Loading up its animation docket as if it were going up against the likes of Dreamworks and Pixar, Sony is returning to the supernatural dwelling genre that spawned its Oscar nominated Monster House with Hotel Transylvania.
As only the luck of classic monsters would have it, Frankenstein’s lovingly sewn monster-man, the Mummy, Dracula and Wolf Man have fallen on hard times. Relegated to the periphery of Transylvania at the Hotel Transylvania, the quartet has been reduced to hanging out and rehashing the good ol’ days when they were throwing hot ass over their shoulders and choking the life out of the losers trying to protect it. While the monsters come from different backgrounds, they can agree on one thing: It’s a sad world when monsters face the sad reality of a relevancy nose dive at the hands of all this newfangled technology and stuff. Kind of like the Chapelle’s Show "lost episode" where the monsters discover "The system is not designed for us," but probably with less racial overtone.
Hotel Transylvania will be directed by TV animator David Feiss and Anthony Stacchi, director of Sony’s ho-hum Open Season. Considering the "safety" of 3D animation and Stacchi’s computeriffic background, it’s safe to say this feature will continue in the established footprints of Sony’s 3D animation binge. Hotel Transylvania is being penned by Don Rhymer, who sullied the clean underdrawers of your mind with The Honey Mooners, both Big Mammas Houses and Deck the Halls.
Hotel Transylvania is scheduled to hit a big screen near you on September 29, 2009. Technically, that’s only two years away, but in my mind that sounds like a far-flung future where we’ll all be watching movies on moon bases.