Will kids respond to this frenzied comic animation about Count Dracula and his overprotective parenting of teenage daughter Mavis? (In vampire years she's 118, which is roughly how old I felt by the end of this.)
They would need to have a pretty high tolerance of lazy, half-baked frightfests if so. Adam Sandler voices the reclusive, hotel-owning Count in a cod mittel-European accent, thus proving he can stink up the screen without even appearing on it.
The animators work overtime to create a Monsters, Inc. sort of chaos, bringing together Frankenstein, mummies, witch maids, mariachi skeletons and – the one bright spot – a werewolf voiced by Steve Buscemi.
Despite its wild shape-shifting, the comedy remains prosaic, puerile and somewhat desperate in its effort to grab our attention.
The film-makers might have done better to concentrate on character instead of throwing everything at the screen in the hope something might stick.
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