Dracula has come to suck the blood and boredom out of us for the third time, but the fragile fangs of the Hotel Transylvania franchise shatter before they bite.

Hotel Transylvania is kind of like a less charming version of Despicable Me. There are many similarities in both films. Both main characters were built on physically villainy dispositions, with both of them sporting Slavic accents.

It is obvious that this film is targeted at young kids, maybe the ages of 7 or below.

The kind of humor, the flailing movements and the purposefully cartoony voices make it very friendly for children of those ages, and the simplistic comedy and its bright colors pass already as humor for them.

It is unfair for a grown man like me to rip on such a film, because while it is possible to look at it from an analytical or technical perspective, doing so would make you kind of a schmuck.

Instead, what I can say is that this film is enjoyable for children, but not so much for adults, except maybe those who are accompanying their kids to the film and want to laugh together, which is more wholesome if you think about it.

The much-maligned Adam Sandler voices the lead role of Dracula, and when you see how Dracula talks, walks, moves and carries himself, it becomes hard to tell the difference between the Dracula character and any other Adam Sandler comedy role. His goofiness no longer works in an adult comedy setting, but here, it is passable.

From how Dracula acts, it is clear that the character was built to be similar to Despicable Me’s Gru.

Both are doting, loving fathers to their children and both have friends that usually get them into trouble. But it is when these two characters fall in love that we really see how the actors behind them approach the basics
of comedy.

Sandler approaches it in a very cartoonish, Looney Tunes way of basically hamming up and acting or speaking in hyperbole, such as the gibberish he speaks when he falls for the film’s villain, Captain Ericka van Helsing (Kathryn Hahn).

Gru’s actor Steve Carrell babbles and stumbles through his words awkwardly and panics, without needing a plot for him to resort to theatrics. It is a less childish reaction than Sandler, who has made a name for himself in Hollywood as the eternal man-child.

Anyway, aside from Sandler, the film stars a cavalcade of veteran comedy stars such as Kevin James (Frankenstein’s monster), Keegan-Michael Key (the sassy mummy), Steve Buscemi (the werewolf), David Spade (the invisible man) and Fran Drescher (the bride of Frankenstein’s monster), all in supporting roles in the film, with probably Spade’s character being the most charming of all.

Selena Gomez, who has not really had a serious film role since she focused on her music career, returns as Dracula’s daughter, Mavis, while Andy Samberg voices her husband and recurring character Jonathan.

In the third installment of Hotel Transylvania, Mavis takes the entire hotel family on vacation on a cruise
so that her father, Dracula, can have time off from working at the hotel. Dracula falls in love with a monster-hating Captain Ericka, a descendant of Dracula’s nemesis Abraham van Helsing, and things carry on from there.

The conclusion of the film is that whether human or monster, both are capable of love and hate, and whatever one chooses will define them. It is a pretty simple lesson for kids to learn about tolerance and peace, and I guess it is possible they can leave the theater with this in mind.

But as a film, Hotel Transylvania 3 just feels unnecessary.

The pantheon of character familiarity that the creators and the Sony execs want to reach has already been reached by the more attractive Despicable Me series. If this is what they are aiming for, then Sony should just stop.

Sony Animation has never really been taken seriously, because its films are rarely any good or memorable. The only exceptions to this fact are the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films and Surf’s Up. Others such as Open Season, Peter Rabbit, The Smurfs and the ghastly Emoji Movie have either been panned into oblivion or just did not manage to gather enough interest from the viewing public.

Hotel Transylvania 3 is a fun film, and the first and second ones are particularly passable, but they are all unmemorable and will probably never be iconic. Proof of that is the fact that it has been under the radar and constantly overshadowed by other animation franchises, even within Sony Animation, despite reaching its third movie.

The world does not need this film. The only people who need it are the ones who worked on the film, to kill some time and make some extra money.

Parents need it as an activity with their children in the coming weekends. Movie theaters need it as filler to keep their theaters open for business during slow film seasons.

But the allure of the film will never last.

Ancient revenge: Dr. Abraham van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) points a weapon at Dracula.

— Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing

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Hotel Transylvania 3

Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
Written by Genndy Tartakovsky and Michael McCullers
Starring : Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Kathryn Hahn and Mel Brooks
Running time: 97 minutes