Vampire Reviews - Hotel Transylvania
Written by Maven of the Eventide Sunday, 30 September 2012 21:42
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Comments (121)
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09.30.2012 - 22:31 | Kevin R.
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09.30.2012 - 23:40 | ManWithGoodTaste
I enjoyed this movie a whole lot. The only flaw I believe it had, was all those crappy pop songs in the soundtrack.
Also, not all people become all emo after the death of a loved one. Just saying.
P.S. Are you really saying all good stories need an antagonist??
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10.01.2012 - 00:00 | August M.
I also second on the whole antagonist thing. I mean many great movies don't have or need an antagonist to move the plot forward. Look at Finding Nemo, there's no antagonist whatsoever and if it did it would have ruined the movie, so much.
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10.01.2012 - 04:48 | DietCoke
What about Darla?
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10.01.2012 - 06:32 | danielsangeoIf Darla was the antagonist of Finding Nemo, then, in this movie, the antagonist would have to be the cook, Quasimodo.
There are three basic types of stories: Man versus Man, Man versus Nature, and Man versus himself.
This movie is kind of the third one. Kind of.
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10.01.2012 - 13:45 | August M.Darla is just a plot-point, a drive to get Nemo back to the ocean to his father. Besides, the movie is about Marlin who has to come to terms that being over-protective will bring more harm to Nemo. In other words, it was his own doing that caused Nemo to be captured. In other words, Marlin was his own villain.
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10.01.2012 - 23:42 | FishEyenoMiko
"a drive to get Nemo back to the ocean to his father"
I think Nemo would want to go home regardless; Darla was a "ticking clock"--he had to get back before she arrived to take him.
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10.02.2012 - 14:31 | Evamarie41
I think the ocean was the antagonist. Also P. Sherman who kidnapped him.
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10.01.2012 - 10:57 | TragicGuineaPig
You could argue that "MAAAAAAAN!!!??!" is the antagonist. It was that complete bastard "MAAAAAAN!!!??" - that child-raping, nun-murdering "MAAAAANNN!!!??" that kidnapped poor Nemo and subjected him to the torturous doom of being trapped in a fish tank until certain death at the hands of one of his cubs.
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10.01.2012 - 13:47 | August M.But "MAAAAANNN!!!??" thought it was helping Nemo when he was "struggling" to swim by rescuing him. So you can't blame "MAAAAANNN!!!??" on that.
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10.04.2012 - 16:39 | mrrubino
Didn't have an antagonist but had conflict to drive it. The villain of the piece doesn't have to be a entity; it can be circumstance.
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10.01.2012 - 00:08 | rockybalboa211
Personally, while it didn't need an antagonist, I would have liked a plot with a much more flawed Dracula character. Maybe an antagonist could have provided a story in which that would have been displayed.
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10.01.2012 - 17:35 | Moose75000Almost all do, so I guess so
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Same here ,but the song that plays with the credits "I'm a Monster" just puzzles me with how it got in the movie.
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I disagree, plus audiences seem to be really enjoying it (heck Doug really liked it).
I also disagreed about the animation, it was very good (no surprise coming from a master).
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09.30.2012 - 23:55 | August M.I actually like that it didn't have an antagonist because it would have been forced and unnecessary. It was just a fun animated film with great character designs, and Looney Tunes style of comedy, and very fluid animation.
Here's my problem with two of your points
-Dracula doesn't know what a cell phone is(As shown in a scene earlier) so how can he call Johnny to come back to the hotel.
-Why do you want Dracula to be depressed about his wife after so long she's been dead? Yes it's sad when you lose a love one but people have to move on.
Overall, I enjoyed Genndy Tartakovsky's first movie. I'm ready for his Popeye movie and soon after, Samurai Jack. ^_^
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10.01.2012 - 00:09 | rockybalboa211I don't think Dracula or anyone would "move on" several weeks after a loved one was murdered (In my experience, that rarely happens).
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10.01.2012 - 00:04 | KingOfDoma
Heh. Raised stakes. :D
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10.01.2012 - 00:08 | Rue_Ryuzaki2
well it sounds like something i wouldn't mind if kids wanted to see it. since theres been other things marketed to them that are just urgh. But whats this about the Mavie Wavie thing? Surely you would want someone to call by something that suppose to sound so "cute"
lol. Even though the idea of you getting us in our sleep is troubling. Hmmm lets have the bokken on standby.
nice work maven.
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10.01.2012 - 00:08 | mecham
It was a cool movie to watch, considering it was Gene tarakovsky's (sorry if I said it wrong)first CGI movie (as far as I know). I wil admit, Drac's mood was rater jumpy in th flick and I thought to myself, "Did I miss something? When did here, become here?"
And Quasimodo seemed to fall to the villain role you were talking about, but not so much.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Twilight joke in here. Eh,guess not wanting to point it out would spoil it.
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10.01.2012 - 00:20 | Heriophant
i think zombie hotel did the hole monster mash human shows up thing better
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10.01.2012 - 00:24 | Goat Boy
So, Mavis is Alucard?
Nice outfit. Very nice.
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10.01.2012 - 03:35 | DarkBee
Very nice outfit indeed, I had trouble keeping my eyes up.
Solid review overall.
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10.01.2012 - 00:47 | Jane the Bane
I'll come out and say it:
All good stories need a conflict, and for that you need an antagonist.
Now, mind you, that antagonist needn't be a *person*.
You can pit your protagonist against nature (survival in the wilderness), against his own character flaws (battling inner demons), or a series of tragic events (tackling fate) - just to mention a few.
Even the most experimental and avantgardist fictions usually feature a conflict of sorts - and those that don't are usually remembered as weird experiments that may deserve a special place for being unusual, but are not really repeated.
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10.12.2012 - 12:55 | LucifersLawyerPixar is great at having the circumstance be the antagonist. The people who made this movie should have watched Finding Nemo 12 times before penning their script.
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first off have to say love your videos, been enjoying them all when they come out. also nice outfit, did a double take when the video started. actually fell out of my chair in suprise
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10.01.2012 - 01:15 | stevenb1987
you should do a review of Mad Monster Party. its from the 60s and i remember when i was little watching it. Its a clay animation movie so its kinda cool
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10.01.2012 - 01:41 | ElStevo777i surprised nobody mentioned the fact that Dracula totally should have died in that movie!! he is out in the sun for freaking ever and he only gets a sunburn out of it?! i mean i remember the scene where mavis watches the sunrise and is like wow and thinking how the hell is she alive she is looking at the sun but because she is in the shade she is alright? if you can see sunlight, than that means sunlight is reaching you. anywho beside this bit, i just thought the humor was kinda inappropriate it is a trend i think shrek started and is getting out of control.
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10.01.2012 - 09:04 | Romanticide
Vampires burning in the sun came with the hollywood movies, before that vampires were very weak in the day and that is it.
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10.02.2012 - 16:19 | fanime1
Yeah, I noticed the dirty joke trend a while ago. I also think Shrek helped start the movement towards CG animation because of how big it was. I think that, because a little after that, Disney (I consider Pixar a separate entity) stopped doing 2D animation for a while. They actually wanted to drop 2D all together.
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10.01.2012 - 02:09 | Gundam4ever
Maven of the Eventide have you ever thought of review Vampire Anime?
Like review something violent like Hellsing and/or review something innocent like Karin.
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I basically feel the same way about this movie as Maven. Didn't expect much going into it and wasn't disappointed. I am very thankful I did not waste the extra money for 3D, not even sure what it would have been used for.
*Spoiler*
The closest thing to an antagonist this movie had was (wait for it)...Quasimodo who, in my opinion, is not really a monster.
*Spoiler*
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10.01.2012 - 03:02 | 3DMaster
Well, I could point out it's Adam Sandler, the dick who made a movie about how great a woman is when she statutory rapes a boy, and how vile the boy is and how everything bad is his fault, so what did you expect, but then Mavie Wavie you already point that out.
Oh, don't tell us not to do something and then bring up some kind of empty thread that we know our cute, cuddly Mavie Wavie would never do; it'll only make us do it!
All I would have noticed would be the names being alike, but now... heh, heh, heh.
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10.01.2012 - 03:51 | Dericof_Diname
Good morning, Maven Wavie. I like this video, though I saw a lot of dust motes floating around at the end. At first I though that it was some sort of special effects to make you look like you were burning because of the sunlight since you started with a "Good morning" and it would end the video with a joke, but I guest it was just the sunlight too close to the camera.
I'm going to see the movie first before discussing if I agree or disagree with your point of view of this movie; but so far what I have seen makes me think that it doesn't wort the money to see it at the theater.
Nice outfit, Maven Wavie, I particularly liked the Cross Necklace; it looks so good on you, I couldn't take my eyes from that cross; It is a really lovely Cross.
By the way, Maven Wavie, I sleep in Cancún, Quintana Roo, México. Feel free to come by and punish me all that you want.
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10.01.2012 - 05:09 | Clare C.G
Wait, Adam Sandler is voicing Dracula in this! Was he trying to do an impression of Gru from Despicable Me cause that's what it sounds like.
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It's not a HORRIBLE movie. I wasn't really thinking about the problems you listed here, but having heard them I can't deny their existence or their annoyance factors (I think EVERYONE could predict the "big reveal" as soon as they saw Dracula singing to baby Mavis). But it was still kind of fun. However, I think we start a few years after the death of Martha which explains the lack of mourning (sort of). And the intro takes place over the course of several years (Mavis ages much more than if it were a few weeks and castles don't rise in a day).
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10.01.2012 - 05:26 | simsgirlgem
MAVEY WAVEY I REGRET NOTHING (impaled)
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10.01.2012 - 10:37 | TragicGuineaPigSpeaking of, I can't help but remember what Vlad did for a living before becoming a creature of the night. That sort of puts a dampener on the whole "loving father" image.
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10.01.2012 - 07:43 | ohe
It's hard to review kids' films. Out of all possible target groups that's the one most easily generalized as just 'kids' while in the same time it's absolutely crucial to not do that because kids have such varied tastes. Let's say that's based on age groups, even though that's not exactly accurate. Here it seems that Elisa is reviewing a movie presumably made for 10-11 -year-olds as a movie for 13-14 -year-olds, and predictably ends up with a thumbs down.
That particular line is where people start to look for cool or clever things instead of plain fun things, so what is wanted from a movie is largely different. Also where 8-year-olds are content to be themselves and 13-year-olds are facing the reality of being only 13, 11-year-olds start wishing they were a couple years older and instead of wanting to watch lame preteens doing lame preteen things they will want to admire some cool teens being cool. So the protagonist for 11-year-olds ends up being about 13, while the same for 13-year-olds is also thirteen. As well as all such superficial aspects in a movie. That results in it being very difficult to differentiate between two very different types of movies.
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10.01.2012 - 10:52 | TragicGuineaPigAs I point out elsewhere, CGI films tend to target slightly older audiences to start with. For one thing, a central element to this film is the romance plot; that right there puts us out of the "under 11" range. And the fact they got Adam Sandler to do the voice of Dracula - that right there screams "older audience material" to me.
Even still, a film written for a younger audience can still employ intelligent writing. Case in point: my niece (4-years old at the time) absolutely loved The Secret of Nimh, and yet that was a film that involved rather complex characters, betrayal, shifting loyalties, and such.
I am not of the opinion that "for kids" is an excuse for "stupid". Not that I'm necessarily calling this film stupid - I'm just sick of this unsubstantiated opinion that kids need stupid in order for it to be entertaining for them.
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10.01.2012 - 07:35 | LevelUpLeo
I wasn't planning on seeing this mostly for one reason: Adam Sandler's voice acting. Sadly, in a time where animation studios are going for big name actors instead of decent voice actors, this was inevitable. But I think Adam Sandler is a TERRIBLE voice actor. At no point do I believe his voice is actually Dracula, it just sounds like his regular voice with a Bulgarian accent. Compare this with ParaNorman who used relatively unknown voice actors, they turned out AMAZING performances.
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10.01.2012 - 10:47 | TragicGuineaPigI've never been an Adam Sandler fan anyway. Some of my friends like to quote Water Boy, but to me, all his characters seem to be some overgrown man-child put in a situation where he can act like an overgrown man-child. As soon as I heard "Adam Sandler" in relation to this movie, my expectations plummeted like an anvil dropped from a B-17.
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10.01.2012 - 08:03 | octo7
Great revioobs, I mean review!
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10.01.2012 - 08:12 | jaw4ever
Good thoughtful review.
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10.01.2012 - 08:42 | The_Awesometeer
I love Maven
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10.01.2012 - 10:45 | TragicGuineaPigWhat, have you given up on Lupa? Going from Warwilf to Bampire now?
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10.01.2012 - 09:00 | smcgavin1Wait how did you know I was watching this in the morning?
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10.01.2012 - 09:07 | RomanticideWe are going to get a diferent dub here but even if I won't have to hear Sandler I don't want to see this movie... so thanks for the heads up, let's see if there are still some places showing paranorman here.
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10.01.2012 - 09:10 | TragicGuineaPigWhy doesn't he just bite the kid and turn him into a vampire? Problem: solved!
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10.01.2012 - 13:40 | August M.It's mentioned that Dracula hates human blood for being filled with fat and doesn't want to know where it has been.
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This is a good review! I won't be able to see it but I think this review is enough for me to know what to expect (if there was anything as such).
James Rolfe (AVGN) brought up a pretty cool idea in his Universal Monster Family video for a movie: All the classic Universal monsters ban together to fight other movie monsters.
I have no idea if that would actually work but that would be interesting. :)
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10.01.2012 - 09:49 | Kurvos
I don't know... I haven't seen the movie yet - but I love the concept, and I love it for not trying to force in any pointless conflict. With your logic, the Winnie the Pooh movies sucks.
I have yet to see Hotel Transylvania - but I do think it's a movie for me I will highly enjoy. Also, I think The Lion King is the most overrated animated movie of all time. Just saying.
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10.01.2012 - 10:44 | TragicGuineaPigExcept that the Pooh movies are targeted directly for kids; they are DVD babysitter material. Modern CGI animation films tends to target slightly older children as well as adults. In order to do that effectively, you have to employ a bit more intelligence in your writing.
Think about it: would He-Man have been a compelling show to watch if there had been no Skeletor to do battle with? Would Transformers have been a compelling show if the Autobots and Decepticons joined hands and danced around in every episode? Would Toy Story have been as interesting had there been no Sid or Stinky Pete, or discords between Buzz and Woody? Stories that aren't targeted toward anyone but the smallest of children need some sort of compelling conflict in order to make them interesting.
Winnie the Pooh serves its purpose; I'm not its target demographic. But with Adam Sandler as the voice of Dracula, I can't help but feel that this movie is targeted toward me on some level. And I am not an Adam Sandler fan to start with.
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10.01.2012 - 13:51 | August M.Oh yeah, because "friendship, responsibility, trust, and good being" are ONLY for kids and NOT adults.
Pfft...whatever.
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10.01.2012 - 17:50 | TragicGuineaPigThese are important things. Ah, but to demonstrate how important they are, you have to put your characters in a situation where there is conflict and tension, so that they can either overcome and learn to rely on these things, or they violate them and suffer the consequences. In other words, to demonstrate the better qualities, you still need conflict of some sort.
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Oh, and first.