The funny thing about plurality is that in most cases, even those of us who are outwardly willing to embrace it in our personal lives will occasionally look for reaffirmation of our cultural identity in the propagation of the species: we like to pass on our genetic code. Which parent doesn’t look for genetic markers to “our side of the family” when a newborn arrives? And of course, these identity affirmations are sometimes more fervently sought when there is a marital union across cultures—be it of ethnicity or religion, or as in this over-the-top instance, when a vampire marries a human.
In the first episode of Hotel Transylvania, Dracula comes around to accepting humans in his hotel for vampires. In this comedic sequel, he readily embraces his vampire daughter’s decision to marry a human; he even outwardly claims that he couldn’t care less if the fruit of that union—a bonny baby—was human, vampire or a hybrid. But he also looks for vampire characteristics—fangs, an ability to transmogrify into a bat—and is bitterly disappointed that the baby’s first gurgling words are an utterly ‘unmonsterly’ “blah-blah-blah-blah”. With his daughter threatening to walk out if he is unwilling to live by his words (and cannot accept a wholly human grandson), Dracula schemes (with a little help from his son-in-law) to bring out the monster that he believes resides latent within his grandson.
Much hilarity ensues, beyond just the tired blood-sucking puns, although given the nature of things and the genre, there’s a lot of slapstick humour. And in the end, of course, a broader reconciliation occurs. But it’s amazing how this larger narrative will find resonance across cultures (and sub-cultures) because it taps into a very universal ‘human’ tendency.
Adam Sandler gets credit both as Dracula’s voice and as writer, and the thing that strikes me is that there’s more life and more appreciable humour in this animation comedy than in many of Sandler’s recent comedic films. He’s been sleepwalking through some recent roles; working with animated figurines seems to infuse him with greater vivacity than working with humans.
I saw this movie in 3D, and was prepared to see vampires flying out at me and sinking their fangs into me, but nothing of that sort happens. It’s pretty tame stuff, and the third dimension could easily have been dispensed with without any loss of my appreciation of what is, in the end, a movie that drolly celebrates diversity.
