Hotel Transylvania 2

 HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2

Title--  Hotel Transylvania 2

Release Year--  2015

Running Time--  1 Hour and 29 Minutes

Director--  Genndy Tartakovsky

Cast--  Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Asher Blinkoff, David Spade, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Keegan-Michael Key, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Dana Carvey, Rob Riggle, Mel Brooks, Jonny Solomon

Set 7 years after the first, Mavis and Dennis have a baby and when he shows no signs of being a monster, Mavis begins to consider raising her child among humans, much to her father’s dismay.

A year after the conclusion of the first film, vampire Mavis (Selena Gomez) is marrying her human fiancée Johnny (Andy Samberg), with the approval of Mavis’ father Dracula (Adam Sandler).  With Johnny’s help, Drac has introduced the world to monsters and has integrated the hotel to accommodate both human and monster clients.  Mavis soon reveals to Drac that she is pregnant and nine months later she gives birth to Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) who is the spitting image of his father Johnny.  Drac falls in love with his grandson and begins baby proofing the hotel in order to keep the child safe.

Drac has faith that his grandson will become a powerful vampire due to his bloodline but as Dennis’ fifth birthday approaches, he knows that the window for his fangs to appear are quickly fading.  Mavis, also realizing that Dennis may not gain vampire powers, begins to see how dangerous the monster world is for humans and begins to consider raising Dennis where Johnny was raised.  Drac disapproves of this, not wanting his daughter to take his grandson away and approaches Johnny with a plan to keep Mavis at the hotel after learning that Johnny also has no interest in leaving the hotel.

Johnny takes Mavis to California with the intention of making her not want to move while Drac babysits Dennis at the hotel.  However, instead of staying at the hotel, Drac devises a plan to train Dennis to be a monster with the help of his friends Wayne the wolfman (Steve Buscemi), Murray the mummy (Keegan-Michael Key), Griffin the invisible man (David Spade), Frankenstein (Kevin James) and Blobby the blob (Jonny Solomon).

After a series of events that causes Mavis to return home angrier and more resolute to move away than ever and Dennis not gaining monster powers, Mavis decides to have one last party at the hotel for Dennis.  She plans his fifth birthday party and she invites her grandfather Vlad (Mel Brooks) who hates humans to the party to meet her son.  In an attempt to keep the humans a secret from Vlad, Drac dresses Johnny and his family as monsters to hide and protect them from Vlad’s impending wrath.

The second film in this franchise did not disappoint.  It is everything you would expect, especially after watching the first film.  We have the same cast (with the exception of Keegan-Michael Key stepping in as Murray in this film, replacing CeeLo Green from the first film) which makes for a very familiar feel going into the film.  Knowing that this is just a continuation set linearly behind the first film helps it flow into the story, almost as if we had never left it to begin with.  

There were a few times that the story got a little tedious but I think that sometimes that needs to happen a little to get the story from one plot point to the next.

Overall, it was a really good film.  Not better than the first but perhaps just a step below.  It’s a good film to get together with your little monsters and watch but Don’t Forget the Popcorn!