The family headed out last Saturday morning, early to get good seats for the screen of “Hotel Transylvania.” I admit that I had a few reservations about the girls seeing it, since it looked like it could be just a little too scary for them (ages 7 and almost 6). But they were sure that they wanted to see it and with that in mind and the fact that they saw a number of trailers before the movie convinced me that it would be okay, or that if all else failed we could leave.
“Hotel Transylvania” is the epic tale of a vampire girl (Mavis/Selena Gomez) coming of age (118) and her father insisting on treating her like a child, as he protects her and all of their monster friends from the evil humans. Mavis grows up thinking that humans are the “bad guys” who will chase these marvelous monsters with pitch forks and eat their toes. Her father has good reason for thinking this, as humans killed her mother and the monsters have been hidden ever since. The monsters have vowed to never hurt humans, with the exception of Quasimodo, who thinks that they would make a great dish to serve for dinner.
Mavis father (Count Dracula/Adam Sandler) plans a special birthday party every year for his darling daughter who he swore upon her mother’s death-bed he would protect and keep safe forever. However, what he didn’t count on was a very special human who stumbled upon the monster’s sanctuary at Hotel Transylvania. Even worse, he didn’t “count” (really no pun intended) on his darling daughter and the human (Jonathan) actually finding their “zing.”
When monstorous adventures occur courtesy of Jonathan’s arrive, Count Dracula has some explaining to do. But he has even more explaining to do when his guest, friends, staff and daughter find out he has been lying and the whole time they have been enjoying the wild and crazy adventures that happen just because Jonathan is himself.
Dracula also finds out that the greatest love a father has is for his daughter, as he tries to make things right.
We all enjoyed the movie greatly. What’s funny is that the scenes the youngest daughter found to be laugh out loud funny, were the ones that made DD #3 turn her head and hide. I guess there is sometimes no telling what your kids will be frightened of.
Dracula and his friends find out that actually humans can be pretty terrific and that some of them even like monsters, as they try to make their way through a monsterfest and save Mavis’ broken heart by bringing “Johnny” back to her.
This clip gives you an idea of the start of the movie. You will see this “face” more than once and it’s the one thing that the girls disagreed on. One thought it hilarious, the other too scary for words.
“Hotel Transylvania” was well written and acted (okay so maybe the better description would be spoken), with a great story and of course a few morals to the story too.
“Hotel Transylvania” has a star-studded cast of voice talents including Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Dresher (Great as Mavis’ Aunt Eunice and Kevin James’ Frankenstein’s wife) Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, and Jon Lovitz.
I have a feeling the girls are going to ask me for the soundtrack, or at the very least a few downloads of the music from “Hotel Transylvania.” One of them didn’t want to leave too quickly because she was having way too much fun dancing to the beat.
