Hotel Transylvanie 3 : Des vacances monstrueuses

Visually great, fun music, entertaining concept, talented cast and yet I don't remember laughing out loud. Not even once.

The first two movies are extremely fun and well made cartoon movies. They have the feel of a silly Saturday morning cartoon with some of the most quirky animation in modern movies. They also had some heart and a really interesting stories.

This one throws all of the heart and story out in favor of full on cartoon silliness and makes it the worst entry in the series.

The animation is still some amazingly well done cartoony animation. It's not the technical marvel that Pixar movies are, but it really does the cartoon aspect of it well.

There's still some fun gags to watch, but a lot of this movie relies on those over dialogue or an interesting story. There are 3-4 scenes where there are no dialogue and just end up being really kind of dull. I know it's a kids movie, but there's just scenes in it that really feel aimless and are gags that just go on for way too long. It makes 50% of the movie just feel like filler to spread out the simple plot to a 90 mins to entertain kids.

Drac and his love interest are the main focus in this and most of the other characters become tertiary and are no more than glorified background characters.

It's still got enough of the wacky animation and outlandish humor, but it kind of feels like they didn't have enough to do with the plot. The first two held my interest the whole way through, but this one was just filled with way too many extended bits that go on for way too long and just feel aimless. It's very reminiscent of how Minions has those extended scenes of the minions doing some silly event that derails the movie for 5 mins and has no impact on the story.

Here's hoping the 4th in the series has more to it and can keep it intriguing for the adults too.

The first 'Hotel Transylvania' was surprisingly good, after expecting to dislike it. The second film garnered mixed reviews, though a fair few of them had been negative, some thought it was great fun while others disliked it intensely. Personally am in the former.

'Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation' is the second sequel and also got mixed reviews. Some people, like the first two films, enjoyed it a lot, again others disliked and even hated it. Personally belong in the former camp. 'Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation' is less than perfect, could have been much better and like the second film is inferior to the first film, but it was again much better than expected and was quite enjoyable in its own way.

Starting with the many good points, the animation is great, vibrantly colourful, vivid, never blocky and meticulously detailed. The character designs are very much improved, though never had a problem with them in the first place. The soundtrack is very catchy and fits very well.

Dialogue is witty and hilarious, avoiding going into distaste and immaturity. And the gags hit more than they miss, coming by thick and fast, one highlight being a booby trap-laden dance scene. The fast pace and good natured antics make 'Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation' a very easy watch for the whole family. The message is sincere and easy to relate to, giving the film some heart without being heavy-handed.

Voice acting is on the money, Adam Sandler's Dracula in all three films sees him give some of his better work in recent years. Kathryn Hahn is a great addition and Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez improve hugely over the previous film. The standouts for me were Steve Buscemi (as ever), Kevin James and David Spade, the last two giving some of their funniest and best work of late.

For all those good things there are faults. Parts did get a bit too hectic and noisy and the story is basic and predictable with a few side-stories not serving much point.

Would have liked the secondary characters to have more screen time, character development generally is lacking and a few characters are near-incidental to the plot. Also expected a stronger finale than the anaemic one that goes overboard on the silliness.

Overall though, a good fun time. 7/10 Bethany Cox

"Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation" / "Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation" is just as okay as its predecessor, "Hotel Transylvania 2." The major difference is that this one has far better animation.

If you've seen the previous movies, you know what's up. And you'll know the characters and you'll get the jokes you expect this to make. And you get a bonus love story on top of that. Now you don't have to have seen the other movies to "enjoy" this. Actually especially young kids who watch this may not have been born when the others were released.

Again, this aims to please the kids and Adam Sandler is doing another fun/children movie. You can hate it on it for multiple reasons or accept it for what it is, if it doesn't float your boat. It's not excellent, it's not a masterpiece (quite far away from it), it does exactly what it says on the cover. Nothing more and nothing less either.