Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania

This past week, I had the opportunity to preview the Sony Picture Animation for Columbia Pictures, film Hotel Transylvania, courtesy of Smart and Final.  Being a huge fan of animated films, I was tickled pink to be able to see the film before it launched!

About the Movie
The 3-D computer-animated film takes place in a five-star resort-style hotel created and managed by Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), that allows monsters to vacation from (us) pesky humans! Dracula also happens to be a proud, and over-protective father to a (soon-to-be) 118-year old teenage daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez).  

Dracula, like most dads (I imagine), looks forward to celebrating his daughters birthday surrounded by his friends, that happen to include: Frankenstein (voiced by Kevin James) and his very annoying wife Eunice (voiced by Fran Drescher), Murray the Mummy (voiced by Cee Lo Green), a spread-too-thin Werewolf family (parents voiced by Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), Griffin the Invisible Man (voiced by David Space), Bigfoot, the Blob, Shrunken Heads, and every single monster we have ever read or seen in our own childhood movies and scary monster books!  

Mavis, like every teenager, has other plans and looks forward to finally seeing the world outside of her five-star monster castle.  Meanwhile, Dracula plays various tricks to avoid his naive daughter from running into, well, us (humans)!

But, of course, things couldn't be that smooth like in most homes.  Eventually Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg) an unsuspecting human traveler, crashes the hotel and chaos ensues!

The rest of the movie is a comedy of errors brilliantly played-out by Monsters (ahem - actors), that we all know and love.

My Thoughts
At first, I found the film to be a little slow and trying too hard to set-up the plot-line.  The great news is that the hundreds of kids in the theater didn't seem to mind and stayed quiet. For. The. Entire. Run. Of. The. Movie.

I eventually found myself falling in love with the characters and personally relating to what my poor father had to go through when, I too, wanted to grow-up a little too soon.

Obviously geared towards a family audience, the film was filled with beautiful family moments showing how a dad (Dracula) could also be a role-model to his daughter (Mavis); and most importantly, how a daughter (Mavis) could voice her opinion, and grow-up, without disrespecting her father (Dracula).

Regardless of the fact that I don't have children of my own, the film is relatable to anyone that has a father figure in their life, which makes the film (more so) enjoyable (outside of the obvious comedy that is de regueur for any Adam Sandler film).

Overall, I really loved the film and look forward to watching it again sometime after it opens with my hubby (who happens to also love 3-D animated films and has a special interest in monster movies!).

To enjoy the movie even more, Smart & Final currently has a promo running through October 2nd: purchase two First Street Bakery items, and get a free movie money certificate for Hotel Transylvania! The details of this promotion can be found here, and you can also follow the promotion on Twitter by following the #SFHotelT hashtag.

Happy movie watching!

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Smart & Final #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.