Hotel Transylvania: Transformania – Film Review

Van Helsing’s (voice of Jim Gaffigan) mysterious new invention transforms Drac (voice of Brian Hull) and his pals into humans, and Johnny (voice of Andy Samberg) into a monster. With their new mismatched bodies, Drac and the pack must find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent.

One of my favorite moviegoing experiences of all time was when my childhood best friend and I went to our local theatre to see the very first Hotel Transylvania film back in 2012. To this day, I think the film is incredibly cute with tons of great laughs all around. The sequel? Even better. The third one was where I finally became totally disconnected from the series because it was apparent to me that they were going to milk the series to the point of absurdity.

Sadly, I was right.

I had a strange feeling about this film as soon as I found out that Adam Sandler was no longer going to be the voice of Drac, but rather Brian Hull, who is best known for his admittedly incredibly impressions of cartoon characters over on his YouTube channel. But even still, if Adam Sandler doesn’t want to be a part of a series anymore, that’s never really a good sign is it? That, plus the fact that it was eventually announced to be an Amazon Prime Video Original movie and would skip theatres didn’t ease my worries either.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is just as forgettable and bland as the third entry that came before it. It doesn’t do anything offensively bad whatsoever and it’s not difficult to watch, it’s just the textbook definition of “meh”. You might watch this movie and have a couple of laughs here and there. Some moments are cute and fun to watch. But at the end of the day, you’ll probably forget this movie even exists a day or two after watching it.

This is the first movie in the series not to be directed by Genndy Tartakovsky too, and his absence feels noticeable. It’s nice to see that he still helped co-write the script, but the direction by Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon just doesn’t feel as exciting or fresh. It’s also a film that treads tired ground. Sure, the concept is super fun and there is a lot of entertaining potential to be found with that synopsis mentioned above, but the film doesn’t do anything new or different with it. It basically just plays out exactly how you think it does.

Just like every other film in the franchise, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania looks absolutely gorgeous. The folks over at Sony Pictures Animation seriously know what they’re doing when it comes to crafting bold, vibrant animation styles and it shows in each and every installment of this series. And similar to the other films, this fourth entry has a great voice cast that brings their all.

Andy Samberg is funny and charming as Johnny, who gets transformed into a monster in this film. Although the script does next to nothing in terms of developing his character, it’s always a treat to hear Samberg getting deeply into the role. Selena Gomez is brimming with personality and energy once again in the role of Mavis, but it was definitely disappointing to see her take a big backseat this time around. She feels like a side character this time around, which is strange considering she has almost always been the secondary protagonist throughout the series up to this point.

And gratefully, Brian Hull does a good job in the role of Dracula. In fact, if I hadn’t learned that Sandler was no longer the voice of Dracula before watching the film, I probably would’ve went the entire film thinking that I was hearing Sandler’s voice. Hull is an incredible impressionist, and in the role of Dracula, he more than proves himself to be a terrific voice actor as well.

Is this movie going to be adored by young children? Probably. Lots of kids are going to get a kick out of simply seeing these series staple monsters turn into humans or vice versa. There are some good jokes injected in here every once in a while too. But ultimately, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania doesn’t do a whole lot to justify its existence other than to make some bank for the studios.