HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION – Review

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION has fang-tastic movie monster characters, gorgeous animation, and a top-notch voice cast, and though it’s the weakest entry in this franchise so far, it still manages to be just enough fun to recommend. After a 19^th century prologue with Dracula (Adam Sandler) battling his nemesis Professor Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan), Part 3 finds The Count continuing to run his monster Hotel in Transylvania along with his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her husband Johnny (Andy Samberg). A TV commercial encourages Mavis to surprise her dad with a trip on a luxury cruise liner for monsters that starts at the Bermuda Triangle and ends up in Atlantis, so the whole monster gang packs up for a fun adventure at sea. Complications arise when Dracula feels a “zing” (monster lingo for love at first sight) for the ship’s captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), who, unbeknownst to the Count, is the Great Granddaughter of Van Helsing, and is determined to destroy him. This all leads to a big showdown featuring both Van Helsings, a singing Kraken (Joe Jonas), and a DJ battle led by Johnny.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 SUMMER VACATION’s screenplay by Michael McCullers and director Genndy Tartakovsky is less sharp than the earlier scripts (which were written by Sandler and Robert Smigoff) though the new film is still chock full of fast-flying gags and non-stop visual puns. Tartakovsky clearly admires animators Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, cartoon legends who knew that you could derive just as many chuckles from a goofy walk or a stylized facial expression as you could from a well-delivered “spoken” joke.  But because the new film is set at sea and far away from the titular Hotel, there are less Forry-esque monster puns and gags at hand, which to me was the basic appeal of this series. There are also at least three musical numbers, which is about two too many. The familiar characters all work well enough; Mel Brooks is back as Drac’s dad, playing him as a cross between Lugosi and a Jewish grandpa.  Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon as Wayne the Wolfman and his wife have the funniest subplot as they drop off their brood of dozens of offspring at the ship’s daycare and are unsure what to do with the time they have for themselves. David Spade returns as an invisible man who still gets big laughs pretending to have an invisible girlfriend. Andy Samberg plays Mavis’ slacker husband well, and I’ll admit Adam Sandler makes for a great Dracula.  Aside from The Kracken, the only new characters are an odd school of fish that staff the cruise ship, and they are milked for a lot of bizarre, deadpan laughs. It’s never dull and while I wish it would have focused more on monster mayhem,  HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION works as worthy material for parents to distract their kids with.

3 of 5 Stars