One of my most viewed posts on this blog compares Hotel Transylvania and its two rivals at the time. In the present review, I'm not inclined to compare HT2 to anything besides HT1, but feel free to skim the old post before continuing.
The sequel begins with the wedding of Dracula's daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) to human Jonathan (Andy Samberg), in the formerly all-monster hotel that has grown friendly to humans. In a matter of minutes on screen, they have a son about to turn five (funny I should watch this right after Room) named Dennis, or "Dennisovich" as Dracula likes to call him. It turns out that "Papa Drac" (Adam Sandler) has not entirely gotten over his bias against humans: He won't entertain the likelihood that his progeny doesn't take after him in powers. As a result, the formerly overprotective father has become an underprotective grandfather, dangerously hoping to summon Dennis's latent potential. Dennis and Jonathan may be easygoing about this fixation, but Mavis will move them away from the hotel if it seems necessary.
Many of the hotel guests/residents from HT1 figure no less prominently this time around. The pyrophobic Frankenstein's Monster (Kevin James), Wayne the beleaguered werewolf father (Steve Buscemi), the untrustworthy Invisible Man (David Spade), Murray the rotund mummy (Keegan-Michael Key), and the speechless Blob join Drac and Dennis on a road trip. Dennis has a somewhat typical preschool semi-romance with Winnie, the most competent werewolf child. (Note that werewolves in this movie are constant anthropomorphic wolves with a few strong canine instincts.) Also in the voice cast are Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Nick Offerman, and Dana Carvey. I haven't tallied the SNL alumni.
You may have seen ads featuring Dracula's dad Vlad (Mel Brooks!), who vaguely resembles Count Orlok from Nosferatu. He actually doesn't appear until the third act, when he outdoes his son in traditional bias. But he's not as antagonistic as his compatriots, who sport a more batlike appearance all the time....
I notice that nobody ever considers the possibility of turning a human into a vampire, werewolf, or zombie. Doing so would have avoided some key issues. Maybe in a world where monsters have become mostly harmless, it simply isn't a premise. Vampires have diverse magic, but that doesn't mean they could arrange a permanent change of...race, for want of a better word.
My main hangup about the pretty good HT1 was the naughtiness: Sometimes it's too bathroom for mature adults, and sometimes it's too bedroom for their comfort in letting kids watch alone. Thankfully, despite Dennis's age, both aspects have been toned down to the point that I didn't feel embarrassed to be watching HT2.
And lest you think that that detracts from the humor overall, I assure you that I smiled quite a bit. There's something satisfying about Drac's creeping realization that today's monsters aren't very monsterish (I was going to say "monstrous," but that usually implies size) and he hasn't kept up with the times on multiple counts. You may also derive satisfaction from the humans, including in-laws, doing their best to tolerate the ways in which even good monsters remain...different.
Perhaps my appreciation stems in part from being half-Jewish. My grandparents weren't crazy about my parents' mixed marriage at first. I suspect that the Jewish writers, Sandler and Robert Smigel, had such a parable in mind. There is at least one Jewish joke with "monster ball soup" (not that kind, I assure you; the balls are monsters themselves).
If there is a new weakness, it's in the moral. I had complained earlier that HT said more to parents than to kids, but at least it didn't undermine the message. This time...well, I won't say exactly what happens, but Dracula was only partly wrong. It doesn't nullify the lesson; it just weakens the consequences, thereby doing less to drive the point home. On the plus side, we have a nice setup for a threequel, however optional.
HT2 has a somewhat lower rating on IMDb and a higher, if still less than fresh, rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But in my opinion, it's everything a sequel ought to be. It follows sensibly from its predecessor, neither retreading too much nor changing too much. It weeds out some of the worse parts from before. It introduces new characters without shafting the likable old ones. And it's no less funny or cute.
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