hotel transylvania 1 movie review

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Hotel Transylvania

Where to watch.

Watch Hotel Transylvania with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Hotel Transylvania's buoyant, giddy tone may please children, but it might be a little too loud and thinly-scripted for older audiences.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Genndy Tartakovsky

Adam Sandler

Andy Samberg

Selena Gomez

Kevin James

Frankenstein

Fran Drescher

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Hotel Transylvania – review

H ere is an animated family comedy about a hotel set up by Count Dracula to be a restful hideaway for creepy creatures and beasties of all sorts who need a respite from being perpetually persecuted by the civilians and muggles and general non-scary humans. The Count (voiced by Adam Sandler) is very protective about his teenage daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez), and is intensely annoyed when a gormless, lost human hitchhiker, Jonathan (Andy Samberg), accidentally blunders up to the hotel asking for a room, and she takes a shine to him. Comedy gothic isn't exactly novel, and frankly there is a sense here of a movie coasting along on Halloween hype-marketing, without providing as many laughs and ideas as it really could have done.

• Family films
• Animation in film
• Adam Sandler

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Review: Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Hotel transylvania (2012).

Directed by: Genndy Tartakovsky

Premise: An animated film.  In modern day Transylvania, Dracula (voice of Adam Sandler) operates a secret resort where the world’s monsters gather in safety, away from the threat of human beings. Dracula’s daughter (voice of Selena Gomez) falls for a young man, setting Dracula into overprotective-father mode.

What Works: Hotel Transylvania is not an ambitious movie but the filmmakers do succeed in their goal of making a family friendly picture. This is not really a horror film but a family comedy populated with characters from horror pictures and folk lore; Hotel Transylvania is more like the television show The Munsters than Tim Burton animated pictures like Corpse Bride . Family movies tend to aim for an overlap between adult and child-oriented content; Hotel Transylvania leans much more toward its childish viewers but it is entertaining enough to satisfy mature audiences. The film primarily deals with the relationship between Dracula and his daughter Mavis and the two of them have a credible, if predictable, father-daughter conflict. She is a naïve young adult who wants to explore the world and he wants to protect her from the dangers outside the home. It is familiar territory for a parent-child story and there is nothing here that is particularly innovative but the story is done well enough that it’s entertaining. It helps that the characters of Hotel Transylvania are vivid. The Dracula of this film has more complex reasons for his paranoia than just his paternal status and Mavis’ desire for adventure is rooted deeper than her age or her role in the story. The young male traveler who crashes the hotel (voice of Adam Samberg) bonds well with both Dracula and Mavis and the story navigates him into an interesting point of conflict between the two characters. The supporting cast members are also a lot of fun and the filmmakers make some clever choices with these characters such as a werewolf couple (voices of Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon) that has a pack of unruly pups. Hotel Transylvania manages to be a lot of fun and it is told with tremendous speed. There are a lot of in-jokes in the backgrounds of the scenes and other moments in which the filmmakers play on horror tropes. Not all the laughs of Hotel Transylvania are big but the film is so fast, jumping from one gag to the next, that the cumulative effect keeps the viewer’s attention. The picture maintains a manic level of energy that makes it the kind of movie that kids will love.

What Doesn’t: Hotel Transylvania is fundamentally a children’s film like Madagascar or Despicable Me . There is nothing wrong with that but the movie is so hyper with characters zigzagging all over the screen that at times it becomes overwhelming and obnoxious.  Like many children’s films there is very little to it. Hotel Transylvania sets up Dracula and Mavis for something dramatic to happen but in the ending the filmmakers go another way with their story, diffusing the tension and dumbing down the movie, reducing it to ninety minutes of fluff. The picture makes for an interesting contrast with ParaNorman , released earlier this year. Where the crew behind that film transcended the parameters of a family film, the makers of Hotel Transylvania remain dutifully within those borders and run from any possibility of complexity.

Bottom Line: Hotel Transylvania is a sufficient family feature. It’s no classic but it is satisfying enough that parents ought to enjoy watching it with their kids around Halloween.

Episode: #409 (October 14, 2012)

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Metacritic reviews

Hotel transylvania.

• 75 The Playlist Drew Taylor The Playlist Drew Taylor Hotel Transylvania is very different from its contemporaries. You just wish that, with so much emphasis on chaos, they could have spent a little more time on character.
• 75 Tampa Bay Times Steve Persall Tampa Bay Times Steve Persall Hotel Transylvania doesn't raise the bar for animation or comedy but it's fun, and nice for once to have a different reason to say "boo" after an Adam Sandler flick.
• 70 Village Voice Nick Pinkerton Village Voice Nick Pinkerton Although it doesn't worry itself with dialectic complexities, Hotel Transylvania succeeds on the level of entertainment.
• 67 Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum It's the parental mush about trusting one's kid to make her own discoveries and blah blah blah (spoken in a Sandlerized version of a Dracula voice) that drains the movie of blood. What's left are platitudes, and Sandler singing a novelty song in a Transylvanian-accented falsetto.
• 58 The A.V. Club Tasha Robinson The A.V. Club Tasha Robinson Hotel Transylvania is occasionally the kind of fast-moving, gag-a-second film that relies on quantity of humor rather than quality.
• 50 Slant Magazine Slant Magazine Yet another instance of a decent, potentially thorny premise bogged down in a mess of treacly sentiment and tedious moralizing.
• 50 Boxoffice Magazine Boxoffice Magazine No surprises or major laughs here, but as far as Sandler family fare goes, it's inoffensive enough.
• 40 The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen Hotel Transylvania checks in as an anemic example of pure concept over precious little content.
• 40 Variety Variety A stale overprotective-dad story set within a location that could easily house a more inspired mix of characters and events.
• 40 Time Out David Fear Time Out David Fear So why does this animated kids' film fail to come together? Bursts of manic pacing steamroll over most of the wit, a little of Sandler's thick-accent shtick goes a looong way, and by the time the requisite life lessons about letting your offspring leave the nest get rolled out, the undead-on-arrival jokes are outnumbered by anemic sitcom gags.
• See all 32 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Hotel Transylvania

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• DVD & Streaming

Hotel Transylvania

• Animation , Comedy , Kids , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 28, 2012
• Voices of Adam Sandler as Dracula; Andy Samberg as Jonathan; Selena Gomez as Mavis; Kevin James as Frankenstein; Fran Drescher as Eunice; Steve Buscemi as Wayne the Werewolf

Home Release Date

• January 29, 2013
• Genndy Tartakovsky

Distributor

• Columbia Pictures

Movie Review

Vampires, zombies and werewolves may be thought of as scary and horrible things. But if you asked Count Dracula he’d tell you that those poor monsters are nothing but peace-loving unfortunates who’ve been unfairly labeled. He’d readily explain that they’re victims of a whole lot of bad press and paranoia. If anything, they’re much more afraid of humans than humans are of them.

After all, you won’t find monsters storming around in the open, armed with pitchforks and torches, on the hunt for humans.

Anyway, Count’s story starts about 115 years ago, right after his wife’s untimely demise at the hands of a screaming, angry mob. (See. He knows what he’s talking about.) Besides being overcome with grief, Dracula realized he was left with sole parenting responsibilities for his beloved daughter Mavis. Call him overprotective, but stealing her away to be raised in a hidden sanctuary seemed the only safe thing to do.

It was just about then, though, that an idea hit him: Why not turn his reclusive castle into a hotel? He knew plenty of other ghastlies and ghouls who would relish a place to vacation, safely hidden away from hateful humans. He could create a swanky little place with all the latest amenities, like a croc-filled moat, a posh cobweb motif, king-sized beds of nails, the whole shebang. It was a brilliant idea.

Of course, little vampires don’t wear their training fangs forever. And though their hotel hideout is cool, by her 118th birthday, well, Mavis is getting a little antsy. She’s a grown woman now, ready to spread her wings … literally. And Daddy Dracula isn’t sure how to keep her from it. The world is such a dangerous place. Is there a way to convince her to stay away from those horrible humans for at least a few more years? A hundred or so ought to do it.

But right in the middle of Count Dracula’s daughter-saving schemes, the worst thing he could imagine happens: A lost human backpacker stumbles into the hotel lobby. What a disaster! If the other monsters find out, it could lead to a creature calamity! A Frankenstein freak-out! A boogeyman ballyhoo!

Gasp. And what if Mavis sees him?

Positive Elements

For all of this animated flick’s monster mayhem and gorgon goofiness, at its unstaked heart it’s a movie about loving parents and their sometimes overprotective ways. Dracula sums up his feelings with, “As a father you do everything you can to keep your family safe.”

Unfortunately he goes on to say, “Even if that means you have to break their trust.” But eventually this sharp-fanged batty dad learns that his daughter has to be allowed to make her own choices and experience life on her own terms. Then he apologizes and makes sacrificial choices to make up for his distrustful ones.

The wandering human hiker, Johnny, makes some unselfish choices too. After meeting Mavis, he realizes that he has definite feelings for her. But he determines to walk away to protect her and to honor her father’s wishes. He tells Dracula, “The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt her or you.”

In the end, true love wins the day. And to that point, a little book from Mavis’ mom (left for the girl for her 118th birthday) uses simple storybook terms to communicate the value of love. It describes love as a “zing” that only happens once in a lifetime. Later, a cutesy rap song talks of how that zing should lead to a ring that ties the two together.

Oh, and Dracula is taught a lesson about how he should feel about humans through all of this too. For example, after his repeated warnings about horrible humans, Count and his chums find themselves in the middle of a human celebration, only to realize that the costumed humans are celebrating … them.

You get the point by now, right? Don’t make fun of or fear others just because they’re different from you.

Spiritual Elements

Even though transforming vampires, the shambling undead and all manner of spooky creatures are never explained or treated in any realistically spiritual way, a recognizable monster mythos is constantly front and center.

Sexual Content

There’s a bit of sexual innuendo haunting the halls of this monster mansion in the form of a showering female skeleton, an über-curvy mummy girl, some undead construction workers ogling an undead female passerby and a pair of honeymooning fleas spotted in bed together.

Dracula and Frankenstein wear towels in a steam room. The Invisible Man is embarrassed when some kids pull down his swimming trunks, and we actually see a bit of his backside when he later puts powder on after a shower.

Mavis and Johnny kiss—to Dracula’s roaring disapproval.

Violent Content

Most of the flick’s thunks and thumps happen as a result of Dracula trying to keep Johnny’s humanity a secret or attempting to keep the boy and Mavis apart. They include falling through a roof, smashing into flying tables, tumbling through scores of monster staff and guests, and other such shenanigans.

Dracula roars out his fanged, red-eyed disapproval from time to time, but he makes it plain that he could never actually cause Johnny harm. “I can’t kill him; it would set monsters back hundreds of years,” he says. And as for that blood-sucking stuff, Drac cringes at the idea of drinking human blood. “It’s so fatty,” he says, “and you never know where it’s been.” He selflessly risks setting himself on fire in the sunlight—resulting in lots of smoke and singed bat fur and wings—in an attempt to make up for his overprotective ways.

Frankenstein falls to pieces after hitting the pool in a belly flop. But the story of Mavis’ mom’s death at the hands of rampaging humans is told with a bit more serious tone; we see a burning building and men with torches.

Crude or Profane Language

Someone is said to be going “bat-poop.” Mavis exclaims, “Holy rabies!”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other negative elements.

We hear talk of an abominable snowman’s bathroom behavior. A werewolf boy hikes his leg to pee on a couch. Frankenstein’s disconnected lower body belches out plumes of green gas. An animated suit of empty armor grunts when kicked in the crotch and then wonders aloud, “Why did that hurt me?”

Dracula sings a nursery rhyme to his baby daughter that includes lines such as, “Hush little vampire don’t say a word/Papa’s gonna bite the head off a bird.”

Later he points out that he’s determined to protect his daughter even if it means that he has to break her trust. And he does, creating a fake town to scare her with and essentially lying to her. After a major disappointment, Mavis tells her dad, “I have no more dreams—I’m just like you now.”

Writing for horror.com , Staci Layne Wilson voiced this limited-liability lament for Hotel Transylvania , “I loved it, but beware: It is not a scary movie, it’s a paranormal romance and it’s essentially about a father/daughter relationship.”

What she’s saying is a good thing. This is a PG-rated monster mash that won’t give most tykes nightmares. (Think of it as  Monsters, Inc. with a dash or two of Halloween.) The voice acting is sterling. The lessons are light but cute and accessible. And the pie-in-your-face monster mythos is colorfully bouncy—not spiritually bruising.

But even with its cavalcade cast of dead, undead and stitched-together regulars—gussied up in their kid-pleasing finery and set loose in a slapstick frenzy—this is also a fairly one-dimensional pic that relies a bit too heavily on monster gas attacks and pee-on-the-furniture tomfoolery.

You may not want to book a weeklong vacation at this particular Transylvanian establishment, but a short stay won’t leave you howling at the moon.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, hotel transylvania: transformania.

Now streaming on:

"Hotel Transylvania: Transformania," the fourth in the animated series about the vampire who runs a residential hotel for monsters, is the brightest, funniest, sweetest, and all-around best one yet.  Roger Ebert liked to describe movies as “empathy machines.” “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” is a good example. The struggle of monsters and humans to understand each other is taken to its ultimate stage by switching places thanks to a transforming ray that works and then breaks, leaving them stuck that way until they can find a replacement just in time for a happy ending. 

Devoted single dad Drac ( Brian Hull replacing Adam Sandler ) has never been comfortable with his human son-in-law Johnny ( Andy Samberg ). It is more than just the difference between monsters and humans. Drac is by nature restrained, anxious, and resistant to change while Johnny is ebullient, adventuresome, and impulsive. As the movie opens, the hotel is celebrating the 125 th  anniversary of the hotel and Drag is getting ready to turn the hotel over to his daughter, Mavis ( Selena Gomez , now producer of the film as well as star) and Johnny. But Johnny’s enthusiastic reaction and plans for changes make him reconsider. Drac lies to Johnny, telling him he would give them the hotel, but. “real estate law” forbids transfer of property to a human. Johnny does not want to disappoint Mavis, so he impulsively visits the basement lab of mad scientist Van Helsing ( Jim Gaffigan ), who happens to have a transforming ray on hand. Prudently, he first tests it on an actual guinea pig. Satisfied with the monster-fied results, he trains it on Johnny, who is delighted with his new dragon-like monster self. 

When the ray accidentally hits Drac, though, the results are not nearly as welcome. No powers! No fangs! Receding hairline! And worst of all, a dad bod! Talk about terrifying! The magic monster-making crystal breaks, and the only way to return them to their original forms is to find another one, following a monster-ific GPS to a rainforest in South America. And so, it is a road movie, with two very different people, now suddenly different from their own selves as well as from each other, learning to work together along the way.

That is part of what makes it so much fun, because the characters are so far from their most fundamental sense of who they are. Drac goes from frustrated fury at not being able to fly or use mind control, to delight at experiencing what seems very ordinary to us—sunlight. He may be a vampire, but he is horrified when he is confronted by another species of blood-sucker—mosquitos.  

The animation is exceptionally detailed, supple and dynamic. The interplay of the images with the action and dialogue adds emphasis and clever twists that will reward a second and third viewing. There is a lively plasticity to the characters that is exaggerated enough to take advantage of the animator’s unlimited imagination while staying completely consistent with the internal reality of the world where, after three other movies plus shorts and video games with these characters, we feel at home. The gestures and facial expressions are hilarious but always in service of story and character. 

And the animators have a blast with the various transformations. After three movies, it's a lot of fun to see the human side of the other monsters. And that means “see” in the most literal sense. Griffin the Invisible Man ( David Spade ) had been nothing but a pair of glasses until his transformation; his friends are surprised to find out he’d been naked the whole time. For Griffin himself, the equally disconcerting surprise is that he is balding. We also learn what, or rather who, has been inside the thousands-of-years-old wrapping around Murray the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) and what Wayne the Wolfman ( Steve Buscemi ) looks like without all the fur (though still pretty hairy). The un-pieced-together Frankenstein ( Brad Abrell ) turns out to be a selfie-taking dreamboat. At least he thinks so. His wife, Eunice ( Fran Drescher ) is not convinced. 

Gomez’s wry, understated delivery made her a perfect foil for Steve Martin and Martin Short in the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.” Here it works well as the voice of reason in the midst of all of the insanity, and she adds enough warmth to show her love for both Johnny and Drac. She and Ericka Van Helsing ( Kathryn Hahn ) bring the other wives to chase after the monster/humans and human/monster (in a zeppelin!) to find the crystal before it's too late to transform back.

With its Indiana Jones-style adventure, "Hotel Transylvania: Transformania" combines monster powers lost and found (love those innumerable wolf cubs), pure joyous silliness, and surprisingly touching insights into family relationships. My Yelp review for this hotel is “would do business again.”  

Now playing on Amazon Prime. 

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film Credits

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

Rated PG for some action and rude humor including cartoon nudity.

Andy Samberg as Johnny Loughran (voice)

Selena Gomez as Mavis Dracula (voice)

Kathryn Hahn as Ericka Van Helsing (voice)

Jim Gaffigan as Van Helsing (voice)

Steve Buscemi as Wayne (voice)

Molly Shannon as Wanda (voice)

Keegan Michael Key as Murray (voice)

David Spade as Griffin (voice)

Brian Hull as Count Dracula (voice)

Fran Drescher as Eunice (voice)

Brad Abrell as Frank (voice)

Asher Blinkoff as Dennis (voice)

Ninja as Party Monster (voice)

• Derek Drymon
• Jennifer Kluska

Writer (characters)

• Todd Durham

Writer (story by)

• Genndy Tartakovsky
• Amos Vernon
• Nunzio Randazzo
• Lynn Hobson
• Mark Mothersbaugh

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Hotel transylvania: transformania, common sense media reviewers.

Slapsticky monster sequel has silly laughs, mild peril.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Kids will be introduced to classic monsters (at le

Positive messages include the importance of accept

Drac is, as always, a caring, attentive father, gr

The human (or human-looking) characters are predom

Physical comedy involves lots of slapstick bits wi

Mavis and Johnny hug, dance, and kiss briefly. Dra

Mild insults like: "I'm disgusting," "I'm so human

On camera, just a Sharpie and a quick glance of a

Adult monsters drink a toast at a party.

Parents need to know that Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is the fourth (and supposedly final) installment in the animated Hotel Transylvania series of movies about classic movie monsters. The story focuses on Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg), who uses Van Helsing's (Jim Gaffigan) "Monsterfication…

Educational Value

Kids will be introduced to classic monsters (at least before they're transformed) and hear a few words in Spanish.

Positive Messages

Positive messages include the importance of accepting others for who they are, being empathetic to others' differences, learning how to respect children's relationships, and communicating with friends and family members. There's an overarching theme about not forcing others to change and appreciating what they bring to your life.

Positive Role Models

Drac is, as always, a caring, attentive father, grandfather, and even father-in-law, even though he gets flustered easily and lies about his intentions. Johnny is loving, enthusiastic, and eager to contribute to the family, if a bit over-energetic. Mavis is intelligent, loyal, and brave. She protects and defends her family. Ericka is happy to be part of the Hotel Transylvania family and has given up her monster-hating ways. The friends are all loyal to Drac and one another.

Diverse Representations

The human (or human-looking) characters are predominantly White. A couple of voice actors are Black or Latino. The characters are all different types of monsters (and a human) and live harmoniously with one another. Tolerance and acceptance are major themes of the movie. Female characters have agency, but male characters are in the story's spotlight.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Physical comedy involves lots of slapstick bits with characters falling or getting hurt but not too seriously injured (like big falls and an extended sequence of mosquitoes and piranhas biting a now-human Drac). The Johnny monster gets increasingly more feral and beast-like as the movie develops and loses his human thoughts. All of the characters survive dangerous situations in which it seems they'll be seriously injured, whether from the environment or the transformed monsters -- but all ends well. Destruction of property by various monsters. Potentially scary gerbil monster has fangs and red eyes. Some disagreements.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mavis and Johnny hug, dance, and kiss briefly. Drac and Ericka also flirt and hug. A few butt jokes and shots of a bare butt (one especially large/looming) when formerly invisible Griffin becomes visible. Frank takes selfies of his new hunkified human-looking self, and he's shirtless in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Mild insults like: "I'm disgusting," "I'm so human," "No one wants to see you," and screaming in horror at a character's new appearance.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

On camera, just a Sharpie and a quick glance of a phone. Off camera, the movie series has many tie-in products: apparel, games, figurines, toys, etc.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is the fourth (and supposedly final) installment in the animated Hotel Transylvania series of movies about classic movie monsters. The story focuses on Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg ), who uses Van Helsing's ( Jim Gaffigan ) "Monsterfication Ray" to turn himself into a monster after Drac (Brian Hull, stepping in for Adam Sandler) lies and tells him that only a monster can inherit the family business. But the device also turns the monsters, including Drac himself, into humans. Expect mild peril (falls from heights, etc.), lots of slapstick physical comedy (mostly at the expense of how frail humans are compared to monsters), property destruction, and a fanged and red-eyed rampaging gerbil monster. There are few laugh-inducing shots of the Invisible Man's bare bum once he becomes visible (one shot is especially large and looming), as well as some affection/kissing between couples, mild insults, and characters drinking a toast during a celebration. "Humanizing" the monsters makes it clear that the characters are more diverse as monsters than they are as humans. But as with the previous movies, the story has themes of celebrating differences, accepting others as they are, and the importance of teamwork. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (11)
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Based on 11 parent reviews

Don't bother

Gtjgfghgfghj, what's the story.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA opens with a party celebrating the hotel's 150th anniversary. Even though Drac (voiced by Brian Hull, taking over for Adam Sandler ) has a plan for the event, his human son-in-law, Johnny ( Andy Samberg ), takes over the proceedings. Drac had planned to announce that he was retiring and leaving the hotel to his daughter, Mavis ( Selena Gomez ), but given how over-the-top Johnny can be, Drac changes his mind and tells Johnny that he can't inherit the hotel because of a "no humans" clause in monster real estate law. Van Helsing ( Jim Gaffigan ) offers Johnny the chance to use a special ray gun that turns him into a monster. It works, but -- naturally -- chaos ensues, and Drac is soon transformed into a middle-aged human man, as are his monster friends. The ray gun breaks, and Drac finds out that fixing it requires a crystal located in South America, so he convinces Johnny to take a spur-of-the-moment trip with him to find it. After the father-and-son-in-law leave, Mavis and Ericka ( Kathryn Hahn ) realize they must follow Drac and Johnny before the transformation turns Johnny into a totally mindless beast. The now-humanized monster crew accompanies the women on their rescue mission.

Is It Any Good?

This supposedly final movie about Drac and Mavis' monster family and their silly adventures is sure to make little ones laugh and adults feel nostalgic for monster movies of old. Sandler and James may be out, but the professional voice actors who replaced them are skilled enough to make that a non-issue. And while the plot is pretty thin, this has never been a franchise based on propulsive plot twists. The kid-friendly comedy is really just an excuse to see iconic movie monsters turned into sight-gags and slapstick comedy acts. By that standard, Transformania is more of the same formula -- lots of physical comedy shenanigans that leave the characters injured (again and again, in Drac's case) in a laugh-out-loud way. Drac's new human body is frail, and his inability to deal with everything from motion sickness to heavy lifting to environmental allergies and mosquito bites is entertaining.

While Drac and Johnny bond in South America as they look for the new crystal for Van Helsing's weapon, the two women (Mavis and Ericka) clearly save the day. They're the ones who make rational decisions, troubleshoot, communicate in a healthy way, and bravely lead the team into perilous circumstances. And once again, there's a sweet "odd couple" vibe to the central relationships: Mavis and Johnny, Drac and Ericka, even Drac and Johnny. The quartet of Drac's monster pals-turned-humans will also provide the comic relief that kids are used to: Werewolf Wayne ( Steve Buscemi ) becomes a bearded man; invisible Griffin ( David Spade ) is a naked man (who knew?); Murray ( Keegan-Michael Key ) is small and ancient; Frank (Brad Abrell) is surprisingly tall and handsome; and good ol' Blobby ( Genndy Tartakovsky ) is a plain ol' jel-ring mold. Their new selves lead to more comedy, like when Bride of Frankenstein Eunice ( Fran Drescher ) screams when she sees her now hunkified husband, as if he's repulsive. Bottom line? The Hotel Transylvania movies are light and jokey and just right for kids who prefer their monsters on the safe side.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the appeal of not-so-scary monster movies like Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. How does it turn classic monster-movie villains into everyday characters?

Who are the role models in the movie? What character strengths do they display? What role do communication , empathy , and teamwork play in the story?

How does this movie compare to the first three in the series? Do you think there should be any more? Did you notice that Drac's voice is no longer Adam Sandler and Frankenstein isn't Kevin James?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : January 14, 2022
• Cast : Andy Samberg , Selena Gomez , Kathryn Hahn , Brian Hull
• Directors : Derek Drymon , Jennifer Kluska
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Columbia Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Character Strengths : Communication , Empathy , Gratitude , Teamwork
• Run time : 98 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some action and rude humor including cartoon nudity
• Last updated : August 31, 2023

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‘hotel transylvania: transformania’: film review.

Monsters and humans swap places in Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon’s final installment of the ‘Hotel Transylvania’ franchise, featuring voice work by Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez and Kathryn Hahn.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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Wrapping up a surprisingly successful series of ‘toons about a vampire hotelier and his coterie of bizarro pals, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania  lets most of its monster protagonists take a brief, and not very relaxing, holiday as ordinary mortals.

Handing directing duties off to animation vets Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon, Genndy Tartakovsky sticks around as a cowriter and exec-producer, while Adam Sandler, erstwhile voice of Dracula, has escaped into the shadows entirely. (He’s replaced by Brian Hull, who sounds close enough to the original that kids probably won’t notice.) Never much to write home about in the script department — Tartakovsky excels in more stylish, less verbal fare like Samurai Jack — Transformania remains sufficiently goofy-sweet to please its target demo; those who find the humor toothless should at least appreciate the distinctive animation, which can be as energetically wacky as classic Looney Tunes .

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Release date: January 14 (Amazon Prime Video)

Cast: Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull

Directors: Derek Drymon, Jennifer Kluska

Screenwriters: Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo, Genndy Tartakovsky

By continuing even without Sandler (and Sandler’s pal Kevin James, who used to voice Frankenstein’s monster), the series tacitly acknowledges that it never cared as much about the musty old Count as about the youngsters invented for the first film. Drac’s daughter Mavis ( Selena Gomez ) and her regular-human husband Johnny ( Andy Samberg ) are the characters kids are expected to identify with; everybody else is just supernatural comic relief. (Never mind that those side characters — the werewolves and mummies and such — are far more appealingly designed than those with top billing, including the generic-looking Count.)

In fact, Mavis and Johnny are about to inherit not just the movies’ attention but their titular hotel. Drac, ready to retire with his new wife Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), wants to hand the place over to them, but has second thoughts when Johnny starts gushing about the very non-spooky improvements he’d like to make to the place. Put on the spot, he claims to have discovered a real-estate law that prevents humans from owning the monster-centric resort.

But in-laws can be tough problems to fix. Thinking he has successfully foiled his son-in-law, Drac doesn’t anticipate a snag his father-in-law (the reformed vampire-hunter Van Helsing, voiced by Jim Gaffigan) will create. For some reason, the old man has a ray gun that can turn humans into monsters and vice-versa. He shoots the thing at Johnny, who is delighted to become a dude-sized dragon. Some antic violence ensues, and in the mayhem, Drac and all his best pals get zapped just in time for the gizmo to break, meaning they can’t be re-beastified.

The sequence in Van Helsing’s basement lab exemplifies some of the fun the animation team has here. Over the years, most of the mad scientist’s limbs have been replaced by steampunk robotics, and his overcluttered basement is full of tiny passageways he can only pass through after reconfiguring his body, Transformer-style. (Johnny, as we already know, is such an easygoing surfer-dood his body’s practically made of rubber; his fluid movements are the perfect match for Samberg’s sweet-stoner performance.)

The film’s gleefully kinetic visuals suit action scenes beautifully, of course, and there’s a fair bit of action to come. After learning that the transforma-gadget can only be fixed with a crystal buried in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, a now-mortal Drac and his dragon-in-law set off to the jungle without telling anybody. The script has some fun watching the rest of the crew at home, dealing with their transformed selves (what do you mean, the Invisible Man has been walking around naked all this time!?), before they realize where the fellas have gone and set out to save them.

Parents will almost certainly be less enthralled with the story than their kids, but would be wise not to tune out and start checking their email: Transformania ’s saving graces are mostly easy-to-miss sight gags involving zombie bellhops, oversized hamster habitats and the dozens of werewolf kids being raised by the hotel’s resident lycanthrope couple. (Thank you, wolfman Steve Buscemi, for not following Sandler out the door.) The best thing about Hotel Transylvania may wind up being that it provided several years of profitable employment to visually witty artists who’ll go on to create much more interesting stuff of their own.

Full credits

Distributor: Amazon Prime Video Production company: Sony Pictures Animation Cast: Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell, Asher Blinkoff Directors: Derek Drymon, Jennifer Kluska Screenwriters: Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo, Genndy Tartakovsky Producer: Alice Dewey Goldstone Executive Producers: Selena Gomez, Michelle Murdocca, Genndy Tartakovsky Director of photography: Tamara Hunter Production designer: Richard Daskas Editor: Lynn Hobson Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh Casting directors: Brittany Grooms, Libby Thomas Dickey

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Do You Really Need a Review of Hotel Transylvania: Transformania? Here’s One Anyway.

Aim low and you’ll rarely miss. That’s been the ethos of the Hotel Transylvania films ever since the very first one in 2012 . Over the years, these movies have scored by never promising too much: Mix some obvious (but not necessarily unfunny) jokes, a by-the-numbers story, Adam Sandler doing the world’s worst Dracula accent (which, thanks to the alchemy of Sandler’s commitment to never committing , somehow becomes the world’s best Dracula accent), stitch it all together with some visual inventiveness courtesy of director and cult animator Genndy Tartakovsky, and voilà, you’ve got a hit.

But there was sweetness there as well. Over the years, the ongoing efforts of Sandler’s overprotective and doting Dracula to safeguard his family in various ways — whether by keeping his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) far from the human world or by making sure his grandkids got in touch with their monster ways — began to feel like an animated slapstick version of what might well have been the comedian’s own midlife angst . The Hotel Transylvania movies made sure nobody would ever mistake them for an Oscar-bound Pixar classic, but they weren’t entirely without heart, either. You could watch them with your kids and not feel your soul corroding into dust.

The fourth entry in the series, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (out now on Amazon Prime Video, so your kids don’t even need you to take them anymore) mostly sticks to that established formula, though it’s hard not to feel like the dutifulness that always loomed over the previous films has now fully taken over the enterprise. It feels less like an animated romp among Sandler and his buddies and more like the paycheck gig it probably always was. Maybe because Sandler himself isn’t even there to begin with: He’s been replaced by impressionist comedian Brian Hull, who voiced the character in an earlier Hotel Transylvania short. Kevin James, who voiced Dracula’s good pal, the klutzy Frankenstein, has also left, replaced by Brad Abrell. Director Tartakovsky, too, is no longer behind the proverbial camera, though he retains a screenplay and an executive producer credit. The result feels like a serviceable imitation of something that was already a serviceable imitation of a real movie. A series partly defined by the easygoing charm of Sandler’s half-hearted voice work (remember, this is a character whose catchphrase is “Bleh, bleh, bleh”) now has someone trying very hard to imitate Sandler’s half-hearted voice work. It feels, frankly, kind of gauche.

The new picture begins with Dracula celebrating his hotel’s 125th anniversary with a secret plan to announce that he is retiring and handing the business over to Mavis (and, somewhat reluctantly, to her klutzy and annoyingly overenthusiastic human husband Johnny, still voiced by Andy Samberg). But when Drac’s secret spills out and Johnny gets a little too excited, the Count decides he can’t relinquish the hotel he spent more than a century building to his irritating son-in-law. Johnny, frustrated that Dracula will never accept him, enlists the aid of Professor Van Helsing (once the villain of the previous movie, now just a guy who hangs out in Dracula’s basement) to turn him into a monster using a special monster gun. (Van Helsing has a special monster gun.) In the ensuing chaos, Johnny is turned into an enormous dragon, Dracula is turned into a balding, middle-aged, out-of-shape human, and the two of them head to an unnamed South American country to locate the magic gem that powers the broken monster gun. (They broke the monster gun.)

Drac and Johnny’s journey through the rainforest is filled with fun gags, many of them built around Johnny gradually discovering his monster powers and Drac gradually discovering his human limitations. A little of this stuff goes a long way, but a lot of this stuff goes a little way, and Transformania wisely moves on to something else just as soon as any of its shtick starts to get annoying.

Of course, what made the previous Hotel Transylvania films fun were the many throwaways bits involving the supporting cast: The Wolfman (Steve Buscemi) eating a huge herd of sheep in order to clear a whole mountain path, the Invisible Man (David Spade) talking to his invisible (and possibly non-existent) girlfriend, the Blob using pieces of himself to power a sauna. The same goes for Transformania , though even these gags feel a bit more tired than usual. When the monster gun is used on Drac’s pals, Frankenstein is turned into a buff, floppy-haired, selfie-taking narcissist; the Invisible Man turns out (of course) to be totally naked; the Blob is reduced to a small inert pile of green Jell-O. You need not be a well-paid Hollywood screenwriter to come up with stuff like this, but that’s kind of the point: There is something inviting about such easy, casual humor. And while there aren’t any genuine belly laughs in the new movie, there are plenty of modestly likable, chucklesome ones. That ain’t nothing in this terrible, terrible world.

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