Saturday, July 14, 2018

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation - When Dracula and His Family & Buddies Go for Vacation

When this movie premiered yesterday, there were not a lot of theaters near our place that showed the film. The nearest cinema to our home only played 3 times with 5 PM being the latest show, which was not possible for me due to my office hour was till that time. So today we decided to buy the tickets for 1 PM show at Cinemaxx Plaza Semanggi. Well let us move on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Mavis (Selena Gomez - Wizards of Waverly Place TV series etc) felt that her father Count Dracula (Adam Sandler - Happy Gilmore, Click etc) and her husband Johnny (Andy Samberg - Storks, Hot Rod etc) were working too hard at Hotel Transylvania. Hence she wanted to give a surprise to them by giving a summer vacation and enjoy a luxurious cruise. With such attraction, obviously Drac's best friends that include Frankie the Frankenstein monster (Kevin James: Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Kevin Can Wait TV series etc), Griffin the invisible man (David Spade - The Benchwarmers, Rules of Engagement TV series etc), Murray the mummy (Keegan-Michael Key - Why Him?, Key & Peele series etc) and Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi - Con Air, Boardwalk Empire TV series etc) would definitely come along.


The cruise itself was led by Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn - Bad Moms, Captain Fantastic etc) who was actually a human. When Drac seemed to be falling in love with Ericka, Mavis did not seem to be receptive of the idea. Things would also became complicated with the appearance of Drac's long time nemesis Abraham Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan - Chappaquiddick, Duck Duck Goose etc).

So what would happen to the whole monsters' vacation with Van Helsing lurking in the background? And what would happen to Drac and Ericka? Find them all in this family friendly and fun animated comedy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie was the 3rd installment of Hotel Transylvania series. Those of you who had seen its predecessors would know what to expect from this third movie. And since the 1st and 2nd movie were still quite fresh on our mind (my wife and I watched them through online streaming first before we saw the 3rd movie, as surprisingly we had never seen them before) we could still remember every single character. This time, in addition to the whole gang, there were 2 additional characters who were largely involved in the movie's plot.

Throughout the movie, there were quite numerous funny moments (some might be funnier for children but some probably could be better appreciated by the adults). Which is why I believe this movie was suitable for the whole family to enjoy. But be reminded that due to its fun and light nature, people should not expect this to be the more critically acclaimed Disney/Pixar movies. It was produced by Sony Animation who brought to us Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Smurfs and many others. This type of film should be enjoyed purely for entertainment and fun. You could also enjoy some of the songs which was combination of older and newer songs and nicely added to the movie.

The main attraction of this film would be the interaction between Dracula and his friends, the crazy stunts every monster did like Mavis & Johnny's son Dennis and his dog Tinkler, with Winnie the werewolf daughter, not to mention the gang's wives. The plot of the movie was quite interesting though we could easily guess the ending. But hey, it's the journey that counts, right? I also think that the actors & actresses who voiced all the characters here were very good as they really made them felt alive and real. I am sure that the good relationship among some of them that have been built up for quite some time certainly helped. 

Like any other movies which were sequels, especially a 3rd movie in a franchise, I could not help but comparing this with the 1st and 2nd movies. For me, the first one was the best in term of story, while the second one was also good in term of story (with a proper continuity from the first) but I felt there were more funny moments. I laughed really out loud on at least two occasions during the second movie. As for this one, its story was OK and it also got some touching moments that affected my wife in the scenes towards the end, but somehow I personally felt that it was a bit too crowded (too many characters to be shown in too little span of time), however the main plot was still maintained properly till the end.

Duration of the movie was around 97 minutes which included some fun animation during the early part of end credit scene, but there was nothing at the very end. The animation was done quite well and I noticed some which should be nice to see if you watch in 3D. My most favorite part of this movie would be the ones involving the character Blobb. Overall I think that the movie was fun and entertaining. My wife and I quite enjoyed the story and we were also entertained. For those of you looking for fun and do not mind watching monsters as main characters, then this would be a nice option which you could certainly enjoy with your smaller children. Just remember that it would be best to see Hotel Transylvania and its sequel first before seeing this one to appreciate the whole story. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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