Hotel Transylvania- Genndy Tartakovsky's next project

Are you doing this on purpose?

It's a family comedy about Dracula running a hotel, you gotta throw any expectations of faith to literature out the window.

But it could have been interesting to have Dracula-the-vengenful-and-lustful-asshole have a Back Story that actually justifies his Character Development into someone who'd actually run a hotel as a refuge for monsters!

• I expected someone like Hellsing's Alucard with an "Eastern Europe Gangster wanting to go Legit" theme. His daughter would have been kind of a morally ambiguous Mafia Princess.
• The Hotel itself being something like the Bathouse in Spirited Away would have been awesome, with the problems of the servants not being glossed over as "they're Zombies and okay to use and abuse".
• Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, and the Mummy all had tragic and interesting backstories, it would have been easy and fun to build upon that, even in Broad Strokes.
• There could have been something about actual Van Helsing Hate Crimes, Heel–Face Door-Slam, what constitutes a monster, what constitutes redemption, and how to have fun and enjoy life even when you have a horrible past on your shoulders.

I guess I was expecting something worthy of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman or Hayao Miyazaki. Something that's still family-friendly and cute, but that has that delicious dark undertone, can be understood on many levels, and feels warm and honest.

Instead, I got a shallow Adam Sandler comedy. With Love Atfirst Sight and Fourth-Date Marriage. Shouldn't these tropes be oh-so-dead? Teens already have a tendency to believe their little flirtations are the One Twu Wuv, there's no point in encouraging them!

Well, at least they found a snappy word for it. Zing!

edited 9th Jun '13 12:42:18 PM by TheHandle

You're honestly telling me you took a look at the cast list and expected something like that? Really?

No, I didn't look at the cast list, I saw "Gendy directs" and I was like "he'll make it awesome".

Well, he tried, I guess.

Anyway, at least it's great fanfic fodder.

Aw, man, now I'm scared again. Whenever I think of writing stuff like that, I get Morpheus' grim face telling me "You are not worthy", font and all. He has a point, too.

Well there's your problem. You ignored everything after "Genndy Tartakovsky" and got burned.

>implying directors have any creative power when it comes to animated movies

edited 9th Jun '13 12:55:08 PM by nomuru2d

What, am I wrong for believing that? It seems to hold true for Japanese animated films and for Western TV. Not for Western animated movies, then?

Man, why is this horse so cool...

edited 9th Jun '13 1:00:25 PM by TheHandle

I think what you saw WAS Genndy's vision. Remember, he's also the guy who did Dexter's Laboratory.

*implying his style hasn't grown or evolved in the twenty years since and that we should just ignore that every show he's done since Dexter has been considerably more stylistic and actiony*

It varies by studio. Pixar offers a lot of creative freedom (though it can be hard to tell because its main creators are very like-minded people.) Dreamworks less so, but we've been seeing more original ideas seep through the cracks.

With smaller studios it tends to vary, but Sony Pictures Animation doesn't have the greatest track record. The closest it's gotten to actual creative freedom is bankrolling some of Aardman's stuff, and it's biggest hit ever was The Smurfs. It's development schedule includes movies based on ALF, Manimal (somewhere Brad Jones is sobbing), Roller Coaster Tycoon, friggin' Tonka Trucks, and—perhaps most terrifyingly—Harold And The Purple Crayon.

edited 9th Jun '13 1:10:28 PM by Wackd

Also, Dexter's Lab had a kickass soundtrack. IN DEXTER'S LAAAAAAAAB!

Please don't tell me Danny Elfman wrote it.

edited 9th Jun '13 1:10:27 PM by TheHandle

Implying he can't go back to basics once in a while.

Dexter's Lab's end titles were composed by none other than children's show music god Stephen Rucker.

Point.

edited 9th Jun '13 1:12:05 PM by Wackd

I wouldn't expect much out of the studio that gave us Open Season and The Smurfs. Even Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was mostly just wacky.

Ah, The Smurfs, so much wasted potential.It had already been done by "Enchanted" and "Mr Popper's Penguins". Why don't these creatures from parallel universes end up in the lives of, say, a burger flipper from Baltimore? Or some dock worker from Amsterdam? They're Belgian, after all. Or a mail man from Kiev? Why does it always have to be upper-middle-class people with relationship trouble?

edited 9th Jun '13 2:39:23 PM by TheHandle

At least the next movie's actually going to put them in their home continent.

ON TOPIC: I still need to see this movie.

edited 9th Jun '13 2:38:55 PM by Mort08

From before the ninja: Why don't these creatures from parallel universes end up in the lives of, say, a burger flipper from Baltimore? Or some dock worker from Amsterdam? They're Belgian, after all. Or a mail man from Kiev? Why does it always have to be upper-middle-class people with relationship trouble?

After the ninja: What, is it set in Belgium?

Paris, which is probably as close as we're going to get.

If it's Ratatouille's Paris I'm going to puke.

You don't take artistic license well, do you.

Honestly, this is nowhere near the kind of movie you thought it was going to be. Did you read anything about the Development Hell of this movie?!

edited 9th Jun '13 3:34:29 PM by Shota

It's cute and heartwarming and all, but, you know, Tropes in Aggregate. It just gets old. There's more to Paris than a tourist postcards.

Says the man who's waiting for Ladybug with impatience.

You stated what kinds of movies you do like, and I understand that. But people need to look at movies as they are, and not what you as an individual want them to be.

I fear for Sony's future. They're now relying on more franchises that no one can imagine would work as a movie. ...how come everyone wants to make movies out of everything!?

edited 9th Jun '13 3:38:00 PM by Shota

It's all in the execution man.

And I'm saying the execution of THIS film was redone over and over again for years before Genndy's version ended up being what they believed to the best it could be.