While we weren't exactly over the moon for last fall's "Hotel Transylvania," an ambitious, freewheeling 3D monster mash from Sony Pictures Animation that never seemed to settle down long enough to let us become emotionally invested in its characters or scenarios, we were beyond thrilled to be watching the debut feature from Genndy Tartakovsky, a supernaturally talented animator behind influential series "Samurai Jack" and "Dexter's Labratory." While a Transylvanian sequel has been fast-tracked at Sony without Tartakovsky, he's not done with that world yet – as a gorgeous new animated short proves.
Entitled "Goodnight Mr. Foot" (Movie For Kids via Reddit), the film played in front of theatrical screenings of "Hotel Transylvania," and will be included on the special edition DVD and Blu-ray scheduled to hit stores next week. The traditionally animated four minute short was directed by Tartakovsky and is nothing short of wonderful, focusing on Mr. Foot, the Bigfoot-esque monster that was heavily featured in early promotional materials for "Hotel Transylvania" but is all but absent from the final film, who travels to the hotel to catch up on some much-needed rest… Of course, a pesky witch and a member of the hotel's hospitality staff, wishing to make his stay as comfortable as possible, ends up almost waking the beast.
The animation is snappy and colorful and, unlike the final film, doesn't rely too heavily on dialogue for its humor (which is equally zippy). Tartakovsky is a terrific visual storyteller (just watch any episode of "Samurai Jack" or dig up his prototypical, bite-sized "Star Wars: Clone Wars" shorts that predated the long-running 3D series) and you can tell that he's getting to do some things that he probably wished he could do in "Hotel Transylvania" but couldn't quite figure out how to accomplish. It's also a complete kick to see him working once more in 2D animation; he's just so good at it. (His next film will be a computer animated "Popeye" project for Sony.) We hope that he continues to work in the format for many, many years to come.
If you want to see "Goodnight Mr. Foot" in even-more-glorious high definition, you can pick up the "Hotel Transylvania" Blu-ray next Tuesday. Otherwise, give it a look below.
Clip removed at the request of the studio.
Thanks for telling us about this short, Drew. Hotel Transylvania was my kids favorite animated film from last year, and I am sure they would appreciate it if I picked up a Blu-ray copy for the extras. We just watched Hotel Transylvania for the billionth time last week. I was on my lunch break at DISH last Friday, when a coworker brought up ParaNorman and Frankenweenie. I asked if she had seen Hotel Transylvania and she said no, so I invited her and her family over to watch it after work. I went online and rented it before leaving my office for the day; it was downloaded to my DISH Hopper DVR, and ready to watch the moment we got to my home. She liked the movie, but she was surprised that her kids liked it; I guess they are kind of hard to please when it comes to movies.