"Hotel Transylvania" Review - Tartatovsky's First 3D Animated Movie Doesn't Live Up To His 2D Work

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

The reviews for this haven't been great. They haven't been exactly awful, but certainly lacklustre. This deeply surprised me because the director is none other than Genndy Tartatovsky and I kind of love this guy. He's the creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, he was closely tied to The Powerpuff Girls and was animation director for the (actually pretty damn awesome) Powerpuff Girls movie.


(Click on the image for full size. Rotating from top left: Aku the demon from "Samurai Jack, Yoda wielding a lightsabre, Dexter and Deedee from "Dexter's Laboratory". In centre, Genndy Tartatovsky dressed as Samurai Jack.)

What's more Genndy Tartatovsky was responsible for the Clone Wars cartoons which spanned the gap between George Lucas' second and third awful Star Wars prequels (not the 3D animated Clone Wars cartoon, that came later). Tartatovsky's Star Wars cartoons had the same characters as the movies and featured the distinctive and creative animation style of the Samurai Jack cartoons, but what was incredible was that the Star Wars prequel universe suddenly felt exciting in those cartoons.

The Clone Wars cartoons showed a genuine villain who seemed to pose a real threat to the Jedi (though he gets his chest crused by force powers, so that's why General Grievous seems a little pathetic in Episode III), they showed clone army commandos who actually seemed to have an advantage over the droids (as opposed to in the movies where we're simply told that clones are better and then see no real evidence of it). They showed Yoda going out on missions, C3PO being genuinely funny, Anakin and Padme suddenly demonstrating a bit of genuine romantic chemistry, and the plot was well paced and had a clear logical progression. It was just simply superior to the live action movies in every way.

Genndy Tartatovsky was supposed to be working on a sequel to the classic Jim Henson puppet animation movie "The Dark Crystal" (titled "The Power Of the Dark Crystal"), which would presumably be his first major project to use puppets. Instead "Hotel Transylvania" is his first 3D animation movie (which isn't to say that the other movies didn't use computer effects, but not with 3D graphics).



The story of "Hotel Transylvania" is that Dracula's young girl Mavis is now reaching the age of 118 and she wants to see the world. However, Dracula is terrified that she'll come to harm from humans and he's been exaggerating the threat they pose all her life. Meanwhile Dracula runs a hotel, taking pride in its complete isolation from the human world. The hotel provides a getaway for monsters wishing to escape meet up away from the prying and threatening eyes (and pitchforks) of human beings. Monsters regularly flock to the hotel for Mavis' birthday celebrations since Dracula always makes a big effort over them. When a human tourist manages to turn up at the hotel it risks not only destroying the hotel's reputation, but also revealing to Mavis that humans aren't as threatening as she was led to believe....


Dracula's daughter Mavis turns into the cutest vampire bat EVER!

So what was wrong with "Hotel Transylvania"? Naturally there was the possibility that I'd find nothing wrong with it at all, but with so many lacklustre reviews there must be something about the movie which at least lessened its appeal for some viewers, right?

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Some classic 2D Tartatovsky work:
( Video clips under the cut... )