Hotel Transylvania 2 is an American 3D computer animated comic fantasy movie. It was released in the United States on September 21, 2015. It is a sequel to the 2012 film Hotel Transylvania. The screenplay for Hotel Transylvania 2 was written by Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler. The film was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. It features the voices of Adam Sandler as Dracula, Selena Gomez as Dracula's daughter Mavis, Andy Samberg as Mavis' human husband Jonathan, Asher Blinkoff as Mavis' and Jonathan's son Dennis and Mel Brooks as Dracula's father Vlad.
The plot centers around Dracula's grandson Dennis, the son of Dracula's daughter Mavis and her human husband Jonathan. Mavis believes that Dennis is completely human. She thinks that it would be better for her son if the family left Transylvania to bring Dennis up in Jonathan's home town in California. Dracula is certain that Dennis' true vampire nature can be brought out with some coaxing. Jonathan, who does not want to leave Transylvania, is happy to let his father-in-law try to make a vampire of the boy.
Hotel Transylvania 2 was a box office success. Having been made on a budget of $40 million, it earned $170 million at movie theaters in North America and a further $300 million in the rest of the world. The film received mixed reviews. It has a 54% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Selena Gomez won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie Voice for her performance as Mavis in the film. Hotel Transylvania 2 won the 2016 Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie. The song from the film's soundtrack "I'm in Love with a Monster", performed by the girl band Fifth Harmony, won the 2016 teen Choice Award for Choice Music Song from a Movie or TV Show.
Hotel Transylvania 2 was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for some scary images, action scenes and rude humor.
A sequel, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, was released in the United States on July 13, 2018.
Plot[]
In the previous film, after his wife is killed by humans and he is left to raise his daughter Mavis on his own, Dracula builds a resort in Transylvania where monsters can be safe and where humans are not allowed to set foot. Frequent guests at the Hotel Transylvania include Frankenstein, Griffin the Invisible Man, Murray the Mummy and Wayne the Werewolf. Dracula and Mavis live in seclusion there for over a century. Everything changes when a human, an American backpacker named Jonathan Loughram, arrives at the hotel. He and Mavis fall in love. When Dracula finally leaves the confines of the hotel, he finds that humans no longer hate or fear monsters. In fact, thanks to horror movies, people now love monsters. Hotel Transylvania 2 takes place in a world where people have found out about the existence of monsters. The Hotel Transylvania now accepts human guests. People and monsters are starting to live together and there are even some human-monster mixed marriages.
Hotel Transylvania 2 opens with the wedding of Mavis and Jonathan. It is attended by Jonathan's human family as well as by Mavis and Dracula's monster friends. Notably absent from the wedding is Vlad,[1] Dracula's father and Mavis' grandfather. Dracula explains that he did not invite Vlad. He says that Vlad is too old-fashioned, his hatred for humans is too ingrained and he would never accept his granddaughter marrying a human man.
When Mavis becomes pregnant, she is unsure if her child will be human or a vampire. Dracula claims that he does not mind either way. When Mavis and Jonathan's son Dennis is born, he appears to be completely human. Dracula, however, insists that the boy is a vampire. At Dennis' first birthday party, Jonathan's mother Linda points out to Dracula that Dennis does not have any fangs. It is explained to Linda that vampire children sometimes do not get their fangs until they are 5-years old.
As Dennis' fifth birthday approaches, he still has not got his fangs and still has not taken on any of the other characteristics of a vampire. Dracula tries to encourage the boy to transform into a bat. Dennis, however, is happy just to pretend to be a bat without changing into one. Mavis tries to give Dennis a normal human upbringing. Although he has spent all of his life at the Hotel Transylvania and enjoys playing with the werewolf pups of Wayne and his wife Wanda, their daughter Winnie the Werewolf becomes Dennis' best friend, Dennis' favorite monster is Kakie the Cake Monster, a pink Cookie Monster-like TV puppet.
Mavis thinks that the Hotel Transylvania may not be a suitable place for Dennis to grow up. She considers moving to Jonathan's home town in California. She decides to visit the town with Jonathan, leaving Dennis in the care of Dracula, to see if it is a suitable environment for her son and herself. Dracula decides to take advantage of Mavis' absence and try to get Dennis' true vampire nature to come out. Jonathan, who is happier than he has ever been in his life at the Hotel Transylvania and does not want to leave, wants to help his father-in-law. He agrees to keep Mavis distracted in California to keep her from calling Dracula on his cell phone.
At first, Mavis is very impressed by what she sees in California, although the attempts of Jonathan's mother Linda to make Mavis feel welcome backfire. Mavis cannot understand why Linda has decorated her bedroom with jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween decorations. She fears that Jonathan's family and the local community may see her as a freak.
As soon as Mavis and Jonathan leave, Dracula sets about trying to teach Dennis how to become a real monster. Dracula enlists the help of Frankenstein, Wayne the Werewolf, Griffin the Invisible Man and Murray the Mummy. They set off in a hearse-like car. Blobby, a green gelatinous blob monster,[2] sits on a scooter that is attached to the car before he gets separated from the group. Dennis is first taken to the Dark Forest to see Frankenstein scare some people. The Dark Forest has been turned into a park. When Frankenstein tries to scare two young women, they are instead excited to meet him and want to have their photo taken with him. Dracula tells Wayne the Werewolf to kill a deer. Wayne leaves the deer unharmed, preferring to catch and then keep hold of a frisbee. Murray the Mummy is told to cast a curse that will create a sandstorm. Murray puts his back out while doing the dance needed to cast the curse, causing a small pile of sand to fall to the ground.
The group then go to a vampire summer camp which Dracula attended when he was a boy. Dracula is disappointed to see that the camp has changed a lot. The tall tower, which Dracula was thrown off when he first learned to fly, is now off limits. Dracula, the other monsters and Dennis go up the rickety old tower anyway. Dracula throws Dennis off the top of the tower. When Dracula finally realizes that Dennis is not going to change into a bat and fly, Dracula flies down to rescue the boy. The little vampire campers film this on their cell phones and upload the video to the internet. The tower collapses. Most of the camp is destroyed, as is Dracula's hearse-like car. Blobby is called on his cell phone. Dennis, Dracula and the other monsters slowly make their way back to the hotel on Blobby's scooter.
When Mavis sees the internet video of her son falling from a tower, she decides to go back to Transylvania at once. Unable to get a flight at the airport, she changes into a bat and carries Jonathan back with her. Mavis arrives back at the Hotel Transylvania just before Dracula and the others. She is very angry with her father for putting Dennis' life in danger and for failing to accept that his grandson is human. She announces that, after Dennis' upcoming fifth birthday, she will be moving away with Dennis and Jonathan.
Jonathan's mother and father and the rest of his family come to Transylvania for Dennis' birthday party. Mavis invites Vlad, her grandfather and Dracula's father, to the birthday party too. When Dracula finds out that Vlad is coming, he says that Dennis' birthday party will be a costume party. This is because Dracula wants to keep Jonathan and his family safe from the human-hating Vlad. Jonathan wears a vampire costume (based on the Old Dracula character from Francis Ford Coppola's 1990 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula), Jonathan's parents wear zombie costumes and Dennis dresses as Batman, his favorite superhero. Vlad arrives with Bela,[3] one of the many enormous bat-like monsters that live with him in a cave. Bela claims that he can smell humans. Vlad decides to leave the agitated Bela outside and go into the hotel on his own.
Vlad is fooled by the costumes and does not suspect that Jonathan and his family are human. He sees that Dennis does not have any fangs. Vlad says that Dracula also got his fangs late and that they had to be scared out of him. According to Vlad, the best way to do this is to take something harmless and innocuous and change it into something frightening. He tries to frighten Dennis by using magic to turn a performer playing the part of Kakie the Cake Monster into a terrifying beat. Dracula puts a stop to this. He tells Vlad the truth about Dennis' human origins. Vlad is shocked. Dracula tries to explain that humans do not hate or fear monsters anymore.
While his family are arguing, Dennis walks out. Winnie the Werewolf follows him. They have a tea party in Winnie's treehouse. Bela, having detected the presence of a human, tears into the treehouse. He injures Winnie and threatens to destroy the hotel. Dennis is so scared that his fear makes his fangs come out. He suddenly gains full vampire powers and begins fighting against Bela. More bat-like monsters come to Bela's aid. Jonathan and his family, Mavis, Dracula and their monster friends fight against the bat-like creatures and defeat them. Bela returns and threatens to kill Jonathan with a stake. Vlad uses magic to shrink Bela down to a harmless size. The old vampire tells Bela never to go near him or his family again.
Much to the relief of Dracula and Jonathan, Mavis agrees that, now that Dennis has become a vampire, the Hotel Transylvania is the best place for him. Dennis' birthday celebrations continue. The humans and monsters dance together.
Voice cast[]
- Adam Sandler - Dracula
- Selena Gomez - Mavis, Dracula's daughter
- Andy Samberg - Jonathan Loughram, Mavis' human husband
- Asher Blinkoff - Dennis, the son of Mavis and Jonathan
- Megan Mullally - Linda Loughram, Jonathan's mother
- Nick Offerman - Mike Loughram, Jonathan's father
- Kevin James - Frankenstein
- Fran Drescher - Eunice, Frankenstein's wife
- David Spade - Griffin the Invisible Man
- Keegan-Michael Key - Murray the Mummy
- Johnny Solomon - Blobby
- Steve Buscemi - Wayne the Werewolf
- Molly Shannon - Wanda the Werewolf, Wayne's wife
- Sadie Sandler - Winnie the Werewolf, Wayne and Wanda's daughter and Dennis' best friend
- Mel Brooks - Vlad, Dracula's father
- Rob Riggle - Bela, Vlad's bat-like servant
- Jon Lovitz - the Phantom of the Opera
Footnotes[]
- ↑ The name Vlad is a reference to Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431 - 1476 or 1477), also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Tepes and Vlad Dracula, the historical figure upon whom Bram Stoker's Dracula was based.
- ↑ Blobby appears unnamed in the previous film in a more minor role.
- ↑ The name Bela is a reference to Bela Lugosi (October 20, 1882 - August 16, 1956) the Hungarian-American actor who played the title role in the 1931 film Dracula and appeared in numerous horror movies.
External links[]
- Hotel Transylvania 2 on the Internet Movie Database.
- Hotel Transylvania 2 on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Hotel Transylvania on AllMovie.
- Quotations from Hotel Transylvania 2 on Wikiquote.