The impressive commercial balance of the animated debut about Count Dracula as a capable manager of an unusual hotel, has been rounded up to some $ 350,000,000. There is no doubt that the motive for good earnings was initiated by filmmakers from the renowned Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation (in charge of technical support), to produce a new chapter on the adventures of monster figures. Almost the same team was gathered, led by director Genndy Tartakovsky. The authors of the new story are Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler. Significant funds, $ 80,000,000, have been invested in the production this time as well.
Hotel Transylvania has now become a fancy place open to people. There is a harmonious harmony in this tourist paradise, because the former sworn enemies have a good time, chat casually, make acquaintances. Instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, Count Dracula (voice of Adam Sendler) is preoccupied with his sweet grandson Denis (voice of Escher Blinkoff). From a human father and a vampire mother, little Denis grew up under the watchful eye of a famous grandfather.
However, year after year passes, and since even after the fifth year, the grandson does not show that he possesses vampire powers, the grandfather’s great expectations come into question. Dracula’s anxiety reaches the level of panic, mixed with a bitter feeling of disappointment. Everything changes when he knocks on the hotel door, with his head and beard, Dracula’s wicked father and the nightmare of the human race, vampire Vlad (voice of Mel Brooks) (
Let me immediately emphasize how I had high hopes for this sequel. The only question was in which direction the story would develop further. Bearing in mind that all the important characters have been reunited (of course with a couple of obligatory ‘refreshments’), the assumption was that everything would turn out on a qualitative level, even if close to the first one. Well, it’s not, even more so, this is far, far worse. Which is to say, like heaven and earth. The initial idea of creating a narrative intended exclusively for the younger generation (and not older than preschool age), initially set this long-awaited sequel in a state of visual handicap.
Innocent humor, devoid of any witty dialogues, with a couple of clichéd lines and shabby childish jokes, hardly manages to maintain attention for less than an hour and a half. In the gallery of monstrous figures, Dracula stood out the most as a lonely character in a desperate attempt to connect the threads of the plot, which disintegrated after the introductory part. Packed in sweet packaging, thanks to the highly professional work of the brilliant technical team from Sony’s workshop, this animation has retained a well-known visual identity. Unfortunately, only that and nothing more.
The synchronization of voices has been delayed, because it is enough to hear Adam Sandler’s aggressive moaning and Selena Gomez’s squeaky hysteria, so everything will be clear to you. I would not dwell on the technical details, for the simple reason that the narrative had to be the backbone and a kind of generator of well-designed humor, a fluid around which positive energy spreads, and finally a benchmark to win the audience’s affection. This is where the biggest mistake was made. I don’t know if Adam Sendler, as one of the co-writers, is the main culprit, but I’m sure that the screenplay was totally sloppy. The greed for quick earnings seemed to cloud the minds of the entire film crew.
Hotel Transylvania 2 turned out to be another bad sequel, an animated product that can realistically meet the modest expectations of only the youngest. Children are the profile of the audience who need to be accompanied by their parents when they go to the cinema, and that is another or maybe two sold tickets. The sacrifice of the parents here comes down to mere annoyance, limited in time to the duration of this completely unnecessary continuation of the franchise. The option to go to ‘direct to video’ would undoubtedly be more appropriate, because children at home could watch it carefree, and thus their parents would be spared (free time of some 89 minutes).
In the end, it remains for me to send a friendly warning to all fans of animated film, older than 7-8 years, to think carefully before they decide to embark on new adventures of cute animated monsters.
