| Hotel Transylvania | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Genndy Tartakovsky[1] |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by | |
| Produced by | Michelle Murdocca |
| Starring | |
| Edited by | Catherine Apple |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh[4] |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing[2] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 91 minutes[6] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $85 million[7] |
| Box office | $358.4 million[7] |
Hotel Transylvania is a 2012 American animatedmonstercomedy film directed byGenndy Tartakovsky from a screenplay byPeter Baynham andRobert Smigel, and a story byTodd Durham,Dan Hageman andKevin Hageman, based on an original concept created by Durham. Produced byColumbia Pictures andSony Pictures Animation, and distributed bySony Pictures Releasing, it is the first installment in theHotel Transylvania franchise. The film stars the voices ofAdam Sandler,Andy Samberg,Selena Gomez,Kevin James,Fran Drescher,Steve Buscemi,Molly Shannon,David Spade andCeeLo Green.
The film tells the story ofCount Dracula (voiced by Sandler), the famed vampire who is also the owner of the titular Hotel Transylvania where the world's monsters can take a rest from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters to celebrate the 118th birthday of his beloved daughter Mavis (Gomez). But when the "human-free hotel" is unexpectedly visited by a human traveler named Jonathan (Samberg), Drac must do everything in his power to prevent Mavis and the other guests from finding out that a human has found their safe place, which may jeopardize the hotel's future and his career.
As a first-time feature director, Tartakovsky set out to make a film that used his background intraditional animation to implement the physics of 2D incomputer animation, inspired by the physical comedy ofTex Avery, and departing from the focus on realism that had become standard in CGI fare.Hotel Transylvania premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 28. It received mixed reviews from critics but earned a total of $358.4 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $85 million and was nominated for aGolden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The financial success ofHotel Transylvania launched a multimedia franchise and a series of three sequels, starting withHotel Transylvania 2 (2015).
In 1895, after his wifeMartha was killed by an angry human mob,Count Dracula commissions and builds a massive monsters-only hotel inTransylvania, in which he raises his young daughter,Mavis. The hotel also serves as a safe haven and a getaway for the world's monsters from fear of human persecution. Famous monsters and friends of Dracula such asFrankenstein and his wifeEunice, Wayne and WandaWerewolf andtheir massive immediate family,Griffin the Invisible Man, and Murray theMummy often come to stay at the hotel.
In 2012, on Mavis's 118th birthday, she wants to finally see the human world. Dracula allows her to leave the castle, but he sets up an elaborate plan using hiszombiebellhops disguised as humans to make them seem intimidating, and frighten her home. The plan works, but on their way back the zombies inadvertently lead a human, Jonathan "Johnny" Loughran, back to the hotel. Drac frantically disguises him as a Frankensteinesque monster and passes him off as Frank's cousin "Johnnystein" so that he could lie about his arrival. Jonathan soon meets Mavis andthe two "zing". 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, but this worries Drac, who is both envious of Johnny's popularity and afraid that his friends will never return to the hotel if they find out the truth about him. Drac coerces Johnny to leave, but he is brought back by Mavis, who is unaware of Johnny's real species and feud with her father. After being shown the beauty of asunrise by Johnny, Mavis is inspired to give humans another chance.
Meanwhile, the hotel chefQuasimodo, with the help of his pet ratEsmeralda, learns that Johnny is a human and kidnaps him to cook him. Drac intervenes and magically freezes Quasimodo to keep him from telling anyone that Johnny is human. Drac leads Johnny to his quarters and shows him a painting of Martha, allowing Johnny to realize why Drac built the hotel, became overprotective of Mavis, and his hatred for humans. Johnny then agrees to leave for good, but Drac, noticing that Mavis and Johnny's feelings for each other are real, persuades him to stay for the time being to avoid ruining Mavis's birthday. Drac and Johnny begin to bond and have fun together.
The party is a great success the next night, and Mavis looks forward to opening a gift from Martha. However, when Johnny and Mavis share their first kiss, Drac overreacts, and in his outburst, inadvertently confesses to deceiving Mavis with the town. A still-frozen Quasimodo bursts in andMr. Fly reveals from his frozen speech that Johnny is a human disguised by Drac, who is guilty about his lie. The guests are shocked and outraged by the deceit at play, but Mavis is undeterred and wants to be with Johnny. Johnny rejects her out of respect for her father and leaves the hotel. A heartbroken Mavis flies onto the roof with her mother's gift, and Drac follows in hopes of comforting her. He learns the present is a book about how he and Martha "zinged" and fell in love, and realizes he no longer knows mankind's true tolerance of monsters. After apologizing to the patrons, Drac persuades Frank, Wayne, Griffin, and Murray to head out into the human world to help him find Johnny, and with the scent-tracking ability of Wayne's daughter, Winnie, they learn that he is about to catch a flight back to theUnited States.
The five head to the airport, but are held up in a town celebrating a Monster Festival along the way. Frankenstein attempts to scare away the assembled crowd of humans with a loud roar but instead receives wild applause and adoration. He then gets the humans to agree to help, and a team of men dressed as vampires provides Drac shelter from the sunlight while he rushes to the airport. Drac arrives to see Johnny's plane taking off, and he gives chase in bat form, burning in the sunlight. After getting Johnny's attention, Drac makes his way to the windshield of the plane and uses his mind-controlling power on the pilot to help him apologize over the plane'sPA system, stating that Mavis has grown up and can make her own decisions. Johnny accepts his apology, and Drac manipulates the pilot to return to the Transylvanian airport. Drac returns Johnny to Mavis, announcing that he approves of Johnny. Johnny confesses to Mavis that their "zing" was mutual and the two kiss. The monsters finish celebrating Mavis's party, impressing the hotel guests.
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Middle:Kevin James,Steve Buscemi andCeeLo Green voices Frankenstein, Wayne and Murray
Bottom:David Spade,Fran Drescher,Molly Shannon andJon Lovitz voices Griffin, Eunice, Wanda and Quasimodo WilsonThe heads of theHydra named Mr. Hydraberg are voiced by Jim Wise,Paul Brittain, Jonny Solomon,Craig Kellman, andBrian McCann.
Hotel Transylvania was originally created and developed by comedy writerTodd Durham, which he based on his book of the same name; after creating thebible for a franchise of several films, television series, holiday TV specials, video games, books, merchandising, hotel chain, and theme parks, he took the package unsolicited to Columbia Pictures and set it up at Sony Pictures Animation where he became the first of several screenwriters on the project.[14][15][16]
The development process ultimately went through six directors; in 2006,Anthony Stacchi andDavid Feiss became the first directors set to helm the film.[17] They were replaced byJill Culton in 2008,[18] who was followed byChris Jenkins,[19] with Todd Wilderman in 2010.[20] In February 2011,[21]Genndy Tartakovsky, creator ofDexter's Laboratory,Samurai Jack,Star Wars: Clone Wars, andSym-Bionic Titan took over as the sixth scheduled director,[22] and made his feature directorial debut with the film.[8][20]
In November 2011,Miley Cyrus was announced to voice Mavis, Dracula's teenaged daughter,[9][23] but in February 2012, she was removed from the film. In August 2019, Cyrus admitted it was because of buying then-partnerLiam Hemsworth a birthday cake in the shape of a penis and licking it.[24] It was later announced thatSelena Gomez would replace Cyrus.[25] According to Tartakovsky his favorite Dracula was Bela Lugosi, especially in the context of Abbott and Costello. As a kid he really did not like horror movies, so he never really watched them. So he got introduced to all those characters through comedy, and so it wasAbbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein andMeet the Mummy, etc. As Tartakovsky said [in relation to makingHotel Transylvania]: "I don't want to scare anybody. I just want to make them laugh with these iconic characters."[26]
Tartakovsky, who originates from a traditional animation background, reimagined the film to follow the energy, organic nature, and exaggeration of 2D animation, particularly as seen in the work of directorTex Avery.[27] "I took all the aesthetics I like from 2-D and applied them here," he said. "I don't want to do animation to mimic reality. I want to push reality."[22] Tartakovsky's process involved drawing over character models in order to achieve exaggerated poses, hoping to "bring a 2D drawing sensibility into the CG world" and "push the expressions of the characters."[28][29]Character animator Bill Haller remarked that "20% of the effort went into tweaking the rig to more of a hand-drawn pose" when creating most of the shots.[29]
Visual effects supervisor Dan Kramer stated that because most of the film's assets were created under a different director, they were initially hesitant to take the character animation off model, but admitted that "when [Tartakovsky] did draw overs, it was freeing for the animators. And it's changed my viewpoint in being a little looser."[29] Bill Desowitz ofAnimation World Network described the process as "creating new pipeline, breakingrigs and coming up with various deforming tweaks to get the rightsquash-and-stretch in CG."[29] "I wanted to have an imprint so you'd go, 'Well, only Genndy can make this," Tartakovsky explained. "It's hard, especially with CG, but I feel there's a lot of moments that feel that they're very me, so hopefully it'll feel different enough that it has a signature to it."[30]
Hotel Transylvania premiered on September 8, 2012, at theToronto International Film Festival.[6] The film received a wide release on September 28, 2012.[2] On October 26, 2012,Regal Entertainment Group Cinemas began exclusively playing the traditionally animated short filmGoodnight Mr. Foot before the film. Based onHotel Transylvania, the short was directed and animated by Genndy Tartakovsky.[33]
Hotel Transylvania was released onBlu-ray (2D and 3D) andDVD on January 29, 2013. It was accompanied by the short animated film,Goodnight Mr. Foot.[34]
In April 2021, Sony signed a deal giving Disney access to their legacy content, including theHotel Transylvania franchise to stream onDisney+ andHulu and appear on Disney's linear television networks. Disney's access to Sony's titles would come following their availability onNetflix.[35]
Hotel Transylvania earned $148.3 million in North America, and $210.1 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $358.4 million.[7] The officially reported budget for the film was $85 million,[7] althoughDeadline Hollywood claimed that the film actually cost $104 million.[36]
Hotel Transylvania topped the box office with $11 million on its first Friday, and $42.5 million domestically and $50.6 million worldwide for its opening weekend, which at the time of its release brokeSweet Home Alabama's record for the largest-grossing September opening,[36] a record which was overtaken by its sequelHotel Transylvania 2 in 2015, with a weekend gross of $48.5 million.[37] The film also earned the highest-grossing domestic debut for Sony Pictures Animation (also later overtaken byHotel Transylvania 2).[37][38] According to Sony's president of worldwide distribution, Rory Bruer, Sony was very satisfied with the film's performance, which was "beyond anyone's imagination, and the holds are ridiculous. It exceeds expectations in every new market it opens in."[39]Hotel Transylvania was theatrically released in China on October 28, 2013,[40] more than a year after the worldwide premiere, and contributed $11,180,000 to the overall gross.[41]
Hotel Transylvania has an approval rating of 45% based on 142 professional reviews on thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.4/10. Its critical consensus reads, "Hotel Transylvania's buoyant, giddy tone may please children, but it might be a little too loud and thinly-scripted for older audiences."[42]Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assignedHotel Transylvania a score of 47 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[43] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[44][45]
IGN editor Geoff Chapman rated the film 9 out of 10 and wrote "This is a fun film, full of quirky gags and lovable characters. There are a few songs that smack a bit like soundtrack marketing for the kids, and the story is of course fairly predictable, but this movie is about enjoying a fun journey with great characters. It's a romp that kids and families will all enjoy.Hotel Transylvania is definitely somewhere you'll want to check in."[46]
| Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annie Awards[47][48] | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| Character Design in an Animated Feature Production | Carlos Grangel | ||
| Carter Goodrich | |||
| Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Genndy Tartakovsky | ||
| Music in an Animated Feature Production | Mark Mothersbaugh | ||
| Production Design in an Animated Feature Production | Marcello Vignali | ||
| Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production | Adam Sandler | ||
| Editorial in an Animated Feature Production | Catherine Apple | ||
| Golden Globe Awards[49] | Best Animated Feature Film | Genndy Tartakovsky | |
| Visual Effects Society[50][51] | Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Lydia Bottegoni, James Crossley, Mike Ford, Daniel Kramer | |
| Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture | Bill Haller, Tim Pixton, Jorge Vigara (for Dracula) | ||
| Kid's Choice Awards[52] | Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Adam Sandler (as Dracula) | Won |
The sequel, titledHotel Transylvania 2, was released on September 25, 2015.[53] Its story takes place seven years after the first film, with the hotel now open to human guests, and its owner, Count Dracula, being more preoccupied with the fact that his 5-year-old grandson is not a pure-blood vampire.[54] The original crew and cast returned for the film, except CeeLo Green as the role of Murray, who was replaced by Keegan-Michael Key. New additions includeMel Brooks as Dracula's father, Vlad;[55]Nick Offerman andMegan Mullally as Jonathan's parents, Mike and Linda;[56] andAsher Blinkoff as Mavis and Johnny's half-human/half-vampire son, Dennis.[57]
Hotel Transylvania 2 was followed byHotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, released on July 13, 2018.
The fourth and final feature film in the series isHotel Transylvania: Transformania, released as anAmazon Prime Video exclusive on January 14, 2022.
A television series based on the film premiered on June 25, 2017, and ended on October 29, 2020.[58] Developed and produced byNelvana Limited, in partnership with Sony Pictures Animation, the prequel series focused on the 114/115 years of Mavis and her friends at the Hotel Transylvania.[58]Sony Pictures Television handled distribution in the United States, while Nelvana distributed the series outside the United States.[58] It aired on theDisney Channel worldwide.[59]
In June 2024,Motel Transylvania, a television series set to debut onNetflix in 2025, was announced.[60] The series is set to focus on Dracula and Mavis opening amotel.[61]
Here's a picture of my character, Quasimodo the Chef, from Adam Sandler's "Hotel Transylvania"
audience was primarily made up of families (78 percent), and they awarded the movie an "A-" CinemaScore (that improved to a solid "A" among women and children).
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