Dracula (Adam Sandler) has been running Hotel Transylvania for over 100 years now, with the purpose of protecting his monster buddies from the most dangerous creature of all: humans! It also helps keep his 118 year old daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) protected from the dangers of the outside world. But a 21-year old backpacker Jonathan (Andy Samberg) threatens everything when he stumbles upon the hotel and begins to develop feelings for Mavis. Dracula’s world will soon be changed as his current perceptions of the world are greatly challenged.

The director of Hotel Transylvania is Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who created and produced shows like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. Not only is this is first feature length movie, this is his first project involving CGI (he usually uses Flash animation) He’s decided to bring some of the style of Flash animation to the CGI world by making the characters have odd proportions and designs that evoke the classic Looney Tunes cartoons of old.

That’s a fine approach, but he also brings with that unique design choice something less desirable: a speedy pace. The film feels like it’s got a severe case of ADHD and rarely slows down. He’s done this before in his TV shows, but that felt slightly more tolerable in 15 or 30 minute doses. Here, it’s borderline excruciating trying to keep track of things when jokes, characters and lines come at you a mile a minute.

Voice acting in the movie is similarly hit or miss…I’m actually a big hater of Adam Sandler’s movies, but I felt he did alright here, being the most restrained part of the movie and even showing some nice range in the more emotional moments. Kevin James and Steve Buscemi do fine in their roles of Frankenstein and Wayne The Werewolf respectively and Selena Gomez is OK, but a bit bland in the role of Mavis.

The biggest offender is Andy Samberg, who has so little vocal range it’s embarrassing. He reads his lines with little expression and comes across as more annoying than hillarious. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Cee-Lo Green is wonderful as The Mummy, getting some of the best laughs in the movie.

The script attempts to mine both tender emotional moments and gut-busting laughs, but it just doesn’t work. The characters are so shallow and, in Jonathan’s case, aggravating, that you don’t care what happens to them. I don’t care about any potential romance these characters could get into if they aren’t likeable, simple as that. The film fares slightly better in terms of generating laughs, as the animation, however hyperactive it may be, does ignite some chuckles, though some bathroom humor mars the movie as a whole.

Hotel Transylvania feels too hyperactive and some lackluster writing and voices hurt the proceedings. That being said, some of the unique animation was enjoyable and I did find some good laughs in there. The concept for the movie is an ingenious one, and while it’s far from horrible, it deserved a bit better than this fine, though not great movie.