Hotel Transylvania: Transformania review

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA: 

FOURTH (AND APPARENTLY FINAL) HOTEL VISIT HAS ITS MOMENTS BUT IS UNNECESSARY IN THE END! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

AMAZON STUDIOS, COLUMBIA PICTURES, AND SONY PICTURES ANIMATION

Dracula, Mavis, Johnny, Frankenstein, Wayne, Murray, Griffin, and Blobby in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

 

            The Drac Pack returns for one last hotel visit in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, the fourth and final installment of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, and the first not to be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky or feature the voices of Adam Sandler and Kevin James as Dracula and Frankenstein. In their places we have former crew member on SpongeBob Squarepants and Adventure Time, Derek Drymon and storyboard artist on the first two Hotel Transylvania films, Jennifer Kluska directing while Brian Hull (Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure) and Brad Abrell providing Dracula and Frankenstein’s voices while the rest of the voice cast remains the same for the most part. 

            If you read my reviews of the earlier films, then you know that I really enjoyed the Hotel Transylvania franchise, when I saw the first one nearly ten years ago (Hard to believe it’s been that long) I adored the concept of a hotel for monsters inside Dracula’s castle with a lot of creative-looking monster designs, zany, fast-paced animation, humor that doesn’t always hit bullseye but the majority of it does, and a lot of heart, it was easily one of the best Adam Sandler comedies in recent years and the same goes for the second film. The third film, I’m not the biggest fan of despite being the best-reviewed in the series, it isn’t terrible, and a good handful of the jokes and heartfelt moments do land, but it felt like it was mostly catering to little kids rather than families, it’s perfectly serviceable. 

            This brings us to the fourth film which was originally scheduled for a theatrical release in 2021 but was constantly pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic until finally landing on Amazon Prime Video in early 2022, similar to what happened with The Mitchells VS the Machines, another recent Sony Pictures Animation film. To be honest, I came into this movie with no expectations, the trailers looked fine, and the idea sounded fine, but it also felt pointless and unnecessary in its existence. 

            So, is Hotel Transylvania: Transformania a hidden gem, especially in terms of the extremely divisive Sony Pictures Animation library or will it be a passable diversion for little kids without much substance? Unfortunately, it’s the latter. 

            The film isn’t horrible or anything, it does have some imagination, a handful of the jokes got a good laugh out of me, and the heartfelt moments are very effective, not to mention the film ends on a strong note. However, the plot is uninspired and often rehashes various plot points from its predecessors without much of their charm. 

            The film follows Dracula about to announce his plan to retire and leaving his hotel in the hands of his daughter, Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez-Wizards of Waverly Place, Monte Carlo, Spring Breakers) and her human husband, Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg-Saturday Night Live, Hot Rod, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping). However, when Johnny accidentally screws up Dracula’s speech, he assumes that Dracula still has some human prejudice and thinks he would be better fit to run the hotel with Mavis if he too was a monster. 

            Johnny asks former monster hunter, Abraham Van Helsing (voiced by Jim Gaffigan-Super Troopers 1 and 2, My Universe, Luca) to turn him into a monster with his “Monsterfication Ray”. The ray works, but it also transforms Dracula, Frankenstein, Wayne the Werewolf (voiced by Steve Buscemi-Desperado, The Big Lebowski, Monsters, Inc.), Griffin the Invisible Man (voiced by David Spade-Tommy Boy, The Emperor’s New Groove, Joe Dirt), and Murray the Mummy (voiced by Keegan Michael-Key-Key & Peele, Keanu, Toy Story 4) into humans and now Drac and Johnny must venture to South America in search of a magic crystal that can reverse the rays before Johnny becomes a mindless monster forever. 

            The film also features the voices of Kathryn Hahn (Step Brothers, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, WandaVision) reprising her role from Hotel Transylvania 3 as Dracula’s new wife, Ericka Van Helsing, Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Other People) reprising her role as Wayne’s wife, Wanda, Fran Drescher (Saturday Night Fever, This is Spinal Tap, Cadillac Man) reprising her role as Frankenstein’s wife, Eunice, Asher Blinkoff reprising his role as Mavis and Johnny’s son, Dennis, and the director of the first three films, Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars) as Blobby. 

            Overall, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is…fine but unnecessary. It just feels like we’ve been here before, Dracula’s still got a bit of a prejudice with humans (Didn’t we see that already in the first two films?), Johnny being a bumbling idiot who has a good heart, bouncy animation with a lot of silly character walks for the kiddies, and the writers desperately trying to come up with new ideas.  

            Hotel Transylvania 3 is somewhat inferior to the first two, but at least it had more of a reason to exist, Dracula zinged with another woman and lives a happy, married life again. This one is more about acceptance and the importance of family which would have been fine if it wasn’t already explored in the first two films…and explored better in them as well. 

            Aside from the Dracula retiring and giving the hotel to Mavis and Johnny plot, there isn’t much here that expands the Hotel Transylvania story further. If anything, the retirement plot could have been worked into the ending of Hotel Transylvania 3 just fine, it is the movie where Dracula gets a new wife after his original one died tragically prior to the first film’s events so maybe they could have had Mavis and Johnny become the new owners after Drac and Ericka get married instead of wasting an entire movie to establish that. 

            With that said, the animation is still very good, the characters are very likable, some of the jokes got a good laugh out of me, and the heartfelt moments are very effective. Had the film been better plotted, paced, and allowed more time for the side characters to shine, I think this could have been a great conclusion to the Hotel Transylvaniafranchise, but as is, it’s decent enough and the kids will probably enjoy it. 

            If you’re a fan of the earlier films and want to see how the story ends or if you got little kids who really want to see it, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is a mostly harmless and at times funny and heartfelt diversion. Personally, I’ll stick with the first two movies as they had a much stronger balance between energetic animation, silly humor, and heart.