Hotel Transylvania 2 is a new animated family film from Columbia Films, produced by Sony.
It has a huge voice cast, including stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Fran Dresher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey, Mel Brooks & Jon Lovitz.
This movie was super cute. The adult audience, myself included, laughed out loud, a lot. The kids thought it was hilarious, too.
One thing I liked a lot is that NOT all the good parts are in the commercials and previews, which means there is still “movie left to see” when you get to actually see the film, which is frequently not the case with highly advertised films.
The movie picks up where the first one left off, showing the wedding of Drac’s daughter Mavis to human Jonathan, and quickly jumping from there to the birth of a child (a son! (Named Dennis)) and then to the boys fourth birthday.
When Dennis doesn’t show any signs of his vamp heritage, Drac feels he must step in and try to help the boy “find his fangs”. Jonathan’s parents are none too thrilled with this turn of events and protest in words and actions.
The overall tone of the movie is happy, and teaches a lesson of acceptance.
The chemistry that showed up in the first film, is back in force between Dracula and his hotel buddies, and causes the movie to flow along without any major hiccups.
The jokes are cute, and play to both the kids and to adult humor.
There wasn’t anything that I found to be so inappropriate that it made my grind my teeth, which was a nice change in a children’s film.
If I had to make a complaint, it would honestly be that the movie seemed to almost move TOO quickly and I could have sat through another 20 minutes at least. Even though it’s run time is 90 minutes, it doesn’t “feel like” it lasts that long, and even my 7 year old son said it was ‘a quick movie’.
We would give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.
Second Review by
Barnetty Kushner
In the first movie, Hotel Transylvania, Dracula (Adam Sandler) plays an overprotective dad who tries to shield his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) from the human world. After the death of his wife at the hand of mortals, Dracula decides to create a haven, disguised as a hotel/resort, for all monsters to seek refuge. Mavis’s only real life experience is within the walls of the hotel. It’s no surprise she becomes curious about the villagers and life outside of the hotel. A surprise human visitor Johnny (Adam Sandberg) to the hotel, piques her interest and in the end steals her heart. Of course the first film was spent with Dracula doing everything in his power to keep Johnny and Mavis apart.
In Hotel Transylvania 2, Johnny and Mavis are married and have a son, Dennis (Asher Binkoff). The big question throughout the entire movie is if Dennis is a vampire or a human? Dennis has till his 5th birthday to sprout vampire teeth. Dracula is obsessed with Dennis being a vampire and Mavis becomes the overprotective parent shielding Dennis from monster/vampire like antics. A few days shy of Dennis’s 5th birthday, Mavis still struggling to decide if she should raise Dennis in the hotel or in the human world, she ventures on a trip with Johnny, while Vampa Drac babysits Dennis, to see what it’s like to live near Johnny’s parents. While they are away, Dracula and his crew of lovable monster friends try to teach Dennis how to be a “monster” Unfortunately, the monsters have become too accustom to their lux lifestyle, having rarely left the confines of the hotel, they realize they’ve lost their mojo to scare humans. Making matters even worse, is Dracula’s father Vlad (Mel Brooks), who despises humans, making everyone worry about what he might do if his great grandson turns out to be human.
As usual, Sandler likes using the same actors in his film: Kevin James, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, and Fran Drescher are all present in this one. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, and the script written by both Sandler and Robert Smigel, they definitely bring the sarcastic slapstick comedy we’ve come to know from both Sandler and Smigel.
This movie was definitely geared for the under 10 age group, think Cartoon Network shows. Quick wit kiddish type jokes, potty humor, and Three Stooges-esque type interactions amongst the monsters. The kids loved it!
From the adult perspective, I didn’t enjoy the first film and equally didn’t care for the second. There were some great laugh out loud moments, however the message and delivery of said message was overshadowed by the lackluster content and an anemic concept. The message that nothing is more important than family and accepting the people you love for who they are and not want you want them to be.
2 out of 5 stars
