Hotel Transylvania 2 – movie review

Three years ago we were introduced to Drac and the gang in Hotel Transylvania, a fun filled animated comedy about vampires, monsters and freaks. It was a story about a father and daughter, but as director Genndy Tartakovsky put it, it was just that the father happened to have been Dracula. The filmmakers did a terrific job creating a whole new family of critters, with their own features, fears and fallacies, helping it to a worldwide take upwards of $400 million. And now they are back for a second bite.

Quite frankly, I was worried the sequel would be lame by comparison, but I needn’t have been. Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania … Dracula’s rigid monsters-only hotel policy has finally been relaxed, opening the doors to human guests. Drac has even seen his daughter Mavis marry a human, Johnny, but remains worried his adorable half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing any signs of being a vampire. You see there is no guarantee Dennis will turn into a blood brother and grow fangs, as vampires usually do by age five. While Dracula figures he might just be “a late fanger” not growing a pair would actually be a big body blow for Drac. So, while Mavis is busy visiting her human in-laws with her husband – and in for a major cultural shock of her own – Drac enlists his friends Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Invisible Man et al to put Dennis through a “monster-in-training” boot camp. Only that doesn’t turn out exactly as he expected. Also, there will be hell to pay if Dracula’s very old, old school dad Vlad ever finds out Dennis is not a pure blood.

Most of the voices from the first installment are back a second time, including Adam Sandler as the daddy who is prone to going batty. Incidentally, he also co-wrote the script here with one of the original writers, Robert Smigel. They have added one of the biggest names in comedy, Mel Brooks, who is the voice of Vlad. And you still have the likes of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and Fran Drescher.

With a theme of tolerance and understanding (i.e. humans and monsters co-existing), Hotel Transylvania 2 is again a lot of fun and, at times, laugh aloud funny. Of course much of that gets back to the writing and this is where Smigel and Sandler have done an excellent job because while the movie is undoubtedly a sequel, it can also be viewed as a stand-alone film without any difficulty in the uptake.

The visuals remain easy on the eye and reinforce the themes. The audience I saw it with really seemed to enjoy it, as did I. In fact, it was far better than I expected it to be and I would highly recommend it as a family film that has something for littlies and biggies alike.

Rated PG, Hotel Transylvania 2 scores a 7½ out of 10.

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Cast: (Voices of) Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and Fran Drescher
Release Date: 26 November, 2015
Rating: PG

Alex First