Hotel Transylvania 3 Is the Best Monster Vacation Yet Thanks to Its Zany Comedy

The first two Hotel Transylvania movies have come off as contradictory features, a tug-of-war between the artistic ambitions of director Genndy Tartakovsky, an animation legend most well-known for his work on The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and the obligations of conventional 21st-century animated family movie filmmaking. In both of these films, one can clearly see Tatakovsky trying to push computer-animation in a more zany direction akin to the kind of wacky animation seen in the Flash hand-drawn animation he used on his earlier projects. While their computer-animation had flashes of being something special, their generic celebrity voice-over casts, contemporary music needle drops and rote gags felt like something you could find in any number of other animated films.

Hotel Transylvania 2 Review

There are a few parts of Hotel Transylvania 2 to admire, but the structure of its plot is most certainly not one of those positive aspects of the feature. At first, the primary flaw to be found in how it dishes out is story is the rapid pace at which it goes through various plot developments (the marriage between vampire Mavis and human Johnny, then the reveal of Mavis being pregnant, giving birth and then flashing forward to when the offspring is a few years old) that honestly could have filled out further Hotel Transylvania chapters in their own right.

The Book Of Life Review

Guillermo Del Toro has lent his name to a vast amount of projects since he became a household name with the Hellboy features and Pans Labyrinth. Since the second Hellboy, he's only directed one feature (last years beautifully exciting Pacific Rim), but has produced several more than that. His most recent endeavor as a producer is The Book Of Life, an animated feature from Reel FX and director Jorge R. Gutierrez. Gutierrez makes his debut as a director of a feature length film with this production, his previous defining work being the Nickelodeon program El Tigre.

First Footage From The Upcoming CGI Popeye Movie Is Here

In the pantheon of American animation studios, Sony Pictures Animation Studios is somewhere near the bottom of the barrel. The first Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs film is fun, and both of the Aardman movies they helped distribute were fantastic, but the rest of their output (namely The Smurfs) isn't so good. At least they're giving consistent employment to animation titan Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who helmed the harmless but forgettable Hotel Transylvania and is now in charge of a new CGI Popeye feature. A video containing some test footage for the feature and some thoughts from Tartakovsky is now online. Check the video and my thoughts on it below.