Thoughts on Hotel Transylvania

The animated feature film Hotel Transylvania offers insight into the (after)lives of the Universal Studios monsters following their appearance in the films of the 1930s. The film focuses on Dracula and his young daughter and how the two must come to accept humans as good people rather than (as the film initially presents) threats to their very existence. The other monsters are much more reluctant to embrace humanity, but the appearance of a young human in their hitherto human-free enclave (the eponymous Hotel Transylvania) helps them all to change their views.

Overall, this is a cute family-friendly film, though the final scene (an attempt to mimic the finale of Shrek II) is rather incongruous.

The First Family of Fright

First airing in the mid 1960s, The Munsters, a series inspired by the Universal horror films of the 1930s and '40s and depicting friendlier versions of their monstrous cast, remains a popular series with a number of reboots (the latest, Mockingbird Lane, airing last October) and continuations.