Hotel Transylvania

Initial Thoughts?

Mona Bloodstick: Bleh bleh bleh! This isn’t quite a vampire-specific movie, but there are plenty of vampires (2) to go around. It is important to see vampires adapted for a variety of audiences. Vampires aren't just for emo teens anymore!

Vera Bradley: Parents just don’t understand- amirite? 218 year old Mavis just wants to see the world, but Adam Sandler won’t stop gaslighting and gatekeeping her. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for that meddling kid! (i.e. Mavis falling in love with the first hot backpacker she saw).

1: How did this movie handle classic vampire tropes?

MB: Interesting take on vampires who can apparently procreate and also grow old–can vampires even turn humans into vampires? Anyways, I’m more concerned about vampires not wanting to drink actual blood and wanting to drink blood substitutes like Blood Gushers. Is this real medical blood substitute? If so, what do vampires even need to power themselves? Also, Drac makes Mavis her favorite food, scream cheese, at some point. So vampires can apparently just eat normal food? These guys are more like goth bat Animorphs than vampires. Still love them though.

VB: Hotel Transylvania makes the obligatory nod to garlic, stakes, and sunlight (I’ll come back to that last one), but what I find the most interesting is its approach to vampire birth and aging. Mavis was ostensibly born a vampire (hello Blade), and seems to grow in human stages, just reallllly stretched out. 218 for her is clearly supposed to parallel a human’s 18, so are 12 human years 1 vampire year? I would be interested in seeing more of this biological system. I think it makes sense, but it’s definitely a little unique in relation to other vampire media (Claudia in IWaV is seething because Mavis gets boobs).

One note on the sunlight thing- yes, vampires are hypersensitive to sunlight, but when Drac is exposed to sunlight for what must be fully an hour, he has zero lasting damage, and his sunburn goes away after literally 10 seconds indoors. Makes sense for a children’s movie though, like I get it.

2: Any good kills?

MB: No, but there are definitely times where certain monsters or humans should have died.

VB: It is really not that kind of movie.

3: How does this movie deal with the curse of eternal existence?

MB: Completely unbothered. Yes, there is vampire/human conflict, but it is mostly because humans historically didn’t like vampires. I’m actually a bit surprised Mavis isn’t concerned about Johnny’s puny lifespan–maybe this is addressed in one of the more recent movies, but neither of them have any issue with it in this one.

VB: Seems awesome tbh- Drac spent years building a sick hotel so all of his buddies could hang and his daughter could stay safe.

4: Sex appeal?

MB: Thank god Mavis is 218. Babe alert!!!

***SPOILER FOR HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2***

Not much sex or sexiness happening in this movie BUT Hotel Transylvania 2 has the hottest scene involving Drac taking his clothes off and dancing to GDFR.

VB: Arguably one of Adam Sandler’s sexier roles.

5: Would I want to be a vampire in this universe?

MB: Forget Blade–THIS is the universe I’d wanna be a vampire in.

VB: Emphatic yes. The icing on the cake here are the interspecies relationships– vampires are rubbing elbows with werewolves, frankensteins, and of course the Invisible Man (???). I would absolutely love to chill in a sick-ass monster hotel for a few hundred years.

Final thoughts?

MB: Don’t think too hard and you’ll love it. It’s easy to not think too hard with a movie this fun. While I do prefer Hotel Transylvania 2, I have WAY more questions there. We’ll get into that in the future.

VB: This is a fun watch even as an adult, filled with vampire-y vibes and a mellow plot that prompts questions such as “What happened in this universe to make the invisible man this prominent of a monster?” and “When listing monsters, is the invisible man really the THIRD one that comes to mind?” Though it can get immature at times, in the end this heartwarming movie does a good job of convincing children that the invisible man is on the same level as Frankenstein and Dracula.

"When you bump with the hump, you land on your rump!"

- XoXo Mona & Vera