Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
Starring Brian Hull, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn
Directed by Derek Drymon & Jennifer Kluska
After seeing the rather lackluster "Hotel Transylvania 3," I figured that this franchise about monsters had finally met its demise - but like any good monster movie, that wasn't meant to be. When it was announced that "Hotel Transylvania: Transformania" would be coming out, I groaned on the in and outside, figuring this was just another cheap cash grab to get kids to the theater. I groaned even louder when I found out that it would be the first to not be directed by Gennedy Tartakovsky or star Kevin James as Frankenstein and, most surprisingly, Adam Sandler as the film's main star, Dracula. A fourth film in a franchise that died out after two films, without its director or lead star, and never seeing a theatrical release due to the pandemic and being sold to Amazon? Nothing about this boded well for the film, and so I pushed it off until I finally sucked it up and watched it. Somehow, someway, in some form or fashion, I actually found myself enjoying it a whole lot. Not only did it have numerous laugh-out-loud moments, it also had a very thoughtful story to tell - and add in lavish animations, and you got a film that righted the wrongs of the third and brought back the soul of the franchise for one (hopefully still last) hurrah.
While celebrating the 125th anniversary of the hotel, Dracula (Brian Hull) has finally decided to give control of the hotel to his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and by proxy her husband Johnny (Andy Samberg) - whom Drac still doesn't fully trust - so he can start a new chapter with his love Erika Van Helsing (Kathryn Hahn). Before he makes the big announcement, however, he gets cold feet after fearing Johnny will turn the hotel into something terrible, and lies to Johnny, telling him he can't own it because he's not a monster. After visiting Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan), Johnny remedies this by getting turned into a monster, to Drac's chagrin. In his attempt to turn Johnny back, he is accidentally turned into a human, and the two embark on a mis-matched adventure to South America to find another crystal to reverse their curse. Meanwhile, Mavis tries to figure out what's happening when she finds werewolf Wayne (Steve Buscemi), invisible man Griffin (David Spade), mummy Murray (Keegan-Michael Key), and Frankenstein (Brad Abrell) have also turned human - and after a dire warning from Van Helsing, heads in search of her father and husband before Johnny's transformation becomes complete - turning him into a mindless monster.
Maybe it's because my expectations were so low, but I really enjoyed this final "Transylvania" outing - way more than the third. It was filled with slapstick moments that were slick and on point, and numerous puns and sight gags that had me in tears from laughing so hard. Honestly, I wasn't expecting any of that, and I'm still surprised that it worked out so well. While it's usually a death knell to have a director and main actor leave a long-running franchise, this time it worked somehow. This new blood (get it?) really re-vitalized the franchise and gave us a great note to go out on, a film filled with not just humor, but also heart as well - which is odd since most of the characters in the film don't have a beating heart.
"Transformania" worked as a story because it - like Johnny said in the film - is like "Freaky Friday" (but on a Tuesday). In that classic film, a mother and daughter switches bodies and realizes that the lives of the other isn't as great as they thought it would be, leading them to see the world through different sets of eyes. Here, Johnny gets to see what it's like being a monster, while Drac and friends see what it's like being human (not a spoiler, but one has a much better time than the other), and as Johnny and Drac traverse the unforgiving South American wild, they both learn to depend on one another and Drac begins to see the world through a more rosy colored glasses than before. Of course this is a kid's movie so it all ends up as you expect, but in this case it's not the destination that's the best part, but the journey it takes to get there.
That journey is littered with lavish animations and wall-to-wall laughs provided by a dedicated voice cast led by mainstays Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg. Gomez's Mavis is the calm center of the film, the voice of reason in a sea of craziness, while Samberg's Johnny is the ever-optimist, a free-spirited manster (man/monster) who's impulsive and reckless, but also has a heart of gold. Brian Hull steps into Sandler's shoes like they were tailor-made for him, as Drac never misses a beat moving from overly-concerned vampire to overly-concerned human but for vastly different reasons, and experiencing human emotions that help him see that not everything has to be doom and gloom - but there's some real beauty in the world and, like a marshmallow that's burnt on the outside, there's still some sweet sticky goodness inside...I'll just end it there.
The Score: B+
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