Drac and his pack are back! Hotel Transylvania 2 , releasing on November 6, is set seven years after the events in the original film. Hotel Transylvania is now open to humans and Dracula’s daughter Mavis and her human husband, Johnny, have a cute-as-a-button son, Dennis. In Cancun, Mexico, director Genndy Tartakovsky says that “drawing cute is not the hardest thing.” The 45-year-old creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars talks of the joy of working with Mel Brooks, the challenges of making the film, international monsters and moving on. Excerpts:
Are monsters not scary anymore?
In pop culture, they’ve been treated differently in so many ways that their scariness kind of goes away. Frankenstein, Mummies, the Invisible Man… there haven’t been contemporary movies that have portrayed them scarily. I think they are about to redo them, but for now, our comedic take is accepted.
When you were doing the first one, did you think of a sequel, and will there be a third part?
When I was doing the first movie, I wasn’t thinking of a sequel as the movie was tough enough. I was working on it for almost eight years. I think I am done with Hotel T. But I’m sure there will be a third movie. The first 20 years of my career was all about my original ideas. I kind of miss having my own creations and I think it is time for me to move on.
Are you open to international monsters?
We had some from the sequel that didn’t make it all the way, like a Chinese zombie. We have always tried to put Baba Yaga in, tried to make her fit, but it just didn’t work out.
What are the challenges you faced when you were making Hotel Transylvania ?
For the first movie, having people do the style I wanted to do was a challenge because they weren’t used to doing cartoony stuff. For the second one, it was the speed. We had over 100 animators with each doing specific work.
Did you use any new technology for this film?
The only new technology we used was stuff that was written for this style of animation. The computer is really good at mimicking reality. For instance, since the stuff we do isn’t very real, when Dracula moves superfast, the cape can only move realistically. So they wrote a special programme to follow the faster, more stylised movement.
How do you feel Selena has changed from the first movie to this one?
I think she has matured, she is more confident in the role of Mavis; she has really embraced it and made Mavis come alive.
Did you feel making Mavis a mother in this movie was a risk?
Initially, I was pretty nervous about it. I felt like maybe it should be in the third movie rather than the second, but then as the word got out, and we told friends about it, everybody reacted really naturally. They felt it was a natural step.
How was it working with Mel Brooks?
It is really like he directs himself. He realises that maybe he read a line too slow, and he goes “Let me give you one more, let me give you a quicker one.” It was great that way. They are all such great comedians; they can edit themselves, they can hear themselves saying the line, and if it is funny or not.
How would you describe the evolution of the characters?
Drac is trying to find his place in this new world where monsters are accepted by humans. As parents, you want to give your children the best of you. And Dracula thinks the best of him is the monster. When Dennis is born, he wants to make sure that he is a monster. The second tier to that is he is worried that if he is not, that means his daughter will leave.
Could you tell us about Adam Sandler’s style of working?
Everyone thinks Adam does a lot of improv, but that is not true. If he likes a line, then he tries to make it work. Once in a while, he will do a different line. When he reads it, you can almost hear him go, “That’s not working” and then he tries a couple of different ways to rewrite it on the spot.
How did the idea for the sequel come about?
It was Adam. He is a dad and he is very attentive to his children. So I think he felt it was the natural evolution for him as a father. He had a special relationship with his dad and that is always on his mind.
Are there different layers to the movie?
Yes. The first layer is simple and direct. Then you start to build it up. I think for me, it is less about story and more about character. Dracula and Mavis are who we really focus on. So that is the first thing we work on.
Which are the filmmakers you admire and respect?
They are so many. I think initially it was Disney and Warner Bros. The Bugs Bunny cartoons really connected to me. As animators, we like separate, different things. The more I got into it, the more anime played a big part. In live action films, I like Hitchcock, David Lean — all the classics. I am a big fan of the movies of the 70s. You know William Friedkin, the Spielberg movies — they are more real and raw.
