Hotel Transylvania: Transformania Review (2022, Dir. Derek Drymon, Jennifer Kluska)

 The fourth instalment of the series is based on the art by Genndy Tartakovsky, this time following a mishap where Drac panics about announcing his retirement and instead tells Johnny he won’t be inheriting the Hotel with Mavis as he’s a human.

The plot sounds promising but to me, lacks the supernatural flair and humour the last two films had, and Drac himself is no longer played by Adam Sandler, who was a huge part of the first two films, with his then young daughter even voicing little Vampire Mavis, and his wife being the inspiration for Lady Martha Lubove in the first film.

The overall theme of the movie seems awkward as Drac still doesn’t accept awkward twenty-something backpacker, Johnny, as his son-in-law despite the first three movies showing that he was supposed to have finally accepted him as Mavis loved Johnny, and that was all that mattered to him because as his only daughter he would do anything for her. 

Even later in the second film when Mavis and Johnny had a Son, giving Dracula his loved Grandson who he lovingly nicknames Denisovich, the tone seems to show that the movie is about families of all shapes and types.

 Yet by the middle of the second movie, it’s swapped out towards the end, as the tone feels like Drac is trying to win the approval of his own father, by adopting a kind of superiority complex he seemed to have before as his father, and ancient Master Vampire Vlad arrives in the hotel.

Vlad immediately disapproves of Dennis’ half-human status and tries anything to get his great-grandson to grow in his fangs, before he’s five and reject his parentage.

In the third movie, the prejudice is shown as generational hatred, with the classic Van Helsing vs. Dracula with a twist of the original ‘love yourself as you are’ message from the first movie, as Dracula falls in love with the Monster hunting Granddaughter of Van Helsing himself.

Perhaps it’s not only the chemistry between Adam Sandler as Dracula and castmates he’s worked with before like David Spade, who has played the invisible man since the first film, but also the fact that the creator of the characters and original animated credits Genndy Tartakovsky didn’t Direct this one as he had done all the others.

There’s just a touch of magic when a creator of a book, animation or artwork gets to be involved in the process of moving their work to the big screen, something that this fourth movie seems to have been lacking, noticeably from the start.

The voices of Adam Sandler and Brian Hull were matched well, but as Dracula was even animated to look almost creepily (Intentionally so) identical to Sandler’s trademark hairstyle and face, the fourth movie’s plot feels like an alternate fan-made version of what could have been the plot of the first one, with Drac as the Backpacking Suburban Dad, and Johnny as the Dragon-like Godzilla monster who the daughter of Dracula is in love with.

There are some inconsistencies too, with Dracula revealing that Vampires can’t be hypnotised as Vlad tried to hypnotise Dennis before the young boy grows his fangs and morphs into his bat form. 

Yet, as Dracula panics and hypnotises best friend and partner-in-crime Winnie werewolf and Dennis before he accidentally zaps himself with the monsterfication ray, nothing is even suggested or hinted at, that Dennis might be wearing contacts just like his Dad, in the first movie when Drac tried to brainwash him into leaving, or even some throwaway line from Mavis when she finds Dennis and Winnie hypnotised like “Oh, that must be the human in him, weird.”

Instead, she just shrugs off the young friends’ behaviour as something definitely wrong before moving on, and even a full vampire seems to have enough plot armour to make the suits of armour in the hotel jealous, as before, Mavis clearly states to Johnny she has always wanted to see the sunrise but is never allowed, as she would be seriously burned or turned to dust. 

Dracula even gets burned himself as he flies after the Aeroplane Johnny is on to encourage him to return as he knows he and Mavis’ are each others’ Zing or soulmate.

This is completely forgotten as Mavis, still, a vampire as she never drank the water from the ice sculpture of Drac that the monsterfication ray tainted, travels in broad daylight in nothing but a hat, until Dragon-monster Johnny enraged and in the fast-acting process of permanently losing his humanity, punches the crystal caves’ walls, letting sunlight stream in.   

Only then is the threat of being burned as a vampire brought back similar to how it was used as a plot device in the final half of the first movie before, with Dracula himself getting burnt.

Overall the Movie tetralogy is fun, but the fourth seems to repeat the plot of the first one almost, with slightly different elements in the plot like the fact that Mavis and Johnny are Married and have Dennis, and might keep children entertained one afternoon if you had to.

The characters are lovable, but the re-watch ability has lost its spark with this one.

For the reasons listed above, I’d give Hotel Transylvania: Transformania five out of ten stars.

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