Well I finally got my copy of Hotel Transylvania from the library which since I’d been getting constant tastes of it from the film section at the local Barnes and Noble I’d been looking forward to quite a bit.
I confess that when it first came out I had very mixed feelings about mainly due to Adam Sandler. Now to make things clear I do not share any of my friends’ extreme dislike to Adam Sandler’s work. In fact I think he’s very good at what he does. What he does I am not in any way shape or for the target audience for.
I am however a huge fan of Genndy Tartakovsky. So despite any misgivings I had about the film I wanted his first feature film to work for him.
And for the most part I think it did.
I don’t think I’ll call Hotel Transylvania any great masterpiece, but it was a lot of fun… For the most part I keep thinking it as a Cary Grant style screwball comedy with Adam Sandler’s Dracula as Cary Grant’s overprotective father figure desperately stumbling over his own dignity as his paradigm starts falling apart around him.
Like I said, fun.
Taratovsky put in some great Tex Avery inspired slapstick bits with the scene with floating ballroom tables and a chase scene involving the hotel’s chef and everyone else being my favorite.
Along with Adam Sandler the voice actors made up a solid ensemble cast with what was a comedy all star cast… my favorite being Steve Buscemi as a put upon Wolf Man and Fran Drescher as Eunice the Wife of Frankenstein playing up her nails on the blackboard persona up to the nines.
So I think I’ll recommend this as an enjoyable piece of fluff and hopefully a useful springboard to even better projects for Mr. Tartakovsky.
Today we have the picture I finished off my last sketchbook with. This is a very brief portrait I did with someone I had a very good conversation with over at the Emerald City Comicon’s Drink and draw the night before the actual event. (Good tip when your muse is ignoring you just draw what is in front of you.) I think his name was Charles Smith formally a graphic designer for Starbucks currently working either at Amazon or Microsoft I hope he will forgive my bad memory.
