Director Genndy Tartakovsky
Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez
Rated PG
Score 4/6

The monster family embarks on a vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship so Drac can take a summer vacation from providing everyone else’s vacation at the hotel. It’s smooth sailing for Drac’s Pack as the monsters indulge in all of the shipboard fun the cruise has to offer, from monster volleyball to exotic excursions, and catching up on their moon tans. But the dream vacation 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 all of monsterkind.

I’ll be honest with everybody I have vague memories of watching the first Hotel Transylvania and I have not watched the second one. For those of you who might be wondering did I do my homework and at least re-watch the first Hotel Transylvania before watching A Monster Vacation? No. Was A Monster Vacation enough to cause me to want to re-watch the other two movies in the franchise? Perhaps only when with the prospect of having to entertain a group of kids.

To all the parents out there who might be faced with the prospect of having to watch A Monster Vacation, this is not the type of animated movie that has an abundance of subtle jokes designed specifically for the older audience. A Monster Vacation is a light-hearted movie about family and embracing your differences. And with the world the way it is at times sometimes light-hearted is exactly what you need.
Sure, Adam Sandler’s voice performance might have been dialled up to 11 in places, but its not a deal breaker, there is more then enough to get you happily to the end of the movie. Such as Mel Brook’s performance as Vlad Dracula’s father, the singing kracken, Blobby, the Gremlins and Wayne and Wanda the overwhelmed werewolf parents.