Hotel
Transylvania 2
(2015)
(SPOILERS) Young
audiences either had pre-Halloween treat-stuffed indifference or actually
really liked the original, as this sequel somehow improved on the box office performance
of the first. Everyone’s back (except CeeLo Green), not exactly to diminishing
returns because its predecessor wasn't exactly stridently breaking new ground,
strikingly funny, or stylistically noteworthy, but nevertheless, to diminishing
returns. On that basis, Sandler has hit upon the less-than-bright ideas of a
marriage, a baby, and a grumpy grandad. Even the latter, wheeling out Mel
brooks’ vocal chords, fails to inject life into Hotel Transylvania 2, despite initially flirting with the idea.
This time
Sandler even warrants a screenplay credit (with the returning Robert Smigel),
so if you weren’t levelling the blame his way before, he’s abundantly fair game
now. There isn’t a note struck here that isn’t the most criminally unsubtle,
from Dracula training baby grandchild to be the apple of his eye (see also Big Daddy) to reactionary attitudes to
child safety and how it was all so much better when he was a boy.
Most damningly,
the picture has none of the courage of its lukewarm convictions regarding
acceptance and tolerance, as the fears voiced by Jonathan over the bairn (“If Dennis grows up to be just like you, I’ll
be the luckiest girl in the world” assures Mavis), and the concern that the
monstrous extended family won’t accept him, become irrelevant with the
revelation that he isn’t a nobody
everyday kid, he’s really a special, chosen one, once his fangs grow out (“Am I cool now?” he asks Dracula,
receiving the patently untrue response, since he’s a ginger apart from anything
else, “You were always cool”). It’s
an enormous cop-out, but one you can see coming from the first, alas. There’s
also the goddam music to contend with; if it’s not irritating euphorica trash,
it’s Sandler himself, complete with banjo.
Are there
any positives to be taken away from Genndy Tarakovsky’s rancid sequel? Apart
from for Sony that is, who have a third instalment lined up for 2018? And for
Sandler, who gets to maintain a slender presence on cinema screens now the
majority of his output has transferred to Netlfix? Well, the gags about the
hairpiece from Bram Stoker’s Dracula
raised a smile, even if they relate to a nearly a quarter-of-a-century-old
target. And the possessed Cookie Monster is exactly the sort of thing this
should have been doing. But that aside… Am I being too hard on this? It’s just
for kids, after all. Not really, no. Not when almost every other major studio
can produce superior animated movies (maybe the Weinsteins aside, but I did say
major studio) in their sleep.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.
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