For some, the prospect of a new Adam Sandler film brings about more creeping terror than the thought of a slavering beast hunting them through a dark alley. But what about when he’s animated, and the horror’s all part of the joke? That’s the key to Hotel Transylvania, Sony’s latest 3D ‘toon. USA Today has dug up a couple of new pictures, one of which you can see below.
Hotel Transylvania finds Dracula (Sandler) creating the titular getaway as a safe zone for his monstrous mates. Among the creatures enjoying some well-earned rest away from humans, flaming torches, silver bullets and garlic include Frank (Kevin James), invisible man Griffin (David Spade), werewolf Wayne (Steve Buscemi) and wife Wanda (Molly Shannon) and Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green). They’re also visiting to celebrate Drac’s daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) turning 118.
But their idyll is shattered when backpacker Johnny (Andy Samberg) stumbles on the place and ends up falling for the fetching Mavis. It’s up to her vampire dad to get the human out of the resort without worrying his guests. We’ll go ahead and guess it doesn’t go to plan.
"It's refreshing to go back to the beginning of Dracula – and then have Adam Sandler put his spin on it," director Genndy Tartakovsky tells the paper. "There will be no sparkling skin. But there are a lot of jokes."
The presence of the Samurai Jack creator gives us hope this will be something more than the standard Sandler collection of duff jokes and life lessons. And he even managed to pull off an unusual coup for big animated films – getting the cast in the same recording booth more than once. "I said we need that chemistry to show these monsters are a family," he says. "When those guys were together in a room, it was just an explosion of energy."
We’ll find out what the energy led to on October 12. For more from Tartakovsky, head over to USA Today.