HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 - REVIEW


Hotel Transylvania being the box-office success that it was, a sequel was pretty much inevitable. The first film was your typical Romeo & Juliet type of scenario except silly and... about a human and a vampire.

This sequel continues the story as Mavis and Jonathan welcome their first child.

Once again, plot-wise this isn't exactly the most original thing out there but it works as Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) tries to encourage his grandson to become a monster just so his daughter will have to stay at the hotel instead of starting a new life somewhere else. When animated sequels start to bring babies into the mix, you know it's probably the end of that franchise being good (Shrek Forever After, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs) but Hotel Transylvania 2 actually does a decent job at keeping afloat. The animation is, once again, fantastic with all the larger-than-life Tex Avery-style characters constantly doing something random and funny, the voice cast clearly having a good time with it all. Both Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Count Dracula are so selfish in this movie, however, they almost become flat-out dislikable but all the other characters are charming enough that it balances out. New addition Vlad, Dracula's grandfather, voiced by the great Mel Brooks is definitely one of the highlights as he's both hilarious and intimidating: hopefully he'll be in the next one.

The dynamic between the humans and the monsters includes quite a few Addams Family or The Munsters-type jokes since humans can now be guests in the titular hotel and that's a lot of fun. As is the fact that the little kid would rather be a superhero instead of a monster which, it turns out, are not too dissimilar goals. The film does occasionally suffer from the tired girls-are-mean/boys-are-fun cliché that permeates so many American comedies, including Happy Madison productions. This makes the film's overall message a bit confused as Mavis' acceptance of her father's wishes at the end is meant to be this happy moment but it just feels like she's powerless and stuck with a future she didn't necessarily want. A third instalment would probably need to give Mavis a stronger character arc and continue this plot towards a fairer and happier conclusion in order for her to not simply be the token girl character who just goes along with whatever those silly boys wanna do. Here's hoping the baby stuff is out of this franchise's system and it can now move on to a smarter third chapter.

What was good about the original film is still there in this fun sequel including the fab animation and lovably goofy characters, unfortunately the writing isn't quite as good and an unbalanced message makes this a slightly inferior follow-up.

Not bad.

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