Were The Hotel Transylvania Movies Any Good? 

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I very much don't understand why they didn' t go for the more obvious setup with Johnny being afraid of his own mortality in the fourth one. Mavis is immortal and will never age whilst Johnny is human and will shrivel and prune soon. That could have been what motivated him to monsterfy himself, they could've used it to better explore Mavis and Johnny's relationship, anything really would've been better than what they did

Wait, is nobody gonna question the fact that Mavis still switched between her bat and human forms while pregnant? Like, how does that work for the baby?

I asked my sister “why is having a dead wife a turn on” and she said the following: “It’s not a turn on,it’s simply a girl feeling bad for the man”

I will say the one thing I really liked about the second movie and the series as a whole is that they never did a "Relationship conflict" with Johnny and Mavis (such as another love interest entering the picture). Instead they get married and have a kid in the first 10 minutes, seemingly putting such conflicts to rest. That's rare for an animated film.

Fun fact: According to director Genndy Tartakovsky, he got the inspiration for Hotel Transylvania 3 after he returned from a "miserable" family vacation and took major inspiration for the film from the National Lampoon's Vacation movies, as the film would take place aboard a cruise ship.

I don't care what you say, Mark. No Adam Sandler movie will ever top "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry."

The dance party at the end of the movie made a lot of sense in Shrek as it was essentially a wedding after party. And it kinda makes sense in Despicable Me, because Gru wanted to see the dance recital he missed. Those are about the only warranted dance party endings.

Honestly. They could’ve easily kept the transformation angle. But rather than retreading the plotpoints of Johnny being accepted. It could have dealt with Johnny and/or Mavis making a decision on how to live the rest of their lives. Considering how Johnny would inevitably die while Mavis would likely only look to be in her 30s and his son would continue to live on well past his death. There could’ve been a conflict on whether or not Johnny decides to become a vampire via Mavis so the three can live for hundreds of more years together, or Mavis and Dennis shedding their vampire side to become solely human. I’m honestly surprised that was a concept that was never touched upon. Dealing with the theme of morality and death. It would've been a really poignant message. I had a huge idea for how I would've done it. I feel something with more depth would have been excellent for Genndy to do Johnny was completely fine in the first movie. Being the chill guy that served as an excellent foil to Dracula's high strung, commanding, overprotective personality. He managed to make Drac, and the other monsters see that the world didn't see monsters the same way as they once did, letting him and the others open up and not feel prejudiced. He and Mavis had a rather cute and believable relationship in the first movie. Johnny was so different to other monsters Mavis was around, so it made sense why she'd be drawn to him. Where Johnny really started to falter was HT2, where he never really felt like he had grown at all and matured to become a capable father. In the first, he was 21 and single, not really thinking about relationships. But when 2 starts with them immediately married and yet Johnny shows almost no signs of maturity or character growth between the two movies, it feels... like there was a lot more potential with Johnny. But he was just a consistent manchild throughout the quadrilogy. If I would have written the series out, I would have left the first movie relatively unchanged, maybe making Drac not warm up as fast to Johnny. The real changes begin with the second movie it deals with Johnny learning how to take initiative and mature as a character, possibly helping the hotel as an employee, further reinforcing the connection Johnny has with not only Drac, but the rest of the patrons of the hotel. All the while he and Mavis are still just boyfriend and girlfriend. This would likely be the movie I would have brought Van Helsing back, learning of the location of the hotel via the more publicity they had gotten by the monsters feeling more comfortable venturing outside the hotel more. Leading to an all-out human vs monster war at the hotel. A war between humans who still hate monsters, fearing they will overthrow the humans due to their natural advantages many of them have now that the monsters don't feel the same stigma. By the third movie, when Johnny and Mavis should have been married and Dennis should have been born. This is where Vlad comes in, wanting to see his new grandson. But he thinks Johnny (who he knows is human early on but isn't as concerned since he proved himself to be an ally of monsters in the previous movie) is an unfit parent, outright mocking him in front of everyone, and threatens to take Dennis away for his own protection, teaching him to become a vampire on his own. Now that Johnny has to prove himself, Johnny turns to Drac, Wayne (The wolfman) or his own father for advice on how to be a good father. Let alone being a human raising a half-vampire, it'd certainly come with its share of issues. (It could possibly lead to a lot of funny scenes of Johnny struggling to keep up with Dennis' fledgling and sporadic vampire abilities) The 4th is Johnny, now getting older, in his early 30s, realizing how Mavis now physically looks to be in her early 20s, realizes the weight of his current situation, being a human wedded to a vampire and raising a half-vampiric son. The idea of his wife and their son outliving him makes him depressed. He asks Mavis or Drac to convert him into a vampire, but he learns vampires can't transform people into vampires in this universe, another stereotype brought about by Hollywood. Vampires are simply a monster species. So, he asks Van Helsing if there's anything he can do to help. This could possibly be a way of adding the transformation ray back in. But the ray breaks making Mavis a human and Johnny a vampire. Giving the two their own new experiences living as the other species, with all the positives and negatives. Perhaps Mavis wishes to stay human, allowing her, and Johnny and Dennis to live without the risk of sunlight harming her, and it perhaps gives her more motivation to see the entire world with Johnny before they all pass. Johnny enjoys his powers thinking the idea of immortality is cool, he learns that while he will now be immortal, he also realizes that he will outlive his entire human family, something he feels is unfair. So, the two of them set off to recover the replacement crystal. Dracula has been fine with most other things Mavis has decided for herself, but the idea of her becoming human is a line he refuses to let her cross. He does not want her to die at such a young age, leaving him all alone. But throughout the story, Drac has to learn to finally let go and let her make up her mind. By the end, she chooses to remain human, so she can raise Dennis in a less chaotic environment and Johnny turns back to a human. Leading to a much less saccharine but still happy ending.

I love of with films like Hotel Transylvania and Into the Spider-verse, Cgi is definitely going for more of stylistic 2d feel to it , which honestly conveys to me that the art of traditional animation in theaters isn't completely dead .

I like how they just gloss over the fact that Jonny is going to die hundreds of years before Mavis

Okay so let’s do some math… Mavis in the first movie is 118 and that’s an allegory for being 18. So she would be 18 in human years. 118 divided by 18 is 6.5 (rounded) the average human lifespan is around 75. 75 multiplied by 6.5 is 487 but some people live longer so let’s round up to 500-550. Even assuming that mavis will even age past a certain point she’s gonna outlive Johnny by around 425-475 years…

"This series has a huge online fan base." You mean MAVIS has a huge online fan base?

The conflict in the fourth film could've been a bit better if it was Johnny who actually went through an arc of becoming more responsible while he and Drac went on their adventure, and if the other characters agreed with Drac that Johnny's not capable of running the hotel instead of literally all of them getting pissed at him for it. I never really liked Johnny (even as a kid I thought he was kinda cringey) and yea I wouldn't give my hotel, aka my life's work, to him either he's a complete dipshit. he never changed since his first appearance despite 6+ years passing and him becoming a father. Also kinda weird they never addressed the whole elephant in the room of "Mavis will outlive Johnny" thing, especially after Drac remarried to a human himself.

To me the stories and characters can be hit or miss but something I will ALWAYS enjoy about this franchise is the animation. Where others try to be more realistic with their animation, I've always appreciated the wacky and zany nature of HT's style.

I have to at least give kudos to Brian Hull, the guy who voiced Dracula in the fourth movie, for getting a voice acting role in a mainstream film, since he's mostly known for his voice impressions on RU-vid. He's real damn good at voice impressions, too, though I agree that in HT4 it felt more like he was trying to do an impression of Adam Sandler more than an impression of Dracula. Nonetheless, good for him, and I hope to see him improve and get more big voice acting roles in the future.

for the third film, why did they have drac have a second zing when there’s so much emphasis on the importance of the fact that it can only happen once in the first film - like it adds to the tragedy of drac being a widow, and also the stakes of johnny getting to be with mavis because they’re basically saying you only have one soulmate just seems like they were rewriting the story for convenience, but tbh that’s probably exactly what they were doing and it spawned a maybe 6/10 movie so oh well

Pretty sure Mavis is like over 100 years old. So she probably physically ages very slowly, Johnny has no excuses tho

"Apparently these movies have a huge online fanbase" Me: **Looks at Mavis** Yeah... Wonder why.

I feel they kinda screwed up with the 4th movie. Why not make Johnny a vampire? Then Drac and Johnny would know what its like to walk a mile in each others shoes.

If I could rewrite the second movie, I would make it so that we see how both humans and monsters feel about the existence of Mavis and Johnny’s son. I would have it so that his powers were ALREADY there, so that it’s easier to see the mixed opinions of both sides. Some would be horrified of Dennis’ mixed heritage, others would be totally cool with it. Instead of Dracula being worried whether his grandson is “truly a monster” or whatever, he should be concerned about the SAFETY of Dennis, because of the remaining prejudiced humans, and monsters who think Dracula turned traitor for having his daughter wed and have offspring with a human, might want his grandson dead. We should have had a plot where he’s fighting for his grandson to exist in a mixed world, but without resorting to his old ways and without feeling resentful towards them. Instead of Mavis and Johnny moving to California so that Dennis could be with other humans, I would have it so that they’re trying to find a place that’s safe for the WHOLE FAMILY, where they wouldn’t have to worry about the judgement of the world. Phew, that was a lot. Thanks for reading of you made it this far, aha.

The Hotel Transylvania movies are special movies for my dad and I. Every time a new one came out, we watched them together. The first is definitely the best, with the third close behind. The second was strong until Mavis came back to the hotel (they focused so much on Drac realizing his errors…which were then confused for a different error…that they didn’t focus on how Mavis was no different and even when she’s called out there’s no time for her to realize her faults before Dennis and Winnie run away). And then the fourth…oh dear, it was broken from the start. It’s got so many unfortunate implications since they never cover that Johnny will die before he’s 100 (same with Ericka) while Mavis (and Dracula) will live for millions of years, so Mavis saying Johnny is perfect the way he is means she’s perfectly fine having countless zings in the future. If she really loves Johnny, wouldn’t she want to spend eternity with him? Wouldn’t Johnny want to turn into a monster out of worrying that Mavis will outlive him instead of looking more desirable to Dracula? With Hotel Transylvania 4 giving a reason why they can never be monsters…yeah, it doesn’t exactly feel like a happy ending.

I'm not familiar with Brian Hull, but I thought he sounded good enough for Dracula. Speaking of replacement voice actors, there's also Frankenstein, who was now voiced by Brad Abrell (he's also the voice of Bubble Buddy on SpongeBob).

Ok, the one thing I will point out is that OF COURSE Mavis still looks like a teenager in Hotel Transylvania 2. You yourself stayed that she's already 118 years old in the first movie, so why would she age more in the 6 years span between the first and second movie than she has in the near century since she's stopped being a teenager? And it's especially weird since you pointed out her age in the portion covering the first movie, yet you forgot it here and directed criticism towards her lack of aging during the portion of the video covering the second movie.

I still find it cool that Brian Hull got to replace Sandler for Drac. Brian is an amazing voice actor and hope this is a sign for bigger and better things

LSMark actually stood for “Leroy & Stitch Mark” because he was the biggest Leroy and Stitch fan

As a 90s kid, Genndy Tartakovsky was basically my Butch Hartman. The Hotel Transylvania movies are not his best work (he didn't write them for one) but it's still nice to see you cover him

I remember watching the second movie for the first time and thinking "wow, this could have been a 30 minute episode"

The first hotel Transylvania was always playing at my family Halloween parties, usually to get the little kids to calm down after too much candy and soda. Frankly that's when these movies are best enjoyed, around Halloween with a bunch of October cartoon staples.

I find it funny how the 2nd movie was mildly forgettable, and I only remember the quote of "Whats that thing on your head? Looks like my grandmother's boobies"- because I have the humor of a 5 year old. It's weird how the movies have aged greatly and horribly at the same time- like you can enjoy them if you're bored, but the more you think of it the worse it seems

I actually like the first 2 movies. They follow each other pretty well, and the humour in both are great. The last 2 movies are very redundant and unfunny.

I'm sorry, but if you get the chance to make Mel Brooks say "boobeez," YOU TAKE THAT CHANCE.

I really like the first 3 movies. But, I wish, in the 3rd movie, when Mavis is struggling to accept Drac moving on with someone new, they would have done: Johnny explains to Mavis that he (Johnny) accepts that Mavis and Dennis are immortal(ish?) and will outlive him. And although he loves Mavis and knows that Mavis loves him, after he's gone, when she's ready, he accepts that she would move on, and would almost be sad if all the things he loves about Mavis were never shared with anyone else, because they, and Mavis, are beautiful. Yes, it's cheesy as hell, but better than the 4th movie, would have at least tried to say something, and it would have shown a lot of growth on Johnny's part and been in keeping with his original character imo.

I actually watched the first while having lunch today, and it surprised me how good it was. I guess the sequels made me forget the actual movie.

Honestly I feel like Gennedy Tartakovski wasn’t given that much freedom in the later movies the first movie was nice, the second was ok but after the third I basically gave up

"Most unnecesary sequel" Guys who's gonna tell him about Ralph Breaks the Internet?

I love the deeper meaning of the first 3 movies. In the 1st one, Dracula learns to overcome his fear of what the world will think of his daughter, formed by past trauma. In the 2nd one he learns to accept that his grandson is different from his expectations of him (even though he ends up being a vampire later anyway lol), and in the 3rd one he learns that it’s okay to love again even after his wife died, which is a super deep message for a kids movie if you think about it.

i like Cloudy with a chance of MeatBalls and some of their other movies look like a cgi version of an actual 2d animation it makes it look very nice and unique

Don’t care what anyone says, the first one was great. The second was okay, the third was forgettable and the fourth was unnecessary. But that first was truly great

I actually really like the opening of the second movie for having the characters just continue to live their life across many events, that's why 2 is the best in my opinion. It is just the characters in the first not needing to be high stakes like the other sequels do.

I mean, with how fast that sponsor aged poorly… L stands for loss on this one lol

The first was ok, the second I genuinely dont remember existing or if I've ever watched, 3 was a straight to home video and 4 was a fan made AU level of quality

The flying table scene in the first movie always puts the biggest dumbest grin on my face

The thing that always bugged me the most about the second film is that their son wouldn't be a human or a vampire, he'd be a dampire (pronounced dam-peer) and would only have a few vampiric traits

I believe what we’re seeing with Hotel Transylvania 4 is the dying gasps of a bygone era of animated films. We’ll be seeing less celebrity-packed comedies, and more standalone films driven by creativity and technique. The horrible new Ice Age movie is also an indicator of that.

I’m glad Mark agrees with me that Johnny became an annoying idiot in the 4th movie

I wonder how a Hotel Transylvania series handled by Gendy would be like rather than the one done in Canada.

The voice of Drac in the fourth film is Brian Hull, an acclaimed impressionist on RU-vid.

That sponsor didn’t age well lmao

Mel Brooks as Vlad is the best part of Hotel Transylvania 2 and 3

At least we can all agree Dracula doesn't say blah blah blah

5:58 "wish she was more fleshed out" Me:*Gulp*

I love the fact there is not one, BUT TWO, pieces of animation about a vampire and a human man named Jonathan

i love how mavis is canonically 118 years old, and marries a human who looks to be about 100 years younger (edited for innacuracy)

I recently saw the first one on Nickelodeon and thought it was pretty good, nothing amazing but a fun animated film, in my opinion they ran out of ideas ever since the third one

Interesting fact: Peter Baynham, co-writer of the first movie, also wrote the Borat films, as well as Sony/Aardman's Arthur Christmas and tons of great British comedy shows. I actually do like the Hotel T. sequels, but it's safe to say the first one benefitted greatly from Baynham's influence.

I thought the first one was fine, but they lost me on the second one. I thought it had a nice character development, with Dracula coming to terms with the fact that his grandson is not a vampire, and that he should love him for what he is, and not for what Drac wished he was... and then they immediately ruined it when it turned out that Dennis actually was a vampire

I thought Brian Hull did okay as Dracula. He's not as good as Sandler, but I didn't think it was shitty. 😕

I actually got to meet one of the actors of the Hotel Transylvania movies (Asher Blinkoff) at an amusement park. I don’t remember why we started talking, but I do remember that we went on a ride together.

The invisible man not being incredibly hot was a missed opportunity. Watched the first one, and the second one and then never touched the franchise ever again.

I’ll never not be impressed by the storyboarding in these movies. There’s so much personality in how the characters behave and interact with each other.

Not going to lie I thought 2 was two separate movies the first being drac wanting his grand kid being a vampire and the third movie having Drac’s dad I didn’t remember it was one movie 💀💀

The plot is just Dracula being Racist 💀 That's *EVERY* Movie.

If there's anything i want in one of these HT films it's to give Johnny an arc or so which would allow him to grow and mature. Like in the second film instead of Johnny and Mavis getting married and having a kid right off the back the second film should focus on Johnny and Mavis traveling the world together and for the arc you could remove Dennis and replace him with Johnny and everything could stay the same with Vlad surprised seeing Johnny as a human and all but Mavis and Drac and the others would defend him and i guess you know the rest and this would probable give Johnny character development.

Okay, Real shit, I did not know they replaced Dracula’s voice, I could not tell at all

24:18 as an amphibia/TOH fan i actually agree with you, The Owl house does have a very stiff-looking animation, and the thick lines make it even more obvious, it looks almost flash animated. Amphibia does have a much better animation than TOH imo.

The first 3 movies were really good (especially the first movie), but I really did not like the 4th movie. It should've ended with the 3rd movie.

I wish they waited before having Mavis and Johnny immediately have a baby. I think I wouldve enjoyed a goofy wedding movie a lot more, especially since Adam Sandler was directing it and he's written thousands of "big fat Greek wedding" style scenes. I would've liked if they explored their relationship more rather than just right in the sequel she is pregnant like damn. 💀 We haven't even questioned Johnny's mortality yet or how he gets along with the other in-laws! Edit: I am now realizing I actually just wanted shrek 2 😭

I actually keep in touch with someone who also worked on the second season of the animated series. Said something about having to draw an awful lot of skeleton hands. I still haven't seen the series, though.

1 & 2 were good in my opinion. 3 was a hit and miss. 4 was like. WTF?! I also believe this was also a reference to Castlevania.

I almost wonder if this franchise would've been better as a TV show, so that the more basic plot structures don't get stretched out as much and there's more time to spend with the individual characters. EDIT: Holy crap I should've watched the whole video first

you didnt mention the fact that dracula's dad is voiced by freaking mel brooks

Timestamps 3:55 Hotel Transylvania 11:19 Hotel Transylvania 2 18:03 Hotel Transylvania 3 Sumer Vaction 23:41 Hotel Transylvania The Series 25:10 Hotel Transylvania 4 Transformania

i really wish they changed mavis's appearance between the first and second movie. i know she's a vampire and doesn't age, but there's a 7 year timeskip between the movies, they couldn't have changed mavis's outfit to distinguish from her teenage self? like, she's literally a mother now...

12:34 um did you really just complain about a vampire not aging??

I find it hilarious that Dracula actually kinda looks like Adam Sandler

Are we gonna talk about the fact that Mavis is like 80 years older than Johnathan?

I wish they introduced Alucard sooner to the story

Okay, but the first two films’ end credits songs are utter BANGERS.

Hotel Transylvania 2 really wanted fan service for pregnant Mavis. The amount of shot they showed of pregnant Mavis. You know they wanted fan fictions, deviantart and vore drawings of it. And they succeeded

Is it just me, or is the “Gremlin Airways” thing in the third movie supposed to be reference to the Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. Cause if so, that has to be one of the most clever jokes I ever heard😂.

in my opinion, the first one is pretty good, nothing breathtaking, but something the whole family could enjoy. then i completely gave up on it.

I like the first and the second one. The third one was OK but the Krakens ‘s song is fire. Haven’t seen the fourth one

Established titles is a scam

I think the first one is very wholesome and cute with a nice message. It’s not the best movie in the world or anything but it’s a fun movie to watch especially for kids around Halloween.

Adam Sandler went really silent since Hotel Transylvania 4 dropped

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs was my favorite movie as a kid 🍝 I remember watching it and theaters in 3D.

The second one was the best one for me. It expanded on the ideas of the first film, it had a lot of cute and memorable moments (Drac and Dennis dancing comes to mind), many of the jokes made me laugh, there were no moments of cringe, and the final battle was very well animated. Sure, it's not an animated masterpiece or anything, but it wasn't trying to be. It was just trying to be a fun sequel to a flawed yet memorable movie and I think it succeeded. Plus, "I'm in Love with a Monster" by Fifth Harmony still slaps HARD.

Johnny's character design is so oddly close to LS Mark's character

about Drac's replacement voice in HT4: it's actually a youtuber, Brian Hull, getting his first BIG voice acting break. so I still want to give thje movie at least partial applause for taking that chance. honestly I feel like part of hte issue though is wel as you said, he's trying ot do an adam sandler impression. he's not doing his OWN take, he's trying to do his best to literally be the EXACT same that adam sandler was, and I think thats where the struggle comes from. Brian has a HUGE vocal range, I just feel like due to directing or something he may not have been able to flex it

I do love how the designs improve as the movies go on. They start off basic and then get more and more in line with what you see in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Hey, how does Steve Buscemi playing a depressed werewolf dad sound like a turnoff?

That sponsor didn't age well

Yes, And I’m sick pretending that they’re not .

Credit to Hotel transylvania, that movies dance party ending makes sense, since it's supposed to be a birthday party. Not many movies have a dance party ending that makes sense lol

When I was a kid, I always wanted the Hotel Transylvania sequel to be about Mavis and Johnny traveling across the world like the first movie hinted at. Maybe Erika hunts them along the way and when Dracula finds out, he rushes out to try to save them only for her to catch him instead, and now Mavis and Johnny have to save him. The part with Erika was recently thought of, but the part where Mavis and Johnny travel the world was something I wanted to see as a kid.

24:20 owl house has some of the most fluid animated fight scenes I've ever seen and I will die on that hill

It's a little bit of a shame that Sony won't let Genndy make some other films besides Hotel. There was that Popeye film that could've been really cool but I just want to see what else Genndy can do with a completely different film. I feel like Primal kinda shows what can be done with just animation and visuals and id love to see Genndy apply that to something new.

Surprised you didn't mention how good surf's ups animation was. Like it was stylised yet realistic where it counted. The water was insanely good looking and the use of a real camera rig to emulate a documentary camera crew was amazing. It honestly deserves a review. So like, do one :D

12:48 I just noticed Drac still wears his wedding ring. what a sweet detail