Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Less concerned with moral lessons that other animated features, this 3-D feature is just for the fun of it. In its world Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his friends are not so menacing, it is humans who are. Fighting against stereotyping, he says, “I do NOT say ‘blaaa blaaa blaaa!” Nor does he suck human blood—” Human blood is so fatty, and you don’t know where it’s been.” After he manages to see a TV screen on which a Twilight movie is playing, he declares, “This is how we’re represented, unbelievable.”

Because the outside world is so dangerous Dracula has opened his Hotel Transylvania to provide a safe vacation spa for the other assorted monsters: guests include the Frankensteins, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, Quasimodo, a pair of very fertile wherewolves and their brood and more. And then there is Drac’s daughter Mavis (Selna Gomez), now 119 years old and thus “old enough to drive a hearse.”

However, what Mavis really wants is for her overly protective dad to allow her to fly away in bat form to visit the land of the humans to see what they are like. After much pleading from her, he finally gives in, but the nearby village that she goes to is a fake one. There Drac’s cronies stage a torch-lit uprising against her like the one in the original Frankenstein tale. Mavis flees home, glad to mingle now with her own kind. Then backpacker Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles onto the hotel, and all sorts of madcap events ensue.

Lots of humor and action in this family film. At one point Johnny asks Dracula about his guests, “Are these monster gonna kill me?” :” Not as long as they think you’re a monster,” Drac answers. Jonathan responds,” That’s kinda racist.” Well, maybe there is a little more to this movie, but don’t count on it. Just sit back and prepare to laugh a lot. And you really need not spend the extra cash for 3-D—the humor is just as funny in the flat version.