Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania

In a time where most monster movies have become the disappointment of the century due to misguided attempts to rework their stories (*cough* Twilight *cough*), I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of Hotel Transylvania. The premise was simple enough: Dracula (played by Adam Sandler... Yeah! Adam Sandler!) decides to create a castle-sized hotel for him, his daughter (Mavis), and all their classic monster friends to ensure their safety from the humans who have persecuted them since their creation. This idea, while brilliant, doesn't seem to stand up to the modern human when a stray backpacker finds the hotel on the eve of Mavis's 118th birthday. Desperate to keep the guests from knowing a human has managed to find his safe haven, Drac decides to dress up the wayward kid (Johnny) as Frankenstein's cousin when he refuses to leave. Things get even more complicated when Mavis and Johnny start falling for each other.

Yes, its a kids movie about all those classic horror movie monsters that hit the silver screen before most of us   were born. You've got Frankenstein, the Wolfman (played by Steve Buscemi by the way), the Invisible Man, the Mummy, and a slew of other characters including an insane cook named Quasimodo. But its actually one of the better "monster movies" I've seen within the past year. It's flat out adorable in some moments, they openly mention Slipknot, its rife with great techno music, and it even makes fun of Twilight! I'm not kidding! At one point Dracula sees Johnny watching a movie that is painfully recognizable as Stephanie Meyer's historic flop of a story, hears Edward say "Have you ever dreamed of being a Vampire?", then groans and rolls his eyes and says "This is what we've been reduced to?!" Not to mention baby Mavis is the cutest little thing ever...

My official opinion, watch this movie!