Hotel Transylvania

Now comes the second cartoon spooktacular this year and the only one of the three in CGI. It is Hotel Transylvania, whose premise you can easily get out of its title. But, I'll spell it out for you anyway.

There's Count Dracula (Adam Sandler), who owns the titular Resort: a Five-Star Hotel for Monsters. His frequent guests include Werewolves, Gremlins, Frankenstein's Monsters, Invisible Men and Mummies. The real purpose of Dracula's Tourist Spot is to keep his now 118-year-old daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), away from humans.

One day, a human traveler named Johnny (Andy Samberg) shows up at the Hotel. Naturally, Dracula has to fight tooth and nail to keep him away from the guests. But that gets difficult when sparks fly between Johnny and Mavis.

Genndy Tartakovsky, well known for his work on Cartoon Network, makes his first feature film here. What results is one of the silliest monster mashes on-screen. There's an amusing display of cartoon physics not unlike a Looney Tune. A few jabs at monster movie cliches also earn some good chuckles. Its only real flaw was that, at times, it was a bit too lighthearted.

Amongst the other monsters, one of the best was Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), a harried father of too many. As the only “villain” in this romp, Chef Quasimodo (an unrecognizable Jon Lovitz) also adds some good silliness along with his rat, Esmeralda. The rest of the monsters are so quirky, it's not hard to like any of them.

As usual, it's available on both 3D and Flatscreens. Either way, it's still good fun if one finds Paranorman or  the almost-out Frankenweenie too scary.