By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Kids/Family/Comedy

Age Rating/5+

Lemonradar/43% sour

So What’s The Story?

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing third installment to the Hotel Transylvania franchise, Summer Vacation. When Mavis thinks Drac has had enough working for the hotel she decides a vacation would be reasonable, when the pack arrive on a cruise on its way to the Lost City of Atlantis, Drac falls for the captain of the ship, Ericka only to find out that she is really a Van Helsing monster hunter having the secret to destroy all monster kind.

How Was The Cast?

With the same cast once again despite a couple of new additions, Adam Sandler returns to play main protagonist Count Dracula, Selena Gomez performs Drac’s daughter Mavis, Andy Samberg plays the husband of Mavis, Johnny and a newcomer includes Kathryn Hahn to play captain of the ship Ericka. As I said Sandler known for Grown Ups, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Just Go With It etc. as the owner of Hotel Transylvania Count Dracula. With the same old fast-paced gags as the first two installments Sandler succeeds in entertaining younger children, but still fails to create enjoyable jokes for all ages, however from watching his other flicks, the Transylvania franchise happens to be some of his better movies of his career considering he is one of the actors that relies on goofy slapstick rather than heart or wit or really anything else that makes a movie… well good. Secondly there was famous singer and now actress Selena Gomez known for Ramona & Beezus, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Spy Kids 3D: Game Over etc. as Mavis. Although the “actress” is much more convincing as a singer, like Sandler, by far this is Gomez’s best performances in her career which maybe is not saying a lot, but the slapstick jokes and ridiculous script are enough to top her other horrific roles in a truly sour career. Thirdly we saw comedic actor Andy Samberg known for Popstar: Never Stop Stopping, SNL, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Storks etc. take on the role of Mavis’ husband, Johnny. With many comedy experience for all ages plus lot’s of animated flicks, Samberg remains the only one in the cast that truly entertains all ages, however played as a big character in the first two installments, they poorly use the actor putting him in very few actually funny parts and although Samberg does have his moments he adds no significant improvements to the movie. Lastly, finally a new addition to the cast was Kathryn Hahn known for Bad Moms, Step Brothers, We're the Millers, The Visit etc. as the captain of the ship and monster hunter Ericka. Surprisingly, Hahn has a great amount of comedy experience with many talented people, but one thing this actress is just not accustomed to is acting in pure silly kids flicks with a bad script, character set-up and plot twist; Which really made the audience not really minding that she was there and in my opinion I did not care about any parts she appeared in whether it was trying to kill monsters or kissing Count Dracula.

Is It Worth Your While?

Like the cast, returning from the previous installments is director Genndy Tartakovsky known for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, Samurai Jack etc. Mainly famous for TV shows, Tartakovsky did a solid job on creating the first two additions to this colorful franchise with bright animation, a talented cast and fast-paced gags; And with Summer Vacation it is mostly what fans of the franchise have come to expect: a 97-minute pure kiddy flick that has no endorsement whatsoever with anybody older which technically means that the Transylvania films are a pale comparison with other 2018 animated movie Incredibles 2 which has the power to entertain all ages. However there may be many problems with the choppy storytelling, plot and there are better animated movies to watch than this, Hotel Transylvania 3 adds another short fun-for-little-kids movie that is one of the mediocre installments to the kids animated films. Animation wise, Summer Vacation stands at a reasonable 80M which is pretty common within the franchise with Hotel Transylvania (85M) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (80M); With it’s flashy, colorful animation and solid zany with the entire span of the film, this happens to be the strongest part of Transylvania 3’s structure which can be harmful, but still acceptable in many ways proving more to be an “effects film” than a meaningful one. Story wise I have said has not been the franchise’s best focusing more on silliness than smarts with a plot that literally makes no sense and characters that are completely out of development, but considering it is one of the most ridiculous kids movies of all time, nobody can judge it for what it is: a 1 hr 37 min piece of chocolate.

Aging ‘The Drac Pack’

Completely harmless to children, Hotel Transylvania 3 has a minimal amount of kiddy action including a silly “kraken” type monster, different types of electric monster-killer guns, a few ridiculous “scary” parts and in an early montage there includes crashes and chases but nothing that should bother younger kids. Language wise there are uses of rude humour such as fart jokes such as Johnny telling Mavis she did a “cute toot”, vampires are garlic intolerant, and a line of dialogue that includes would you like to see my parts and she has stitches in all the right places. Sexuality wise, Johnny and Mavis do cuddle and kiss, Ericka and Dracula flirt and eventually kiss, Dracula uses a tinder-like app briefly and three witches stare at Grandpa Drac’s skimpy bathing suit and follow him flirtatiously.

Hotel Transylvania Sequel Showdown

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 48% sour

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 5+

Hotel Transylvania 2 60% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 5+

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 48% sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Hotel Transylvania 2 60% sweet/sour

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Although the 97-minutes of colorful animation and fast-paced slapstick is enough for kids, Hotel Transylvania 3 suffers from a pale, bland story and plot while failing to reach up to the better animated movies… $KIP IT