HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2

US, 2015, 89 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan- Michael Key, Asher Blinkoff, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullaly, Nick Offerman, Rob Riggle, Dana Carvey, Mel Brooks.
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.

A couple of years ago, audiences were surprised to find that there had been some kind of truce between vampires and humans, especially with the opening of Hotel Transylvania welcoming human guests. Not only that, the patriarch of the vampire family, Drac, was consenting to the marriage between his daughter, Mavis, and human with a touch of the hippie, Johnny.

And this is where this sequel takes up, the preparations for the wedding and the wedding itself, the vampires and the variety of monsters at the Hotel Transylvania hosting the humans from California and everybody having an enjoyable time. Then a year passes, Mavis is pregnant, then she gives birth – and the big question, is Dennis (called Dennisovich by his adoring vampire grandfather) a human or a vampire. While he has a mop of reddish hair, he doesn’t have any fangs. Nevertheless, he grows up happy, at home with vampires and monsters, comfortable with his human grandparents, an ordinary boy although everybody quibbles about the word “normal”.

Mavis and Johnny go to California for a holiday where she is overwhelmed by the Slurpee choices in a mini-mart and shows her prowess at bike riding on skateboarding centres. She really enjoys living in the human world. In the meantime, Drac and other monsters decide to take Dennisovich on a holiday, to a summer camp for him to prove himself a vampire, able to fly… It doesn’t turn out as hoped for and Mavis and Johnny, unable to get a flight, rely on Mavis’s bat-power to get home before the camp-goers.

There is a big climax for Dennis’s birthday, especially with the arrival of his great-grandfather (voiced inimitably by Mel Brooks), a fight of good monsters against bad monsters and revelation about Dennis…

The voice cast is very entertaining with Adam Sandler reprising Drac, Selena Gomez is Mavis, Andy Samberg as Johnny, and comic voices like those of Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Kevin James as a very benign Frankenstein monster who is accommodating for the tourists to take selfies with him. In small roles are Fran Drescher, Megan Mullaly, Molly Shannon.

It is all very brightly lit, vivid animation, action, and quite a lot of humour, both visual and verbal, with reference to vampire traditions and movies – an easily enjoyable film.

1. An entertaining comedy for all ages, its appeal, children, adults, monsters vampires? Dialogue, visual and verbal jokes, the voice cast?

2. Vigorous and lively animation, bright colours, design, action? The hotel and interiors? Transylvania? The camp, the tower, the fire? Countryside, mountains and travel? California, the mini-marts, bike riding? Colour, verve, the musical score and songs?

3. The variety of monsters, visual, voice cast? The tradition of vampires and Transylvania? Drac and his figure, clothes, fangs? The other vampires, turning into bats, flying? The blubber monster, the invisible man, the Frankenstein monster, the werewolf, the many different large and small monsters, the wide range?

4. Mavis and Johnny, the preparation for the wedding, their characters, human and vampire, the entertainment at the wedding, the ceremony, Drac and his pride? The year passing, pregnant, the birth of Dennis? His growing up?

5. The human guests at the hotel, everyone happy together? Still the suspicion of humans? The smell?

6. The humans, accepting the vampires, the in-laws coming from California for the wedding, the celebrations, Mavis and Johnny going to California, the California lifestyle, everybody coming for Dennis’s birthday, having to pretend to be monsters, the make-up, Johnny’s mother and father, the mother and her comments and friendly with vampires?

7. Drac, his friends, going on the holiday, to the tourist park and all the tourists, wanting a selfie with the Frankenstein monster? Going to the camp, scaled down for fear of dangers, the protectiveness for the young vampires, the children playing, the games, Dennis and his involvement, the tower, Drac wanting him to fly, his fall and being caught? The fire and the camp going up in smoke? Mavis and her phone call, the photos on camera, the group pretending to be at home, the group having to go back, everybody on the bike, progressing so slowly?

8. Mavis and Johnny, wanting to go back, no flights, using her bat-power, the final confrontation?

9. Dennis’s birthday, inviting the great-grandfather, his visual appearance, the vampire traditions, his servant Bela, the clash with Bela, accepting the invitation, arriving at the party, the impact, smelling the humans, their disguises? The great-grandfather and his attempts to frighten Dennis so that his fangs would drop?

10. Bela, excluded, smelling the humans, something the other monsters, Dennis and the little girl and the attraction, fighting Bela and the monsters, his fangs dropping, becoming a top vampire? His past interest in superheroes and his combining superhero and vampire? The final fight?

11. The happy ending for everyone?

12. The ironies about presenting the vampires in the pattern of contemporary humans, freedom from the past, and the message of caution about the safety
of children?