The film opens with a loving nurturing Dracula caring for his daughter in 1895. In order to protect her from evil humans he constructs a huge castle as a refuge for monsters which include, Frankenstein, wolfman, invisible man, bigfoot, zombies, ghouls, Quasimodo etc. We then move to the present as his teen looking daughter turns 118 and wants to see the world. Before the first human shows up we already know the script.

There were a number of fun things about the monsters that kids would enjoy but adults will find tiresome. Dracula constantly denies saying "blah, ba-blah, ba-blah." There is one scene the kids laughed at and that was when someone pulled down the swimming trunks of the Invisible Man. He quickly pulls them back up, tells people "I just got out of the pool! It's cold! Don't judge me!" At one point the Invisible Man is playing charades, which he admits, "I'm not very good at."

At one point Dracula asks if humans would accept them (the monsters) if they "came out." I'm sure there was some kind of message there.

As an adult, I was basically bored with the film which had such great potential. 4 stars from a kids view. Not really scary or funny.

These days, CGI films have become very, very common--so common that they seem to zip in and out of theaters with little notice. There are, of course, some exceptions (such as the Pixar films),but when "Hotel Transylvania" came to theaters, it came and went without a huge amount of notice. Now that I finally saw it, I really wish the film had received much more attention, as it's far superior to most CGI family films.

This film is a funny look at monsters from their point of view. To them, the humans are the enemy and see them as blood-thirsty beasts. The monsters are afraid of them and are actually amazingly gentle and likable. The main character, Dracula (Adam Sandler) is a very overprotective father and won't let his daughter (Selena Gomez) leave their prison-like castle--afraid that those horrible humans will kill her! However, accidentally, a human shows up when Dracula is throwing a HUGE birthday celebration for his daughter! In order to prevent widespread panic, Drac convinces the young man (Andy Samberg) to dress like a monster and blend in...but the plan works too well, and Drac's daughter falls in love with this horrible human!

"Hotel Transylvania" is directed by Genndy Tartakovsky--a newcomer to CGI, but a veteran of lots of excellent Cartoon Network shows, such as "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Dexter's Lab". I think he did an excellent job and think this, along with great writing, made this film fun for all ages--with lots of laughs for adults and kids alike--just like his TV shows. In fact, this is the strength of the film. It had wonderful characters, terrific dialog and a nice sense of humor. The CGI ranges from fantastic (particularly the backgrounds) to average.

So why, if I liked the film so much, did I give the film an 8 and not a higher score? Well, the movie had one area where it was deficient--the songs. Each time a song occurred, it slowed down the film tremendously. On top of that, the ending (which was one HUGE song and dance number) was really weak. It's a shame, but a problem you can easily overlook. Overall, a fine family film that will interest adults just as much as it will appeal to kids--and that is something all too rare.

After reading reviews that either disliked or were indifferent to Hotel Transylvania and being dubious because Adam Sandler(who has been in a lot of really bad movies recently) was in the lead role, I was unsure of whether to see the film. But my love for animation and the appetising trailer over-rode my doubts and I saw it anyway. And you know what, while The Pirates and ParaNorman were better animated movies from this year in my opinion I found Hotel Transylvania much better than expected. More could have been done with the relationship between Jonathan and Mavis, it is a romantic angle that has been used many times before and as well as feeling somewhat under-baked very little new was done with it. While a vast majority of the film is fast-paced with no real dull spots, some parts of the film did feel rushed. On the other point of view, the animation is excellent, the backgrounds are both beautiful and Gothic and that is the same with the colours. The characters are well-modelled. The soundtrack is catchy and upbeat, though some of the songs could have been more than just snippets. The writing is zany and often witty with a surprising amount of heart also.

The story is predictable, but not dull. It has a number of great moments, the genre references are not as inspired as they were in ParaNorman but they are fun to spot, and I loved a lot of the slapstick-in-style gags. Especially the zombie Beethoven, the scream cheese Hors-D'Oeuvres, the shrunken heads do not disturb tags and the digs at Twilight(much more fulfilling than any of the movies combined). But it does have a lot of heart. Is the over-protective father idea clichéd? Of course. But I did find it genuinely touching instead of overly-exaggerated as I have seen described. Dracula's past is also shown in a darkly emotional way. The characters are not the most memorable I have ever seen, but they do have their likability, my favourite here was Dracula. And the voice acting was surprisingly great, to me from a non-fan who has liked him in some movies(Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Spanglish and Happy Gilmore) and hated him in others(Jack and Jill, Going Overboard, Zookeeper and Mr Deeds) Adam Sandler gives one of his better performances of late in the role of Dracula, he is actually funny as well as emotive in alternative to irritating. Selena Gomez is endearing as daughter Mavis and Adam Samberg brings some heroism to Jonathan. Kevin James, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, Fran Drescher and especially Steve Buscemi give solid support. In conclusion, surprisingly good. 8/10 Bethany Cox