It’s hard to get used to new things when you’re old. It’s really hard when you’re Dracula and, after centuries, you’re suddenly asked to understand things like cell phones, and GPS, and having humans in your house.
That last part was the conceit of the first Hotel Transylvania movie, when Dracula had to decide whether losing his daughter Mavis was worth letting a human named Johnny into his world and his hotel. The old vampire had good reason to hate and fear humans since they’d killed his wife, but in Hotel Transylvania 2 we see the wonderful result of taking a chance on love: an adorable, ginger-mopped baby boy who I swear could stand in for the Rankin-Bass Baby New Year.
This trip to the hotel features Grandpa Drac’s love for his grandson Dennis mixed with an unhealthy dose of concern over when the boy is going to show signs of being a monster. Five years old is considered the limit for getting fangs, if you’re going to get them at all, so as that fateful birthday approaches Drac schemes to get Mavis and Johnny out of the castle so he can teach Dennis how to be a vampire. (For their part, the parents would be just as happy if Dennis were fully human, and Mavis wants her dad to lay off the whole monster thing.) A nothing-good-can-come-of-this adventure commences, and THEN… Mom finds out and the jig is up. Frustrated with her father, Mavis invites dark, human-hating Great-Grandpa Vlad to the birthday party. After learning his great-grandson is half-human, chaos erupts.
Not a snuggly Great-Grandpa
Whew! That’s a lot to pack into 90 minutes and that’s one of the problems with the film. Just when you begin to enjoy the humor and story it zigs and zags you to a new place. It’s like trying to ride a roller coaster through Holland to look at the tulips. That keeps the action moving at breakneck speed but sometimes it feels like the film is working too hard. I wanted the plot to slow down and let some of the gags land, because the supporting characters are worth spending time with. Even Robert Smigel, who co-wrote the script with Adam Sandler, shows up for the fun with a spot-on role as a camp counselor.
Would you trust your child with these monsters?
That being said, the kids in the theater were kept entertained, which is pretty much the point, and there were hearty doses of laughter among the adults. (My enjoyment was further fueled by a funny little girl sitting next to me, who went out of control with laughter every time somebody got hurt. Kids these days…)
Both Transylvania productions are billed as Adam Sandler movies but there’s no question the film belongs to Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Jonny Solomon, and Keegan-Michael Key as Dracula’s monster friends. (Please, somebody, make a short featuring Blobby)
So…where do the arms come from again?
Part of the fun of animation is seeing a character act completely out of context and over the top for their role – think of the funny, kind monsters and unafraid little Boo in Monster’s Inc. – but Sandler’s Drac is exactly who you’d expect an animated Dracula to be: a bit paranoid and self-serious, not that endearing, and only funny by accident. The character falls flat. Luckily he’s overshadowed by the huge supporting cast and a nice surprise appearance from Mel Brooks as Vlad. Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez do a serviceable job in the roles of Mavis and Johnny, though their performances are also on-the-nose. Johnny is still a slacker but also a fun dad; Mavis is the responsible mother, and if you haven’t seen the first movie then you can’t really imagine how they ended up together. That couple is delightfully offset by snippets of Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally in the roles of Johnny’s parents.
Like the first, this film was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky who has been forthright about difficulties during production. Speaking to Cartoon Brew he commented:
I think Adam and Robert Smigel really wanted to take control of the second film, because that’s kind of what they do. It’s an Adam Sandler project, and he’s running the show, to a degree. So Hotel Transylvania 2 was more difficult that way.
In the end, the director said he’s happy with the result and felt he was able to push the characters to new levels of expressiveness.
It’s my gut reaction these days to compare all animated films to Pixar’s style, with their super-anthropomorphic characters and tug-at-the-heartstrings storytelling. But as I watched I found myself laughing enough that I stopped making comparisons and just enjoyed the ride. Sony Pictures Animation isn’t Pixar and they aren’t Disney. They only have a few films under their belt (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season, The Smurfs) and their character animation is handled by Sony Pictures Imageworks, a live-action VFX division that picked up animation to fill space between jobs. Still with pictures like this they’re proving they can provide a fun time at the theater for the whole family.
Don’t take it all too seriously and the movie (and the kid) will be fine. A fun diversion for the whole family.
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