Four stars. Rating: PG, for mild rude humor and some scary images
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.28.12
Funniest sight-gag I’ve seen in
years: The Invisible Man attempting to convey a clue during a spirited round of
charades.
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| Hotel interloper Jonathon, left, concealing his human-ness behind pale makeup and an orange hairstyle, can't help falling in love with Mavis, Dracula's adorable daughter ... and the attraction definitely is mutual. But this can't be a good idea, and Dracula himself would much rather see his little girl stick to (ahem) her own kind. |
Hotel Transylvania is
generously laden with similar knee-slappers, many piling one atop the next in
the rat-a-tat-tat manner of a classic Road Runner cartoon. But this is no
seven-minute short; director Genndy Tartakovsky and editor Catherine Apple
successfully maintain an exhilarating pace without sacrificing the character
elements necessary to hold our interest.
It’s an impressive feat, no less
so when considering the involvement of five credited writers: Peter Baynham,
Robert Smigel, Todd Durham, Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman. That many cooks
generally spoil the magic potion, but in this case everybody’s sensibilities
mesh nicely. The result is a light-hearted spoof of familiar movie monster traditions,
blended with wry takes on young love and an unusually extreme generation gap.
Long, long ago, in a haunted
forest far, far away, Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) constructed a lavish
“five-stake resort” that he dubbed Hotel Transylvania: a posh refuge for
monsters and their families to vacation, far from curious — and potentially
dangerous — eyes. As has become typical of our 21st century re-evaluations of
fantasy creatures, these poor monsters are the world’s maligned and
misunderstood, hunted and killed by the humans who fear and hate them.
Bearing that last thought in
mind, Dracula’s massive sanctuary also has been designed as a place where his
daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), can grow up safely. Dracula has particular
reason for this parental concern; a century and change ago, his beloved wife —
Mavis’ mother — was killed by just such a human mob.
But Mavis is celebrating her
118th birthday, and — just like the tower-bound Rapunzel, in 2010’s Tangled —
she yearns to explore and experience the outside world. Until now, Dracula has
managed to delay her desire, in part through the distraction of ever more
elaborate birthday parties.
This one is destined to be no
exception, with a guest list that includes Frankenstein (Kevin James) and his
brassy wife, Eunice (Fran Drescher); Wayne (Steve Buscemi) and Wanda (Molly
Shannon), a couple of loving werewolves who have produced litter after litter
of pups; Griffin, the Invisible Man (David Spade); Murray (CeeLo Green), a boisterous,
jive-talking mummy; and Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz), the hotel’s temperamental head
chef, never seen without his loyal rat assistant, Esmeralda.
