I know, I know…I’ve been “off” for a week and this is what I come back with on the eve of the election? Well, 1. I wasn’t off by choice, just that Hurricane Sandy severely messed with New York’s internet for a week. I hate that I missed a lot of potentially great articles (and Book of the Month, plus Asshole of the Month will be made up later) in this final election week, but, sadly, I did. 2. I saw this movie, so I might as well review it.
What Works: The basic setup (that an overprotective Dracula wants to shield his daughter from the world, so he builds a hotel just for monsters) will probably appeal to kids, and the movie isn’t overly scary for the target demo (unlike, perhaps, Frankenweenie). Parents aren’t going to gouge their eyes out to make it stop, so there’s that.
What Doesn’t Work: Does “Parents aren’t going to gouge their eyes out” sound like much of a compliment? Although this thing is pleasant enough, it’s also tired, lazy, and almost instantly forgettable. It’s another great excuse for Adam Sandler to get a paycheck (even his animated films feel generic), cast a lot of his best friends so that they get paychecks, and families fork over a hefty ticket/concession price to kill an hour and half with the kids. Everyone walks away feeling like they got something, even if nobody is really getting anything worthwhile or stretching too hard. [For a better animated film, see Wreck-it-Ralph, which I’ll review in a few minutes.]
What I Would Have Done Differently: Vampires and werewolves and other generic creatures have now become so harmless and oversaturated, that the only way to really get a bang for your buck is to bundle them together. Any movie that tries to “reinvent” something exhausted with a slightly different angle is already off to a bad start, in my book.