A Pretty Big Swing and a Miss
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MOVIE REVIEW
Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Year Produced: 2022
Rating: PG
Director: Jennifer Kluska, Derek Drymon
Cast: Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell, Asher Blinkoff, Richard “Ninja” Blevins, Zoe Berri
Where To Watch: Amazon Prime
I went back and forth on my final rating here, I still have some debate inside, but ultimately I decided to review it based on general audience appeal. This is the fourth film in the Hotel Transylvania franchise; this, along with a TV series, comics, and even video games, combines to make a pretty successful creation on Sony Pictures’ behalf. Originally this film was going to be released theatrically in October of 2021. With so many other movies, it was postponed and ultimately sold to Amazon Prime Video for exclusive release online. Realistically this was probably for the best, Sony sold it for $100 million, and I’m sure that’s not even a blip on Amazon’s financials.
This was a pretty big swing and a miss for me, this franchise as a whole lost its way after the first film (I admittedly never saw the TV series.) If you’re trying to entertain kids, this is something you can turn on and ignore. Sadly the film doesn’t offer much in the form of “adult jokes” hidden in it as so many other popular animated movies do now. Ultimately I should’ve known it would be a failure when not on the director (Genndy Tartakovsky), but even Adam Sandler (the voice of Dracula) stepped away from the films for the most part. Andy Samberg (Johnny) and Selena Gomez (Mavis) return to the voice cast, and newcomer Brian Hull does a great job filling in for Sandler as Drac’s new voice. If you didn’t tell me that there was a different actor, I honestly probably wouldn’t have noticed.
The story is overly simple, and I think that was intentional; the focus is on the characters, but even though the animation is consistent with the previous films, we don’t need more focus on them; we need a deeper dive into this world. We need to see what makes it tick; we have the same stagnant cast that has now become only cliches and doesn’t help the world grow. I know I’m asking a lot for an animated film, but I feel it’s only fair if they keep pumping them out. I can say that I’m glad I didn’t go to the theater to watch this one. It wasn’t shortlisted out of 26 films for this year’s Oscars (that’s pretty telling with how weak of a year it’s been on that front.)
As a whole, my argument is that the movie wasn’t entirely terrible; it was easy to follow, with good animation. However, my lower score comes because it doesn’t offer anything new; I feel like they’re trying to squeeze blood from a stone. So I’m probably somewhat biased here; as I said previously, there are far worse options as a time filler but don’t expect to be blown away. Sometimes a studio needs to know when a series is ready to go, and I feel like the pandemic was just an extra push ultimately for Sony to realize that they can step away and no one will be upset.
On a different note, I’m super excited that Tuesday is the nominations for this year’s Oscars, so I will become far more focused on what I’m watching as I try to tackle my yearly goal of watching every Oscar-nominated film before the ceremony (March 27.)
For more reviews and my new YouTube channel, please visit: linktr.ee/Overlyhonestmoviereviews.
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Agree the first one was good then after that they started getting worse and worse with each movie
Honestly, the only reason I watched it is because I’m a fan of Brian Hull. I wanted to see how he did as Dracula. I’d say he did very well as for the rest of the movie big let down.
I loved the first one. My daughter did also. I think it was a great movie for younger generations to get into the spooky vibes. I agree with you that after a animated film has a good one and two film release.. It can just become very repetitive and trying to just cash grab.