Review of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) by Ahmed A — 26 Sep 2018

Fast-paced jokes, interruptive comic scenes, slapstick humor, brightly colored animation, and the distinctive direction style that feels that it fits 2D animation more than 3D animation. They are all here to make HT 3 the most "Genndy Tartakovsky" movie of all the three Hotel Transylvania movies.

Sadly, most of the gags fall flat. Simply, because almost all of them are recycled jokes from the first and the second movie, which also borrowed the original's jokes, and therefore the jokes were less effective, hence the movie was less funnier. Let alone borrowing the same old jokes once more time! But there are also a lot of repetitive jokes from this very movie. I mean how many times should we laugh about Frank's body-part liberation?! And are failed assassination attempts are that funny ?! Seriously, I thought I was watching an unfunny version of Ton & Jerry! Also, there are tons of adult jokes that are just lame!

What disappointed me the most is that it's the first time that I found the interjected humorous scenes that distinguish this franchise very annoying, and completely useless. They are also used so much and became so boring. This time they really feel like string of gags that has nothing to do with the story.

Dennis elevated the humor a little in the first sequel. This time it was Dennis' cute monster-sized puppy, Tinkles, or should I say Bob, that did this job, kinda! At least it had the only repetitive joke that actually worked very well. Also, some of the visual gags worked for me.

Speaking of visuals, this second sequel is just visually dazzling! While the lack of improvement in terms of the animation quality was one of the issues I had with the second installment, this movie suffers from anything but. As I mentioned above, Genndy Tartakovsky is in top form this time. He brought all his unique trademarks which some of them are familiar to the series fans. But he also garnished this threequel with some of his most idiosyncratic visual techniques that fans of his other works like Samurai Jack or Dexter Laboratory will definitely relate to. The quality of the animation itself also improved a great deal. The result is a 3D animated movie that is nothing short of a feast for the eyes!

The movie, nevertheless, doesn't look good just for the sake of it. But the visuals are full of imagination and inventiveness. From the look of the setting to the new characters', everything looks fresh. Just not necessarily funny.

There is some depth that was given to the characters of Dracula and Mavis, and their father-daughter relationship that also served the plot. There is also a smart improvement in the movie's vampire world that was crucial to the main plot. In fact, there are some subtle nuances here and there that could be enough to make the fans of the franchise eager to see another sequel.

Johnny was unbearably stupid for the most part, except for one scene which I consider one of the funniest scenes in the movie. The thing that made this scene, besides some other scenes most of them at the final act, so special is the mix between music and action. I haven't seen anything like these scenes before except in Samurai Jack. They are long scenes that look as epic as silly!

The story is so familiar, and the plot itself is so generic. Also, we have seen billions of animated films that deliver the same message. But the creative slick visuals were more than enough to made up for that. Besides, the message, despite being pretty much on the nose, is utilized cleverly by mixing it with the villain's motives. It is a very easy way to construct the villain, but it is also a very smart one that saved some time, and made a run-of-the-mill, yet somewhat convincing villain.

While the movie's generic plot wasn't a big problem, the movie spent most of its first two acts offering tired jokes till it really kicked up at its final act. Almost the entire first and second acts are consist of a sketch comedy after another.

I don't have much to say about the vocal performances. All the cast reprised their roles as our beloved characters, and they were amazing as always.

Colorfully vivid, and madly fast-paced, Summer Vacation is the most visually pleasing and creative installment in the franchise. It's also way less funny than its two predecessors which, for me, means the weakest one.

(6.5/10).