Hotel Transylvania 2 - (6.5/10)

What sold me to this sequel was that particular trailer where Adam Sandler's character let go of the little toddler from a ridiculously high structure, hoping he would suddenly manifest his powers and fly. It didn't get less funny seeing it on the silver screen.

This sequel by returning-director Genndy Tartakovsky captured the essence of the first movie very well. The pacing itself was really fast, which bodes well for animated movies.

All the returning voice actors were great as usual, and I'm quite impressed with Selena Gomez's older and wiser voice-acting. I didn't think she would pull it off this well. (To be fair, she's right about that age as her onscreen persona.)

I'm still not sure about the choice of Steve Buscemi's voice for the werewolf. His voice stood out too much that it became distracting. The addition of Mel Brooks as the older vampire, however, was a great choice.

I also would have liked to see some character development for Andy Samberg's character. A bit more grown-up with some weight of responsibility, perhaps, would have been nice.

But the real let down was the way the movie ended. I wished the story by Sandler and Robert Smigel would go the unconventional way and really push the limit, rather than be predictable. There were great messages in there about diversity, discrimination and tolerance but I wished it would have played out differently. So if you dont want to be SPOILED, jump to the next paragraph.

-------------------------------

I believe that a greater impact would have been achieved had the story ended with baby "Dennisovitch" being born human. That would have created a much needed social issue to focus on, rather than a anticlimactic, Hollywood one.

I also did not agree with how Dennis suddenly found his powers and became one of the most powerful creature out of the lot, taking on foes that were thousands of years old. That was too convenient.

---------------------------------

Still, I enjoyed the movie throughout. I found myself smiling the whole time while watching and the humour was spot-on and frequent enough to keep things moving along.