Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

7/10

Starring the voices of

Adam Sandler

Andy Samberg

Selena Gomez

Kevin James

David Spade

Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky

Adam Sandler’s good streak at the box office and in movie-making in general might never end, because he is making money when his face is on screen and when only his voice is what we hear from the screen. Hotel Transylvania (2012) wasn’t as great as it was meant to be, but this sequel is awesome. After a friend treated me to see it, I was totally surprised by how much I laughed—and even after the movie ended, I was still chuckling as I recalled the scenes. I knew right away this movie was a keeper.

Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, who also helmed the first film, Hotel Transylvania 2 was written by Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler (who wasn’t involved in writing the previous installment).

The movie picks up where the first one left off, with humans becoming more comfortable living among monsters—and even entering relationships with them. Our lead, Dracula (Adam Sandler), isn’t thrilled with this sudden change, especially since his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), has married a human. Things aren’t going the way Drac had hoped.

But everything changes when Mavis and Johnny get married and Mavis becomes pregnant with their first child. Drac is hoping for a vampire grandchild, though he claims he’ll love the baby even if it’s human. When baby Dennis (or “Dennisavitch,” as Drac calls his grandson) is born, Drac eagerly waits for the child to grow fangs, knowing that if they don’t appear by Dennis’s fifth birthday, he’ll remain human.

The fear of Dennis not being a vampire, combined with Mavis’s plan to raise him in the human world, pushes Drac to come up with a desperate plan: scare Dennis’s fangs out. He takes his grandson on a road trip with his buddies—Frankenstein, Wayne the Werewolf, Griffin the Invisible Man, and Murray the Mummy—to show Dennis the fun of being a monster and, hopefully, scare those fangs into existence.

I was especially excited to hear the voice of comedy legend Mel Brooks as Drac’s father, Vlad.

This movie is far, far better than the first, and judging by its box office success (over $430 million on an $80 million budget), Hotel Transylvania 2 is more financially successful than its predecessor. So I can guarantee that the studios are looking at the figures and the critical reviews and think, “Hmm! The audience will want more.” So, brace yourself for a third part, because I’m already looking forward to it.