Hotel Transylvania is a quirky animated movie, out on DVD and Blu-Ray January 29th, mainly directed toward kids and families with younger aged children. Hotel Transylvania features a huge cast of popular and famous stars, such as Cee-Lo Green, Kevin James, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Adam Sandler, and more!
The plot of Hotel Transylvania is a good one for an animated children's movie, but anybody old enough to have hair on their chest may end up easily bored. NOTE: Plot summary incoming! If you would rather not know the plot before watching the movie, skip the italicized text.
In the aftermath of the death of his wife Martha (Jackie Sandler), Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) designs and builds a massive five-star hotel in which to raise his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). Famous monsters such as Frank (Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon) and their massive immediate family, Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), and Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green) 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 human; 21-year-old Jonathan (Andy Samberg) 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 they hate humans was for the death of his wife at the hands of an angry mob shortly after Mavis was born, and is surprised at his understanding and knowledge of the lore.
Johnny attempts to leave after his confession, but is brought back by Mavis. After showing her the beauty of a sunrise, she is re-inspired to give humans another chance. Meanwhile, Quasimodo (John Lovitz) learns that Johnny is a human and kidnaps him in order to cook him but Dracula intervenes and magically freezes Quasimodo to keep him from telling anyone that he is a human. The party is a great success, but when Mavis kisses Johnny, Dracula is sent over the edge and in his outburst confesses to deceiving Mavis with the town. Quasimodo, still frozen, bursts in and The Fly (Chris Parnell) translates his frozen language that reveals Johnny's humanity, but 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.
Discovering that Mavis and Johnny shared a Zing, Dracula manages to convince the monsters, who are now trying to leave the hotel, to help him find 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 (Brian Stack) to help him apologize for his actions. Johnny accepts Dracula's apology and Drac 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 film ends with Dracula and his friends being shown in traditional animation (in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky's cartoons) during the credits, as well as a few paintings of Johnny and Mavis on their travels together.
Hotel Transylvania currently has a 43% on RottenTomatoes.com, 47% on MetaCritic.com, with a 6.8 user score with personal, non professional reviews. But we don't care about snooty critics!
In the end, Hotel Transylvania is a great movie if you have younger people to watch it. It is not really the kind of movie to go on a hot teenage date with, but is most certainly not a bad choice if you did! The choice characters that voice these lively individuals may seem like a wild choice, but it works out really well. I had never even heard of Cee Lo Green outside of a few songs, so to find him in a movie - which was easy to recognize his voice - was pretty entertaining. You then have other actors and actresses such as Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, David Spade, Fran Drescher... it felt like going back to the 90's with some of these characters!
The animation in this movie seems to get hated on quite a bit, but I found it to be really quite good for what it is. They aren't trying to beat Avatar in terms of how it flows, so I think it's quite wrong for most critics to downplay them on account of such. Both the animation and movie itself remind me quite a lot of the Adventure Time show, so if you have watched that and enjoyed it before, you may enjoy Hotel Transylvania as well!
The overall response of my guests towards the Hotel Transylvania was well taken, but some of the guests did get bored with it. The younger kids loved the movie for sure, it was just the teenagers and older crowd that got bored a little easy with the animation style and clean humor.
If you are really on the edge of whether to get the DVD or Blu-Ray disk or not, give the trailer a watch. As with most movies, the trailer is a really good example of the plot, characters, type of humor, and animation.
Because I was given Hotel Transylvania, through Crowdtap,com, to have a party with, (literally!) I was also given other items to watch and go over. Our party was, as the title suggests, Hotel Transylvania Monster Bowl! We had the party on Super Bowl Sunday. More details of the party and other included activities will be below!
GOODNIGHT MR. FOOT EXCLUSIVE MINI-MOVIE
Goodnight Mr. Foot is an animated short based on the movie, featuring Bigfoot! Taking place before the events in Hotel Transylvania, the short stars Bigfoot, whose rest in Hotel Transylvania is being constantly disturbed by an overly enthusiastic witch maid. It is a funny little short and is available on the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the movie! You may be able to check it out online, and if so, I would definitely recommend it! It's a very cute mini-movie!
Supplemental Questions!
Boy, that sounds weird. Let's try that again.
Bonus Questions!
1. Mavis makes the cutest little sad bat face to her dad Dracula. Does your little one have a look that just makes you want to do whatever they say? Are there other moments in HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA that were directly relatable to your life?
Definitely! I think everybody has that special somebody who can melt their heart and do their bidding with a quick glance of puppy dog eyes. Or in this case, a "sad little bat face."
There's also that time when a parent realizes their child has fallen in love, and of course, doesn't like that.
Something I just noticed, "bat face" sounds insulting. I am now extremely entertained.
2. Dracula throws an awesome 118th birthday party for Mavis. Were there elements of her party that you wish you could have for your own birthday party or your child’s party? Would you love a monster band, dancing mummies or a travel around the world theme?
I'd love to have my own monster band! By the end of the night everybody had turned into dancing mummies, so we had that covered! A traveling around the world theme sounds like a fantastic idea as well. I'm sure there are a lot of ideas one could find online that have that sort of theme!
3. Both Mavis & Dracula have some awesome vampire powers. For example, they can both turn into bats. Which one of their powers do you wish you could have? Or is there another monster FROM THE FILM who has a power you wish you could have?
I'd love to turn into a bat, or crawl on walls like Mavis. I can think of oh so many uses...
Strictly legal uses, of course!
Most of the time.
Hotel Transylvania Themed Recipes!
Scream Cheese Taco Dip
When you’re not cheering for your team during the Super Bowl, this dip recipe
will surely have you screaming for more!
INGREDIENTS:
2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese
1 (16 oz.) carton sour cream
1 can bean dip
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c. grated Cheddar cheese
INSTRUCTIONS:
Soften cream cheese, then add sour cream gradually mixing with mixer. Add bean
dip and taco seasoning. Beat on low speed until well mixed. Put in casserole dish
and top with Cheddar cheese. Cover the casserole and heat in oven at 325 degrees
for 30-45 MINUTES, until heated through. Serve with DORITOS & FRITOS.
What I think about the Scream Cheese Taco Dip: It's yummy! However, if you want to make this yourself, unless you have a REALLY big party or a group of teenagers, you don't need so much! The two packages of cream cheese is a pretty good starting example of how big a dish this makes. It is very good though, I would love to hear about any other dishes like this.
GREEN SLUDGE PUNCH!
This GREEN SLUDGE PUNCH recipe is Dracula’s favorite drink to unwind with
after a long day, aside from, you know, blood. Green Sludge is a great combination
of sour and sweet. Serve in monster themed cups for an added bonus!
INGREDIENTS:
2 (12 fluid ounces) cans frozen limeade concentrate
2 (12 fluid ounces) cans frozen lemonade concentrate
2 (2 liters) bottles lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
2 quarts lime sherbert
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a large pot, combine limeade, lemonade & lemon-lime soda. Mix in lime sherbert
just before serving.
What I think about the Green Sludge Punch: I think... I've made this before! I never used concentrate before, but it worked pretty well in this recipe. Again, unless you're preparing an army for battle, need to fend off a hundred teenagers, or want to impress the president with your punch making skills, you don't need so much. There are a lot of varieties to this recipe; you can likely get off with simply using lemon-lime soda and sherbert.
In our party pack we received valentines day cards, coloring book pages, a calender, and door hangers! I thought these were all really cute; we put a "Party In Progress" door hanger on the front door to our house during the party! I printed out some copies of the calender and gave them out to the kids who attended.
Seeing as this was a Superbowl / Monster Bowl party, we watched the movie and then the Super Bowl right afterward! I planned on writing about how I felt regarding the Superbowl outcome, but remembering how the 49ers failed when they were so close at the two minute mark... well, I think it is best for my sanity that I not mention it all.
The half-time show was pretty good, though! Pretty risque with Beyonce, but we've had worse things bouncing around on live TV before.
However, we did have a bunch of food and drinks! I invited fifteen of my close family and friends, and it was really nice to spend all day with everybody we don't always get a chance to see often. Along with the regular Superbowl snacks, of which we had over twenty bags of chips, we all also enjoyed the Taco Dip and Punch! Watching Hotel Transylvania for some clean humor and then straight into Superbowl screaming not long after was pretty hilarious in itself. Everybody had a blast, and like the characters of Hotel Transylvania, we'll remember it forever!
I would like to thank Crowdtap and the fine people who made Hotel Transylvania for allowing us to watch the movie, enjoy the extra items and ideas, and all-in-all have a great time.
The plot of Hotel Transylvania is a good one for an animated children's movie, but anybody old enough to have hair on their chest may end up easily bored. NOTE: Plot summary incoming! If you would rather not know the plot before watching the movie, skip the italicized text.
In the aftermath of the death of his wife Martha (Jackie Sandler), Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) designs and builds a massive five-star hotel in which to raise his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). Famous monsters such as Frank (Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon) and their massive immediate family, Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), and Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green) 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 human; 21-year-old Jonathan (Andy Samberg) 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 they hate humans was for the death of his wife at the hands of an angry mob shortly after Mavis was born, and is surprised at his understanding and knowledge of the lore.
Johnny attempts to leave after his confession, but is brought back by Mavis. After showing her the beauty of a sunrise, she is re-inspired to give humans another chance. Meanwhile, Quasimodo (John Lovitz) learns that Johnny is a human and kidnaps him in order to cook him but Dracula intervenes and magically freezes Quasimodo to keep him from telling anyone that he is a human. The party is a great success, but when Mavis kisses Johnny, Dracula is sent over the edge and in his outburst confesses to deceiving Mavis with the town. Quasimodo, still frozen, bursts in and The Fly (Chris Parnell) translates his frozen language that reveals Johnny's humanity, but 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.
Discovering that Mavis and Johnny shared a Zing, Dracula manages to convince the monsters, who are now trying to leave the hotel, to help him find 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 (Brian Stack) to help him apologize for his actions. Johnny accepts Dracula's apology and Drac 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 film ends with Dracula and his friends being shown in traditional animation (in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky's cartoons) during the credits, as well as a few paintings of Johnny and Mavis on their travels together.
Hotel Transylvania currently has a 43% on RottenTomatoes.com, 47% on MetaCritic.com, with a 6.8 user score with personal, non professional reviews. But we don't care about snooty critics!
In the end, Hotel Transylvania is a great movie if you have younger people to watch it. It is not really the kind of movie to go on a hot teenage date with, but is most certainly not a bad choice if you did! The choice characters that voice these lively individuals may seem like a wild choice, but it works out really well. I had never even heard of Cee Lo Green outside of a few songs, so to find him in a movie - which was easy to recognize his voice - was pretty entertaining. You then have other actors and actresses such as Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, David Spade, Fran Drescher... it felt like going back to the 90's with some of these characters!
The animation in this movie seems to get hated on quite a bit, but I found it to be really quite good for what it is. They aren't trying to beat Avatar in terms of how it flows, so I think it's quite wrong for most critics to downplay them on account of such. Both the animation and movie itself remind me quite a lot of the Adventure Time show, so if you have watched that and enjoyed it before, you may enjoy Hotel Transylvania as well!
The overall response of my guests towards the Hotel Transylvania was well taken, but some of the guests did get bored with it. The younger kids loved the movie for sure, it was just the teenagers and older crowd that got bored a little easy with the animation style and clean humor.
If you are really on the edge of whether to get the DVD or Blu-Ray disk or not, give the trailer a watch. As with most movies, the trailer is a really good example of the plot, characters, type of humor, and animation.
Because I was given Hotel Transylvania, through Crowdtap,com, to have a party with, (literally!) I was also given other items to watch and go over. Our party was, as the title suggests, Hotel Transylvania Monster Bowl! We had the party on Super Bowl Sunday. More details of the party and other included activities will be below!
GOODNIGHT MR. FOOT EXCLUSIVE MINI-MOVIE
Goodnight Mr. Foot is an animated short based on the movie, featuring Bigfoot! Taking place before the events in Hotel Transylvania, the short stars Bigfoot, whose rest in Hotel Transylvania is being constantly disturbed by an overly enthusiastic witch maid. It is a funny little short and is available on the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the movie! You may be able to check it out online, and if so, I would definitely recommend it! It's a very cute mini-movie!
Supplemental Questions!
Boy, that sounds weird. Let's try that again.
Bonus Questions!
1. Mavis makes the cutest little sad bat face to her dad Dracula. Does your little one have a look that just makes you want to do whatever they say? Are there other moments in HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA that were directly relatable to your life?
Definitely! I think everybody has that special somebody who can melt their heart and do their bidding with a quick glance of puppy dog eyes. Or in this case, a "sad little bat face."
There's also that time when a parent realizes their child has fallen in love, and of course, doesn't like that.
Something I just noticed, "bat face" sounds insulting. I am now extremely entertained.
2. Dracula throws an awesome 118th birthday party for Mavis. Were there elements of her party that you wish you could have for your own birthday party or your child’s party? Would you love a monster band, dancing mummies or a travel around the world theme?
I'd love to have my own monster band! By the end of the night everybody had turned into dancing mummies, so we had that covered! A traveling around the world theme sounds like a fantastic idea as well. I'm sure there are a lot of ideas one could find online that have that sort of theme!
3. Both Mavis & Dracula have some awesome vampire powers. For example, they can both turn into bats. Which one of their powers do you wish you could have? Or is there another monster FROM THE FILM who has a power you wish you could have?
I'd love to turn into a bat, or crawl on walls like Mavis. I can think of oh so many uses...
Strictly legal uses, of course!
Most of the time.
Hotel Transylvania Themed Recipes!
Scream Cheese Taco Dip
When you’re not cheering for your team during the Super Bowl, this dip recipe
will surely have you screaming for more!
INGREDIENTS:
2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese
1 (16 oz.) carton sour cream
1 can bean dip
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c. grated Cheddar cheese
INSTRUCTIONS:
Soften cream cheese, then add sour cream gradually mixing with mixer. Add bean
dip and taco seasoning. Beat on low speed until well mixed. Put in casserole dish
and top with Cheddar cheese. Cover the casserole and heat in oven at 325 degrees
for 30-45 MINUTES, until heated through. Serve with DORITOS & FRITOS.
What I think about the Scream Cheese Taco Dip: It's yummy! However, if you want to make this yourself, unless you have a REALLY big party or a group of teenagers, you don't need so much! The two packages of cream cheese is a pretty good starting example of how big a dish this makes. It is very good though, I would love to hear about any other dishes like this.
GREEN SLUDGE PUNCH!
This GREEN SLUDGE PUNCH recipe is Dracula’s favorite drink to unwind with
after a long day, aside from, you know, blood. Green Sludge is a great combination
of sour and sweet. Serve in monster themed cups for an added bonus!
INGREDIENTS:
2 (12 fluid ounces) cans frozen limeade concentrate
2 (12 fluid ounces) cans frozen lemonade concentrate
2 (2 liters) bottles lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage
2 quarts lime sherbert
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a large pot, combine limeade, lemonade & lemon-lime soda. Mix in lime sherbert
just before serving.
What I think about the Green Sludge Punch: I think... I've made this before! I never used concentrate before, but it worked pretty well in this recipe. Again, unless you're preparing an army for battle, need to fend off a hundred teenagers, or want to impress the president with your punch making skills, you don't need so much. There are a lot of varieties to this recipe; you can likely get off with simply using lemon-lime soda and sherbert.
In our party pack we received valentines day cards, coloring book pages, a calender, and door hangers! I thought these were all really cute; we put a "Party In Progress" door hanger on the front door to our house during the party! I printed out some copies of the calender and gave them out to the kids who attended.
Seeing as this was a Superbowl / Monster Bowl party, we watched the movie and then the Super Bowl right afterward! I planned on writing about how I felt regarding the Superbowl outcome, but remembering how the 49ers failed when they were so close at the two minute mark... well, I think it is best for my sanity that I not mention it all.
The half-time show was pretty good, though! Pretty risque with Beyonce, but we've had worse things bouncing around on live TV before.
However, we did have a bunch of food and drinks! I invited fifteen of my close family and friends, and it was really nice to spend all day with everybody we don't always get a chance to see often. Along with the regular Superbowl snacks, of which we had over twenty bags of chips, we all also enjoyed the Taco Dip and Punch! Watching Hotel Transylvania for some clean humor and then straight into Superbowl screaming not long after was pretty hilarious in itself. Everybody had a blast, and like the characters of Hotel Transylvania, we'll remember it forever!
I would like to thank Crowdtap and the fine people who made Hotel Transylvania for allowing us to watch the movie, enjoy the extra items and ideas, and all-in-all have a great time.
Picture above is by Tumblr user Mimulii, check their page out!
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