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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Simran Hans

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation review – lacks bite

‘Not entirely charmless’: Dracula and Ericka in Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation.
‘Not entirely charmless’: Dracula and Ericka in Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation. Photograph: Sony Pictures Animation

From Dexter’s Laboratory creator Genndy Tartakovsky comes this tepid, though not entirely charmless instalment of the animated series. Though Adam Sandler’s Dracula seems content running Hotel Transylvania, his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez – not her best work), has decided her dad deserves a vacation and so books a surprise cruise to the Bermuda Triangle for him and the whole monster crew.

Drac is also in the market for a girlfriend and so has downloaded dating app “Zinger” (on a Sony Xperia phone – no opportunities for product placement missed here) in the hope of finding a date. Aboard the ship, his head is turned by its blond, buxom captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), who unfortunately happens to be the great-granddaughter of his nemesis, Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan).

The relatively scant highlights include the film’s sunset pastels, shoals of fish in penguin waiter uniforms, a homage to Atlantis (the Las Vegas one) and a plot point involving the power of the Macarena.

Watch a trailer for Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation.
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