Hotel Transylvania (film)

Hotel Transylvania is a 2012 American animated monster comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The first installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise, it was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky from a screenplay by Peter Baynham and Robert Smigel, and a story by Todd Durham, Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman, based on an original concept created by Durham. The film stars the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade and CeeLo Green.

The film tells the story of Count Dracula (voiced by Sandler), the famed vampire who is also the owner of the titular Hotel Transylvania where the world's monsters can take a rest from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters to celebrate the 118th birthday of his beloved daughter Mavis (Gomez). But when the "human-free hotel" is unexpectedly visited by a human traveler named Jonathan (Samberg), Drac must do everything in his power to prevent Mavis and the other guests from finding out that a human has found their safe place, which may jeopardize the hotel's future and his career.

As a first-time feature director, Tartakovsky set out to make a film that used his background in traditional animation to implement the physics of 2D in computer animation, inspired by the physical comedy of Tex Avery, and departing from the focus on realism that had become standard in CGI fare. Hotel Transylvania premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 28. It received mixed reviews from critics but earned a total of $358.4 million worldwide at the box office against a budget of $85 million and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The financial success of Hotel Transylvania launched a multimedia franchise and a series of three sequels, starting with Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015).