WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Sony's Hotel Transylvania 3, in theaters now.
Hotel Transylvania is in many ways Sony Pictures Animation's response to the Disney/Pixar properties that dominate the same market. The success of the first two features spawned video games, a television series, a pair of short films and, now, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.
Directed once more by Genndy Tartakovsky, the sequel continues the lighthearted depiction of Hollywood's famous monsters attempting to live alongside humans, while sticking to the core theme of family. The 2012 original focused on the relationship between a father and daughter as she comes of age, while the 2015 follow-up embraced parenthood. Now Summer Vacation deals with adult romance.
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However, while the story raises the stakes, it still maintains a family-friendly essence, and feels like the most inclusive and best chapter of the series to date.
Summer Vacation reiterates how much more life is left in the franchise, because it opens up a lot of possibilities, while remaining loyal to the characters and overarching narratives. The difference here is that the third film brings things back to the central character, Dracula (Adam Sandler), who's by far the most interesting. The first Hotel Transylvania smartly played up Dracula's fear of the growing love between his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and the human Johnny (Andy Samberg), but the sequel, as good as it was, shifted to them as a married couple concerned about their young son Dennis (Asher Blinkoff), a vampire-human hybrid.
Unfortunately, Sandler's Dracula, who had the best lines and most hilarious moments in both of those movies, felt like a supporting character. But in Summer Vacation, it's all about him again. After basically becoming a workaholic running his hotel, his family drags him on a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle, where he finds love again, or as he calls it, "zings," something he thought he'd never do after losing Mavis' mother decades ago. It's a warm story of him finding another soul mate, and speaks to adults as it shows there can be love, and life, after a loss. Apart from this deep and highly emotive arc, we also see how Mavis reacts jealously while everyone else tries to tell her that Dracula deserves some form of happiness.
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The first two movies were a little more straightforward, but Tartakovsky adds some complexities here with a key twist: The person Dracula "zings" with is Ericka Van Helsing (Kathryn Hahn), the granddaughter of the monster hunter who's been trying to kill them for centuries. We get a forbidden romance as Ericka realizes there's more to this monster than she first thought, and of course, it's up to both families to understand that no matter what, love must triumph.
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There are way more "feels" this time around, but in addition to the substance, we get more style as well. The action sequences are far more bombastic, the animation is even better, and the jokes are funnier. The latter is perhaps unsurprising, given the cast includes Kevin James as Frankenstein, David Spade as Griffin, the Invisible Man, Steve Buscemi as Wayne the werewolf, and Keegan-Michael Key as Murray, a mummy. They basically act as Dracula's wingmen, covering for him as he pursues his romantic endeavors.
The wholesomeness of Summer Vacation is capped off by the kids getting the own mini-narrative. Dennis and Winnie the werewolf (Wayne's daughter, played by Sadie Sandler) sneak their puppy, Tinkles, aboard the cruise ship, which leads to a few laugh-out-loud moments with them trying to disguise the pooch as a creature named Bob, who ironically helps uncover the Van Helsing plot to eradicate all monsters. It balances things out, servicing a younger audience, which wants silly, animated fun, and who may not have grasped the mature beats of the story.
Ultimately, Tartakovsky makes a smart move pulling the narrative back to Dracula, because Sandler's chemistry with the cast, and his ability to lead the film with his comical accent, feel like something the previous movies sorely lacked. And with Summer Vacation setting up a fourth film by Dracula proposing to Ericka and mending fences with the Van Helsing family, expect more of the head vampire in the limelight.
Whether it's dealing with the dramatics of the wedding itself or jumping forward to Dracula having babies of his own with Ericka, the Hotel Transylvania family is poised to grow even bigger with a lot more hands needed on deck to keep the ship running.
Directed by returning filmmaker Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation stars returning cast members Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher, and Mel Brooks.