Drac and family are set to return to the big screen in 2018, and with the arrival of the Hotel Transylvania 3 trailer it looks like they’re all due a holiday from their day-to-day monster tourism responsibilities. All of the cast will be returning for the third entry in the series with Adam Sandler back in the lead role of Count Dracula, along with Selena Gomez as his daughter Mavis and Andy Samberg as his son-in-law Johnny.
Genndy Tartakovsky directs the family animation, picking up where he left off with the previous two films. The franchise has created some great characters with a unique slant on the Transylvanian horror and while Hotel Transylvania 2 appeared to close off the story, Sony Pictures Animation has resurrected it for another adventure on the big screen. You can check out the batty gang’s latest escapade in the trailer below.
Release date
Hotel Transylvania 3 has a UK release date set for the Friday July 27th, 2018, which is a couple of weeks later than the US where it will be out on July 13th, 2018. It’s competition at the box office will be Mission: Impossible 6, which is out in the UK on the same weekend, although, it’s biggest challenger will be How To Train Your Dragon 3, which is out the week before.
2018 is going to be a big year for animated movie sequels with The Incredibles 2 also hitting the big screen, so it’s going to be interesting to see whether or not they can live up to their predecessors. The big question, though, is which one will come out on top in terms of review scores and box office hauls.
The DVD and Blu-ray release will be out around November 2018, which will be just in time for it to be a seasonal stocking filler.
Story
Having slowly opened his life up to the outside world in the first film and then going on to be a granddad in the second, Drac has been working hard running the Transylvanian hotel. However, the unique challenges that it throws up have started to take their toll and he decides its time he took a break from it all.
Taking Mavey, Johnny and family, along with his closest friends, he heads out on a summer vacation, which turns out to be a cruise on a palatial ocean liner. While that seems a little out of character, it does promise to provide the R&R that Drac needs, but as ever, his plans face some choppy waters along the way.
He manages to fall for the ship’s captain Ericka, but she hides a secret that could threaten everything that he holds dear.
Cast and characters
In addition to Adam Sandler as Count Dracula, Selena Gomez as Mavis and Andy Samberg as Johnny, the all-star cast also includes David Spade as Griffin the Invisible Man, Steve Buscemi as Wayne the werewolf, Molly Shannon as Wayne’s wife Wanda, Keegan-Michael Key as Murray the mummy, Kevin James as Frank and Fran Drescher as his wife Eunice. Mel Brooks will also be back as Drac’s dear old dad, Vlad.
Age rating
Both of the previous films were given an age rating of U (Universal) in the UK by the BBFC and the third film looks set to pick up the same classification. We’ll update closer to the release date with the official rating when it’s announced.
Production
As well as directing Hotel Transylvania 3, Genndy Tartakovsky has also written the screenplay for the film with co-writer Michael McCullers. It’s the third successive film in the franchise to have different writers. Michelle Murdocca has produced the film with Adam Sandler as executive producer. You can see more on the production at the official Facebook page.
First impressions
It might be without much in the way of a storyline with just a family holiday being the setup for the film, but Hotel Transylvania 3 will have the same cast and much-loved characters that made the previous movies such big hits. Adam Sandler cynics will be calling it, but in Drac he’s found a role that really works well for him, so hopefully the third entry in the series will continue that run.
The initial trailer seems a bit meh, but there’s always more to a Hotel Transylvania Film than you expect, so it should be another fun family animation. It’s got a tough release window with How To Train Your Dragon 3 out around the same time, but fans of the previous film should still have it on their watch list.
