RageLite Review - Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster (Summer) Vacation (A Strange Halloween 2)

After 2 Hotel movies, they’ve run out of steam

And needed the action set someplace pristine

A mockery of sorts to Sandler’s film schemes

He films for a holiday with friends, so it seems

A major departure could shake up the game

New prospects for jokes, that aren’t kinda lame

Only the third film is yet to be seen

It’s a Monster Vacation on a Strange Halloween

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation or Summer Vacation for the Americans reading this was released in 2018 and despite being released in the summer, usually a fairly crowded movie period, it earned $580m on an $80m budget. Why did Spider-verse only make $375m again?

New team of writers, Genndy Tartakovsky, who has experience with CW cartoons including favourites like Samurai Jack, he also directed both of the previous movies so knows this franchise pretty well, Michael McCullers joins him. His most recent other works include Boss Baby, *sigh* and he’s apparently working on Shrek 5, be prepared for when that comes out, eventually. Still, he seems to have experience with comedy which should be good for this, right?

When it comes to critical response, more critics seem to like it than the audience, that isn’t unheard of (see the reaction to The Last Jedi, which I still enjoy btw) but whilst the critic score averages out at 5.45/10, the audience score averages 3.2/5, so is this the best of worst one yet? Let’s take a look.

RageLite review - Hotel Transylvania 2 (A Strange Halloween 2)

A Hotel for monsters, cliché, what a bore

But something about it left folks wanting more

Was it the crisp animation, fluid and quick

Or was it the story, that thought makes me sick

The child of Dracula meets the guy of her dreams

But true love is not always as it seems

Will the sequel zing, a love that is true?

A Strange Halloween: Hotel Transylvania 2

Hotel Transylvania 2 came out in 2015, with much of the same cast and crew as the first one, the only difference I can see is in the writers. Before, Robert Smigel and Peter Baynham wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Todd Durham, and Dan and Kevin Hageman, this time Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel wrote the story themselves.

The movie was successful, making $473m on a $80m budget but that doesn’t mean it faired any better critically, it didn’t.

RageLite review - Hotel Transylvania (A Strange Halloween 2)

A Hotel for monsters, a novel idea

Told again and again, for all to hear

Comedians notorious brought into the fray

For a comedy, light-hearted, make of that what you may

3 films have been made, all profitable too

But those that rated it highly were few

So how do they rank among the films I have seen?

Find out as we resume A Strange Halloween

Hotel Transylvania was an idea created by Todd Durham, a comedy writer mostly known for skits and sketches. He created a bible with various idea for characters, plots, theme park rides and such, and sold it to Sony, who saw $$$ in this project and green-lit it. And despite the films themselves getting mixed reception and making but not Disney levels of money at the box office, the franchise, as a whole, has been massively successful, making billions of dollars for Sony.

So, for the first 3 weeks of A Strange Halloween 2 (I’m gonna keep my Luke Cage reviews going for now) we’ll be looking at what goes on in this hotel of Horror. Let’s start with the first film.