“Drac’s pack is back.”
Directed by Genddy Tartakovsky
Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Mel Brooks
Dracula (Sandler) oversees the marriage of his daughter Mavis (Gomez) and her human boyfriend Johnny (Samberg), opening the Hotel Transylvania to non-monsters with the aid of buddies Frank (James), Wayne (Buscemi), Griffin (Spade) and Murray (Key) (Frankenstein’s monster, a werewolf, the Invisible Man and a mummy.) Not long after, Mavis announces her pregnancy, and soon the family is joined by Dennis (Asher Blinkoff).
As ‘Dennisovich’ grows, Dracula becomes increasingly concerned that he may turn out to be a human, not a vampire, with his lack of fangs and his taste in cuddly monsters. When Mavis suggests moving to California, both Dracula and Johnny become determined to bring out the monster so that the family can stay together. In order to try to engineer this, Dracula and his gang take Dennis on a road trip while Mavis visits California.
Dracula’s antics end up endangering Dennis, and Mavis determines to cut him out of their lives. When she invites Dracula’s human-hating father, Vlad (Brooks), to Dennis’ final birthday party, however, the sudden arrival of a heaping helping of mortal peril helps to bring the family back together.
What’s wrong with it?
Dracula kind of has the look down, but is significantly less Dracula than pretty much any other cinematic Dracula, including Dracula Untold.
All of the monsters are kind of cuddly – apart from Vlad’s manbat servants – despite occasional hints that, back in the day, they killed a lot of people. Even Vlad is redeemed by familial love, and we will never mention the whole ‘soul taking’ business again.
Johnny belongs to that particularly irksome stereotype of husband, the slacker with the hot wife, with the knock-on effect of Hotel Transylvania‘s bubbly, adventurous Mavis turning into a nag simply by dint of being the one who gets things done. His family, meanwhile, are instantly forgettable.
After a completely goofy first three quarters, the film gets kind of dark out of nowhere.
“You’re so fired.”
Are the monsters so integrated in California as a result of the events of the first movie and of Johnny and Mavis’s wedding, or was Dracula just a paranoid freak whose sanctuary hotel only served to perpetuate fear of the outside world in his immediate circle?
What’s right with it?
The voice cast is good, and perform with gusto. This is one of only two films where I was able to stick Sandler for the entire runtime. (The other was the original Hotel Transylvania.)
If you treat the claims that the characters were all mass-murderers back in the day and assume they’re bigging up their ancestors’ wrongdoings, they’re a likable bunch of misfits.
While the broad strokes of the story are nothing much to write home about, there are a lot of good gags and moments.
How bad is it really?
Lacking the bite of monster comedies such as The NIghtmare Before Christmas, Hotel Transylvania 2 is nonetheless a fun way to pass an hour and a half, and it is weird as all hell besides.
Best bit (if such there is)?
It’s an oddly damning indictment on the movie that there is no real stand out moment. It’s just all… good fun. With the occasional side-order of cognitive whiplash when one of our goofy protagonists drops a comment about how they used to kill folks.
What’s up with…?
- Dennisovich? Dracula calls it Dennis’s ‘vampire name’, but a) it’s a Russian form, not Transylvanian, and b) it’s a patronymic, meaning son of Dennis.
Ratings
Production values – The animation is pretty much the same as that in the original Hotel Transylvania, and is starting to look a little old-fashioned. It’s not bad, however, and the effects work is distinctive. 6
Dialogue and performances – The pairing of slacker comedy voices with monster movie aesthetic is really the movie’s whole deal, and the cast and script work it hard. There’s nothing really standout in the writing, but the performances are solid. 8
Plot and execution – The plot is very thin, and mostly exists as a framework to hang banter and set-pieces on. It also loses points (or, in my system, gains them,) for being heavily predicated on the idea that a man can’t just tell his wife that he doesn’t want to do something, but must rather conspire with her father and his monster manchild posse. 10
Randomness – This film is weird AF. 12
Waste of potential – Look; I’m not going to call this a classic of any kind, but as the sequel to Hotel Transylvania, it exceeds most expectations. 3
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