2012's Hotel
Transylvania was kind of a surprise. Though it's still riddled with pop
cultural references, but its flavor wondrously resembles to the
director's cartoon shows in the 90's which brings visual and comedic
nostalgia, in the CG animated form (or it's basically just acknowledging
us that this type of animation still exists.) Revisiting the same gang
with the same people behind it can be welcoming, maybe a little
worrisome when it comes to plotting. The prediction can be somewhat
true; the craziness and heart remains, but the narrative is too busy,
even without much development, even compared to its predecessor. What
exceeds the expectation is the theme it handles is a lot interesting.
Overall, it brought enough nuttiness for the fans and brought enough
sweetness to everyone else.
While the first one was about
overcoming the monster's misanthropy, Hotel Transylvania 2 is about
trying to accept humans, even though Drac haven't fully let go of his
old nature. And the setup starts from Dracula's daughter, Mavis,
marrying a human, Jonathan, then transitioned to them having a baby. And
the main conflict here is their son not inheriting the vampire gene may
lead the couple to live in a normal human town. And just like what the
trailer shows, the movie mostly runs with Dracula pushing his grandson
to become a vampire, assuming that he may just be a late bloomer. And
these scenes don't exactly make a clever narrative, they are basically
just one gag to another, while we occasionally see the kid's parents
trying to fit in the human world. In spite of still being entertaining
and funny, the plot doesn't seem to actually move forward. It's like
it's just playing around until it decides to proceed or something. But
at times, it's sort of hinting something more heartfelt; like how Mavis
feels like she is being somewhat patronized in the human world or how
young Dennis is getting tired with Dracula's demands. And it's
surprisingly more engaging to watch, even though the gags are already
pretty fun.
It doesn't go deep, obviously, but it makes up a lot
after an almost extravagant extent of punchlines. The animation is still
crazy looking which brings distinct appeal within their unhinged facial
expressions, energetic movements and freely constructed action. Even
for jokes where the punchline is just being awkward (for no particular
reason,) it sort of perfectly fits with this type of visual. The humor
is best when it is spoken by the animation. The voice acting is still
delightful, with Adam Sandler still bringing the heart in Dracula. The
rest just gave these already lively animated characters more
personalities.
Hotel Transylvania 2 is pretty entertaining,
despite of not handling any subtle narrative, though I don't think many
would be asking for that, but I may be a good suggestion. Maybe the only
main disappointment is it's probably not as outrageous as its
predecessor. I mean it's not totally restrained, of course, you would
definitely still find a lot of crazy animation and wonderfully absurd
facial expressions here, but maybe not as insane as the first movie did.
I don't know, maybe it's just my expectations of witnessing more images
to delightfully laugh at like the scene where Jonny was trying to scare
a rat. And even the verbal humor where they were playing charades with
the Invisible Man. But again, it's just my expectations. It's still
pretty funny. The only worst thing you may find here are the blatant
Sony products and I don't exactly know how you can shrug that off.
Anyway, the movie still carries a much better message in the end, about
being treated fairly, no matter how different you are to others. It
shows it well and it seems pretty sincere. If you're not into this type
of absurd animation, then at least its final note could make everything
up to your viewing.
