Hotel Transylvania: Transformania turns the Hotel Transylvania franchise into a monster-swap comedy, and it mostly works — until it doesn’t. The film, directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska from a script by Genndy Tartakovsky, Amos Vernon, and Nunzio Randazzo, trades the usual monster hotel routine for something stranger: when Van Helsing’s Monsterfication Ray goes haywire, Drac and his friends all turn human, while Johnny turns into a monster. The result is a chase across the globe, a road trip through South America, and a search for a crystal that can reverse the spell before it becomes permanent.
The setup is a clever riff on the series. Drac’s lie about a monster real-estate law, which supposedly forces him to stay hotel boss, drives the whole plot. Mavis overhears him planning to hand over the hotel, tells Johnny, and Johnny’s plans to renovate it push Drac into a panic. Van Helsing’s invention, tested on his guinea pig Gigi, accidentally transforms Johnny into a dragon before anyone can stop it. Drac tries to reverse the spell and breaks the ray’s crystal, trapping both of them in their mismatched forms. The joke lands: a vampire stuck in human skin, and a human stuck in monster form, are exactly the mismatch the film needs.
The voice cast carries the film. Andy Samberg returns as Johnny, bringing his deadpan energy to a character whose monster form turns him into a dragon. Selena Gomez voices Mavis, and her concern about losing the hotel drives the story forward. Jim Gaffigan voices Van Helsing as a bumbling professor, and Steve Buscemi as Wayne adds his usual gruff charm. The supporting voices — Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, and Brian Hull as Dracula — all get moments to shine, and the film leans on their chemistry as much as its jokes.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Monsterfication Ray
The Monsterfication Ray is the film’s central invention, and it works best as a joke. Van Helsing tests it on his guinea pig Gigi, and the idea that the transformation keeps mutating until a subject becomes a mindless beast adds a layer of danger that the film never fully commits to. The film’s biggest problem is that it introduces the crystal too late in the story, and the stakes never feel real.
The ray also sets up the film’s biggest twist: when Drac tries to turn Johnny back to normal, he breaks the ray’s crystal in the process. The film spends most of its runtime on Drac and Johnny’s awkward bonding, and the journey to South America feels like a filler sequence. The crystal that can reverse the spell is introduced late in the story, and the film’s climax feels rushed, and the resolution is a shrug.
“Change can be scary.”
That tagline captures the film’s core idea: the fear of becoming something new. But the film never fully explores that fear. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be — a monster-swap comedy — but it can’t hold onto that idea for its whole runtime.
The South American Road Trip
The film’s road trip through South America is where it stumbles. The journey to the Cave of the Reflexión is meant to be a bonding experience for Drac and Johnny, but the film spends too long on it, and the jokes about Drac’s human body don’t hold up over a long run. The set pieces are bright and colorful, but they don’t add much to the story.
The film’s structure is the problem. It’s a franchise that has been going for several films, and the fourth installment feels like it’s stretching for an ending. The film sets up the next film in the franchise, but it doesn’t feel like a real ending for this one. The film’s final shot, which reveals that the effects of the ray are still active, is a shrug.
The Voice Cast
The voice cast is the film’s strongest asset. Andy Samberg brings his deadpan energy to Johnny, and Selena Gomez voices Mavis with warmth. Jim Gaffigan’s Van Helsing is a bumbling professor, and Steve Buscemi’s Wayne is his usual gruff self. The supporting voices — Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, and Brian Hull as Dracula — all get moments to shine, and the film leans on their chemistry as much as its jokes.
The Verdict
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is a mixed bag. The premise is clever, the voice cast is strong, and the animation is bright, but the pacing is uneven, and the stakes never feel real. The film is a mostly entertaining watch, but it’s not a great one. It’s a franchise that has been going for several films, and the fourth installment feels like it’s stretching for an ending.
The film’s biggest problem is not its jokes, but its structure. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be — a monster-swap comedy — but it can’t hold onto that idea for its whole runtime. The film’s strength is its premise and its cast, but its weakness is its structure. It’s a film that’s worth watching, but it’s not a film that’s worth remembering.
The film’s final shot, which reveals that the effects of the ray are still active, sets up the next film in the franchise. That’s the film’s biggest mistake: it treats its own setup as a backdoor to the next film, and it doesn’t feel like a real ending for this one. The film’s core idea — the fear of becoming something new — is never fully explored.
The film’s final shot, which reveals that the effects of the ray are still active, sets up the next film in the franchise, but it doesn’t feel like a real ending for this one. The film’s core idea — the fear of becoming something new — is never fully explored.
The film’s biggest problem is not its jokes, but its structure. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be, but it can’t hold onto that idea for its whole runtime. It’s a franchise that has been going for several films, and the fourth installment feels like it’s stretching for an ending.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
