Ben Kendrick's Rhetorical Analysis: Hotel Transylvania

In his review of the movie Hotel Transylvania, Ben Kendrick expresses his opinion of the film through different rhetorical strategies. The language used throughout the review support the writer’s judgement that Hotel Transylvania is a “poorly stitched together” kid’s movie. Kendrick is disappointed that Genndy Tartakovsy, the director of Hotel Transylvania and well known for directing Clone Troopers, didn’t deliver an animated fun heart-warming film for all ages. He uses words and phrases such as “underwhelming,” “egregious,” and “awkwardly proportioned” to support this position. Ben Kendrick also uses appeals to logic, or logos, to advocate his conclusion that Hotel Transylvania is a gimmicky children’s movie. He writes: “The first fifteen minutes of Hotel Transylvania serve as a very clear indicator as to how the majority of the ninety-one minute runtime is going to play out – a gag per second mishmash of fart jokes, slapstick violence, and eye-rolling one-liners. The focus shifts quickly from one gimmick to the next, with no time for jokes to resonate, resulting in an overwhelming stream of gags.” In this review, Kendrick uses a very professional tone when discussing the film, which is not meant to appeal to his reader’s emotions. However, an additional rhetorical strategy that the author uses to achieve the review’s purpose is antanagoge.