‘Hotel Transylvania 2’: Sweet, But With a Little Fang

Last updated on: September 24, 2015 at 4:39 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Hotel Transylvania 2’: Sweet, But With a Little Fang 2015-09-24T16:39:39-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This week, I headed over to Sony Studios in Culver City, California, for a screening (and monster cupcakes!) connected to the Friday, Sept. 25, release of the new animated film, “Hotel Transylvania 2.”

It’s a sequel to the 2012 “Hotel Transylvania,” in which Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) realizes that human slacker Jonathan (Andy Samberg) from Santa Cruz, California, has discovered the castle-turned-hotel he runs as a hideaway for monsters seeking to escape the human world. And worse yet, Jonathan and Dracula’s daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), have a “Zing.”

The new movie — co-written by Sandler — picks up with the nuptials of Jonathan and Mavis, and the subsequent birth of their son, Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) — who has the most astonishing head of red curls ever seen in a movie, animated or otherwise (and even more astonishing because they are animated).

Doted on by everyone at the hotel — and by his visiting human grandparents, Mike (Nick Offerman) and Linda (Megan Mullally) — Dennis shows no vampire tendencies, which upsets his fanged grandfather. As his fifth birthday approaches, which is supposedly the cutoff point for the development of fangs (unless you’re a “late-fanger”),
Mavis begins contemplating whether she should move her family to Jonathan’s hometown.

While Jonathan and Mavis explore the delights of Santa Cruz, babysitting Grandpa Drac decides to take Dennis and a group of monster pals, including Frankenstein’s monster (Kevin James) and Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi), on a road trip to famous monster haunts, in hope of causing Dennis’ latent fangs to sprout.

Among Christians, the notion of monsters and Halloween can be controversial, but the creatures of “Hotel Transylvania 2” are so de-fanged, as it were, that even when they try to be scary, it ends in comic failure. There is a moment at a vampire summer camp where a counselor, who’s the fussiest and most-PC vampire ever depicted, declares “Oh, my Devil!,” but that’s about as occult as it gets.

The reviewer in Variety noted a “persecuted-gay subtext,” but then, these days, everything questioning what is “normal” or hinting at some sort of a double life is interpreted as referring to gays — as if nobody else ever feels out of the ordinary or forced to hide an aspect of their personality. People just see what want to see.

If you want to pick on anything, you could start with the interspecies relationship between Dennis and Winnie (Sadie Sandler), Wayne’s pigtailed wolf-cub only daughter, which involves a lot of licking (on Winnie’s part). But since she also wears a dress and sips tea … well, hey, it’s a cartoon.

Taken as presented, the story is a celebration of love, marriage, and the difficulties and joys of parenthood (and grandparenthood). While on the surface, it accepts that the world has become too sensitive and “nice” for old-fashioned monster antics, the ending of “Hotel Transylvania 2” features a revelation and a kick-butt fight sequence (fear not, no humans or monsters die) that makes me think director and animator Genndy Tartakovsky likes his creatures to have a little bite.

Overall, it’s beautifully animated, charming, harmless family fun. I hear the first movie is even better, so that might be a good choice to help the kids wind down after the trick-or-treating sugar high.

Here’s the trailer:

Images: Kate O’Hare

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home at CatholicVote and like my Facebook page.

media

movies

video

Previous Post

September 24, 2015

PBS Looks at the Lives of 'Chaplains'

Next Post

September 25, 2015 James Bond and Pope Francis at the U.N.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz