There are jokes in the movie that are aimed at kids and that got tiresome, but the movie as a whole is something that both kids and adults can have fun with. It's not like Ice Age 4 where all the jokes are for kids and adults will hate it. The plot for the movie isn't really anything special and it has a Twilight-esque feel to it, but there is one moment in the film where it actually makes fun of Twilight. I always welcome a joke that involves ripping on Twilight and I laughed my ass off when this movie made fun of it. If you're a tasteless teenage girl who loves Twilight and you'll defend it to your death, then you'll probably hate this movie, I'm just saying. Like I said, the movie involves Dracula's daughter falling in love with a human and I actually kind of bought their romance. It's not anything original, but it's not bad either. I will also say that if you're a fan of the iconic horror movie monsters of the 1930's, like myself, then you'll definately get a kick out of the movie. The movie even feels like Abbot and Costello Meets Frankenstein at some times because it's a comedy with famous movie monsters. I won't say that this movie is extremely hilarious. I stated earlier that some jokes are aimed at kids, but then there are jokes that were low-brow and Adam Sandler-like as I like to call them. But the movie does get back on track whenever something like that happens. In the end, Hotel Transylvania ended up being a really enjoyable animation. The jokes were funny, I liked the characters, the animation looked cool and I enjoyed watching it. If you're an adult with kids then you might be able to go into this movie and like it whereas kids will love the movie. It's not anything special, but it's a decent kids film.

Formulaic but entertaining, Hotel Transylvania puts a unique new spin on classic monster characters. Seeking to protect his daughter, Dracula builds a monster sanctuary called Hotel Transylvania that's protected from the human word, but when a wayward human hiker finds his way to the hotel the sanctuary is threatened. Featuring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, and Kevin James, the film is loaded with comedic talent. And though most of the jokes are obvious, they're told well-enough so that they don't seem stale or trite. Even with all of its cliches Hotel Transylvania works, and comes off as a sincere and fun children's film.

SONY PICTURES ANIMATION PRESENTS HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA. IS THIS A FAILED FILM, OR IS THIS HOTEL TRULY WORTH THE PRICE?

Hotel Transylvania, marks the first feature film to be directed by animator Genndy Tartakovsky, prior to this Tartakovsky, has been responsible for the creation of critically acclaimed Cartoon Network shows (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Sym-Bionic Titan). In his feature debut, Genndy, once again proves his understanding of making entertaining animation for both children and adults.

The animation is great, comical, and quite possibly one of the best to date for a CG animated film, this film really captures the zany antics of short features from yesteryear, the stretchiness, the fast pace of the characters, everything is captured really well. The animation feels like a true recreation of Tex Avery/classic Looney Tunes shorts, this sets a standard for future CG films attempting to capture a 2D look. The character designs are also worth mentioning, every one of the film's characters have a simplistic look, yet provides some of the most adorable, and stand out designs for the monsters in years; even The Invisible Man (played by David Spade) who mostly appears with only sunglasses on, stands out by simply employing the Tartakovsky trademarked "glasses change to reflect mood" style.

The cast in this film may seem like a turn off, yet surprisingly upon watching the film becomes another one of it's strong points, one would expect this to never be a case with The Sandler regulars, yet any other voices for these characters might've killed the quality. Adam Sandler leads the ensemble as Dracula, providing his best performance in years, as the film goes on, one forgets that fact and moves along with the lovable host of the hotel, who here is desperate to keep his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez, also her best performance, though possibly just that) from interacting with humans. The monsters show up of course in this hotel/haven to get away from humans, most noticeably the Invisible Man, Frankenstein (voice of Kevin James) his bride (voice of Fran Drescher), Werewolves, Wayne (voice Steve Buscemi) and Wanda (voice of Molly Shannon), and finally, Murray the Mummy (voice of Cee Lo Green), but their very nature comes to a cataclysmic danger (well Dracula seems to think so) when a human, Jonathan (voice of Andy Samberg) finds this elusive hotel.

What makes this film work from a story standpoint is just how much it's willing to embrace the simplicity, while also embracing it's characters and overall silly tone. As the director put it "not all animated films need to be like Pixar"; this film opted for a classic cartoon approach and fully commits to it, providing what feels like a fresh experience due to the lack of animated films that have used the Tex Avery/ Looney Tunes approach in films as of late. It's the standard tale of a father needing to accept his daughter growing up and finding love, yet manages to throw a lot of old cliches out the window, or freshen them up enough to create a very entertaining comedy, the old school comedic style feels new once more. Genndy Tartakovsky proves he has talent for full length films, making his upcoming Popeye,even more intriguing to wait for.

Hotel Transylvania, may not be the deepest, most complex film in animation, but it is definitely one of the most fun all year, watch it.

Hotel Transylvania is a fun animated movie that kids will love, however some adults will be constantly checking the time to see when the movie ends. It surprised me that I enjoyed this film, I mean it has a lot of things that could've made it an awful experience (mostly the fact that Adam Sandler plays Count Dracula). I will admit that I enjoyed watching the film and that I had a fun time, but it's really just not a great animated movie. I mean it has fart jokes, an unoriginal story, and I could predict the ending within the first 5 minutes or so. But that didn't change the fact that the film has a lot of energy, a lot of great animation, and a lot of heart. I will even admit that I enjoyed Adam Sandler in this film; I know I can't believe it either. I loved the different style animation this film did and I loved how the characters looked and moved around. I had a lot of pros and cons about this movie, but the important thing to know is that your kids will love it.

The plot follows Count Dracula who for many years has been in charge of running Hotel Transylvania, a hotel for monsters. He created the hotel to protect his daughter Mavis and to always make sure she is safe, but once a bumbling and clueless human named Jonathon wanders into his hotel, he must do whatever it takes to make sure nobody (especially his daughter) discovers the fact that he is a human. But it might be hard to get rid of him once everyone in the hotel begins to like Jonathon, who is pretending to be a monster himself.

The plot of the movie was its ultimate downfall, but it did have a lot of energy with its characters. I mean we all know how it's going to end, so why can't it be like a classic Pixar film where we don't know how it's going to end and it's completely original storyline. I guess it's hard to find a truly original animated film nowadays, but I still wish they did some stuff that hasn't been done a million times before. I mean they even are copying DreamWorks movies now because there is a big musical number at the end of the film; I was like the only person in the theater saying "are you serious?" But I did love all the range of characters that they created, such as monsters like Count Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Werewolf, Quasimodo, Invisible Man, Big Foot, and many more. They all were fun and I loved watching them, so I do give the script credit for some good characters. I laughed with the jokes and the characters, but I wish they had gotten more creative instead of just an "I don't want my daughter to leave home" story that we see all the time.

The voice cast was chosen well and you could hear a lot of the famous actors which made it slightly more enjoyable. I have grown to have a grudge against Adam Sandler over the past few years, films like Jack & Jill and That's My Boy have made me want to cry over the fact I paid money to see that crap. But for once he gives a good performance in a movie (even if it is animated) and he made Count Dracula a little more of a fun guy. Andy Samberg is teaming up with Sandler again, but this time he uses his goofiness to his advantage and makes his character a lot more fun. Kevin James as Frankenstein got me laughing, and Steve Buscemi as the werewolf was a stroke of brilliance. David Spade as the Invisible Man gave the movie some really good moments, and Cee Lo Green as the Mummy couldn't have been more perfect. Selena Gomez was picked so she could attract the younger kids, but other than that she really does nothing to add to the films laughs. We also have other stars such as Jon Lovitz, Molly Shannon, Fran Dresher, Chris Parnell, Brian George, and even Rob Riggle. The all-star voice cast was one of many reasons that I went to see this fun movie.

Hotel Transylvania wasn't a great animated film, but it was fun and had a lot of energy that made me like it. It just could've been so much more because a movie about a hotel for monsters is actually a pretty interesting premise and I felt they wasted it on a cheesy teenaged love story with an overprotective dad. I also hated that they had that Adam Sandler kind of toilet humor in this movie. I mean we have fart jokes, nudity jokes, and even nose picking which just makes we wonder what they were thinking when making this film. Why can't they just stick to being silly and fun instead of adding those that stupid toilet humor that adults (including myself) hate with a passion. Despite that, this is a pretty funny movie that has a lot of good laughs and strikes a lot of its humor at monsters that we all know and love. Sony Animation has had its ups and downs, and heart they have struck a line between funny and completely unoriginal. I will recommend this movie for children but for adults who are hoping for a great computer animated movie like Toy Story or Finding Nemo, I suggest you don't get your hopes up.

Folks, there is just no way I'm not going to do this: "Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, what a lovely place, what a lovely face", for a monster, that is. Well, Mr. Don Henley, there is a nice surprise with this hotel, and it is the fact that it's featured in a pretty enjoyable film, which is good, because I was a tiny bit worried that this was just going to be another Adam Sandler vehicle. Shoot, the animators went so far as to make Dracula kind of look like Sandler, and plus, this film is filled with Sandler's usual buddies, probably because they thought that Sandler had actually gotten them into a nice hotel in Transylvania, Romania. It does seem like the typical Happy Madison crew is just coming along for the paid vacations, yet it would appear as though Sandler couldn't fool Chris Rock, seeing as how he's not in this film, which should tell you about the differences between white people and black people in horror films, as Rock wouldn't even set his voice in a hotel full of monsters. I don't know, maybe he just didn't want to have to deal with the Blackula jokes, but either way, the point is that he's missing out on this, Sandler's Halloween answer to "8 Crazy Nights", only, you know, much better, which, now that I think about it, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, because this film is directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. Oh no, I don't mean that Tartakovsky makes this film better because of his long history as an acclaimed, award-winning animated film and television maker, I mean that I'd imagine Tartakovsky would make this fruit of his finally managing to slither out of the iron grip of Cartoon Network count. Well, rest assured, folks, as this film is entertaining, and yet, with that said, it's not like Tartakovsky carries this film too far away from its issues, of which there are quite a few.

The film thankfully doesn't find itself falling slave to pop culture references, like plenty of other family fluff flicks, but when the dreaded iron grip of mainstreams falls upon this film, it's typically in the form of a component to a soundtrack that may be very underused, - what with this film's being most reliant on conventional, but decent score work by Mark Mothersbaugh to supplement the musicality that helps in driving this film's liveliness - but all but stops the film cold in its turning in a few commercially relevant hunks of unbearable garbage - from "Sexy and i know it" to a lame contemporaneous musical number that closes the film out - that may depart as quickly as they arrive, but cheese things up near-embarassingly. Of course, it's not like the film is completely cleansed of too much cheesiness when there is no terrible music going on, for although the moments in which this film gets to be a bit too kiddy for its own good are relatively limited in quantity, when they arrive, genuineness in entertainment value takes further damage from a bit of corniness, much of which can be found within noisiness, something that isn't as considerable as some say, but recurring enough to throw off the engagement value of less superficial grown-ups. There's something lazy about this film's most kiddy and noisy moments, which slow down the momentum of an effort that is otherwise fairly inspired, though not so much so that it's able to do away with such more consistent lazy touches as conventionalism that is most immense than I expected. Sure, I wasn't exactly walking into this film expecting it to be one of the most original of the year, and it's not like the final product is all-out trite, yet this story rarely strays too far away from formula, thus loosening the grip on full assurance that is ultimately not quite as tight as it could have been in this film, even when you don't take conventionalism into account, because no matter how lively this film's storytelling is, it's a bit too tight, hurrying events along too quickly in the same way a more forgettable piece of family filler hurries things along. The film's fun factor goes a bit limited by a runtime of merely 92 minutes that is emphasized by both some awkward plotting and, well, maybe a bit too much thinness in this story, which is well-characterized enough in execution to earn a reasonable bit of your investment, but still nearly rich with natural shortcomings in its concept. The film is what it is, but the problem is that this film could have been and almost is more than just that, yet for every high note in this fun flick, there are shortcomings, and just enough of them for the film to fall just short of rewarding. That being said, this film is still stronger than I expect, not to where it's generally as strong as it sometimes is, but certainly to where both kids and adults will find quite a bit of fun within this family flick, as surely as animation lovers will find quite a bit to admire within this strong technical piece.

The film isn't all-out marvelous in its technical achievements as an animated feature, but you'd be hard pressed to not be impressed by this film's still acceling quite a bit with its animations, which boast plenty of energetic designs that do a slick job of playing up the kind of distinct bounce of life within CG animation, polished with some of the delightful exaggerations that are typically a part of the 2D animation sensibilities that director Genndy Tartakovsky doesn't appear to be departing too far from in this film. It's not too easy to notice the touches of 2D sensibilities within this film, but rest assured that this effort does present some kind of a marriage between contemporary animation style and good old-fashioned cartoonery that is very attractive in its being both lively and just other-worldly enough to color up humor that is mighty colorful even on paper. Sure, this film's humor isn't consistently refreshing, and is sometimes a bit too noisy for its own good, but on the whole, one of the best surprises about this film is the strength of Peter Baynham's and Robert Smigel's humor, whose hits' effectiveness ranges from quite chuckle-worthy to, well, downright hilarious, with plenty of sharpness in color and timing, if not an unexpectedly hefty degree of wit. The film's misses in humor don't do too much more than just graze the funny bone, while the hits - of which there are many - often hit very hard, though they're not exactly the only high notes in Baynham's and Smigel's writing, for although this film is a bit too thin to be truly rewarding on the whole, what does a lot to drive the aspects that almost drive the final product into bonafide goodness is characterization's still being very colorful in its crafting plenty of memorable characters, bonded by well-fleshed-out chemistry, and further sold by the inspired voice talents behind them. Outside of this film, Adam Sandler's usual crew members all too often squander their comedic potential through fall-flat material that is so consistent that, after a while, you don't really see said comedic potential, something that you can definately, well, "hear" being fulfilled in this film, because whether they be by such usual Sandler film regulars as the charming Andy Samberg and relatively well-balanced Kevin James, or by such non-Sandler posse members as the talented Steve Buscemi and smooth Cee Lo Green, this film's voice performances win you over to a star-studded cast, from which Adam Sandler stands out as almost immersively convincing and charismatic as the over-protective, but still very spirited father. Sandler is delightfully relatively restrained as he leads a colorful cast, whose vocal touches add quite a bit to the film, though not quite as much as the directorial touches by Genndy Tartakovsky that aren't strong enough to make the film generally rewarding, but still give this film quite a few high points, - a few of which are surprisingly even touching - which break up consistent entertainment value that, alone, almost proves to be enough to save this film from its natural shortcomings. The film stands to hit a little bit harder, but what is done right in this reasonably inspired effort gets the final product by as quite decent, with enough proficiency to its technicality, wit to its script, liveliness to it voice acting and strength to its direction to entertain thoroughly.

Checking out ("You can check out any time you'd like, but you can never le-Oh wait, that's a different hotel), you'd find it difficult to completely deny that this film gets to be a touch too cheesy, though not as often as it gets to be too conventional, hitting plenty of storytelling tropes that supplement plotting awkwardness that is itself supplemental to the story thinness that keeps this film from truly rewarding, even though it can't overshadow what is done very well in this unexpectedly quite enjoyable family flick, which delivers on excellent animation, as well as much effective, if not hilarious humor, complimented by inspiration within both the voice acting and direction that almost carry "Hotel Transylvania" into bonafide goodness, yet still keep things going enough for plenty of fun to arise.

2.75/5 - Decent