Watched on Blu-Ray

A heart for monsters! After decades in which they were only good as antagonists that the brave hero has to slay, a surprising number of films in recent years have shown that their lives are anything but a bed of roses. Vampires in particular were regularly allowed to switch sides ("Byzantium", "Only Lovers Left Alive"), sometimes also the zombie ("Warm Bodies"). In 2012, "Hotel Transylvania" took these creatures and added just about everything that has rank and name in the horror genre. The enormous ensemble is then also one of the points that distinguish the animated film: The hotel is teeming with monstrosities of the most diverse kinds; hardly any film will ever have had a comparably varied group of protagonists.

It's also nice what the scriptwriters got out of the dusty abominations. The werewolf, for example, has become a nervous family man who can no longer cope with the burden of his extended family. Frankenstein, on the other hand, prefers to be sent by post in order to save money. There are plenty of comparable gags and curiosities, especially the opening is extremely whimsical and, together with the original scenario, raises hopes.

Unfortunately, however, this was hardly used, and later the pleasure gradually diminishes. And this is largely due to the appearance of the unspeakably pale and annoying Jonathan. If "Hotel Transylvania" could easily have been a parodic look at horror conventions, a kind of animated version of "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" or "The Cabin in the Woods", in the end the film is supposed to be "only" a story for young viewers. This is correspondingly thin and hardly ambitious, and later it even becomes rather cheesy when the focus shifts away from humour and is instead supposed to be a plea for tolerance. In the meantime, there is still a lot of singing, there are a number of slapstick scenes, until the film completely abandons its own special features and becomes one among many.

At least "Hotel Transylvania" retains its visual class until the end: the monsters are lovingly and wittily designed, the animation is of a high standard, and no one will seriously complain about the backgrounds and special effects. So the ingredients for a gem are there, it's just that they didn't know what to do with them, the look behind the monster scenes is no more than a nice bit of fun for a young audience. The audience gratefully accepted the offer, and the film was so successful in the end that the fourth part of the series will strike laughter into the hearts of cinemas in a few weeks.