THE Hotel Transylvania series has so far sailed along without the highbrow burden of trying to top the likes of Pixar’s oeuvre in terms of emotional engagement or originality of plot. Indeed the entire concept is a cartoon bundling together of familiar horror icons.
The latest instalment doesn’t do much that’s unexpected, unless you count bizarrely dragging the gang of monsters, led by Count Dracula (Adam Sandler), on a cruise. The idea is cooked up by Mavis (Selena Gomez), Dracula’s spirited daughter who wants to assuage her father’s loneliness and self-afflicted sense of obligation to the other monsters built up over centuries of being cooped in the titular hotel.
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When they arrive on the cruise ship they meet the exuberant Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn) who welcomes them aboard the world’s first ever monster cruise vacation. However, the ragtag group is unaware that the boat is under the control of a certain legendary, monster-hating family.
This diverting sequel delivers exactly what’s expected of it – zany slapstick, fast-paced plotting and a brightly coloured animation style that catches your eye. In that respect it’s perfectly serviceable family-friendly fare.
The first film dealt with Dracula as a single father trying his best to be there for his daughter; the second was him adjusting to being a grandfather as his daughter has a baby of her own and gets married to human Johnny (Andy Samberg); and this time he’s trying to move on and find love of his own once more. Though not exactly what you would call emotionally taxing, it’s nice to see a kid-friendly series maintain worthwhile messages.
Once again there’s engaging voice work from the likes of Sandler, Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher (as married, parentally exhausted werewolf couple Wayne and Wanda) and Keegan-Michael Key (as Murray the Mummy), while the franchise’s regular director Genndy Tartakovsky injects some enjoyably anarchic and colourful set-pieces.
These help balance things out from a fairly generic plot which has the whiff of staleness you might expect from the third instalment in a franchise based on a relatively thin premise.
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The film is also far too reliant on music, with out-of-date tunes from two summers ago overwhelming the action rather than providing a fun backdrop, especially in the film’s fairly bewildering final act.
It’s lightweight stuff which somewhat lacking in bite by this point, if the franchise ever had any at all.
But for what it aims to be, there’s enough silly fun to be had in watching these monsters unwind.
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