Hotel Transylvania 2

It's familiar stuff, but also unmistakably entertaining.

There are two running gags in Hotel Transylvania 2, and both are not directed at the children. One deals with overprotective parents, the other with over political correctness.

Backed by a delightful cast and animation effects that are thankfully not over-the-top and too gaudy, Hotel Transylvania 2 is subtly intelligent and is a film that even the adults among the audience will not get fidgety sitting through - thanks to some scary images, exciting action and rude humor - while the kids have a ball.

The film emerges ultimately as a modern-day moral-parable about a checklist of virtues: acceptance, self-discovery, family, belonging to one's roots and so forth. It is still useful, however, for how it is so typical — its study can reveal a template for how most mainstream animation films are made, always in relation to the other films produced by the same industry.

It's hard to recommend Hotel Transylvania 2 to moviegoers who don't have children in tow. This one is only for the little ones.

There's so much waxing and waning that you just can't hold tight to the good things. The climax is also quite chaotic and repelling-especially since it suggests there's a no 3 on the way... certainly, that's not something we want to go through again?