Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
Directed by: Genndy Tartakovsky
Written by: Michael McCullers & Genndy Tartakovsky
Voices by: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Andy Samberg, Jim Gaffigan, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Parnell, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen, Mel Brooks
Animation/Comedy/Family - 97 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 13 July 2018
Written by: Michael McCullers & Genndy Tartakovsky
Voices by: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Andy Samberg, Jim Gaffigan, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Parnell, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen, Mel Brooks
Animation/Comedy/Family - 97 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 13 July 2018
There are more than enough characters to rotate on and off screen in a Hotel Transylvania animated film, but since they mostly function as one-dimensional, one-liner gag characters, I can see why director Genndy Tartakovsky’s franchise is starting circle back around to ‘Go’ and repeat itself. In the first movie from 2012, Dracula learned being a monster or human doesn't matter; deep down, we’re all the same. In the 2015 sequel, Dracula learned it doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a monster; deep down, it’s all about love. In Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Dracula isn’t relearning his own lessons, but monster-hating villains must now learn that deep down, the divide between monsters and humans doesn’t matter, we’re all the same.
The far too familiar story arc is what keeps the Transylvania films from entering a comparison conversation with Disney/Pixar films. It doesn’t come off as stale as paint by numbers, but any feelings of originality and fresh material only come through funny quips, nothing deeper. There was opportunity here though. We all know Dracula’s main human enemy is Van Helsing. In numerous Dracula iterations throughout the decades, Van Helsing has sometimes been an older sleuth, a swashbuckling hero with washboard abs, and now Van Helsing is an extended lineage of a buffoonish monster-hunting family.
The far too familiar story arc is what keeps the Transylvania films from entering a comparison conversation with Disney/Pixar films. It doesn’t come off as stale as paint by numbers, but any feelings of originality and fresh material only come through funny quips, nothing deeper. There was opportunity here though. We all know Dracula’s main human enemy is Van Helsing. In numerous Dracula iterations throughout the decades, Van Helsing has sometimes been an older sleuth, a swashbuckling hero with washboard abs, and now Van Helsing is an extended lineage of a buffoonish monster-hunting family.
Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) is either not up to the challenge of hunting monsters or the monsters are just too good at evading him and making him look foolish. A montage showing Dracula (Adam Sandler, Pixels) effortlessly thwart the vehement, screaming hunter reduces Van Helsing to nothing more than a head supported by a steampunk body after more than 100 years of futility. However, attacking into the front lines is so 19th century. Van Helsing’s great-granddaughter, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn, Flower), raised to hate monsters since infancy, may be the perfect assassin as Dracula is lonely and looking for love. Ericka may have quite the opportunity on her hands to flirt and then lay waste to monster numero uno at his most vulnerable.
I don’t want this to sound deeper than it is. Ericka spends most of her time cackling in the corner about her plans and arching her cliché villainous eyebrows. The majority of Summer Vacation are gags about large families and friends traveling together through planes, trains, and boats to work their way through all you can eat buffets and carefully managed sightseeing tours. These trips can be quite funny though. Gremlin Air, the monster airline, is hysterical. Stoic fish staff the cruise ship and whether they are or not, it at least sounds like they are all voiced by Chris Parnell (Battle of the Sexes). There is a joke about Macklemore’s song “Downtown” which I instinctively gave an unconscious guffaw.
Yet, that is the extent of the third Hotel Transylvania. It’s light, you will laugh, but will remember it as much as you remember the first two; meaning, you’ll recall Adam Sandler voiced Dracula, but that’s about it. Sandler leans on his famous falsetto more than usual this time, especially when he tries to convince daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez, The Big Short) he’s doing just fine or when he “zings” at first sight over Ericka and can only mumble syllables in baby talk. It climaxes in a dance off which should not work at all, but instead had the audience in the palm of its hand eating up the evil techno beat vs. feel good tunes from the youth of all the young parents in the audience.
Tartakovsky, returning to the franchise after a successful resurrection of his Samurai Jack series, knows well enough there are two age groups in the theater: five to nine year-olds and their 35-40 year-old parents. He deliberately aims jokes at these particular demographics. Smart move. The parents will subconsciously decide they are enjoying this kid’s movie because they recognize the "Macarena" as an obscenely popular tune back when they were in high school. Beyond that gimmick, it’s just sight gags and fart jokes - nothing outrageous, nothing you’ve never seen before, and certainly nothing you will remember a week later.
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