Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Quick Review)

The Hotel Transylvania series reminds me of the Madagascar series in that it’s steadily grown on me with each new film made. I had a lukewarm response to the first Hotel Transylvania, while Hotel Transylvania 2 improves upon its predecessor in all areas to be an unexpectedly enjoyable sequel.  Now comes Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, quite possibly the series’s best film to date.  The film is the equivalent to a long Saturday Morning Cartoon—containing all the wacky antics, cartoon physics and idiot ball moments you’d expect, but in a good way.  The film isn’t trying to take itself seriously or be logical (the series never has), it’s just out to have a grand, silly time and entertain with a variety of fun hijinks and colorful, likable characters.

Hotel Transylvania 3 is swift in its pacing—constantly moving from scene to scene, rarely stopping to take a breath.  Such haste can be a story's downfall, yet Hotel Transylvania 3 utilizes it to its benefit with high energy animation and boundless movements throughout.  Character motions—both monster and human—are fluent and expressive, working effectively alongside their zany antics.  Despite taking place mostly at night, the visuals are vivid eye candy, such as a lovely establishing shot of the Bermuda triangle and the monsters’s cruise ship.

Hotel Transylvania 3’s comedy isn’t exactly gold, however, at least not for adults.  It gets a bunch of light chuckles and a few laughs in, but the humor will appeal much more to children than grownups.  Nonetheless, the film makes up for it by simply being a really good time.  Hotel Transylvania 3 is an adorable film—it has adorable characters, it has an adorable plot, and it has adorable antics throughout.  I may not have laughed much, but I did smile a lot and enjoyed the film from start to finish.  After seeing Hotel Transylvania 3, I’m now half-convinced I’ll enjoy the first film more if I rewatch it.  Not because I believe its plot will be less cliché or its jokes funnier, but because I’ve grown fond of its characters over the past two sequels and would probably enjoy seeing them now even in a subpar story.