Cast: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez and Adam Samberg Director: Genndy Tartakovsky Genre: Comedy, Drama Rating: 2 / 5 Movie Reviewed At: PVR Cinemas, Udaipur

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Hotel Transylvania is a 3D animated movie, has all the elements of action, comedy, drama, humour and horror but somewhere it misses its purpose OR fails to plot actually. It has some really good visuals to experience in 3D and gives moments of laughter, which the audience will enjoy but there are many loopholes in the story and the screenplay. The loose screenplay never lets you indulge into the fun and madness which the film offers. Hotel Transylvania is overstuffed with on-the-nose humour and an underwhelming storyline, without offering anything new or compelling to the mix. For many entertainment fans, Genndy Tartakovsky is best known for his work, directing the hand-drawn Star Wars animated spin-off series and as a result everybody had big expectations from the filmmaker. With Hotel Transylvania, many were equally interested to see what the Director could do with horror staples like Dracula and Frankenstein. Along with such a proficient Director a cast of well-known vocal talent (including Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Molly Shannon, and David Spade, among others) are on board. It is a Story about a Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) who owns a lavish five-star resort – Hotel Transylvania, 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 invites 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. Mavis wants to go out and see the world. She wants to see humans. The horrified and over-protective Dad goes to absurd lengths to keep his daughter from doing this. Things take a worrying turn when a backpacker dude Jonathan strides into the hotel. Dracula tries his best to keep Jonathan away from his daughter. He finds his plan falling apart when Mavis develops a crush on the mortal newcomer while dreaming of life outside of the sprawling castle she’s never left. Unfortunately, beside the 3D animation, Hotel Transylvania is hard to recommend to anyone but kids can go in for some funny gags and the animation. Adults will find a few chuckle-worthy gags and children will have plenty of colourful monsters to keep their eyes busy, but in spite of the film’s thin attempt to strike at something deeper, very little of the onscreen action is unique or memorable. The movie comprises a gag per second, bulk of fart jokes, slapstick violence, and eye-rolling one-liners. The focus shifts quickly from one gimmick to the next, with no time for jokes to resonate, resulting in an overwhelming stream of gags – as if the filmmakers weren’t particularly sure which ones would actually land. Even more problematic, the movie never attempts to present any of the characters, even Dracula and Mavis with enough sincerity to make the heartfelt and profound final act payoff. Samberg’s Jonathan is the best example in the batch – since, in spite of Tartakovsky’s attempts to sell him as a love interest for Mavis, the character is more often presented as a brainless drifter with poor hygiene – who is obsessed over the fate of his backpack. It’s hard to take anything the movie says seriously when the filmmakers regularly rely on slapstick comedy instead of engaging characters to keep audiences invested.