It’s that time of the year again where everyone from ages 5-20 (and teachers) emerge from their school playgrounds after another year of learning and tomfoolery to enjoy their six weeks of winding down holidays. For parents of the younger generations, the summer months mean finding things to occupy their minds in-between trips to the seaside or zoo and with this summer slowly becoming one of the hottest on record, a nice few hours in a lovely air-conditioned cinema might be just the ticket. And, with a timely release, the groovy ghoulies of Hotel Transylvania may provide such an antidote.
This time, our favourite group of monsters are in need of a well-deserved vacation from the day-to-day madness of running the hotel and a once-in-a-lifetime holiday presents itself, promising a cruise to the furthest reaches of the monsters kingdom’s history. Once onboard, Dracula soon finds himself falling for the ship’s bubbly captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), herself strangely fascinated with the ancient vampire. However, hot on their trails is the last remaining Van Helsing, Abraham (Jim Gaffigan), who is desperate to bring the monster community to a swift and painful end, by whatever means necessary.
Perhaps the craziest thing about the Hotel Transylvania franchise thus far is that they feature both a good performance from Adam Sandler and a film starring said actor that didn’t want to make you gouge your eyes out with whatever nonsense was unravelling on-screen. Part three provides more evidence of this and has found the perfect way to put the comedian’s childish antics and “silly voice” to good use as Dracula and, as with the previous installments, he revels in being let loose. While adults may still find things to annoy (for a quick remedy, check out his stellar turn in last year’s superb The Meyerowitz Stories), there’s plenty to enjoy. Indeed the same sentiment extends to other similarly irritating performers as David Spade and Kevin James, whilst the freshness brought by the always wonderful Kathryn Hahn is most welcome.
As for the film itself it’s somewhat of a mixed bag when all’s said and done. Keeping the series’ trademark colour and energy, director Genndy Tartakovsky does his best to keep proceedings snappy and while there is a decent array of action to keep young minds entertained, the humour is sorely lacking compared to the two previous efforts. That said, there’s some nice touches with the narrative tackling such prevalant subjects as race (humans and monsters are reallt all the same), the whole endeavour doesn’t quite hit the same heights as before, seemingly peaking with the brilliant sequel.
There’s plenty to enjoy here for those of a younger persuasion and its endless energy and rainbow-like pallette will keep them entertained (add one star for anyone of said age group) but for anyone else this one might feel like one too many, almost trying too hard to keep the franchise going as long as possible. Decent fun in places, then, but not much to write home about.
Scott J.Davis | [rating=2]
animation, family | USA, 2018 | U| 27th July 2018 (UK) | Sony Pictures Releasing | Dir. Genndy Tartakovsky | Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Adam Sandler, Mel Brooks, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan,
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