Hotel Translyvania
Let’s start out these reviews with a fun, loving kid’s cartoon threequel. I went to see this movie with my boyfriend, and I’ll start out be saying this is not just a children’s movie, this movie is incredibly enjoyable for all ages. With a celebrity heavy cast, the first movie of this trilogy was a hit before it even premiered. Adam Sandler as Dracula, as always, is knee-slapping hilarious, and you don’t need to see his face in order to laugh until your stomach hurts. Selena Gomez’s role of Mavis is kindly and perfectly voiced along with her funny boyfriend, Johnathan, voiced by Andy Sandburg. Other big names stars: Kevin James as Frankenstein, Mel Brooks as Vlad, Steve Buscemi as Wayne and special guest voices from Chrissy Teigen as Crystal and we get to Joe Jonas as the Kraken in the finale song, “I See Love”.
The best quality of a good cartoon trilogy is whether or not it is necessary to have seen the previous movies in order to enjoy the new one. In this case, it is absolutely not necessary to have seen Hotel Transylvania 1 or 2 in order for the 3rd to be enjoyable. They make a few jokes that refer to past movies such as the classic “Bleh Bleh Bleh” joke from Dracula, but all of the other jokes are fresh and have no prerequisites. This movie is filled with one-liners that make you laugh for minutes after they are said. Containing goofy kid jokes along with adult humor, this movie is a hit. Wayne and Wanda, the two werewolves in the movie have over 100 children or “pups” with the main pups being Adam Sandler’s children. Besides the point, Wayne and Wanda discover “child care” on the cruise ship and are able to leave their 100+ pups with the cruise ship workers, whom are fish. This is one of the many relatable jokes for the older crowd as they finally are able to enjoy themselves and release the burden of handling their children to the cruise ship fish for a while.
Here’s the SPOILER ALERT section. I would not say that this movie is the predictable cartoon ending at all. Dracula is feeling lonely, after years of the passing of his wife. Mavis, his daughter is attempting to cheer him up and relieve him from work stress by taking him on a surprise monster’s cruise. Ironically, the cruise director, Erika, who is by the way a human, is the great-granddaughter of Dracula’s archenemies, Abraham Van-Helsing. Erika plans to kill Dracula while he is on board the cruise ship in order to avenge the legacy of her family. Her great-grandfather devised a plan in order to kill all of the monsters, specifically Dracula, on board. Erika becomes eager to kill Dracula and makes many attempts, but none of them work because, Dracula falls in love with her. Dun Dun Dun. With her pleasing looks, her fake perfect and kind personality, mixed with Dracula’s undeniable feelings of loneliness, Dracula falls in love at first sight, or what monster’s call it, having a zing. The plan reaches the last step and Abraham V.H. is revealed to be on the ship. Abraham is near a cliff when blasting music causes him to fall off. As he is falling to his death, Dracula surprisingly turns into a bat in order to save his foe’s life. Both Abraham and Erika have a change of heart realizing that Dracula, along with all of the other monsters, aren’t too bad. Erika begins to take a liking to Dracula and despite having wanted to kill Dracula for the entirety of the movie, they become engaged. Happy ending!
The movie sends out a great message for all ages at this time: We’re all different, but what’s the point of acting as if we are? Dracula uses this as a way to explain why he saved his arch-nemesis’ life. He says that monster or human, it doesn’t matter. If we are all different, doesn’t that make us all the same? It’s a great message for the young kids to teach them to treat everyone kindly, no matter what they look like. This is also a very nice reminder to the older crowd, especially in our society today.
This movie is a hit, from the cast to the current and modern top 50 hits, to the fun and playful storyline. This third movie was exactly what all audiences were expecting and during its 2nd week it is number three in the box office. If you’re looking for a family movie to see and already saw The Incredibles 2, this is the movie for you.