Film review: Hotel Transylvania 2 has something for the whole family

Modern-day vampire antics provide jolly escapism for kids and adults alike.

Adam Sandler and Kevin James return as the voices of Dracula and Frankenstein in Hotel Transylvania 2. Courtesy Empire International Gulf

Hotel Transylvania 2

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Starring: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez

Four stars

The opening of movie-inspired theme park Motiongate Dubai is more than a year away – but to whet our appetites, several sequels in franchises that have inspired rides at the attraction are coming soon.

Still to come are the final Hunger Games movie (in November), Kung Fu Panda 3 (January) and Ghostbusters (next summer). The first "motiongate movie", to arrive is the animated Hotel Transylvania 2 – which offers 80 minutes of jolly escapism for all the family.

The film’s loveable rogue Dracula (Adam Sandler) has opened his Hotel Transylvania up to human visitors, while his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) now has a young son, Dennis, with her mortal husband Johnny (Andy Samberg).

Drac feels that his cute grandson has too many of his dad’s soppy human traits, and so plots to bring out the inner vampire in his little “Dennisovitch”.

He and his monster pals aim to relive their ghoulish adolescence by taking Dennis on a supernatural adventure, but find that times have changed since they were young.

Hotel Transylvania 2 succeeds in creating the sort of wacky visual comedy that kids love – from slime monsters to screaming slices of wedding cake.

Adult audiences will appreciate the comedy value of Mavis, a neurotic middle-class mum, and Drac as the over­bearing ­grandparent struggling to fit in to the modern world.

The days when children’s films focused on romances between princes and princesses are long gone – animators are keen to explore “normal” family relationships – whether those of the sisters in Frozen, mother and daughter in Brave or, as in this film, grandson and grandpa.

The plot is thin, but the culture clash that occurs as the monster and human worlds collide spark plenty of witty one-liners that keep everyone smiling.