Hotel Transylvania Review - Frightfully Frivolous But Fairly Fun

Hotel Transylvania, the latest animated feature film from Sony Pictures Animation (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs), has received a lukewarm response from critics, but a very enthusiastic one from fans; so I walked into the cinema on Wednesday not quite knowing what to expect. I walked out none the wiser: simultaneously, impressed and underwhelmed. But the main vibe I got from Hotel Transylvania was fun, and it's a film that's not ashamed to wear its relative one-dimensionality on its vampiric sleeve.

Hotel Transylvania Spoofs Carly Rae Jepsen

It's a bizarre marketing strategy, but Sony Pictures Animation have released a parody of Carly Rae Jepsen's (surely the most spell-check unfriendly name ever) smash-hit song "Call Me Maybe", to help promote their latest animated film, Hotel Transylvania.

The parody is called "Call Me Mavy", and is sung by Traci L., focusing on Dracula's (Adam Sandler) daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), and her relationship with the only human to ever visit the monster's getaway of Hotel Transylvania, Jonathan (Andy Samberg). Whilst I'm not really a fan of the advertising for Hotel Transylvania (it looks awfully goofy), I must admit, the video is rather funny...

Bad advertising, also, is nothing new for Sony's animated films. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs looked pretty dreadful going in, but actually turned out to be a very fun film - one of the best animated films of 2009! I'm also quite taken with the latest Hotel T trailer, and the fact that Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab) is directing reassures me somewhat.

Check out "Call Me Mavy" above! Hotel Transylvania, also featuring the voices of Kevin James, Steve Buscemi and Cee Lo Green, flies into US cinemas on 28th September, and slightly closer to the more apt Halloween season, on 12th October - although it'll face tough competition from Disney's similarly themed Frankenweenie.