Vlad the Impaler

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77), was a member of the House of Drăculești, a branch of the House of Basarab, also known, using his patronymic, as Vlad Drăculea or Vlad Dracula (Old Church Slavonic: Владъ Дрьколъ). He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (modern Romanian: Vlad Țepeș, pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ]).

He was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was founded to protect Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero in Romania and Bulgaria for his protection of the Romanians and Bulgarians both north and south of the Danube. Following his raids on the Ottomans, a significant number of Bulgarian common folk and remaining boyars resettled north of the Danube to Wallachia and recognized his leadership.

As the cognomen "The Impaler" suggests, his practice of impaling his enemies is part of his historical reputation. During his lifetime, his reputation for excessive cruelty spread abroad, to Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's patronymic and reputation.

Transylvania

Transylvania (Romanian: Transilvania or Ardeal, Hungarian: Erdély, German: Siebenbürgen or Transsilvanien, Polish: Siedmiogród, Latin: Transsilvania, Turkish: Erdel) is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bound on the east and south by its natural borders, the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended eastward to the Apuseni Mountains. The term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical regions of Crișana, Maramureș and Romanian part of Banat. The region of Transylvania is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history. It also contains major Romanian cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Brașov and Sibiu. In the English-speaking world it has been commonly associated with vampires, chiefly due to the influence of Bram Stoker's famous novel Dracula as well as the many later film adaptations.

Etymology

In Romanian, the region is known as Ardeal (pronounced [arˈde̯al]) or Transilvania (pronounced [transilˈvani.a]); in Hungarian as Erdély (pronounced [ɛrdeːj]); in German as Siebenbürgen (pronounced [ˈziːbn̩ˌbʏʁɡn̩]); and in Turkish as Transilvanya (pronounced [tɾansilˈvanja]) but historically as Erdel or Erdehstan; see also other denominations.

Hotel Transylvania

Hotel Transylvania is a 2012 American 3D computer animated fantasy comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation. It was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (the creator of Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory and Sym-Bionic Titan), and produced by Michelle Murdocca. The film features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, and CeeLo Green.

The film tells a story of Count Dracula, the owner of a hotel called Hotel Transylvania where the world's monsters can take a rest from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis. When the "non-human hotel" is unexpectedly visited by an ordinary 21-year-old traveler named Jonathan, Dracula must protect Mavis from falling in love with him before the hotel's guests learn there is a human in the castle, which may jeopardize the hotel's future.

The film was released on September 28, 2012, by Columbia Pictures. It was met with mixed critical reception, while the general public received it favorably. Despite mixed reviews, Hotel Transylvania earned a total of $358 million on a budget of $85 million. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It had launched a franchise, with a sequel, Hotel Transylvania 2, which takes place seven years after the film, in 2015, and a third film scheduled for 2018. A television series is planned for early 2017, and it will focus on the teenage years of Mavis and her friends at the Hotel Transylvania.

Bram Stoker

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

Early life

Stoker was born on 8 November 1847 at 15 Marino Crescent, Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland. His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who was raised in County Sligo. Stoker was the third of seven children, the eldest of whom was Sir Thornley Stoker, 1st Bt. Abraham and Charlotte were members of the Church of Ireland Parish of Clontarf and attended the parish church with their children, who were baptised there.

Stoker was bedridden with an unknown illness until he started school at the age of seven, when he made a complete recovery. Of this time, Stoker wrote, "I was naturally thoughtful, and the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful according to their kind in later years." He was educated in a private school run by the Rev. William Woods.