Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 97 minutes
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
When in 2012 Hotel Transylvania was released, the movie became an instant success, not only because of the somewhat silly interpretation of Dracula, but rather because of his very cute daughter Mavis, who could become the bridge between the monster and the human world. The series thrived and a sequel came out, further evolving on the storyline of Mavis getting a human boyfriend, a child was born and the couple clearly was content with their lives. Now, another few years have passed, and it’s clear that Dracula could use some time off after managing a hotel for as long as he can remember. This time the family opts to take a cruise, a monster cruise to be more exact. We were curious to see what the family would have up their sleeves this time.
First, the movie starts off with a little trip down memory lane, where we can see Dracula (Adam Sandler) being hunted down by Abraham Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan), who comes from a fairly extensive line of monster hunters. Luckily, Dracula knows how to fend him off on each occasion and it’s clear that this snippet of information will be important for the story later on.
Flash forward to the present day, where Mavis (Selina Gomez) and Johnny (Andy Samberg) are enjoying their lives with their toddler Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) who is clearly a content young boy now that his monster powers have fully manifested. Nonetheless, Mavis feels like it’s time for a break and decides to book a cruise for the family, including her father, Dracula, the grandfather (Mel Brooks) and a couple of other familiar faces that always linger around the hotel. Dracula seemed quite hesitant at first but before he knows it, he finds himself head over heels in love with Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), the ship’s captain, who happens to be human. While everything seems spic and span at first, things will not keep going that swimmingly. Mavis isn’t sure the captain is who she pretends to be, but mostly she’s afraid to lose her father to his newfound crush.
The flow of this movie is pretty much what you’ve come to expect from an animated film such as this. You’ll get a bit of information that will come and bite the main characters in the ass eventually, then you have a short but relaxing introduction, and then a problem presents itself with a few secrets swept under the rug. The movie tries very hard to include a lot of slapstick humor, and while it mostly hits its target, it’s sometimes perhaps a tad too much as it can hinder the story at times. Nonetheless, the movie is one of the funnier animated movies that has come out recently and the spread between information, action sequences and emotional scenes feels just right. While you can see the ending of the film from more than a few miles away, it’s still a very enjoyable conclusion.
While not every big name behind this movie may be extremely relevant anymore when it comes to bigger Hollywood releases, this film is backed up by many familiar faces. The leading characters by people such as Adam Sandler, Selina Gomez and Andy Samberg to the supporting characters, which are still voiced by famous stars such as Fran Drescher, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Keegan-Michael Key. We can only say that the voice acting is superbly done and while you might not be able to put your finger on the voice behind the monster’s face, you’ll still have that air of familiarity when hearing a lot of characters.
The Blu-ray edition of the third Hotel Transylvania movie comes with a hefty amount of extras. Be warned though, while the movie is suited for all ages, most of the special features are clearly directed towards small children, who have no perspective on how the creators of the featurettes raped children songs, to make them in tune with the movie. Luckily there are some other extras that give you some insights in things that happened in the previous movies, in case you missed them, but also a few segments that could be viewed as a part of a ‘making of’. Overall there’s a lot to explore, but if you’re an adult wanting to see the creative process behind the film, there’s a lot to skip. A fun note is that there are two very short ‘movies’ thrown into the mix.
Conclusion
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation is a fun continuation of the series, but we personally hope they don’t keep dragging this one out, as it might lose its flair. The overall story value was quite entertaining, the many gags were able to make us smile and the cast behind this flick is amazing, and is probably one of the few movies where Adam Sandler isn’t hated upon. If you loved the first two movies, we’re sure this one will entertain you as well.
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