Review of Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) by Filipeneto — 24 Jun 2020

This film is the sequel to "Hotel Transylvania", an expected sequel given the success of the first film, which helped Sony Pictures Animation to assert itself as one of the great animation studios. Although not as good as the first film, it is not far behind and manages to entertain the audience very well.

In this film, we start by watching the expected wedding of Mavis, Count Dracula's daughter, with the human Jonathan. After a short time, they both have a son, and the Count will turn out to be an affectionate and loving grandfather. It happens that he wants his grandson to be a vampire too. Thus, as the child approaches the age of five, the time at which the vampire's canine teeth should appear, the Count reveals himself to be increasingly obsessed with that idea, forcing Mavis to take action.

The film is quite good but the story told is not as effective as that of the first film. The characters are the same, with the addition of several humans from Jonathan's family, but to whom little relevance is given. The jokes appear punctually and work well, being usually played by the Count and the main monsters, who are no longer able to scare, behaving in a less monstrous way. The dialogues also work wonderfully. The ending was the most downright negative point of the film, as it completely clashes with what happened before and has almost no connection with the main plot. It is as if it has been glued to spit to give the film an extra half hour in length.

Genndy Tartakovsky again assures the direction and does it well, keeping the bulk of the team and the cast of the previous film. Adam Sandler continues to give voice to Dracula and prove to be very good at it. Equally good were the contributions of Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Megan Mullally, Mel Brooks and David Spade. Selena Gomes and Andy Samberg also did a good job, but their characters have been relegated to a frankly secondary role and have been quite underdeveloped, with Mavis permanently irritated and Jonathan even more stupid and immature than in the first film.

Technically, the film is based on computer animation and good quality CGI. I believe that the visual quality is even better than that of the first film. Good colors, brightness and sharpness are very evident characteristics here. The choice of songs and the soundtrack worked much better than in the first film. I especially liked the song "I'm In Love With a Monster", it is in your ear and has rhythm.