HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 – The Review

A worthy animated sequel, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 has lively monster design, fangtastic visuals, great characters, gorgeous animation, and a top-notch voice cast. It’s a lot of fun and if you liked the first one, you won’t be disappointed with the follow-up. Drac (Adam Sandler) and his pack of classic Universal monsters are back and everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania. Dracula’s rigid monster-only hotel policy has relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is concerned that his red-headed half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing signs of being a vampire. So while his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) is busy visiting her human in-laws (Megan Mullalley and Nick Offerman) with her husband Johnny (Andy Samburg), “Vampa” Drac enlists his monster friends Frank (enstein), Murray (the Mummy), Wayne (the Werewolf) and Griffin (the Invisible Man) to put Dennis through a “monster-in-training” boot camp. But Drac’s grumpy and very old, old-school dad Vlad pays a family visit to the hotel and when he finds out that his great-grandson is not a pure blood – and humans are now welcome at Hotel Transylvania – things get batty!

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2’s screenplay by Sandler and Robert Smigel isn’t strong, but the film’s big laughs, and there are a lot of them, come from the visual side of the equation. Director Genndy Tartakovsky is clearly a big fan of the animated works of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, cartoon legends who knew that you could earn just as many guffaws from a silly walk, a smash cut, or a stylized facial expression as you could from a well-delivered ‘spoken’ joke. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 is full of funny fast-flying gags and non-stop monster visual puns that would make Forry Ackerman proud. It’s a kid’s movie but since the talent behind both HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA films clearly has such affection and respect for the Universal movie monsters, older Monster Kids like myself will appreciate it as well. Adam Sandler, much more likable here than his recent live-action stuff, provides the voice for Count Dracula as sort of a cross between Lugosi and a Jewish grandma. Cee-Lo is not back as Murray the Mummy, a good thing since his excruciating auto-tune rap songs in the first one were a low point. David Spade returns as an invisible man who gets big laughs pretending to have an invisible girlfriend. Kevin James is back as Frankenstein but isn’t given much to do while Steve Busceli as Wayne the Wolfman is a scene-stealer again. There are some welcome new characters in the sequel. Megan Mullalley and deadpan Nick Offerman voice Johnny’s California human parents and Drac’s Uncle Vlad is voiced by comedy legend Mel Brooks. The sequel seems a notch less witty than its predecessor (someone yelling at Drac “I like your chocolate cereal!” may be the only line I laughed out loud at), and the focus is more on the zany, out of control gestures made by the characters instead of a genuinely substantial plot, but I still recommend HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars