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411 Attends Sony Pictures Animation Preview of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

April 20, 2018 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
Hotel Transylvania 3

Earlier this month, 411mania had the chance to attend a special preview of Sony Pictures Animation’s next upcoming feature, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. The latest installment of the animated franchise debuts in theaters later this summer, and it will coincide with Friday the 13th in July. Animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory, Sym-Bionic Titan, Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2) is back to take the reins as director, and this time he also serves co-writer and voices the fan-favorite character of Blobby.

Hotel Transylvania 3

Tartakovsky’s return to the franchise was actually very surprising, considering he said after the last movie, “I’m done!” The director was in attendance to oversee the presentation event and noted the change. He explained he ended up coming back since he got to write the story and not just direct it this time.

Additionally, Tartakovsky came up with a great idea for a premise for the third film that was inspired by a real-life family trip, where Tartakovsky went on a cruise vacation with his family and his in-laws. That became the story he ultimately told for Hotel Transylvania 3.

The preview introduced some of the film’s new characters, which finally introduce monster hunters into the franchise with Abraham Van Helsing, voiced by Jim Gaffigan, and his great-granddaughter, Ericka Van Helsing, who is voiced by Kathryn Hahn.

Another new character in the film is Invisible Man’s new girlfriend, Crystal, who is voiced by world-renowned supermodel Chrissy Teigen. This doesn’t appear to be a major subplot, but one of the new developments for the character of Griffin (David Spade). Also, Mel Brooks is back as Dracula’s dad, Vlad, and has joined the family on their trip.

Griffin, the invisible man (David Spade) with Crystal, the invisible woman (Chrissy Teigen) in Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION.

The first clip shown featured an entertaining train chase. The time period appears to be set in the past, as a much younger Van Helsing stalks and is hunting down Count Dracula (Adam Sandler), Murray (Keegan-Michael Key), and Frank (Kevin James) aboard a commercial train. The monsters are trying to hide in disguise before Van Helsing discovers him. High jinks of course ensue as the monsters have to run for their lives from the deranged hunter.

Back to the present, and Mavis (Selena Gomez) is concerned about her father. Ultimately, the inciting action is Mavis misunderstanding that her father is lonely and wants a mate and believes he needs a break and a vacation instead. So, Mavis is the one who comes up with the idea of taking the entire family and their friends on a getaway monster cruise vacation.

The first clip between Mavis and Dracula shows Dracula trying to use a dating app on his smartphone. It’s a monster dating app dubbed “Zingr,” get it? Dracula’s attempts at using it fail, and he’s trying to hide his loneliness from Mavis who believes her dad is just tired and wants a break and decides to book everyone on vacation.

The next scene is probably every flyers’ dream as the monster family is taking Gremlin Airlines to the Bermuda Triangle. For Gremlin Airlines, imagine the Penguins from the Madagascar series trying to fly a jet, and then imagine they were evil demons, or gremlins for the sake of Hotel Transylvania. What’s actually pretty amusing was that this sequence probably isn’t much of an exaggeration compared to flying commercial airlines in real life.

The Gremlin Airlines jet after a while crashes into the ocean, taking the monsters to their initial destination: the Bermuda Triangle. Here’s where the film’s wonderful visuals really start to open up, and it appears that Summer Vacation will have the most eye candy and stunning visuals compared to any of the previous iterations. The Bermuda Triangle is envisioned in the film as a large triangle sitting in the middle of the ocean that forms adjacent waterfalls to the bottom. It’s just one giant junkyard stacked of derelict ships. Here’s where the monsters board their cruise.

Another animated sequence showed Dracula loosening up and enjoying his vacay, while Ericka Van Helsing is in the background trying to kill him. Going by the trailers and what was shown, Dracula romantically falls for Ericka, who is secretly working for the monster cruise to try and kill Dracula at he behest of her great-grandfather. This sequence featured Dracula dancing to what appeared to be a riff on James Brown music alongside his buddy Blobby, oblivious to Ericka attempting to kill him or dismember him in the background. Instead, her attempts continuously and narrowly miss Dracula and hit Blobby instead.

Amusingly, Blobby is also completely oblivious to the torture Ericka is inflicting on him. It was especially funny how right after getting smashed or chopped by Ericka, Blobby would pop right back up next to Drac and continue dancing along with him. Fans who enjoyed Blobby in the second movie will be happy to know he will likely steal the show again in Summer Vacation.

The last major animation sequence showed the monsters arriving at their final cruise destination, which is the lost city of Atlantis. The monster version of Atlantis is basically Las Vegas of the sea. As the ship is about to disembark, it’s enrolled in the tentacles of a giant octopus or “Kraken,” who is turns out to be a friendly, smooth lounge singer voiced by Joe Jonas, who serenades the vacation goers as they land on Atlantis. Atlantis looks like another set-piece where Tartakovsky and his animators really flexed their visual muscles, and created some especially unique eye-popping spectacles.

The sequences showed some various other subplots. The werewolf couple, Wayne (Steve Buscemi) and Wanda (Molly Shannon), are shown dropping off their kids at a daycare center on the cruise ship. Their litter of hundreds of cubs stampede into the daycare center, wrecking the place, and Wayne and Wanda step out onto the ship. They are finally free to do “whatever we want.” This scene is likely one for the parents who see this film.

Another subplot shows Dennis and Winnie disguising Dennis’ giant pet monster dog, Tinkles, who fans might remember from the Hotel Transylvania short film, Puppy!. There are no pets allowed on the cruise, but Dennis and Winnie brought Tinkles along anyway and are hiding this fact.

After the conclusion of the preview, there was a short Q&A session with Tartakovsky, Key (Murray), Hahn (Ericka), Andy Samberg (Johnny), and Selena Gomez (Mavis).

Kraken (Joe Jonas) in Sony Pictures Animation’s HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation arrives in theaters on July 13, which is also Friday the 13th. Thank you to Sony Pictures for having us at this event.