Director Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack) brings us this lively jerky, slapstick computer animation, with lots of ingenious touches, including a constantly moving camera view that seems to highlight the 3-D effects. As added brilliance, the voice casting is spectacular, as Sandler seemingly assembled his cadre of buddies (Kevin James voicing Frankenstein, David Spade as the Invisible Man, Steve Buscemi as the Wolfman) for recording sessions that probably translated in to an awesome time for them at the studios and was reflected in the movie as an awesome time for us.

Personally I think that the movie is handled in good taste because parents can rest assure that the movie is a good introductory “monster movie” for little kids with the monsters being somewhat cuddly in appearance, playful and mischievously colorful. The story focuses on Dracula and his daughter Mavis as she comes of age (118yrs old!) with the only potentially frightening elements being Dracula’s occasional funny angry face, which he flashes when he can’t control his rage (it only lasts a split second, but it’s a bit demonic looking, in comparison to the majority of the characters’ expressions), and a mob scene that puts a central character in danger. Furthermore, I like that there is also a back story (despite it involving humans killing the main character’s mother) the writers were able to handle the subject-matter quite delicately and fittingly. READ FULL REVIEW

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