Hotel Transylvania (2012/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: B- Main
Animated Feature: B-
One of
the big stories of the year not enough have heard about is the return of Dexter’s Laboratory creator Genndy Tartakovsky,
back with a critical and especially big commercial success with Hotel Transylvania (2012). If you had told me a CG animated feature with
voices by Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James and Jon Lovitz (who was good
on The Critic) would be made, be a
hit and work, I would have laughed, but it does and as compared to Tim Burton’s
double Horror dud remakes (Frankenweenie,
Dark Shadows) outdoes his flat retro
work handily enough.
Dracula
(Sandler) has opened the title locale so his fellow monsters (including every
one Universal ever made movies of in the early sound years) is having them all
visit and promises a human-free weekend, et al.
It is also the birthday of his daughter (voiced well by Selena Gomez)
and he wants things to go well, but she will fall for a human teenager
(surprisingly good work by Samberg) that will drive her anti-human father
batty.
Despite
more toilet jokes than it really needed, the script had a final go through by Saturday Night Live alum Robert Smigel
and the result is some of the best work (and only good work) these actors have
done in many years if not their careers.
Of
course, bringing all the famous monsters together (including to party) is
nothing new as we have seen with the classic stop-motion animated Mad Monster Party?, big hit TV series Groovie Goolies, the Monster Squad 1976 TV series and 1980s
feature film (all reviewed elsewhere on this site), their variant uses for
breakfast cereal and so much more, so this could have bombed in lesser hands or
if Sony had not kept working and reworking the idea until they got it
right. Tartakovsky puts this one over
the top enough and the makers totally love and understand the genre they are
taking on.
When it
hit theaters, we even got to cover an impressive coffee table book called The Art & Making Of Hotel Transylvania
and included our coverage of the 1976 Monster
Squad TV series, all of which you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11810/The+Art+and+Making+Of+Hotel+Tra
Surprisingly
child-friendly and entertaining, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, singer CeeLo
Green, Fran Drescher, Chris Parnell and Molly Shannon add to the fun and make Hotel Transylvania as good as any
animated feature of 2012 including what Disney and DreamWorks delivered all
year long.
Give it a
try!
This
release has been issued on Blu-ray 3D and that would include some great visuals
not found in any other format, but our set only offers the 2D versions. This includes the 1080p 1.85 X 1 2D digital
High Definition image transfer that still offers some great depth, detail and
some of the best color range I have seen on any computer animated feature to
date. Tartakovsky does not do animated
radio and really pushes the limits of this variant of animation nicely. That enhances the visual gags that work as
well as add to the density of the world created. The anamorphically enhanced DVD is much
softer and passable, but just cannot capture what was achieved here.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray is very well recorded,
edited, is warm, has great direction effects and is as solid and impressive as
any animated feature this year. Even the
music is more memorable (from Mark Mothersbaugh’s instrumental score to various
vocal music) than most such productions in the last few years. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD is
much weaker by comparison, plus the DTS-MA on the Blu-ray has demo moments
above the rating I gave it the Dolby could never compete with.
Extras include
Ultraviolet Copy, plus a feature length audio commentary track by Tartakovsky,
DVD-ROM links for “fun” games, Deleted Scenes and two Music Videos, while
Blu-ray exclusives include Progression Reels and two making of featurettes: Making The Hotel: The Animation and Meet The Staff & Guests: Voicing Hotel
Transylvania.
- Nicholas Sheffo
