{"id":104106,"date":"2018-07-27T15:43:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=104106"},"modified":"2018-07-30T11:07:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T10:07:43","slug":"hotel-transylvania-3-a-monster-vacation-film-review-a-trip-worth-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/hotel-transylvania-3-a-monster-vacation-film-review-a-trip-worth-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation film review: a trip worth taking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d think that Disney Pixar\u2019s Incredibles 2<\/em><\/strong> would have been enough to frighten off any<\/em> children\u2019s animations from being released in cinemas around the same time but it turns out Hotel<\/strong> Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation<\/strong><\/em> doesn\u2019t spook so easily. (It\u2019s understandable; they\u2019re the ones that are usually doing the scaring after all, right?)<\/p>\n

It might be fairer to say that they\u2019re doing all the comedy, as this instalment is undoubtedly the funniest of the lot. Once again, it centres on Adam Sandler\u2019s charismatic Count Dracula, whose daughter Mavis notices that he\u2019s been acting a little odd lately. In truth, the Lord of Darkness\u2019s recent mood swings are because he\u2019s been feeling lonely, but Mavis mistakes his behaviour for being stressed out at work and encourages Drac and the gang to take a vacation.<\/p>\n

Said break has them hopping aboard a luxury cruise, exclusively for not-so-imaginary creatures, and seeing all kinds of dazzling new sights. (No, we\u2019re not just talking about Drac\u2019s lairy Hawaiian shirts). By taking the monsters out of the titular dwelling, the characters get the chance to explore a gremlin-run airline, the Bermuda Triangle, the site of an underwater volcano and the lost city of Atlantis; settings that make for some colourful set-pieces that are sure to delight younger audience members. Mavis riding a whale, Blobby making a beach parasol from his green, goo-like body and a giant kraken serenading them as they walk into a neon-lit casino are just a few examples.<\/p>\n

The jokes come thick and fast throughout and older viewers might be surprised to see some more grown-up gags about using social media to find love, the delicate balance of juggling a holiday romance and family fun-time and the sweet relief you feel when you discover your resort has a cr\u00e8che, mixed in with slapstick silliness and flatulence-based funnies.<\/p>\n

Seeing as this is their third run as these characters, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Sandler do skilled, comfortable work as young vampire mother Mavis, her hippy husband Johnny and Drac respectively. Elsewhere, kid-favourite characters such as Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi), Murray the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) and Frank the\u2026 well\u2026 Frankenstein\u2019s monster, who is voiced by Kevin James, don\u2019t have all <\/em>that much to say this time round.<\/p>\n

Instead, it focuses more heavily on human newbies Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) and his great granddaughter Ericka (Kathryn Hayn), the cruise\u2019s Captain who has a legacy to fulfil and a complicated relationship with the ship\u2019s most infamous vampire guest to navigate. \u00a0Both prove decent additions but their arcs are painfully predictable, zapping what little mystery the plot possessed as soon as they are introduced.<\/p>\n

Its need to play it safe has always been where the Hotel Transylvania <\/em><\/strong>universe, which now consists of three films, several video games and a TV series \u2013 (it may well be trying to outdo Dracula\u2019s immortality) \u2013 has let itself down most across the years. Just because it\u2019s catered towards children, doesn\u2019t mean it has to dumb down each film\u2019s story as much as it tends to do.<\/p>\n

That being said, Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation<\/em><\/strong> has enough going for it that little ones \u2013 and perhaps even some big ones \u2013 are still likely to be entertained. It\u2019s fairly forgettable but for those who enjoyed its predecessors, this monster mash is a cruise line smash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hotel Transylvania franchise keeps playing it safe but A Monster Vacation will make fans happy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":104108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/636668411902307808-hotel-transylvania-3-dom-HTR3-wta400.1002-lm-v1-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}