Title: The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania
Written By: Tracey Miller -Zarneke
From Genndy Tartakovsky and Sony Pictures Animation, Hotel Transylvania is a new film that tells the story of Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez), who own a hotel dedicated to monsters. But one day, a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) follows all of the patrons to the hotel, only to find that he is the only human there. Dracula is forced to frantically disguise him from the other guests. Mavis is an outcast of sorts. She wants to see the human world, while her father, Dracula, strictly forbids it.
I was fortunate to look through The Art and Making of Hotel Transylvania (released by Titan Books), which contains a plethora of different things, like a the character design, the production design (spanning a good 60 pages) and a foreword by Tartakovsky himself. The front cover is wonderfully designed with rich colors and the writing is witty and entertaining (done by Tracey Miller-Zarneke). The inside cover is even designed as an old leather guest book
Illustrated beautifully by a dozen different animators, the evolution of each character and each setting serves as a terrific insight into the backbone and style of the film. In each segment of the character design chapters, the book also contains detailed information on how Tartakovsky’s characters (such as Dracula) changed over the course of their development, which resulted in drastic alterations (sometimes complete transformations).
Some of the best work is done in the sections based around the production design. We can see the gothic nature of the hotel in all of its moody-gloom. It’s incredibly well- detailed. They have also included written sections explaining the reasoning behind the layouts of each character’s room (like Mavis), which all goes towards the development of the character. Nearly every image has a lush, painterly aesthetic that’s difficult to not admire.
Altogether, it’s a very nice book that’ll definitely be a treat for those who loved the film (perhaps even those who didn’t care for it). The material is informative and most of all entertaining, especially for those of us who care a lot about the artwork of an animated film, such as myself. It provides us with a better understanding of each character and the environments that they inhabit.
Total Rating: A
