Latest stay at ‘Hotel Transylvania’ loses much of the original charm

Posted on January 21, 2022

By MARK VIOLA

I doubt “Hotel Transylvania” immediately comes to mind when people are asked to name their favorite animated franchises, but the three films (up to now) have charmed audiences and earned a combined $1.3 billion worldwide at the box office.

Although I wasn’t overly enamored with the first film when I originally saw it, the movie has definitely grown on me, and its two sequels also worked quite well, thanks to the talented voice cast led by Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg, as well as the work of director/co-writer Genndy Tartakovsky.

The fourth film, “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania,” was supposed to be released in movie theaters last September, but that plan was canceled due to the COVID-19 surge. Instead, the distribution rights were sold to Amazon, which released the film last weekend on its Prime Video streaming service.

I didn’t know until I was writing my preview column last week that Sandler and Kevin James (who voiced Frankenstein) were not returning this time around. Also, Tartakovsky handed over directing duties to Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska, both making their feature film directorial debuts. Tartakovsky did stick around to co-write the screenplay.

As someone who considers himself a fan of the franchise up to this point, I have to say “Transformania” was a bit of a disappointment. Although there are plenty of laughs and slapstick humor to keep kids engaged, and a solid message (if a little too neatly delivered) in the third act, much of the fun satirical humor and interesting side plots were missing in action.

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