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HOTEL TRANSYLVANIAMovie Reviews
Animation comedy about Count Dracula's attempts to celebrate his daughter's 118th birthday with his monster friends while keeping her sheltered from the attentions of a human boy. Cast:Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo GreenDirector:Genndy TartakovskyRelease Date:September 28, 2012DVD Release:January 29, 2013From:Sony PicturesRating:PGLength:1 hr 31 minIn 3D
Hotel Transylvania played to good not great reviews. • Steve Persall wrote in the Tampa Bay Times, "...keeps it simple, stupid and satisfying... doesn't raise the bar for animation or comedy but it's fun..." • And James Berardinelli wrote for Reel Views, "...juvenile from start to finish, which is fine if you're young..." More Reviews Below...
Hotel Transylvania Positive Reviews (38 Reviews, reviews below)
Alynda Wheat, People: VERY GOOD(cg) "The jokes get funnier and the action wilder, even if the 3-D animation isn't that inventive.... As for Adam Sandler, this is easily his best movie in years."(See all of Alynda Wheat's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 144 words, 09/27/12
Mary Pols, Time: FAIR "...includes almost entirely lewd jokes for adults.... isn't a complete stinker.... The visuals are consistently enticing... there are some bright and funny lines."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 713 words, 09/27/12
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD(cg) "Tartakovsky's zippy, boing-boing touch shines through in the purely physical antics... words aren't necessary as the freaks bounce around the place with nutso energy."(See all of Lisa Schwarzbaum's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 220 words, 09/28/12
Claudia Puig, USA Today: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "While it's an energetic romp, there is more slapstick humor than wit at work here, and a good deal of borrowing from the far more clever 'Monsters, Inc.' "(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 440 words, 09/28/12
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: WEAK(cg) "Sometimes I wonder whether the true function of contemporary pop culture isn't to recycle the inane pap of the past into inane crap."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 553 words, 09/26/12
James Berardinelli, Reel Views: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...juvenile from start to finish, which is fine if you're young, but not so great if your sole purpose in a theater is to accompany someone who's young."(See all of James Berardinelli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 779 words, 09/29/12
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (13 Reviews)
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "The story flags, but the animation is never less than vivid... The movie loses its originality as it rolls toward its predictable conclusion, but it's still lovely to look at."(See all of Neil Genzlinger's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 177 words, 09/28/12
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...there's enough silly slapstick here that it flies by harmlessly... Sandler's goofy-voice schtick actually works, but Samberg's valley-dude inflections are annoying..."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 340 words, 09/28/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a droll bit of cartoon fluff... It's got a cool retro-hipster look and a clever idea... It should have resulted in funnier fare."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 788 words, 09/28/12
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: POOR(cg) "...illustrates the difference between engaging a young movie audience and agitating it, with snark and noise and everything but the funny."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 292 words, 09/28/12
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: MODERATE(cg) "There are moments of emotion -- but they're few and far between.... aims for your funny bone more often than your heart, and ends up missing both."(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 299 words, 09/28/12
Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...better than it should be, if not quite as good as it could be.... it's got enough belly-laughs to keep us entertained -- even if they are basically the same joke repeated..."(See all of Bilge Ebiri's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 590 words, 09/28/12
Nell Minow, Chicago Sun-Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...sweet, funny... the focus is on showing us that what we think is scary isn't very frightening after all.... The 3-D adds a vertiginous thrill..."(See all of Nell Minow's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 681 words, 09/28/12
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...succeeds as entertainment... mercifully voids the bodily function jokes early on, making room for steady one-liners and clever sight gags..."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 263 words, 09/26/12
Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: WEAK(cg) "Kids may be tolerant of Sandler's wavering silly Dracula accent... adults may be looking for any opportunity to check out early."(See all of Liam Lacey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 308 words, 09/28/12
Kiva Reardon, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the characters never seem truly animated, lacking any real emotional depth.... In the end, 'Hotel' feels creepy for the wrong reasons..."(See all of Kiva Reardon's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 206 words, 09/27/12
KEY CITIES (10 Reviews)
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: MODERATE(cg) "...not a whole lot of drama, suspense or tension... entertaining enough for the trick-or-treat crowd, but a bit more bite wouldn't kill it."(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 481 words, 09/28/12
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a merrily madcap computer-animated monster mashup... there's enough here to entertain - and gross out - the kiddie crowd, and parental units, too."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 412 words, 09/28/12
Tom Russo, Boston Globe: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Some might say there isn't enough that's fresh here to recommend the movie in a big way, except that every generation of trick-or-treaters deserves its monster mash."(See all of Tom Russo's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 345 words, 09/28/12
Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: WEAK(cg) "...ugly.... The movie is rendered in fairly generic 3-D computer images, all puffy spheres and featureless columns and cones. That's a particular shame..."(See all of Stephen Whitty's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 219 words, 09/28/12
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "...spunky... the gags fly, the effects whoosh and the friendly ghouls are many and colorful... The film is good goofy fun, even as the plot uncorks a whole lotta nothing."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 281 words, 09/28/12
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "There's much to enjoy here in a disposable way, particularly jokes about monsters having ordinary problems with kids and spouses."(See all of Tom Keogh's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 284 words, 09/28/12
Tom Long, Detroit News: MODERATE(cg) "...occasionally witty, rarely tedious and wholly formulaic.... it's an animated monster movie featuring Adam Sandler. At least it's not frightful."(See all of Tom Long's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 287 words, 09/28/12
Roger Moore, Miami Herald: WEAK(cg) "...a good-looking, laugh-starved farce that puts Dracula in charge of a hotel for monsters... Sandler's Dracula voice isn't awful. Nor is it distinct or funny..."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 357 words, 09/28/12
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (8 Reviews)
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice/LA Weekly: GOOD "...succeeds as entertainment... mercifully voids the bodily function jokes early on, making room for steady one-liners and clever sight gags..."(See all of Nick Pinkerton's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 263 words, 09/26/12
Sean O'Connell, Cinema Blend: VERY GOOD(cg) "...clever and sweet... animated in the cartoonish sense -- bending and stretching and testing the boundaries of physics like Bugs Bunny and his crew once used to do."(See all of Sean O'Connell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 519 words, 09/26/12
Jake Mulligan, Boston Phoenix: POOR(cg) "Tasteless and sentimental, yet unfunny and offensive, this is one film you don't want to take the kids to. Especially when paying extra bucks for the worst 3D of the year."(See all of Jake Mulligan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 165 words, 09/28/12
Tasha Robinson, AV Club: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...occasionally the kind of fast-moving, gag-a-second film that relies on quantity of humor rather than quality... it relies on increasingly massive narrative shortcuts..."(See all of Tasha Robinson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 639 words, 09/27/12
Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters: POOR(cg) "...predictable romance is punctuated by the boy bonding between Jonathan and Drac, which is to say, the animated version of 'That's My Boy,' minus Vanilla Ice."(See all of Cynthia Fuchs's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 770 words, 10/01/12
Abhimanyu Das, Slant: MODERATE(cg) "...a decent, potentially thorny premise bogged down in a mess of treacly sentiment and tedious moralizing... complexity and characterization quickly go out the window."(See all of Abhimanyu Das's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 575 words, 09/22/12
Kiva Reardon, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the characters never seem truly animated, lacking any real emotional depth.... In the end, 'Hotel' feels creepy for the wrong reasons..."(See all of Kiva Reardon's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 206 words, 09/27/12
HIGHBROW PRESS (3 Reviews)
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "The story flags, but the animation is never less than vivid... The movie loses its originality as it rolls toward its predictable conclusion, but it's still lovely to look at."(See all of Neil Genzlinger's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 177 words, 09/28/12
Ian Buckwalter, NPR: FAIR "...at its core, this movie is little more than 'Twilight' told from the other side of the tracks, only with far more fart jokes... lacking in any real bite..."(See all of Ian Buckwalter's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 634 words, 09/27/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a droll bit of cartoon fluff... It's got a cool retro-hipster look and a clever idea... It should have resulted in funnier fare."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 788 words, 09/28/12
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Peter Debruge, Daily Variety: FAIR "...stale... play-it-safe treatment feels as if it's had all the edges sanded off, reduced to a thin back-catalog plot... more like a pitch session than a finished project..."(See all of Peter Debruge's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 646 words, 09/07/12
Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: POOR "...the collaboration falls flat virtually from the get-go, serving up half-hearted sight gags that have a habit of landing with an ominous thud... uninspired..."(See all of Michael Rechtshaffen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 415 words, 09/07/12
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "...a droll bit of cartoon fluff... It's got a cool retro-hipster look and a clever idea... It should have resulted in funnier fare."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 788 words, 09/28/12
Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7: MODERATE(cg) "...so conventional and old-fashioned that it really doesn't begin to compare with Pixar-Disney's animations.... a mishmash of a movie -- truly a hodgepodge..."(See all of Emanuel Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 414 words, 10/01/12
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: GOOD (NOT GREAT) "The story flags, but the animation is never less than vivid... The movie loses its originality as it rolls toward its predictable conclusion, but it's still lovely to look at."(See all of Neil Genzlinger's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 177 words, 09/28/12
18.3 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Hotel Transylvania's reviews are separated by an average 18.3 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Hotel Transylvania (38 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Hotel Transylvania's reviews cover 67.1% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 16,382 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 431 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Hotel Transylvania Coverage, Volume & Length (38 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 21.0 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Hotel Transylvania's reviews on average broke 21.0 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Hotel Transylvania's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Hotel Transylvania (38 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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