Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (released internationally as Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation) is a 2018 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and written by Michael McCullers as well as the third installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and is the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 2. It premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 13, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 13. The final installment, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, was released exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on January 14, 2022 worldwide (due to COVID-19 concerns), with Brian Hull taking over the role of Dracula from Adam Sandler.

Plot
Your favorite monster family boards a luxury cruise ship so Dracula can take a summer vacation from the hotel. It's smooth sailing for the pack as they indulge in all of the fun the cruise has to offer, including monster volleyball, exotic excursions and catching up on their moon tans. But the dream vacation soon 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 them all.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The animation is a huge upgrade, with the movements being more expressive and overall being brighter and more colorful than the last 2 films (in spite of how good the animation in those films are, but it's just upgraded here).
 * 2) The soundtrack is still catchy and great.
 * 3) Decent humor. As they're are a large amount of funny moments in this movie (as to be expected from the previous Hotel Transylvania films). Such as Ericka slipping garlic oil into guacamole meant for her and Drac and stuffing his face with it, only for it to turn out that he's "garlic-intolerant" and farts. And the scene where the characters and seen flying on Gremlin Air; an airplane which, true to it's name, is ran by hyperactive and rambunctious gremlins.
 * 4) The voice acting is still amazing with all the cast members returning from the last film.
 * 5) Decent character development with Ericka as she at first wants to kill Dracula due to him being a monster, but later bonds with him when he demonstrates to her just how much he truly cares about her, and she soon treats him equally to humans as a result and saves his life after he helps her get the relic.
 * 6) The characters are still as likable as always. There are also some nice interactions between them.
 * 7) *Speaking of the characters, Dracula has improved in this movie as some could debate that he was flanderized in the second film for the things he did to Dennis (such as chucking him off a tower).
 * 8) The villains are actually better. In the first two movies, Quasimodo and Bela, the main antagonists of the first and second film, respectively, were often criticized for being unmemorable, one-note obstacles, with many viewers feeling that the films would change very little without them. Here, in this film, Abraham and especially Ericka Van Helsing are given significantly more screen-time and development, with more distinct personalities and crucial roles in the plot, as well as clever and funny plans. In spite of Abraham's redemption coming of as pretty rushed and half-baked (the only real issue with his character, as otherwise, he's a very creative and humorous new take on the character of Abraham Van Helsing that's featured in so many other pieces of media).
 * 9) Genndy Tartakovsky did an okay job, which is the last time he directed, before being replaced by Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon in the next film, and decide to work on other films, like Fixed and Black Knight, two R-rated Sony Pictures Animation films.
 * 10) Impressive climax with Johnny's happy music vs. Van Helsing's evil music to control the Kraken.
 * 11) The idea of a monster cruise ship, while silly, is an interesting concept and is executed rather well here. As it showcases some eerie and mysterious places in the ocean as destinations for the cruise to visit (i.e., Atlantis, The Bermuda Triangle).
 * 12) The recreation scenes with Dracula having battle with Van Helsing was well-made.
 * 13) Dracula and Ericka's chemistry is done pretty well here. As Dracula still feels an immense about of guilt for wanting to start a relationship with Ericka due to him feeling like he's betraying his deceased wife Martha, believing that he cannot find love again due to the fact that people can "only zing once", similar to how Manny denies his feelings for Ellie at first in Ice Age: The Meltdown because he feels like he was replacing his deceased wife and child, as spouses and children are not something you can easily move on, especially if you lost them through death (though, in Dracula's case, at least his daughter Mavis was still alive). Ericka on the other hand has a hatred of monsters due to being raised by her great grandfather, Abraham Van Helsing. At first, she was onboard with his plan to exterminate all of the monsters on the cruise by awakening the Kraken after they arrived at Atlantis, but after Dracula saves her (and multiple time at it) while he's recovering the relic to awaken the beast, she realizes how much he cares about her and rejects Dracula due to her already having done too much to execute her great grandfather's plan to turn back now. She's riddled with immense guilt turning him down and while turning in the device to Abraham. But after the Kraken is awakened by the music the relic allowed Abraham to access, Ericka realizes how she can't stand watching someone who genuinely cares about her and everyone he cares about himself die at her hands and goes out of her way to save him and the other monsters. Something that even influences Abraham himself to change his monster-hating ways and redeem himself (in spite of said redemption, as previously stated in WIR# 7, coming off as pretty rushed and forced in it of itself).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Misleading title: Despite that the film has "Hotel Transylvania" in its title like the previous two, the story doesn't actually take place at the hotel, which only appears at the beginning and at the end, instead taking place in a cruise.
 * 2) The story can become predictable.
 * 3) It somehow contradicts the lore of the franchise; in the first Hotel Transylvania movie, the characters said that a monster can only zing once. Here, Dracula zings with Ericka (despite Drac and Mavis bringing this acknowledges up). Although this plot point plays into the film's overall (very powerful) theme that just because you've lost a previous loved one doesn't mean you can't love again.
 * 4) *It also contradicts the first film where Drac is apparently allergic to garlic, yet the this film's depiction of garlic depicts it as a food that makes Vampires gassy just for an unfunny joke.
 * 5) The film overuses some clichés, like the previous films.
 * 6) The plot is admittedly a slight rehash of the first film with the story of a vampire falling in love with a human, except it takes place in a cruise, rather than hotel.
 * 7) Depending on your point of view, the animation can feel way too wacky and over the top. Which is admittedly a problem with modern computer animation.

Reception
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and audiences, through many consider it to be inferior. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a rating of 62% based on 117 reviews with an average rating of 5.46. The site's consensus states: "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation delivers exactly what fans will expect - which means another 97 agreeably lightweight minutes of fast-paced gags and colorful animation.". According to the review aggregator Metacritic, which sampled 23 reviews and calculated a weighted average of 54 out of 100, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation received "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same score earned by both its predecessors.

Videos
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Trivia

 * This is the last time Adam Sandler voiced Dracula in the franchise, as Brian Hull will replace him for the fourth installment.
 * This is the Sony Pictures Animation's second film to not include the Columbia Pictures logo at the beginning.
 * This is the last film in this franchise to be released theatrically, as Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, the fourth installment, was released on Amazon Prime Video worldwide (except China) on January 14, 2022 due to Covid-19 concerns. Despite this, Sony was originally planning to release this in theaters last year before it's theatrical release got cancelled, so they delayed it until they struck a deal with Amazon, and then released it exclusively to their streaming service. Although, it was still planning to release in theatres in China.
 * When the second part of the title flashes on the screen finally (Summer Vacation), it looks exactly like the film Summer Rental (1985)'s title, with the lettering and the color of lettering.