“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” is Hilarious! @HotelT #HotelT3

I previewed part of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation this past Monday before speaking with the producer and director. It looks like this movie is going to be hilarious! It seems Dracula and his family are working too hard at the hotel, and they need a break. Mavis books a cruise for everyone, not just her family, and hilarity ensues. Starting with their air flight on the new airline, Gremlin Air. Everyone boards the boat and we find out there might be some trouble as a descendant of the monster hunter, Van Helsing, is on board! What can go wrong:

In Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, join our favorite monster family as they embark on a vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship so Drac can take a summer vacation from providing everyone else’s vacation at the hotel. It’s smooth sailing for Drac’s Pack as the monsters indulge in all of the shipboard fun the cruise has to offer, from monster volleyball to exotic excursions, and catching up on their moon tans. But the dream vacation turns into a nightmare when Mavis realizes Drac has fallen for the mysterious captain of the ship, Ericka, who hides a dangerous secret that could destroy all of monsterkind.

After our preview we got to chat with producer Michelle Murdocca. We all agreed that the cruise ship story was a great idea, and we could all relate to the scene where someone (no spoilers) put their kids in the Kids Club. All their kids (there is a hint in that sentence!).

I love that this movie is all about family values. This is a family vacation with four generations! And their friends are along for the fun.  Michelle shared that almost everyone from the original two movies were thrilled to return to voice their characters in this movie, and David Spade (the invisible man) gets a girlfriend:

There are some new characters in this one, a Kraken voiced by Joe Jonas:

There is also a Chupacabra, but that was not part of the finished pieces that we got to view, I cannot wait to see the whole movie to see that monstrous performance!

I asked Michelle to share some secrets from the movie, I cannot reveal what she told us at this time, but I can tell you that Adam Sandler’s daughters both have roles in this movie!

This is an animated kids movie, so a few scenes did get cut to keep the movie at just under 90 minutes (the maximum to hold the kids attention), a dance contest and a hairy chest contest among them. We all agreed these would make buying the eventual Blu-ray release all the more important!

We also spoke with director Genndy Tartakovsky. I was most surprised to hear from him that kids humor is harder to write than adult humor! I would have thought it to be the other way around. But I guess he is correct when he says how many burp and fart jokes can you put in one movie! Genndy talked about how the first two movies were written by Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel, so writing this without them was a challenge. He was thrilled when Adam gave his stamp of approval! He went on to talk about working with comedians, he says it is great because they know their timing really well, this is their business after all!

Most importantly Michelle and Genndy agreed, this movie stands on its own. You do not have to see the first or second to be able to follow this third installment, it just might be awkward if you saw the first and not the second, you might wonder where Mavis’s kid came from!

“The ending will catch you by surprise.” That’s the secret I got out of Genndy. This is a bigger movie than the first two, much more action, I cannot wait to see the full Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation!

Check out the trailer:

And see my celebrity picture with the animated cast! Mavis, Drac and Captain Ericka!

Directed By:
Genndy Tartakovsky

Written By:
Genndy Tartakovsky and Michael McCullers

Produced by:
Michelle Murdocca

Cast:
Adam Sandler (Dracula)
Andy Samberg (Johnny)
Selena Gomez (Mavis)
Kevin James (Frank)
David Spade (Griffin)
Steve Buscemi (Wayne)
Keegan-Michael Key (Murray)
Molly Shannon (Wanda)
Fran Drescher (Eunice)
Kathryn Hahn (Ericka)
Jim Gaffigan (Van Helsing)
Mel Brooks (Vlad)