Sandler Reinvented (Sort of): A Review of Hotel Transylvania 2

directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
written by Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel

While I would have loved to have spent last weekend watching the resurgent historical epic Heneral Luna, I found myself in a mall with three little girls too young to watch the R-13 rated movie and a lot of time to kill. In any event, I had been wanting to take my kids to see the film since the initial trailers, so this was as good an opportunity as any to go see it.

The Transylvania gang, including Dracula (Adam Sandler), Frankenstein (Kevin James), the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), the Invisible Man (David Spade), and the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) are back, and Hotel Transylvania remains very much in business. Drac's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her boyfriend since the end of the last movie Johnny (Andy Samberg) finally get married and make Drac a grandfather. Drac's joy soon turns to anxiety, however, as it becomes unclear whether or not little Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) has actually inherited any of his mother's and grandfather's vampiric powers. It also becomes an object of concern when Mavis, worried about her "non-monster" son, begins to think that living in a monster-free California, where Johnny is from, might be better for Dennis than living in Transylvania. Thus begins Drac's quest to coax his grandson's vampirism out of him as Mavis and Johnny leave for the U.S. to visit Johnny's parents, leaving Dennis with Drac and his friends, who have their work cut out for them.

I found the first movie reasonably entertaining with its combination of fun, if not particularly innovative designs on classic movie monsters and to anyone who enjoyed the first movie I am pleased to report that this is pretty much more of the same unpretentious silliness. It's pretty much trademark Sandler, but with less rude jokes (though the word "boobies" actually makes it into the script) and with a broader canvas, considering the things that cartoons can do which real people cannot, even when abetted by computer graphics. Sandler used to play a man-child who refused to grow up, here he plays (through voice acting) an old man trying to relive his youth vicariously through his grandson. In any case, the broad humor connected with me. I also liked little touches in the film like the vampire summer camp and the extensive use of youtube, though I found it kind of idiotic that the filmmakers could not decide whether or not vampires could be captured on camera, as they were in some instances and were not in others.

The sequel does have a kind of by-the-numbers feel to it, as can be expected from most sequels, but most importantly, they kept the fun, even if the movie really dipped into the nonsensical time and again. I'd be a complete hypocrite if I didn't admit I had a good laugh time and again. It's some pretty decent, if altogether silly fun.


6.5/10