CLIPS MOVIE REVIEWS

by Roger Tennis

On CLIPS In October, 2012

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA

Dracula (the voice of Adam Sandler) has trouble with his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) when their monster hotel is visited by human boy Jonathan (Andy Samberg) in this animated comedy.

TRIVIA: What was Adam Sandler's first full-length animated feature film?

ROG'S VIEWPOINT
   (2 CAMS)        RATED PG

Dracula (the voice of Adam Sandler), who operates a resort for monsters and their families away from the real world, becomes overprotective when human boy Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles upon the hotel and falls for the Count's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) during her 118th birthday celebration. "Hotel Transylvania" is an unentertaining string of gross-out Sandler jokes and sight gags with a moral about parenting buried somewhere beneath the surface. Smaller kids may enjoy the antics, but most adults will be bored to death. To his credit, Russian director Genndy Tartakovsky keeps this 91 minute monster fest moving along at a rapid pace. There are a couple of dazzling sequences, especially a Star Wars style chase scene involving flying tables - obviously designed to show off the 3D effects. For the most part, the third dimension doesn't add much to the CG animation. Adam Sandler's thick European accent tends to irritate after a few minutes, but many of his friends are around to cut back on his lines. Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and CeeLo Green provide some of the creature voices. It may help pass the time to figure out who is who. SNL's cartoon guru Robert Smigel is one of the writers and executive producers, so there should have been a little more creativity. "Hotel Transylvania" may not completely suck, but it is a monstrous mess.