As a film writer, I’d never thought that The Forever Purge and Hotel Transylvania: Transformania would share space in the same sentence. But those two films share something in common. Both found filmmakers and producers behind them decide that this latest go-around with this premise will be the last and both produced movies that essentially blew up what the film franchise had started when it commenced.
Hotel Transylvania first hit screens back in 2012 and produced two sequels in 2015 and 2018. It followed Adam Sandler’s voiced/created Dracula who decides to build a luxury (and monstrous) hotel where those who… let’s just say may have to walk outside solely at night… can just let their hair down and relax and not always have to be on the defensive. His daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez), who he has raised solo after mom was killed by an angry Dark Ages mob, is his everything and is exactly why he built the hotel in the first place. It was, in his mind, the only way to keep his daughter safe. Then, Johnny (Andy Samberg), waltzed into the hotel and the Transylvania world hasn’t been the same since.
In the case of Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, filmmakers took the very thing that made the series, that this is a hotel for monsters, and turned all the monsters into humans and the one human (Johnny) into a monster… thus the film’s moniker. It’s all thanks to that pesky monster hunter-turned-friend of the Drac Pack, the Jim Gaffigan voiced Van Helsing. He invented the “Monsterification Ray” and while Johnny is trying to fit in more with his in-laws and pals, he is convinced the best way to do that is to use the Van Helsing invention and become a monster himself. The only thing, the “Ray-gun” goes bananas and turns everyone into their opposite. To yes, hilarious results.
Samberg’s Johnny turns into a dragon-like creature, which of course knowing that character, he just adores. But what the Monsterification does to the gang is make them… human. Drac loses his iconic fangs, and so too does Mavis, while Brad Abrell’s Frankenstein, aka Frank, becomes beyond dashing, and to say he adores the alteration is an understatement. Also hilarious is Wayne (Steve Buscemi), who goes from a werewolf to a simply hairy human.
It’s fantastic and wildly creative to turn the monsters into their human form, and for us, the viewer—after three previous installments—to finally see what they were looking like before their own fateful transformation. The thing is, this has become a race against the clock because these changes will be permanent if a cure is not found before a certain amount of time.
After three films that saw this world created, challenged by outsiders (i.e., the humans—relatives of Johnny’s) and then taken out to see on a monster cruise in the third flick, what a fresh idea for what to do with the fourth film. Also, credit to all those involved for taking what made this world work, monsters needing a hotel to get away from it all, and then having those same souls cease to be monsters anymore. It’s a fun ride that doesn’t feel like the other movies in the series and thus, could easily stand on its own… rule number one for any sequel or follow-up.
They have also upped the ante, something that is also required of a follow-up or sequel. What a way to go out on such a high note and wickedly fun means for pulling the curtain down on the Transylvania franchise. Creator Genndy Tartakovsky may not have directed this fourth film in the series he started— Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska took over the directing duties—but he did co-write the script with Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo. Therefore, his handprints are all over this thing.
Although Adam Sandler and Kevin James did not return to reprise their roles as Drac and Frank, the voice cast is still sublime with Samberg, Gomez, Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Fran Drescher, and Kathryn Hahn bringing their A-game for one last adventure of the Drac Pack.
Film Grade: B+