It’s familiar stuff, but also unmistakably entertaining.

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.

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.