Hotel Transylvania 2

Dir: Genndy Tartakovsky

2015

*

Genndy Tartakovsky's 2012 original Hotel Transylvania was a simple but fun mix of The Munsters/Addams Family, animated and set in a Hotel. There was a like-should/shouldn't-stick-with-like theme (Dracula's daughter falls in love with a non-monster) but it wasn't too preachy or overcooked. In 2015's Hotel Transylvania 2 the like-should/shouldn't-stick-with-like theme is taken one step further and given a it-doesn't-matter-if-you're-different make-over. It is both preachy and overcooked, not to mention tiresome and not without fault. The second visit to the Hotel sees Dracula's daughter Mavis (?) marry Jonathan and have a child soon after. The ethnicity of the child (human or vampire) won't be clear until its fifth birthday. Adam Sandler's Dracula is clearly wants his Grandson to be like him while Mavis wonders whether a more normal environment would be better suited to a mixed, possibly merely human child. There really isn't a great story here. The first film was a look at what would happen if vampires, werewolves, zombies and monsters ran a hotel for other vampires, werewolves, zombies and monsters. Spooky hijinks ensured lots of fun and themed laughs. The sequel throws all that made the first film so charming out the window and goes full on touchy-feely for no real good reason, other than because that's what animated films do these days when they run out of ideas. The great Mel Brooks makes an appearance as Dracula's far more bigoted father, and that somehow cancels out his own narrow-mindedness. It is suddenly declared that being different (human in this case) is absolutely fine, and to prove as much, they turn the young couples child into a vampire. This utter contradiction in message left me feeling like I had watched this sub-standard animation for no good reason, which of course I had. I can't think why anyone would want to make the same mistake, especially as films such as Frankenweenie and ParaNorman had similar styles and themes and were a thousand times better. Much like the first film, Hotel Transylvania 2 also relies heavily on the most irritating and rather unsuited soundtrack of pop songs that I found hard to stomach. I wasn’t so much disappointed as I was thoroughly bored.