Exclusive Images: The Art and Making of Genndy Tartakovsky's 'Hotel Transylvania'

Screen Rant

By Ben Moore

Published Sep 19, 2012

Exclusive images from the behind-the-scenes book 'The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania,' featuring art by Genndy Tartakovsky.

Technically, Hotel Transylvania has been in the works since 2006, but it's only been in the works with Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) at the helm since Sym-Bionic Titan was canceled in 2011. The Sony Pictures animated film is Tartakovsky's first foray into computer-generated animation.

To coincide with the film's release at the end of September, The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania - a behind-the-scenes book featuring sketches, concept art, and storyboards from Hotel Transylvania - will be released in bookstores. Today, we have exclusive images from the book, some of which were drawn by Tartakovsky himself.

Check out the images below (click to enlarge):

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The artwork is, naturally, incredibly reminiscent of the free posters handed out at the Hotel sneak preview that were drawn by Tartakovsky. It's easy to imagine any of these characters appearing in Tartakovsky's previous projects - Dexter's Lab or Samurai Jack. Basically, the images bolster Tartakovsky's claim that he approached the 3D animated Hotel Transylvania with the same sort of energy and style that he would his 2D projects.

That said, they do kind of make me yearn for a traditionally animated version of the film. There's something a little bit grainier - and more lived in - about the artwork in the images above than the CGI from the film itself, and graininess would go a long way toward boosting the spooky atmosphere of a story about monsters, Transylvania, and other "scary" things. Who remembers how fun the faux-spooky Bugs Bunny cartoon Hair-Raising Hare was? Well, these hand-drawn images are similarly fun.

Here's the the summary for The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania (which also sort of doubles as a synopsis for Hotel Transylvania):

'The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania' brings to (undead) life a fresh new spin on the classic horror monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Werewolf, and the Invisible Man from Sony Pictures Animation and director Genndy Tartakovsky - creator of 'Samurai Jack' and executive producer and director of 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' animated series.

The story features Dracula, owner of a lavish five-stake resort hotel for monsters, away from the human world. On one special weekend, he invites some of the world's most famous monsters to celebrate his daughter's 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all these monsters is no problem, but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles into the hotel and takes a shine to his daughter, Mavis.

Featuring over 400 pieces of concept art, character sketches, storyboards and digital art, along with interviews with key filmmakers and crew, this full-color book is truly a spooky but fun treat for the eyes!

Will you be purchasing this Making of book, Screen Ranters?

There will undoubtedly be many Genndy Tartakovsky fans who read about Hotel Transylvania and instantly begin clamoring for a Samurai Jack film instead. I, too, would love to see a Samurai Jack film. Indeed, Genndy Tartakovsky would love to see - and make! - a Samurai Jack film. But the unfortunate truth is that if audiences don't watch his 3D animated films, it's all the more unlikely that a studio is going to green light his 2D animated films.

That being the case, let's all hope that Hotel Transylvania is a gargantuan box office success.

Hotel Transylvania hits theaters September 28th, 2012. The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania will be released a few days prior on September 25th, 2012.

Follow me on Twitter @benandrewmoore.