It turns out that monsters are more afraid of us than we are of them, according to the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania. Too bad that Monsters, Inc. already tackled this twist of reality ten years earlier.

Hotel Transylvania stars Adam Sandler as Count Dracula, who offers up his castle to werewolves, zombies, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and countless other creatures as a place of refuge, away from all the pitchfork-wielding and torch-throwing humans that want nothing more than to kill them all. Dracula's perfect world is thrown into disarray, however, when a teenage and very human backpacker (Andy Samberg) arrives and immediately attracts the attention of Dracula's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez).

The movie is a goofy and breezy film without much plot or purpose other than to preach acceptance and feature lots of crazy, off-the-wall antics. Hotel Transylvania is mindless entertainment, harmless fun that will appeal to kids and be relatively painless for adults.

There is just not much to sink your teeth into. Pun intended.

To compare Hotel Transylvania to Monsters, Inc. isn't very fair, but since I already did, I'll dive into it a bit more. While the two movies are very different in many ways, at their core they are both about a fundamental misunderstanding between monsters and humans. Monsters, Inc. was clever, imaginative and unique; Hotel Transylvania has a great premise, but it opts for the lowest common denominator when it comes to an actual storyline.

Hotel Transylvania is by no means a bad movie, but it is opportunity squandered. It won't suck you dry, but it won't make your blood boil either.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.