The Monstrous Cop-Out - Hotel Transylvania 2

The other day I went to see the film Hotel Transylvannia 2 in theatres. For those of you unfamiliar with the films, here’s a basic synopsis:

Many years ago, Dracula’s wife was murdered by angry humans. Fearing for the safety of his daughter, Mavis, he creates a ‘monsters-only’ hotel to keep her and their friends sheltered from all humans. In present day a human named Jonathan stumbles upon the hotel; and he and Mavis fall in love. At first Dracula tries to separate them, but eventually sees that their love is real and worth fighting for. In movie 2, Jonathan and Mavis get married and have a half-human/half-vampire son named Dennis. However, Dracula fears that his grandson may not have any vampire tendencies, so he and his fellow monster friends go on a road trip to try and awaken the young boy’s ‘inner monster’.

Now, for the record, I really do like these movies. They’re clever, creative, heartfelt and have a surprising way of being relatable to real-life scenarios. On top of that, it was co-written by Adam Sandler (who voiced Dracula)... which, honestly, makes that fact that it’s good rather surprising. After all, this is the same man who did ‘Eight Crazy Nights’ ...not exactly similar in terms of writing and execution.

That being said, the ending of the film was, to be blunt, a complete cop-out.

If you don’t like spoilers, this is your chance to run. You have been warned.

Throughout the entire film Dracula and Mavis keep fighting back and forth about Dennis. Dracula waits anxiously for Dennis to show fangs, turn into a bat, anything to show his vampiric heritage. Whereas Mavis keeps pushing that Dennis is NOT a monster and that her father needs to accept that. Over time, and many attempts at awaken his ‘inner monster’, Dracula finally concedes and says that he loves Dennis and accepts him for the human that he is; just in time for Dennis to suddenly spring into vampire-mode when attacked by a bat familiar who hates humans! Isn’t that a lovely sentiment?

Um, no, actually. It isn’t

Here’s the deal. Up until that point, everything that happened in this movie was RELATABLE. It talks about the clash between new parents trying to raise their child based on current trends while grandparents try to justify the way they raised their children back-in-the-day. It shows the recent trends themselves, from technology to diets to the rise of the ‘Self-Esteem Movement' *shudders*. It shows how people change over time and how that may conflict with reminiscence of ‘the Glory Days’ of their youth.

But, most importantly, it talks about mixed families. Just replace the vampires with any family of a different race/culture/religion and you get yourself a real-life scenario of mixed families that many people in North America and around the world experience. I myself come from a mix of having a Muslim-Iranian mother and a Jewish-Canadian/Eastern-European father. So, when seeing this movie, I saw a lot of my family in between the lines. The grandparent upset that the children aren’t following traditional customs. The in-laws that try to ‘accommodate’ your heritage to the point where they’re being borderline racist. The mother that doesn’t want to force her kids into being something they aren’t, and tries to shape their lifestyle into what is best for the child’s needs. The child being weighed down with the thought that they don’t ‘fit’ with their family because of the way they look.

Speaking of cop-outs. How was a five year old child capable of beating up, what is essentially, a giant talking bat on steroids?

Because of the way they look. That is the reason this movie’s ending is so un-relatable. Because no child can change their looks from one ethnicity to another. The second Dennis sprouted fangs, turned into a bat, and started fighting the bat familiar, every child that was feeling his pain suddenly felt ripped away. All for the sake of a cop-out move to please simple-minded audiences. “Oh look, he’s a vampire. Now he doesn’t have to move away to be with humans and can live happily ever after as a vampire.”

Except that that doesn’t make any sense. When you think about it, there are several major problems with this sentiment.

1. As a human, Dennis clearly hated the thought of living around his bullying human cousins and losing his monster friends and grandfather.
2. Mavis could tell that he wasn’t going to like it and was likely changing her mind to move in the first place.
3. Aside from Mavis, Dracula, Vlad (Dracula’s father) and Jonathan’s family, NOBODY ELSE CARED THAT HE WAS A HUMAN LIVING WITH MONSTERS. His monster friends had zero issue with him being human. In fact, one had a crush on him. His father loves working at the hotel, and feels like it’s the one place he truly belongs. This prejudice of human/monster coexistence no longer exists within the hotel walls, so he would have been happy there as a human anyways.
4. Dracula overcoming his prejudice of having a human grandchild is a sentiment that lasts for maybe an hour at most. Once Dennis became a vampire, there was no longer a need for him to worry. For all we know, Dracula could have regressed in his prejudice over the years, especially if they have no other kids and there was no one else to carry the vampiric bloodline.

5. 

   "And to think you guys said throwing my grandson off a tower was a bad idea"

   Actually, when you think about it, that aspect of Dracula’s character growth is practically moot now since it’s become a “See, I told you he was just a late-fanger all along” scenario. If anything, it verified his attempts at making Dennis a vampire instead of a human.
6. Vlad never had to accept having a human great-grandchild at all. Because Dennis became a vampire shortly after meeting him. Yes, he saves the human father, but by then he’s already self-assured that there’s a vampire heir to the family, so he doesn’t really care as much.
7. Once again, instead of the moral being ‘accept children for what they are’ it’s become ‘just keep pushing, the kid will be like you eventually’.

So yes, at the end of the day, this was an enjoyable movie to watch; however, the creators clearly failed to end the story on the moral high ground and likely alienated all of the children with mixed heritage.