Hotel Transylvania is the latest series to become a casualty of the law of diminishing returns. Despite not belonging to the pantheon of Pixar or Dreamworks wonders, the franchise managed to stay in a chuckle-worthy place with two consecutive films. But the third instalment of the series is showing signs of familiarity that might breed contempt.
But breathe easy, cynics. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation is also a film that shows how old jokes can work if you’re familiar with the characters.
This film earnestly believes that you will employ your suspension of disbelief while watching it. That’s why a giant dog gets mistaken for a character for an entire film before the full blown climax, only because he’s wearing a tiny hat. It’s a hat tip to the animation of yore when we were kids and laughter didn’t have to wrestle with our gnawing mistrust.
Adam Sandler’s Count Dracula continues to be the protagonist with much to fight for. First, he had to battle the idea of accepting a human match for his daughter, then he had to come to terms with the fact of his grandson not being a vampire, and now in the third offering, he is lonely and looking for a match. He even tries a ghost version of Tinder. His daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) thinks he is overworked running his secret resort for hosting merry-making monsters, and plans a cruise vacation for the entire family. Of course, Dracula’s band of monsters comes along too.
Dracula finds his ‘zing’, a romantic connection with ship’s captain Ericka (voiced by Kathryn Hahn). But there’s a problem. He doesn’t know that Ericka is the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing (voiced by Jim Gaffigan), his nemesis who wants to wipe him out from the face of the universe.
Director Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack) employs all the slapstick guns to make the plot busier than the previous installments, and the laughs, though not surprising , are aplenty. The animation is colourful, bursting with movement, and the resulting visual gags are so detailed that the dialogues at times feel almost unnecessary.
Hotel Transylvania 3 might be stretching the family angle for a bit much, but it still carries the placard of tolerance by advocating monster-human connection. This is a film that climaxes with a DJ battle, and the entire bunch twerking for family viewing. You can’t help but smile when “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and “La Macarena” are used as weapons in a fight.
In the end, it might not be as rewarding as the previous two films, but it has still got its heart in the right place.
(The writer is a journalist, a screenwriter, and a content developer who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. He tweets @RanjibMazumder).
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