Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania

CO-PRODUCER

Lydia Bottegoni

SCREENPLAY

Robert Smigel, Peter Baynham

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Adam Sandler, Allen Covert, Robert Smigel

STORY BY

Todd Durham, Dan Hagemen, Kevin Hagemen

VOICE

Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher, Kevin James, Jon Lovitz, Adam Sandler, David Spade, Molly Shannon, Chris Parnell, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Cee-Lo Green

DIRECTOR

Genndy Tartakovsky

PRODUCER

Michelle Murdocca

PLOT SUMMARY

In the aftermath of the death of his wife Martha, Count Dracula designs and builds a massive five-star hotel in which to raise his daughter Mavis and to serve as a getaway for all the world's monsters. Famous monsters such as Frank and his wife Eunice, Wayne and Wanda werewolf and their massive immediate family,Griffin, the invisible Man, and Murray the Mummy often come to stay at the hotel which is completely human free and safe for monsters.

On her 118th birthday, Dracula allows his daughter to leave the castle in order to explore the human world, but he sets up an elaborate plan using his Zombie bellhops disguised as humans to make them seem intimidating and frighten her home. The plan works, but the zombies inadvertently lure a 21-year-old human named Jonathan to the hotel. Dracula frantically disguises him as a Flesh Golem and passes him off as Johnnystein, a distant cousin of Frank's right arm. Johnny soon encounters Mavis and the two "Zing" (a form of magical attraction). Unable to get Johnny out of the hotel without notice, Drac quickly improvises that Johnny is a party planner, brought in to bring a fresher approach to his own traditional and boring parties. Johnny quickly becomes a hit to the other monsters, especially Mavis, and even begins to gain Dracula's respect. He tells Johnny the reason he hates humans is because the death of his wife at the hands of an angry mob shortly after Mavis was born, and is surprised at Johnny's understanding and knowledge of the lore.

Johnny attempts to leave after his confession on Dracula's orders, but is brought back by Mavis. After showing her the beauty of a sunrise, she is re-inspired to give humans another chance. Dracula finds him back and shows him how to move the magical tables. Meanwhile,Quasimodo learns that Johnny is a human with his pet rat Esmeralda's help and kidnaps him in order to cook him. Dracula intervenes and magically freezes Quasimodo to keep him from telling anyone that Johnny is human. The party is a great success the next night. But when Mavis kisses Johnny, Dracula overreacts and in his outburst confesses to deceiving Mavis with the town. A still-frozen Quasimodo bursts in and the Fly translates his frozen language that reveals Johnny's humanity causing negative reactions from the guest. Mavis is undeterred by her attraction and wants to be with Johnny even though he is human, but Johnny rejects her out of respect for her father and leaves the hotel. Mavis then angrily yells at Dracula and flies off. Dracula arrives to comfort Mavis, but finds her on the roof looking at the present her mother gave her for her birthday and finds out that is a book about how her and Dracula had a Zing. Dracula then realizes that Mavis and Johnny had a Zing but he got in the way.

After apologizing to the monsters that are trying to check out and confessing that even he doesn't know if humans have changed, Dracula manages to convince Frank, Wayne, Griffin, and Murray to help him find Johnny and reunite them and they learn he is bound on a flight out of Transylvania soon. They head to the airport and encounter a Monster Festival along the way, instead of being frightened by the real monsters appearing, they instead help Dracula by providing him shelter from the sunlight so he can get to the airport quickly only to see Johnny's plane taking off. He takes the risk and gives chase, burning in the sunlight. After getting Johnny's attention, Dracula makes his way to the front of the plane, using his mind-controlling power to control the pilot to help him apologize for his actions. Johnny accepts Dracula's apology and Dracula manipulates the pilot to return to the Transylvanian airport for a refuel and Dracula returns Johnny to Mavis, who confesses that their Zing was mutual and the two kiss, making Dracula realize his little girl is all grown up and can make her own decisions. The monsters finish celebrating Mavis' party as Dracula, Mavis, Johnny, Frank, Eunice, Murray, Wayne, Wanda, and Griffin sing "The Zing" in front of the other monsters.

Review

One fine evening I was extremely bored and so I turned the laptop on, surfed the movie list, and discovered a movie titled Hotel Transylvania! I didn't have the faintest idea what the movie was about and began watching it to kill the time (now I thank myself for choosing this particular movie over several others, many big names included!).

First of all, let me tell you I'm a paranormal stuff maniac (can't help it) and I love anything and (almost) everything with vampires, werewolves, zombies and all that unless things get too cheesy! So this movie (by now you know why I'm saying this if you've gone through the plot summery) won my heart at the very first scene where enters Count Dracula (not the horrible one of Bram Stoker's Dracula)! 

If I'm to use just one word to describe this movie, I'll choose "Ultra-Cute"! It is cute, sweet, heart-warming, touchy, and at the same time so so so much fun watching. Drac's fatherly love for Mavis, his constant attempts to keep her secured from the human-world is nothing vampiric, its utterly humanistic. On the other hand Mavis's curiosity about the outer human world, to travel the whole world alone is just like the dreams of a normal 'human' girl. The subsidiary characters as in Drac's friends like Frankenstein, the Mummy, Wanda and all those naughty (but not freaky) monsters are absolutely amazing! I wish there was really a place like Hotel Transylvania and I'd land up there somehow!

By the time Jonathan reaches Drac's hotel, things get much more interesting. Drac's numerous attempts to throw him out of the hotel fails and Jonathan gets friendly with all those monsters and of course falls in love (ahem!) with Mavis. Initially Jonathan was introduced as Johnnystein (Frankenstein's relative whom even Frankie can't remember!) but when they get to know that Johnny is a human, they all get upset and angry with Drac, and needless to say Jonathan is out of the castle. But seeing Mavis extremely upset after Jonathan's leave, Drac realized the he was the *Zing* of Mavis and they're meant to stay together forever and ever! 

So Dracula sets his way to reach and get back Jonathan with his friends and encounters a monster festival celebrated by the humans! They learn that humans don't hate but actually love them and those humans help Drac to reach the airport. 

This part is funny! Drac in the bat-form is SUPER-CUTE! I absolutely loved this part of the movie when Drac gets back Jonathan from the flight. 

And as it was destined, Mavis and Jonathan get married and lived happily for ever after! *Happy Sigh*!! :-D

I can't remember watching a movie so entertaining and refreshing for quite a long time. The one and a half hour passed just like that! So if you're looking for something that's gonna make you laugh and fill your heart with pure fun, this one's definitely for you!

Rating

5/5 stars

The Official Trailer of Hotel Transylvania