DVD Commentary Review: Hotel Transylvania · 10:46pm May 19th, 2014
An opening defense of the movie: It's fun, you joyless, Film-School-Brainwashed critics. It's like film critics demand all movies be based on European art films, someone get cancer and someone make a speech about the nature of how much the world sucks. It's just a fun movie. It also contains something I've wanted in a film for a long time. Werewolves with properly lupine (and somewhat anthropomorphic) figures, who stay in middle form, never turn human, retain human intellect, and have children who are also in middle form.
But I digress...
I had high hopes for the commentary. I mean, this involves Genndy Tartakovsky. Odds are he built part of your cartoon-watching past. Dexter's Lab, Clone Wars, Samurai Jack. He is in the Good Old Days CN pantheon with the likes of John Dilworth, Van Partible, Maxwell Atoms, Tom Warburton, Craig McCracken and... HER. The Goddess Queen of Ponykind, Lauren Faust. So I was looking forward to it.
They say "Never meet your heroes." I would add, never listen to commentary from your heroes. This... was... a misery.
The commentators this time are director Genndy Tartakovsky, producer Michelle Murdocca and visual effects supervisor Daniel Kramer. And sadly, Genndy and Daniel sound quite alike.
It opens with some hope, with a discussion about the movie and how it was hard to open. That can be good, but it needs tempering. They don't provide that, at all. It moves straight into tech talk and stays there. I've said some talk of the tech can be good. But this remains on it, with a quick segue into talk of the Development Hell the movie had. I actually tracked it, the tech talk goes until 7:07, when they finally mention a joke. Adam Sandler's name, the star of the movie, does not come up until about 8 minutes in. During this period there is only one bright spot, a (short and passed-over) tale of the voice of Mr, Hyde. He was a layout supervisor who did the scratch voice. It's a bit like Rhino in "Bolt." But he was a lead character. So this is... a footnote as best.
The biggest sin of this commentary is the trio barely even bother to talk about the scenes themselves. They could very well be sitting in a solarium not bothering to watch the film at all. They leave significant lulls, they speak with sough laughter but... almost without passion. They barely seem to tolerate being there.
In "Over the Hedge" they mentioned the number of trash items in a can. But that fascinated me, because they presented it well. Here they mentioned how many grains of sand they had and it was about as dull as that sort of information can be. I stopped listening to the commentary early. I've listened before but I needed a reminder of how bad it is.
It is tragic, almost painful, that a luminary like Genndy Tartakovsky sucks at commentary this badly. This is just not a good listen. The movie is fine but the commentary is worth skipping.
Commentary Score: 0/10
lol
I finally did get around to seeing it (did not listen to commentary) so I can at least comment on that front. The werewolves staying mid-form was nice, though those kids/puppies are little assholes, but the thing I loved was my favorite type of sun reaction on vampires. I've enjoyed for years the concept that vampires are more super prone to sunburn, like a redhead to the nth degree, rather than immediate poof. I first encountered it in the anime Karin and it just makes a lot more sense and makes for a much more interesting being.
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It reminds me very much of the vampires in Vampire: the Masquerade. They take damage from the sun that can't be easily healed, but if you have the right discipline you can stay there longer. Dracula probably has Fortitude 5 and Protean 5.
The kids were a bunch of little dicks, and only to the dad which is sadder. But the daughter was adorable, and she was at least reasonable. I hope the sequel has for werewolf focus. Plus... I'll say it, the wife was super preggo and that's hot.
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Aggravated damage is always a pain.
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Oh yes, and Celerity and Dominate. Oddly he also has a Thaumaturgy power, movement of the mind.