You know... there are plots you can use in animated movies that haven't been lifted from The Care Bears. Movies can be good for more than just regurgitating trite, moralistic Aesops about "accepting people for who they are".
Always expect the worst and you can only be pleasantly surprised.
I know! That's my biggest problem with modern animated movies: Aside from Disney and Pixar's movies, it feels like the same thing over and over!
He may be a giant, nightmarish brute, but like all villains in this series,he sure can sing.
Accepting people for who they are predates Care Bears. Why do you think it gets reused? It's a moral that's still relevant today. Your deduction of the movie's portrayal of humans and monsters is off. Johnny managed to knock one of the bat-minion and Drac and friends have lost their edge. Furthermore, Dennis is actually a dhampyr. You ignore that Bela has been living with a deep-seated prejudice towards humans for centuries. Not everyone is going to change and Bela is the leader behind the other bat-monsters, excluding Vlad. Besides, the first movie showed that humans can be monsters, so guess what, obviously monsters can be monsters too.
Leave a Comment:
Great!... until the end
2 notes:
I'd just like to say, WOW! For the most part, this movie is amazing! I think the movie's highest point is its animation. For example, the spiral of water Dracula creates upon turning into a bat, the Sesame Street parody, the Cakey suit coming to life thanks to Vlad's magic.) You can tell that the animators put in a lot of love. The soundtrack is also nice (The Phantom of the Opera even makes a short but epic appearance!) and the characters are mostly quirky and lovable.
While the writing is mostly good, the ending, for lack of a better word, sucks.
I guess it shouldn't bother me because this movie was aimed at kids and wasn't meant to be too deep, but still!
It all starts with Vlad's first appearance. Vlad himself isn't the problem, in fact, he's great. Mel Brooks plays the part perfectly. No, the problem is his assistant, Bela. Spoiler alert: He becomes the villain. The problem is that he's introduced so late that he gets no development and as a result is very uninteresting. This movie didn't need a villain, the only reason he and his cronies exist is to give the heroes bad guys to beat up. Not only that, but the movie argues that monsters are good guys, then hypocritically makes Bela's species Always Chaotic Evil. Besides, although it was painfully obvious he would turn evil, I was really hoping he wouldn't. He would have been a lot more interesting if he just stayed a Large Ham, but still a good guy.
On top of this, the ending suffers from Broken Aesop. Dracula spends the whole movie unable to accept that his grandson, Dennis, is a human, not a vampire. He becomes more accepting towards the end, but surprise, surprise, in the climax, Dennis turns out to be a vampire after all. Oh, so Dracula's Character Development was all for nothing, and you always get your way in life! What a great lesson to teach kids! Also, I hate the movie's portrayal of humans as total weaklings, while monsters, especially vampires, are practically Canon Sues.
In short, a good movie that falls apart at the climax.