Written by Shiggins
Unlike most critics, I find myself rather adoring the Hotel Transylvania series. I acknowledge that they aren't as deep as Pixar's masterpieces, or as hilarious as your favourite cartoon series on TV (which I assume is Rick & Morty) but the characters were charming and the animation by legendary cartoon director Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory) is absolutely top-notch. However, the newest entry in the series fallen under the same curse that Spider-Man, The Godfather and many other "thirds" in films usually do?
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| I am aware that America have a different sub-title. But ours is better. |
For those who aren't aware, the Hotel Transylvania series is focused on Count Dracula, the iconic vampire who decided to run a hotel devoted entirely to monsters. It's like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends had a baby with The Nightmare before Christmas. He's constantly stressed from work, trying to be a good father to his daughter Mavis, and dealing with the ridiculousness of his friends such as Frankenstein's Monster, Wayne the werewolf, Murray the mummy, Griffin the Invisible Man, and Mavis' husband Johnny the human.
In this film, Dracula is suffering from loneliness due to having nobody to share a relationship with ever since his wife passed away when Mavis was a baby. Mistaking his lonely nature for stress, Mavis surprises her father by taking him and the other residents of the hotel to a cruise ship for a big getaway holiday. Here, Dracula falls for a human named Ericka, but is unaware she is secretly the granddaughter of monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing, who wants to kill Dracula and all the other monsters on board.
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| Sadly, my reaction to meeting pretty women is more like Frank's than Dracula's. |
Once again, the previous cast members make a return. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and many other actors you either love or hate. Even if you aren't a fan of Adam Sandler's recent works, (and who could blame you), it's hard to not at least enjoy his over-the-top energy here. Funnily enough, these films have probably been the best things he's had a part in for years, with the exception of The Meyerowitz Stories. And Kathryn Hahn, best known for her work on Crossing Jordan, joins the cast as Ericka. She does a swell job too.
As expected of a film by Genndy Tartakovsky, the animation is absolutely phenomenal. It's bright, colourful and full of ridiculous expressions from the characters that the young and the old will enjoy. And since they've left the hotel to partake on a voyage, this allows for some great locations and unique spins on places we're all familiar with, including the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis. Something else to note is that visual gags are constantly on-screen, which is good because a lot of the other jokes sadly fall flat.
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| I think I preferred the Hugh Jackman version of this character. |
Despite the previous films managing to provide many immature but enjoyable moments of comedy, Monster Vacation really seems to struggle bringing out its smart jokes in a solid way. And the most disappointing factor in this is that some of these jokes sound hilarious. For example, the werewolf couple have tons of wild kids, but find themselves not needing to take care of them because of the cruise's daycare. At first, they go wild and are having great fun! However, this subplot never ends. It just stops. And even when it is going, nothing exciting or unique really happens.
Jokes like this crop up constantly, with plenty of potential yet no explosion worth checking out. Characters like Dracula's father Vlad, voiced by Comedy God Mel Brooks, is completely pointless here. As is Andy Samberg's Johnny, who only contributes to the story during the climax in a way that feels almost forced to make him relevant somehow.
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| The soundtrack to this film is... bizarre. So many strange choices. |
While it isn't funny, the film is at least charming enough because of the characters and their chemistry with each other. If you enjoyed the first two like I did, this will probably be enough to get you through the film with at least some satisfaction.
For kids and a casual observer, this film is perfectly adequate to chill with. If you want a far more engrossing and deep 2018 animated movie however, I would definitely recommend Incredibles 2 instead. Not an awful film, but could have been so much better.
On a side note, I find the amount of talks about blood-sucking to be very offensive. As a vampire myself, I... uh... I have said too much.
Movie Rating: 6.5/10
Best Performance: Adam Sandler as Count Dracula.
Best Part: Visual wonders by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Worst Part: Jokes not worthy of the concept.
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| Damn. That is one... Kraken smile! (I'm sorry). |
Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/
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