Monday 4 February 2013

DVD review : Hotel Transylvania (plus competition & activity sheets)


Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania  ... such a lovely place ... such a lovely place! I've actually managed to convince the Madhouse Mini-testers that those are the real words to The Eagles' Hotel California - naughty mummy !

Hotel Transylvania, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's latest family-friendly release, is out on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD with UltraViolet today. We received a review copy and all sat down to watch it yesterday.

The film tells the the story of the original vampire Dracula and his daughter, Mavis, who run Hotel Transylvania, a remote hotel that caters for all kinds of (not very scary) monsters far away from the prying eyes of humans. Mavis is about to celebrate her 118th birthday and Drac has invited a whole host of  ghastly guests, including Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man and a family of werewolves. But the party plans are scuppered when a pesky human called Jonathan stumbles onto the hotel grounds and takes a shine to Mavis. Dracula and the hotel staff move into action, determined to protect Mavis, as well as the lavish resort sanctuary where monsters can holiday in safety far away from humans.


This family monster box-office hit has earned more than $296 million worldwide to date and features the voice talents of, among others, Adam Sandler (Grown Ups), Selena Gomez (TV’s “Wizards of Waverly Place”), Andy Samberg (TV’s “SNL”), Kevin James (Here Comes the Boom), Fran Drescher (TV’s “Happily Divorced”), Steve Buscemi (TV’s “Boardwalk Empire”), Molly Shannon (TV’s “SNL”), David Spade (TV’s “Rules of Engagement”) and CeeLo Green.

The Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray contain plenty of kid-friendly extras, including the mini-movie “Goodnight Mr. Foot,” directed by the feature’s award-winning director Tartakovsky; “Problem (Monster Remix)” music video; three deleted scenes; filmmaker commentary and more.  Exclusive to the Blu-ray are three progression reels and two featurettes. “Meet the Staff and Guests: Voicing Hotel Transylvania” takes a look at the cast, their voices, and the fun they bring to the film. “Making The Hotel” features an inside look at how the filmmakers and animators created the Hotel Transylvania.

It's a fun family movie that kids will love and parents will be happy enough to sit through. Despite an all-monster cast, it's not scary at all so kids of all ages can watch. Think Monster High meets The Addams Family for an idea of how (un)spooky it is. It even shares the same "be tolerant of those who are different to you" message of Monster High and the recent Daddy, I'm A Zombie DVD that we watched at Halloween. It's not hugely original and the plot is pretty predictable but it's a great Sunday afternoon movie to watch with the kids.

The film has a running time of 91 minutes on Blu-ray and 88 minutes on DVD and is rated PG.

If your kids are Hotel Transylvania fans, they light like to try out these activity sheets. (Click on them for a bigger version that you can print.)


You may also be interested in visiting the Hotel Transylvania Facebook page and entering the ‘MONSTER ME’ competition for the chance to win a cool Micro Scooter and the DVD.









star rating : 4/5





Disclosure : We received a copy of the DVD in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :

Festive family viewing - Arthur Christmas DVD review



4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lot of fun and great it's PG so both our children can watch it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. it's a great film, one for the whole family, loads of laughs

    ReplyDelete
  3. our kids loved this films in fact we all did

    ReplyDelete

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