Hotel Transylvania 2


Hotel Transylvania 2 is a 2015 American 3D computer animated comedy film, the second installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to the 2012 film Hotel Transylvania, with its director, Genndy Tartakovsky, and writer, Robert Smigel, returning for the film. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, it was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, with an additional funding provided by LStar Capital.
Hotel Transylvania 2 depicts events taking place 7 years after the first film, with the hotel now open to human guests. Mavis and Johnny have a young son named Dennis, whose lack of any vampire abilities worries his grandfather Dracula. When Mavis and Johnny go on a visit to Johnny's parents, Drac calls his friends to help him make Dennis a vampire. Soon, things turn upside-down when Drac's old-school human-hating father Vlad unexpectedly visits the hotel.
Original voices from the first film — Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher, Rob Riggle, Sadie Sandler, Jonny Solomon, Luenell, Chris Parnell, and Jon Lovitz — returned for the sequel, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray. New additions to the cast include Asher Blinkoff, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey, and Mel Brooks. The film was released on September 25, 2015, by Columbia Pictures and was a box office success, grossing $474 million worldwide on an $80 million budget.
A third film, titled , was released on July 13, 2018, with a fourth film set for release on August 6, 2021.

Plot

After the events of the first film, Mavis and her new fiancé Johnny are finally married, with the approval of her father Dracula, and the world becomes aware, and unafraid of the existence of monsters. Mavis later reveals to Drac that she is pregnant and later, she gives birth to a baby boy named Dennis.
As Dennis' 5th birthday nears, he has yet to grow his fangs and Drac worries that his grandson might not gain vampire powers. Noticing the potential dangers of Transylvania, Mavis starts to consider raising Dennis where Johnny grew up, much to Drac's disapproval. Drac tells Johnny to bring Mavis to California to visit his parents, Mike and Linda, but to make sure to keep her distracted so that she will not move, leaving Drac to "babysit" Dennis. Drac enlists his friends Frank, Wayne, Griffin, Murray and Blobby to help train Dennis to become a monster, to no avail.
Drac takes Dennis to his childhood summer camp, Camp Winnepacaca, where he learned to hone his vampire abilities and discovers that the camp is safer than it was when he went there. Drac stubbornly believes Dennis is a "late fanger", so he hurls Dennis from a tall, unstable tower to pressure the boy's transformation into a bat. Dennis, however, does not transform and Drac has to fly down and rescue him at the last second. The stunt is filmed by the campers and uploaded to the Internet, which eventually reaches Johnny and Mavis. Mavis angrily transforms into a bat to get herself and Johnny back to Transylvania. Drac and his friends reach the hotel a couple of seconds after Mavis. She confronts her father for putting Dennis in grave danger and his inability to accept that he is human. She states she will move out of the hotel after Dennis' 5th birthday the following Wednesday. Drac hangs his head with deep guilt after Mavis tells him that he may have let humans into the hotel, but hasn't let them into his heart.
Mavis invites Vlad, her grandfather and Drac's father, to Dennis' birthday party. As Vlad is much worse than he was when it comes to humans, Drac tells Johnny to have the human party-goers disguise themselves as monsters. Vlad receives the invitation and arrives with his monstrous bat-like servant Bela to meet his great-grandson for the first time. Meeting him, he believes that fear will cause Dennis' fangs to sprout and possesses a stage performer dressed as Dennis' favorite TV monster "Kakie the Cake Monster" to scare Dennis, but Drac shields his frightened grandson at the last moment, breaks Vlad's hold over the performer, and exposes the deception to Vlad, who is outraged that Drac has accepted humans as guests in his hotel and let Johnny and Dennis be human. Drac confronts Vlad about how humans are different now. Mavis becomes upset with her grandfather's behavior. While the family argues, Dennis sadly flees the hotel and enters the forest with Wayne's daughter, Winnie, who has a crush on Dennis, in tow, hiding in her treehouse.
They are attacked by Bela, who mistakes Dennis for a human. When Bela injures Winnie and threatens to destroy the hotel, Dennis' anger causes him to instantly grow his fangs and his vampire abilities manifest. He begins to fight Bela, who calls his giant-bat minions. Drac, Johnny, Mavis, Dennis, the Loughran family, and the rest of the monsters team up to defeat Bela's minions and drive them away. A livid Bela then attempts to kill Johnny himself with a stake. However, having been won over by Drac's claim that humans now coexist peacefully, Vlad shrinks Bela and tells him never to bother his family again, saving Johnny. Bela then tries to flee, but is caught and licked excessively by the werewolf pups. With Dennis having vampire abilities, Johnny and Mavis decide to continue raising him in Transylvania, and they resume the party with his friends and family.

Voice cast

Director Genndy Tartakovsky commented about the possibility of the sequel in October 2012, "Everyone is talking about it, but we haven't started writing it. There are a lot of fun ideas we could totally play with. It's a ripe world." The next month it was announced that a sequel had been greenlit, and was scheduled for release on September 25, 2015. On March 12, 2014, it was announced that Tartakovsky would return to direct the sequel, even though he was originally too busy due to his developing an adaptation of Popeye, which would later get shelved.
It was suggested by director Genndy Tartakovsky that Adam Sandler had more creative control over this film than its predecessor and that at times he was difficult to work with.

Music

In March 2015, it was announced that Mark Mothersbaugh, who scored the first film, had signed on to score the sequel.
American girl group Fifth Harmony recorded a song for the film entitled "I'm in Love with a Monster". It was featured in the film's official trailer and was also played when the film itself was released.

Soundtrack

  1. "Vlad's Intro"
  2. "GDFR" – Flo Rida featuring Sage the Gemini and Lookas
  3. "I'm in Love with a Monster" – Fifth Harmony
  4. "Worth It" – Fifth Harmony featuring Kid Ink
  5. "Sledgehammer Trouble" – Fifth Harmony and Iggy Azalea featuring Jennifer Hudson
  6. "I Have Nothing" – Ariana Grande
  7. "Reputation" – Fifth Harmony and Pia Mia
  8. "Focus" – Ariana Grande
  9. "Saved by the Bell" – Todrick Hall featuring Taylor Swift
  10. "Kingdom Come" – Demi Lovato featuring Iggy Azalea
  11. "Funny Talent Skit"
  12. "Goin' Down for Real" – Rita Ora featuring Iggy Azalea
  13. "Bang Dem Sticks" – Meghan Trainor
  14. "The Best Part" – Bebe Rexha
  15. "Movie Theater Skit"
  16. "Grown" – Little Mix
  17. "Movie Theater Camp Skit"
  18. "Sledgehammer Part II – Fifth Harmony featuring Iggy Azalea

    Release

released the film in the United States on September 25, 2015.

Home media

Hotel Transylvania 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12, 2016, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film was also released in Digital HD on December 22, 2015.

Reception

Box office

Hotel Transylvania 2 has grossed $169.7 million in North America and $303.5 million elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $473 million, against a budget of $80 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $159.48 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film. It was Sony Pictures Animation's highest grossing film worldwide until its sequel, ', surpassed it in September 2018, with ' also surpassing the film's domestic gross in January 2019.
Predictions for the opening of Hotel Transylvania 2 in North America were continuously revised upwards, starting from $35—$48 million. Hotel Transylvania 2 earned $13.3 million from 3,754 theaters on its opening day in North America, which was the second-biggest Friday opening day in September, behind Insidious Chapter 2. During its opening weekend, Hotel Transylvania 2 earned $48.5 million from 3,754 theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Sony Pictures Animation film, the biggest opening in Adam Sandler's career, beating 2005's The Longest Yard, and previously held the biggest opening in the month of September. Regarding the film's successful opening, Josh Greenstein, Sony's president of marketing said, "We had a great date, and this is a big win for Sony Pictures Animation." The largest demographic of the opening weekend audience was under the age of 25 and female, followed by male, 25 and over and kids. According to Rentrak's PostTrak reports, 23% of the audience bought tickets because it was an animated film, while 16% were attracted to the toon's subject matter and plot.
Hotel Transylvania 2 was released in a total of 90 countries. It was released in 42 markets between September 25 and 27, 2015, the same weekend as its North American release, and earned $30.18 million from 6,500 screens that weekend. Its overall rank for the weekend was second, behind Everest. Its opening weekends in the U.K., Ireland and Malta, Mexico, South Korea, Russia and the CIS, Germany, Italy and France and Spain in October represented its largest takings. In China, it opened with an estimated $12.1 million debuting at second place behind the Chinese local film The Witness which grossed $18.5 million. While the China figures are low in comparison to recent Hollywood movie openings, it actually excelled the first film's local lifetime gross by 19% in just the first six days. In terms of total earnings, its largest market outside of North America is the U.K. followed by Mexico and Venezuela.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a rating of 56%, based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 5.24/10. The site's consensus states: "Hotel Transylvania 2 is marginally better than the original, which may or may not be enough of a recommendation to watch 89 minutes of corny, colorfully animated gags from Adam Sandler and company." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In CinemaScore polls, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.
Max Nicholson of IGN awarded it a score of 6.5 out of 10, saying "While Genndy Tartakovsky's animation is top-notch, Hotel Transylvania 2 doesn't live up to the first monster mash." Nick Schager of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "Its plot comes across as just a rickety skeleton designed to prop up Sandler and company's litany of cornball punchlines and gags, only a few of which cleverly play-off of these characters' iconography" Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying "Whereas the jokes in the Grown Ups series feel reactionary and bullying, the family-friendly Hotel Transylvania gags instead come off as clever and humane, even when they're making fun of helicopter moms and lawsuit-sensitive summer camps." Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "Great movies like ParaNorman and Frankenweenie showed the laughs you could get out of funny fiends; Hotel Transylvania 2 just digs up a few corny gags." Bruce Demara of the Toronto Star gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "While the first Hotel Trans had humour for both younger and older audiences, this one will likely fall short in its appeal to adults, although there's plenty for the little monsters to enjoy."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film one out of four stars, saying "Hotel Transylvania 2 is an unfortunate throwback to about 20 years ago, when animated movies were more widely accepted as cinematic babysitters." Sandie Angulo Chen of The Washington Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Tartakovsky hasn't created the sort of sequel that eclipses the original, but then again the original wasn't exactly Toy Story or How to Train Your Dragon." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+, saying "It's an episodic, energetically animated gag factory from the pen of Adam Sandler, and while it's the best screenplay to bear his name in years, it also warps some overfamiliar family-movie concerns until they become unavoidable in their ickiness." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying "This time around, greater attention has been paid to story and character development and the substantial results give the ample voice cast and returning director Genndy Tartakovsky more to sink their teeth into, with pleasing results." Josh Kupecki of The Austin Chronicle gave the film one out of five stars, saying "Channeling your inner child, you may find solace in Hotel Transylvania 2, but in the end it has no bite, doing continued disservice to the Universal monsters it scabs out, and adding another soiled feather to Sandler's cap of mediocrity."

Accolades

Sequels

Michelle Murdocca, the film's producer, said before the film's release that the studio was "talking about number 3 and moving forward and taking the franchise to the next level." On November 2, 2015, it was announced Hotel Transylvania 3 will be released on September 21, 2018. Despite previously leaving the series to direct other projects, Genndy Tartakovsky will return as director for this installment. According to Tartakovsky, he returned after he got an inspiration from a "miserable" family vacation. Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Andy Samberg will also reprise their previous roles as Drac, Mavis and Johnny in the film, which is being written by Austin Powers writer Michael McCullers. The film will take place aboard a cruise ship. On February 6, 2017, the release date was moved up to July 13, 2018. On February 26, 2019, Sony Pictures Animation announced that a fourth film will be released on December 21, 2021. On April 24, 2020, it was announced that it would be moved to August 6 of the same year.