To mark the release of Hotel Transylvania 2, let’s take a look at 12 things you probably
didn’t know about the animated monster movie.
Director Genndy Tartakovsky was pretty nervous about directing comedy legend Mel Brooks,
who voices Dracula’s father, Vlad, because he grew up loving the comedian’s movies.
Indeed, some of the first movies Tartakovsky saw after he moved from Russia to America
as a child in the late 1970s were Mel Brooks’ films such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing
Saddles.
And Brooks’ movies certainly came in handy for the filmmakers, as they used them as reference
material for drawing Vlad’s reactions and expressions.
As for Mel Brooks, well he drew much of his inspiration in bringing Vlad to life on screen
from his own grandfather.
For the design of the monster camp, Camp Vamp, the filmmakers took inspiration from two very
different places, which together gave them the right look for the kind of dark and private
outdoor place vampires would enjoy.
The first was Yosemite National Park and its huge rock formations including El Capitán.
And the second was the Norwegian town of Rjukan, which used to spend half the year cut off
from sunlight because of its location in a valley.
Until, that is, huge mirrors were placed on the surrounding mountain to reflect sunlight
into the town square.
When the character designers first created Mavis and Johnny’s son, Dennis, they drew
him with a big mane of red hair, like his father.
But when they turned that design into a computer animation, they found Dennis’ hair looked
too big for his head to hold!
In fact, Dennis’ hair took up so much room that Mavis or Johnny would have needed arms
twice the length in order to pick him up; and, on top of that, his mass of curls kept
the light from reaching his face.
So, the animators gave Dennis a haircut!
Six-year-old Asher Blinkoff, who is the voice of Dracula’s grandson Dennis, isn’t the
only member of his family to appear in Hotel Transylvania 2.
Asher’s older sister, Meira, not only voiced one of the werewolf puppies in the first movie,
but she’s also doing some additional voices in the sequel including vampire kids.
Asher was especially excited to get the role as Dennis because whenever he or his sister
gets a part, it’s a family tradition to go out for a sushi dinner!
Also, according to Asher’s mum, one of the highlights for her son of working on Hotel
Transylvania 2 was riding in a golf cart around the Sony Pictures studio lot!
Dracula’s daughter, Mavis, was designed by French artist Anette Marnat, who’s based
in Paris.
The filmmakers never actually met Anette in real life, but thanks to her blog they discovered
her work when they were searching for character designers for the first Hotel Transylvania.
The Hotel Transylvania movies are a bit of a family affair for Adam Sandler, who voices
Dracula.
On the first movie, his real-life wife Jackie provided the voice of his on-screen wife Martha,
and his daughters Sunny and Sadie also lent their voices to the film, with Sadie voicing
young Mavis and one of the werewolf pups, Winnie.
And Sunny and Sadie have returned for Hotel Transylvania 2.
Sadie is back as werewolf Winnie, while this time Sunny is the voice of Baby Dennis, as
well as one of the vampire kids.
When Character Designer Carter Goodrich was looking for inspiration for the design of
Griffin the Invisible Man, who’s voiced by actor David Spade, he didn’t have to
look any further than his own nose, as Griffin’s glasses are based on the ones Goodrich wears
himself!
The hairstyle of Frankenstein’s wife, Eunice, is based on a Brillo pad!
And Eunice’s hair isn’t the only rough thing about the character.
According to Fran Drescher, who voices Eunice, during her recording sessions the filmmakers
kept encouraging her to make Eunice sound gruffer, more obnoxious, and annoying!
Barcelona-based designer Carlos Grangel, who contributed to the look of many of the movie’s
characters including Murray the Mummy, hates designing on white paper.
So, instead, he drew all his monster designs on the inside of cereal boxes, which he prefers
to blank paper because it has more of colour and texture to it, which helps him get creative!
In fact, Grangel asks fellow artists at his studio in Spain to bring in their old cereal
boxes for him to draw on.
Andy Samberg, who voices Dracula’s son-in-law Jonathan, has said he based his character
on himself in high school "and on a lot of guys he knew in the Bay Area in California."
Jonathan loves seeing the world and is super-positive when faced with adversity.
When Sony was designing characters for Hotel Transylvania, they had to be careful about
copyright issues.
Although characters such as Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster are in the public domain, Universal
created specific designs for those characters in their popular horror movies of the 1930s
onwards.
So, Sony had to avoid certain specific features associated with Universal’s classic monsters.
For example, Frankenstein could not have green skin or bolts in his neck, and Dracula could
not have a sharp widow’s peak or a cape with a red lining.
Also, instead of calling Frankenstein’s mate the Bride of Frankenstein, they called
her Eunice, and on top of that, she could not have two white lightning bolts in her
hair, so in Hotel Transylvania, she has just one streak instead.
Now, let me know in the comments below, who’s your favourite character in the Hotel Transylvania
movies and why?
And what would you like to see in the planned Hotel Transylvania TV series?
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