As my 5-year-old would say, “There’s good news and there’s bad news.” The good news: This movie definitely lives up to all the hype and the studio will make big $. The bad news: This won’t be out on DVD for quite some time, so I’ll either have to watch the “mini-movies” on the computer a trazillion times or have to pay to see it again. A child obsessed with something is the second leading cause of parental breakdown. (FYI - The first cause: whining.)

OK, let’s review. Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemmi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz...

Was there any way this movie wasn’t going to be funny? Even if the story sucked, (and it didn’t) the voice talent alone could have carried the entire movie. And the story was great. It should be, it’s been tested over hundreds of years. Classic Romeo and Juliet. Only “Romeo” is a human and “Juliet” is a vampire. Think cartoon Twilight but all the angst is funny and no one gets bit. Hey, Vampires are hot right now. Kudos to the writers for thinking up the cartoon/comedy angle. Dracula as a dad is very funny. Throw in cartoon versions of all the other classic “monsters” and it’s an instant Halloween classic. (There’s no Mommy Dracula...she was “offed” before the movie even started. I wonder if the writers used to work for Disney.)

In a nut shell, Dracula wants to protect his daughter and all his monster friends from the horrible humans he feels are out to kill them all. He builds a secret hotel hideaway so everyone can vacation safely together. A human backpacker stumbles across the castle, locks eyes with Drac’s daughter, Mavis, and “Zing!” off we go.

There were lots of grown up jokes that flew over my boys' heads and made me laugh, lots of jokes that made my boys laugh, a monster musical number, and a great story to take us on the ride.

A special shout out to Fran Drescher who played Eunice, Frankenstein’s wife. The part seemed to be written for her as she screeched in her infamous voice, “English please...your voice is VERY ANNOYING!”

All I can say is, you may want to pre-order this on BluRay...just to make sure it’s in your kids’ hands the second it hits the street. Or maybe I’m just projecting.

Maryellen Hooper