Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, ‘Hotel Transylvania’ is an American animated movie. It is about Mr. Dracula’s Hotel, Hotel Transylvania where all the monsters from around the world can come for holidays and take a luxurious shelter, away from human civilization from whom they are scared.
Hotel Transylvania movie was released on September 28th, 2012 and it won so many hearts by its spectacular graphics and its story that its sequel, ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ came out on September 25th, 2015, followed by ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’, which released on 13th June, 2018.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA STORY
The first part has the hotel as its main set where the whole story takes place. Mr. Dracula invites his friends, ‘Frankenstein’ and his wife, ‘The mummy’, ‘The invisible man’, and the ‘Werewolf’ family to celebrate the 118th birthday of his only and beloved daughter, Mavis.
Though 118th is quite an age but being a Dracula, Mavis appears to be just sixteen, sweet sixteen! The problem begins when Jonathan, a human, the worst fear of everyone in the Hotel, arrives!
When Mr. Dracula about Jonathan being a human, he starts panicking as if a word spreads about human presence in the hotel, all the guests would go crazy, creating a ruckus and would leave his hotel immediately, never to return.
The reputation of his hotel which was to keep all the monsters safe, away from humans, would get blemished and on the top of all, his beloved daughter’s birthday would get ruined. So Mr. Dracula gives Jonathan and a freakish makeover, trying to make him look like a monster and frequently trying to make Jonathan leave his hotel.
As the movie progresses, it is seen that Mavis falls in love with Jonathan and, despite highly disapproving of this union, Mr. Dracula did venture on a long journey, along with his mates, to bring Jonathan back to Mavis, so as to make her happy.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 STORY
The another monster comedy adventure, ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’, Hotel Transylvania's sequel, revolves around Mr. Drac’s innumerable attempts to make his grandson, Mavis’s and Jonathan’s son, Dennis, a vampire!
He gets worried when Dennis does not show any signs of being a vampire and he fears if he’ll be a human. Later, Mavis and Jonathan leaves for California to visit Mike and Linda.
Mr. Drac was, meanwhile, entrusted with the responsibility of looking after Dennis and no sooner did Mavis and Jonathan left, than Mr. Drac, along with his friends took off for places where they tried to help Dennis become a vampire, but, of no avail.
Then they take Dennis to ‘Camp Winnepacaca’, a summer camp, where Mr. Dracula learned his vampire abilities, once. He then makes Dennis fall off a tall, droopy tower, to give him a push so that he transforms into a bat, but when he saves him just when Dennis was about to strike the ground.
Unfortunately, this scene gets shot by the campers and gets uploaded on the internet. Mavis, on coming across this video, flies all over to Transylvania and chides her father for putting her son’s life at stake!
Eventually, Mavis decides to leave the hotel after Dennis’s fifth birthday. A lot of chaos took place on Dennis’s birthday when Mavis’s grandfather and Dracula’s father, Vlad Dracula tries to scare Dennis, believing fear to be a good source of helping Dennis sprout his fangs but Vlad fails and Dracula shields his grandson.
Mavis gets outraged and whilst the family gets into a row, little Dennis tries to run away but on reaching the forest he encounters Bela, who attacks Dennis and Winnie and this leads to Dennis manifesting his vampire-like abilities at last and then defeats Bela’s minions along with his Mavis and Dracula.
On Dennis turning into a vampire, Mavis decides to stay back and raise him in Transylvania.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 STORY
The movie begins with Dracula and his friends sitting in the train, disguised as humans, en route to Budapest when suddenly Professor Abraham Van Helsing appear out of nowhere and, at once, recognize Mr. Drac and his friends.
Van Helsing picks up a fight with them and Mr. Dracula and his friends climb the roof to escape where Mr. Drac pushes them out of the train for the sake of his friends’ safety and fights Van Helsing who strives a lot to defeat Dracula but constantly fail.
The next scene depicts how frustrated Dracula looks owing to the fact that he has remained single ever since his wife, Martha’s death. Mistaking this frustration to be the consequence of overwork, Mavis books a cruise with her family and friends.
They all board a ship called ‘Legacy’ where Mr. Drac comes across Ericka, the captain of the ship and ‘zings’ with her, which according to them means falling in love at the first sight.
Ericka portrayed herself to be very jovial and sweet in front of everyone, especially to Mr. Drac. However, her intentions are soon revealed when she goes to meet her great-grandfather, Van Helsing in a secret room in the lower deck.
Van Helsing had his whole body as a machine except his face, so as to avoid death. The two were planning to eliminate all the monsters by using an instrument of destruction which could be found in the ruins of Atlantis.
Despite van Helsing’s warnings to Ericka to not kill Dracula beforehand, she still tried to kill Dracula through various means but in vain as she failed. On their first date, after learning the truth about Dracula’s past, Ericka’s heart softens for him and she begins falling for him.
When the cruise ship reaches Atlantis, Ericka makes her way to the Atlantis ruins where she gets followed by Mr. Drac, who, in turn, is followed by Mavis. Ericka lies to Dracula that she is after an heirloom and Dracula saves her from numerous traps around the destructive object.
Mavis soon arrives at the scene and Mr. Drac confesses that he ‘zinged’ with Ericka. Ericka, on learning what ‘zing’ means, breaks Dracula’s heart by rejecting him though she regrets it the moment she does so.
Handing over the object of destruction to Van Helsing, an upset Ericka reveals that she is the great-granddaughter of Van Helsing. Van Helsing uses the destructive object which turns out to be a case for a music note sheet and begins to play a song which infuriates a jolly Kraken and provokes him to attack the monsters.
Ericka saves Dracula from the kraken and begs to Van Helsing to stop the music. Van Helsing pays no heed to her request and resumes with his obsession to wipe out all the monsters. In the meantime, Johnny opens up a DJ and tries to counter the destructive song by playing ‘Macarena’ and succeeds in reviving the jolly phase of Kraken.
Eventually, everyone starts dancing and even Van Helsing couldn’t help but dance but he falls off the ship but is saved by the Dracula. Van Helsing apologizes to the monsters and promises them a full refund of the cruise.
The movie ends with Mr. Drac and his family and friends back at Transylvania where Dracula proposed Ericka who accepts the same and enters into a romantic relationship.
Every Hotel Transylvania character is special in itself for keeping the story gripping. Let us have a look at them one by one.
MR. DRAC
“I do not say bleh bleh-bleh” - Mr Drac
‘Count Dracula’ or ‘Drac’, the main protagonist of the film Hotel Transylvania 1, 2 and 3, is the owner of the Hotel Transylvania where he also takes care of the guests and manages the events there. He is Mavis’s father, father-in-law of Johnny and grandfather of Dennis.
With a pale face with blue eyes and black hair slicked back, Mr. Drac has a slim figure and is tall. He has pointy ears and canine teeth with his key features being a hooked nose and a long chin. Dracula wears a black tuxedo and a black cape with high collars and purple inner-lining and black dress shoes.
Mr. Drac is funny and a smart manager and host to his guests but is also over-controlling at the same time and this trait of his is the very reason which makes him an ideal manager. He is also over protective of his daughter, Mavis.
Despite being short tempered, Dracula deeply cares for his family and friends, which, very much was depicted when in Hotel Transylvania 3, Drac pushed off his friends from the train for their safety and fought Van Helsing, singlehandedly.
FRANKENSTEIN
Dracula’s best friend and one amongst the main characters in the Hotel Transylvania series, Frankenstein is an oversized man with a good heart and warm nature.
Frank has grayish blue skin with stitches all over and a pair of green eyes and black hair. Frankenstein wears a blue suit with a striped shirt within, with red ties and black giant boots.
A pyrophobic but a sweet, gentle and selfless being, Frank is Eunice’s husband and Mavis’s favorite uncle.
MURRAY
“Here comes the party” - Murray
With the capability of manipulating sand, the curse of pharaohs, Murray, the 2500-year-old ‘Mummy’ is a steadfast, fun loving and a cool friend of Mr.Drac.
Murray lives inside an Egyptian tomb for most of the year so whenever he arrives at the Hotel, he always comes ready to party!
Murray, the bandaged guy is also referred to as the ‘talking toilet paper’ Vlad, Mr. Dracula’s father.
GRIFFIN
The witty and loyal friend of Mr.Drac, Griffin is the ‘invisible man’ with the ability of being invisible.
His presence can be known only by the light brown and dark striped glasses, which are the sole thing of, and about him which can be seen.
Griffin uses his invisibility to help people during fights. He is one amongst the many guests at Hotel Transylvania and a brother like friend of Mr. Drac. Griffin is also the boyfriend of Crystal.
WAYNE
“My sniffing tracking days are way behind me. Do you know how many diapers I’ve changed, how many number twos have destroyed this thing?” -Wayne
Wayne Armando Leonard or ‘Writ’, as referred to by Dracula, is a werewolf and a very close friend of Mr.Drac. He has brown fur and a pair of yellow eyes. Wayne wears a blue shirt with striped tie and blue jeans with a brown belt fastened in its loops.
The 394 years old werewolf, Wayne, is married to Wanda, who too is a werewolf and is the father of Winnie, Sunny and a lot of other tiny werewolves. Both Wanda and Wayne are spotted in the movie, preoccupied with the very many children of theirs until in Hotel Transylvania 3, where they came across a playhouse for kids, on the cruise.
This was for the first time when they were actually alone together and went kinda insane, thinking of the various things they could do and numerous activities they can engage in!
BLOBBY
Blob, a Jell like green, blob monster and a friend of Mr. Drac is one of the many guests at Hotel Transylvania.
Blobby is made of gelatin. His ability was put to use by Mr. Drac in Hotel Transylvania 1 when Johnnystein was about to dive into a draining pool and dived into Blob with the help of Mr. Drac, who saved him from striking.
ERICKA
“I…woo-bi-dee-ba-doo-bee? I mean, I woo-be-do-bee-dee?...YES!”Making her debut in Hotel Transylvania 3, being the captain of the luxury cruise ship and the great-granddaughter of the famous monster-hunter Abraham Van Helsing, Ericka, initially hated and plotted to kill all the monsters.
For this reason, she posed to be sweet and good-natured and tried to win Mr. Drac, but on knowing about his past, she started falling for him and ended up with developing a soft corner for the monsters and saving them from Abraham Van Helsing’s instrument of wiping away the monsters.
A young and beautiful slender figured woman having large blue eyes and short, curly platinum blonde hair, wearing pink lipstick, gold earrings, and red nail paint, Ericka wears a captain suit and heeled boots.
Ericka has enhanced agility and strength and can be seen leaping and flipping through the air, gracefully. She is a family-oriented and a charming, flirty and affectionate girl but also aggressive and hot-tempered at the same time but eventually ends up being Mr. Drac’s fiancé.
Having friends like Mr. Drac can be very useful and fun at the same time! The can help keep bullies away and entertain us with their different abilities and characteristics.
How amazing it would be to come across freakish looking fun-loving beings!