Visionary animator Genndy Tartakovsky has been a creative force behind such popular series as The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  Last fall, Tartakovsky also made a successful foray into animated feature films with the box office-and-family-friendly horror hit, Hotel Transylvania.  With his pedigree of small-screen series and recent experience with a full-length animated production, it seems the time is ripe for a conclusion to one of Tartakovsky’s most unique and iconic creations.  Hit the jump to find out where it stands.  Hollywood! Adapt this: Samurai Jack.

A staple of every awards season is the multitude of roundtable interviews and discussions that pop up featuring said season’s top contenders.  We’ve already shared an hourlong interview with some of the Best Director contenders like Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, and Tom Hooper, but today a roundtable of a different sort popped online.  The LA Times put together their first ever animation roundtable as they gathered the following directors for a 60-minute discussion: Mark Andrews (Brave), Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians), Chris Butler (ParaNorman), Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph), and Genndy Tartakovsky (Hotel Transylvania).

The resulting video is an absolutely fascinating and candid discussion between the filmmakers about the evolution of animated films, a possible renaissance of 2D animation and who’s to blame for 3D animation dominating the marketplace, breaking down social barriers and the stigma of animated movies being exclusively for kids, and more.  It’s a wonderful discussion and is well worth your time.  Hit the jump to watch.

If you haven’t seen director Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania (or were considering seeing it again), then perhaps a new animated short will give you the incentive to do so.  Airing in front of the 3D animated feature will be Goodnight, Mr. Foot, a 2D short directed and animated by Tartakovsky himself.  The short will screen exclusively in Regal Entertainment Group cinemas starting tonight, just in time for Halloween.

Hotel Transylvania features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Fran Drescher.  Hit the jump to see the full press release and new images from the 2D animated short, Goodnight, Mr. Foot.

Six clips from the animated film Hotel Transylvania have been released.  Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack), the story centers on Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) trying to throw a party for his daughter Mavis’ (Selena Gomez) 118th birthday, but his plans go haywire when a human (Andy Samberg) comes to the monsters-only hotel and develops a crush on Mavis.  The film looks to have some funny bits, and I’m sure kids will get a kick out of the monster comedy aspect.

Hit the jump to check out the clips.  The voice cast also includes David Spade (Griffin the Invisible Man), Steve Buscemi (Wayne the Werewolf), Kevin James (Frankenstein), Molly Shannon (Wanda the Werewolf) and Cee Lo Green (Murray the Mummy). Hotel Transylvania opens on September 28th.

I spent today in the Indigo Ballroom, which I believe is the third biggest room at Comic-Con.  It was at about half capacity all day until the 3:00 panel for Hotel Transylvania.  I guess the monsters in the movie are technically geek-friendly, but I don’t think a kids movie like this would fill up the room if it weren’t for one man: Genndy Tartakovsky.  Tartakovsky earned respect the creator of such fine animated series as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone Wars—sure enough, most of the fans focused on those properties during the Q&A session, paying particular attention to a Samurai Jack movie.  Yet Tartakovsky’s unique style was on full display in the copious footage they showed from Hotel Transylvania, which as a result looks very funny.  Hit the jump for a recap of the panel.

This week, Collider was invited to participate in an early footage preview for the Sony Pictures Animation film Hotel Transylvania, opening in theaters on September 28^th. Set in Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) lavish resort where monsters and their families can be free to be who they are without humans to bother them, the story follows his beloved daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez), who longs to explore the world on her 118^th birthday. But, things are drastically shaken up when a human guy (Andy Samberg) stumbles into the hotel and takes an immediate shine to Mavis.

After getting to see a series of scenes from the film, which looks to be both funny and heartfelt, and showcased some of the wacky and wild legendary monsters featured in it, we got the opportunity to speak with director Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory) for this exclusive interview about the biggest challenges in making a family film about horror movie monsters, how much thought was put into bringing the film’s heroine to life, how much freedom he had for this interpretation of Dracula, working with Adam Sandler (who’s also the executive producer), what this experience taught him that he’ll be able to use for future projects, and dealing with the 3D aspect of it all. He also talked about his desire to stay in feature films, what it would take for a Samurai Jack movie to get made, and what he loves about animated storytelling. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Although Genndy Tartakovsky’s first feature film as a director is the upcoming Adam Sandler-starrer, Hotel Transylvania, he’ll quickly turn around and direct Popeye as his second.  Tartakovsky is best known for his phenomenal series work with a roster including The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  (You can check out an example of what a Tartakovsky feature film looks like by watching the recent trailer for Hotel Transylvania.) Writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn (The Smurfs) were attached to pen the Popeye adaptation as recently as last November.  Hit the jump for more on Popeye.

The first official trailer for the animated comedy Hotel Transylvania has gone online. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack), the story centers on Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) trying to throw a party for his daughter Mavis’ (Selena Gomez) 118th birthday, but his plans go haywire when a human (Andy Samberg) comes to the hotel and develops a crush on Mavis. The animation actually looks pretty great, and I think the story has some fun potential, but Sandler’s work as Dracula is a bit hard to get used to. It sounds like the actor’s “goofy” voice he uses when making jokes or putting on a character for SNL, so it’s tough to buy it as the actual voice of this Dracula. We don’t really get much into the story here, but there are more than a few laughs (who doesn’t love a good “skeletons taking a shower” joke?)  and I’m pleasantly surprised by how fun it all looks.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The voice cast also includes David Spade (Griffin the Invisible Man), Steve Buscemi (Wayne the Werewolf), Kevin James (Frankenstein), Molly Shannon (Wanda the Werewolf) and Cee Lo Green (Murray the Mummy). Hotel Transylvania opens on September 28th.

Sony Pictures Animation has lined up the voice cast for their 3D family comedy Hotel Transylvania.  Adam Sandler, King of the Family-Films-I-Never-Want-to-See, will play the lead voice of Dracula, the head of the lavish “five-stake” resort for monsters, Hotel Transylvania.  Dracula tries to prevent his teenage daughter Mavis from adventuring into the outside world, but runs into a complication when an ordinary guy (voiced by Andy Samberg) stumbles into the hotel and falls for Mavis.  The voice cast also includes Kevin James as Frankstein, Fran Descher as his bride Eunice, David Spade as Quasimodo, Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon as a pair of married werewolves, and Cee Lo Green as a Murray the Mummy.  Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) will direct.

Hit the jump for the press release which includes a longer synopsis and the box office clout of Sandler as if that were some indication his movies were actually good.  Hotel Transylvania is due out September 21, 2012.