Manchester Animation Festival

I attended the first ever Manchester Animation Festival last week which was awesome. I really enjoyed meeting new people and learning new things. I also wrote my first article for Skwigly on MAF which you can view via the link below!

Skwigly Manchester Animation Festival - Overview

WIP Timmy the T-Rex's House

It's been a while since I created any 2D backgrounds so it was nice to get back into doing them. I had a blast creating the initial line drawing and now I'm just working on the colours and lighting to make sure everything right, but heres what I've got so far.

Hotel Transylvania 2

I finally got around to watching Hotel Transylvania 2 yesterday and I have to say I'm glad I went to see it. In my opinion it's one of the best sequels I've seen in a long time, and where as a lot of sequels seem forced and made simply to make money, Hotel Transylvania 2 had a fantastic storyline that picked up right where the first film left off. The opening sequence introduced the plot of the film, starting at Mavis's wedding and quickly moving to the birth of her first child, Dennis whom the story is based around. Once we get past the fairly soppy yet quite endearing opening sequence we encounter the initial problem, is Dennis a vampire or a human? As he is nearing the age of five and has still not show any signs of vampirism Mavis and Johnny have a big decision to make, will they stay in Transylvania where it could be potentially dangerous for a human child to grow up, or move to California where Johnny's family lives. Here we begin to see some fantastic comedic moments as Dracula desperately try's to find the monster in Dennis to prevent his precious daughter Mavis from moving away.

Every other scene has a laugh out loud moment, I particularly liked the introduction of technology to the hotel and Drac's struggle to use it throughout made the film current, relatable and hilarious. The film is directed by animation veteran Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Lab, Samurai Jack) and you can see his 2D background influencing the over the top animation which successfully incorporated 2D techniques such squash and stretch to the CG rigs full potential. Drac's facial expressions are a major highlight in the film for me as they tell you what he is thinking and feeling at all times without him having to say anything, but combined with Adam Sandler’s brilliant voice acting Drac is an eccentric, lovable character who drives the story along.

Each and every character in Hotel Transylvania 2 is well formed and realistic, showing not only the characters strengths but also their weaknesses. The older monsters all have their little quirks, which make them more relatable. Wayne the werewolf can't stop chasing balls when he is supposed to be teaching tennis, Murray the mummy has a bad back and can't perform his curses anymore and Griffin the invisible man pretends to have an invisible girlfriend to hide his loneliness. The introduction of Dennis juxtaposes all these old ‘scary’ monsters with one of the most adorable characters I have ever seen in an Animated film. His tiny little body, big head covered in curly ginger locks and wide, expressive eyes captured my heart and brought the essence of an innocent, unassuming five year old to a adult filled film. He is such an innocent well loved character that when his heart is almost broken by his favorite TV character, Kakie the Cake Monster, I couldn’t help but empathize with him.

My only complaint would be that the resolution was fairly predictable and following in suit with the original the film ends with a strange dance sequence that to me wasn't needed. Overall it was a fantastic family film, well written with real laugh out loud comedy that I think anybody who is in the mood for some spooky entertainment would enjoy. I would even go as far as to say it's even better than the original.