Few moviegoers will recognize the name Genndy Tartakovsky, but it’s a fair bet they (or at least their kids) know of his work. Tartakovsky is the mind behind some of the late 20th /early 21st century’s most popular cartoons, including The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Sym-Bionic Titan and Star Wars: Clone Wars.
For those totally unfamiliar with the animated works of Tartakovsky, let’s just say the man has a way of taking familiar genre tropes and spinning them into something fresh, new and entertaining – which is exactly what he’ll be attempting with his new animated feature, Hotel Transylvania. Today we have the first international trailer for the film to share.
Hotel Transylvania plays with the world of supernatural horror by envisioning a scenario in which our favorite monsters – Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, etc. – needed a little time off from terrorizing humanity to relax and unwind. When the ghosts and ghouls need to get away, they head to Hotel Transylvania; however, their favorite vacation destination is seemingly spoiled once an oblivious human comes walking through the door.
Check out the basic setup described above in the Hotel Transylvania trailer below:
In addition to having Tartakovsky as its director, Hotel Transylvania also benefits from having an all-star voice cast that includes Adam Sandler (Dracula), Kevin James (Frankenstein), David Spade (The Invisible Man), David Koechner (Quasimodo), Cee-Lo (The Mummy) and other big-name actors like Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Fran Drescher and Molly Shannon.
As longtime fans of Tartakovsky’s work, we have high hopes for Hotel Transylvania, with the added hope that if this movie is successful, maybe Tartakovsky would be given some control over that new Samurai Jack movie we’ve been hearing about…
Hotel Transylvania hits theaters on September 21, 2012
Source: Columbia Pictures
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LOVE Genndy Tartakovsky work… but this doesn’t look like or feel like his stuff, maybe the trailer is too short to really sense his hand in this. Look forward to a longer trailer.
Is there some kind of rule that states if you work with Adam Sandler all his boys have to tag along? David Spade, Kevin James etc etc… some of these people might not get work if it wasn’t for Adam.
I’m also a Genndy Tarkovsky fan. I didn’t know about this at all so I’m psyched. I’ve always thought he’d be a good director because he seems to be good at overseeing projects, which is what a director does.
Also, I read you’re comment before actually watching the trailer, so I was looking to see if his “style” was evident. I think it is. There’s a straightforward simplicity to it. Like the movement of the characters, the use of silhouettes, and the way some of the scenes look framed, or staged.
I love what he did with 2-D animation, and I would like to see more. But I’m also interested to see what else he does.
Actually when I read about this on Wikipedia it looks like it’s gotten passed through many directors, so it seems to have landed in his lap. (Also, it had an unexplained link to MAD Monster Party, which this reminded me of immediately).
I’m not sold on Sandler’s dracula accent. He also looks more like a slick business man than an undead vampire.
Well, he would be a business man as a hotel owner. I didn’t pay attention to it, but I’m always a little leery of animation that relies on a bunch of name actors. But I guess they have to do this to get the green light.
Frankenstein? ARG, it’s Frankenstein’s Monster!
Looks entertaining though.
In all fairness, this isn’t something he built from the ground up. It looks entertaining enough. Really hope for the best with him. If this turns out to be good, he could become the next Brad Bird, Chris Sanders or Mamoru Hosoda f revered animation directors.
“fresh, new and entertaining”?
then I guess he shouldn’t have hired Sandler and Spade!
They just voice the characters, they do their usual live antics.
* DON’T do their usual live antics
The premise seems a loosely like Foster’s Home for imaginary friends. If he had something to do with the writing as well. Which I’m sure he did this should be a fairly entertaining movie for adults and kids. If you haven’t seen Fosters I recommend it. Im 30 years old and the show still makes me laugh.
It reminds me a lot of MAD Monster Party. That was a special on TV which was stop motion, produced by MAD magazine, with character designs by Jack Davis. You should check it out. I’m sure these influences aren’t lost on them. Genndy T. is like a pop-culture fun-house mirror. You can see all the influences but he makes something new.