Release Date: September 28th, 2012
Studio: Sony Pictures
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Voice Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Selena Gomez, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spad, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz, Chris Parnell, and Andy Samberg
Plot: Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters – Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more – to celebrate his daughter Mavis’ 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem – but his world could come crashing down when a human stumbles on the hotel for the first time and takes a shine to Mavis.

Thoughts: I absolutely love love love the classic monsters. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolfman, etc, the list goes on. Growing up one of my favorite movies was The Monster Squad, which brought so many of these characters together in one movie. Sure, at the time I thought it was a horror movie and it took many years to realize that it was more of a family comedy than an actual horror movie. Nevertheless, even as an adult, the movie still works on all levels for me. I have high hopes for Hotel Transylvania and I hope that the animated flick can capture even just a little bit of the magic of The Monster Squad. The voice cast is a who’s who of modern comedy with Adam Sandler as Dracula and Kevin James as Frankenstien and enough ex-SNLers to fill a truck. The director, Genndy Tartakovsky, has a ton of TV animation work on shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpull Girls, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. I am familar with the shows, but have not watched enough of any of them to get an actual opinion on the guy. He works, and works a lot, so I’m sure that is a good sign.

This very well could be a hit or miss. It has talent behind it, but will it have enough heart? We’ll see on October 5th. Are you going to be checking into Hotel Transylvania?

Another week and more entertainment news. Welcome to a new edition of The Pit. This week is going to be a little shorter than usual.

• NBC is making Thursday funnier by adding an additional hour to their established comedy block. Their new lineup will be: (8) Community, (8:30) Perfect Couples, (9) The Office, (9:30) Parks and Recreation, (10) 30 Rock, and (10:30) Outsourced. As usual I’ll be Tivo-ing The Office, 30 Rock and Community and will not be tuning into the other shows.

• Conan O’Brien’s new show continues to be funny. Are you watching it?

• Our friends over at 141tv have posted some new movie trailers, included in the mix are No Strings Attached, Tron: Legacy, Sucker Punch, and the Adam Sandler comedy Just Go With It.

• Comic Preview: X-Factor #211. This week Peter David has the X-Factor gang in a battle royal in the streets of Las Vegas as their plan to get the attention of a “death goddess” actually works and they must face off with her undead warriors to free one of her slaves. “What happens in Vegas stays- Ah, gets you killed?”
  

• The spy action/comedy/drama Chuck is still easily my favorite show on television and should be yours! If you’ve missed a recent episode, head over here and give the show a chance! It really is a creative high for TV.

• The Virtual Fall Movie season is in full swing over at Hollywood the Game with a new Batman movie coming out this Friday. Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Then check out the site!

Grab a coffee, some breakfast and fall into The Pit!

• The Sunday Mail is reporting that Stephen Dorff and director Stephen Norrington are teaming up for a new trilogy set in the Blade universe. They are reporting that the films will showcase Dorff’s Deacon Frost rising through the vampire ranks.  Unless this is planned as a Straight to DVD series of prequels, I don’t see it happening. Who wants a Blade film without Blade? Plus after The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, who is going to go to theaters for a Norrington film. A Norrington STDVD, that I think I’d give a shot.

• As usual with video game news, I’m a bit delayed/behind. Game Informer’s July issue featured info on the return of Max Payne, and boy has he aged badly! The new game takes place 12 years after “The Fall of Max Payne” and I’m gonna assume that it follows the ending where Mona died. In the new game, Payne was cut from the NYPD and works in security for a wealthy family in São Paulo, Brazil. Of course, something goes wrong, there is betrayal, murder, and our film noir hero will be forced to save the day (or at least try to survive through it).

• The folks over at Topless Robot have written what has to be the BEST review/FAQ for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Click here to check it out and please, for the love of all there is, stop going to see it in theaters!

• There is a View-Master movie in the works. Why?

• The upcoming comedy Grown Ups will be teaming up ex-SNLers including Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph, Rob Schneider, Tim Meadows, David Spade, Chris Rock, Norm Macdonald, Tim Herlihy and Colin Quinn as high school friends that meet up 30 years later.  Dennis Dugan, who helmed the disappointing I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, will be directing the flick.

• I didn’t realize just how much I missed the animated film spoofing TV series The Critic until I stumbled on 10 webisodes that were made between 2000 and 2001. How in the world did I not know about these? I might do a full spotlight article on them, but for now you can check out the first 3 webisodes on youtube.