It’s no secret that Genndy Tartakovsky is one of my favorite animators. Hell, he’s probably near the top of your list too. The creative force behind Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and the original Clone Wars shorts, Tartakovsky has been doing amazing work for almost two decades – though for that last decade he’s had a pretty bad run of luck. Samurai Jack was cancelled without a proper ending, Clone Wars was all but wiped from continuity by the current (but excellent in its own right) series, Korgoth of Barbaria never went beyond a pilot and Sym-Bionic Titan only got one season.
But now Tartakovsky’s got his first theatrical film coming out. Will that change his luck? I’m not entirely sure because while it’s a fun concept, it may have the single worst voice cast ever compiled for any animated film. Ever.
Hotel Transylvania is about a hotel for monsters, run by Dracula, so they can get away from people hunting them for a while. Everything goes all to hell when a human accidentally checks in. Not the most high-brow of ideas for a film, but it’s not the dumbest either. Where it goes off the rails is the cast.
Adam Sandler plays Dracula, Selena Gomez is his daughter Mavis. Andy Samberg plays the human who (of course) gets a crush on the daughter. David Spade is Quasimodo and since you need a fat guy to play off him – and well… – Kevin James is playing Frankenstein (presumably the monster). Oh and since whoever cast this thing hates our ears, Fran Drescher is the Bride of Frankenstein. Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon will be a werewolf couple and Cee Lo Green is playing Murray, the singing mummy. Because of course he is.
I really hoped for better for Genndy Tartakovsky’s first film, but it looks like that’s not in the cards. But with Sandler heading it up, it should do well financially at least.
Hotel Transylvania opens on September 21. Why it’s not a few weeks later and closer to Halloween, I’m not sure.
Anyway, here’s the official description.
Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters – Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more – to celebrate his daughter Mavis’s 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem – but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.
