Media Essays: A Hotel Transylvania 2 Rewrite

Written by The Wandering Fox

Hey guys, it’s me, the Wandering Fox again. Goodness I’m here a lot, aren’t I? Hope I’m not stealing Media Man’s website from him. I only want to help.

I’m here to talk about something I think many of you might be amazed by, given I haven’t spoken of these films before. Hotel Transylvania.

I decided to watch these movies because I was honestly curious and bored. I’m not a fan of the franchise but the films I saw were fun to watch, the third film was kinda okay but I’ve been told not to bother with movie 4. But the movies did have a fun thing going in which the monsters have gone in hiding and go to Dracula’s hotel, with Johnny’s arrival beginning to bring the monsters and humans back together, Mavis beginning to grow up and Dracula letting her go, the second movie introducing Mavis and Johnny’s son, Dennis, but Dracula tries to have him grow his fangs, making a lot of drama go in the family.

As I watched the second movie, I couldn’t help but think this could’ve been good if it was the third movie in the series. It’s got all things in it that serves as a ending of a movie series, with Dracula’s dad returning, his grandson born and Mavis deciding what’s best for him. I then got thinking, what if movie two was moved up to movie three, and we instead got a different sequel. But what could a sequel like that be about?

Mavis and Johnny’s Wedding

I know we saw them get married in the second movie but sit back and think. A sequel focused on their wedding could’ve been done so brilliantly, the hilarity of it all is easy to do, the wedding dresses Mavis tries, the wedding cakes, the guests they’d invite, Johnny’s family meeting Dracula and getting to know each other over the movie’s story, there’s a subplot involving the bad guy of the film, think of it, it’s easy to do.

Also I think a sequel like that could’ve done well to help Johnny’s character. I like him but I think he could be more than what he was in the movies, like how is he with his family? Any bullies he had? How does Mavis take to it?

Then we have how humans take to monsters being back among them. The first movie had it be revealed a lot of humans like the monsters, heck, I can see Dracula inviting a few humans over to have a look around the hotel. All this being done in which Dracula wants to have humans really come together for the wedding.

But if there’s something I want to make clear, it’s this: the story isn’t gonna feature someone else coming in trying to marry Mavis, it’d be too similar to Shrek 2, hence the villain here will be quite unlike what you think.

So, here’s how I’d do a sequel for Hotel Transylvania.

Story

Obviously the story is about Johnny and Mavis getting married. But it’s got to have a structure to it. With the ideas I threw in above, the story basically has Johnny propose to Mavis at the beginning after they knew each other for a few years, he’s travelled back and forth to be with her and Dracula is going to hold the wedding at the hotel and invite every monster from over the planet to come and visit, it’s a celebration of humans and monsters coming together. Johnny’s family finally meet Dracula, inviting him and Mavis for dinner, maybe a Halloween dinner, it’s there where Johnny proposes to Mavis. But at the same time, humans though are happy to live among monsters, a hotel company who Johnny’s father is tied to has a hotel health and safety inspector come to inspect the hotel, given the task of sabotaging the hotel to force it to close and drive Dracula out of business.

This movie gives us more time to explore Mavis and Johnny's relationship as Mavis learns a few things about him that he’s not happy about. The movies did hint he and his family didn’t get along much, hence he started travelling, because he was seen as the weird one in the family, with only his mother understanding him while his dad hoped Johnny would’ve grown out of the music loving phase and move on to being more into the business side of things, though he still loves his son. Moments with his dad has Johnny showing anger and sadness, which Mavis catches onto and tries to help calm things between father and son, as she loves her dad and wants Johnny to help his own relationship with his dad. We know he was accepting of monsters, he has to accept Johnny for who he is.

A meeting between Dracula and Johnny’s family could be done at the beginning of the story as Dracula is invited to the family house for dinner, thus Dracula and Mavis get use to modern living of humans, like how he plays a few video games like VR or the Wii causing hilarity to occur, watches a few tv shows that has Dracula cringe and is frightened by steak in the fridge, and how the family interacts with him. Johnny’s father, Mike, is stern and blunt but his mother is all too happy to meet Dracula, though she gets a few things off about him that makes Johnny ever shy. Brett and Kent, Johnny’s brothers, end up wowed and Melly shows him her collection of vampire novels based on Twilight, Dracula disgusted by it.

It could be here where Johnny proposes to Mavis, much to Dracula and his mum’s delight while his dad is a bit restrained. They decide to hold the wedding at the hotel, Dracula deciding he will invite as many as he can to the hotel. As he’s about to leave, we meet the villain of the story, he’s a friend of Johnny’s family, a successful health and safety inspector who does work for the best hotel on Earth. After hearing of how Mike’s a bit unsure of his son’s future, he decides to come along and begin investigating the hotel to make the family try and bring Johnny away as well as getting rid of a competitor for his boss. I might call him Hothman.

Obviously the story then goes into wedding oddities such as Mavis trying out wedding dresses, what cake they can have and what a hen night or stag do is done in the monster’s own view. Like with Mavis, there’s a funny montage of her trying on different dresses, before they finally go with the one they want….only for Mavis to get upset that she can’t look in the mirror, but thankfully finds another way to do it. We have the bakers presenting a few cakes to try, each of which is monstrous, like one full of eyeballs, another full of livers and organs and others that are gross, leaving the family a bit grossed but it’s decided on making one half monstrous, the other a basic cake.

Hen night is actually the monster girls playing with hens that are more monstrous, each trying to climb the biggest egg to take a dive in it, and the stag night for the men could involve them going after stags in the woods, or they have a drinking contest involving the most gross of things.

Have a bit of fun with Johnny’s family interacting with the monsters, Melly falls for another monster, Brett and Kent maybe form a friendship with others like maybe Frankie, Mummy, and a few others.

Though if the story of Johnny’s dad has to be healing things with his lad, this involves flashbacks to Johnny’s childhood in how his dad did like his different tastes, camping with him and his music mixes at first but then became gutted this was his son’s desire and not getting a job that would be boring but earn him good money, not helping is how kids in school bullied him and still mock him now, leading to a funny bit in which Mavis scares them. Obviously his dad begins to realise this is what Johnny really wants, helped by him and Dracula getting along well.

The villain then has the bump occur in which he gets a few agents in at the wedding to shut the hotel down, we get the obvious betrayal Johnny feels to his dad and the monsters are to move to begin lives in ordinary jobs, the villain intending to turn the hotel into a either a prison or get rid of it. Johnny’s father discovers how the villain broke the law, hence he has no right to shut the hotel down, we get a fight between the monsters and human agents, with the villain defeated and arrested by the human police, the wedding continues, Johnny forgives his dad and we get a happy ending.

Okay, you have the plot, but there’s some key things I want to go over first.

The Villain

I imagine the villain as a guy dressed in a bright suit, with a bit of a pattern to it that you think he’s weird. He talks in a very eccentric tone to give you a comical foe but one who can also make you dread him, for once he starts fighting you know he’s a guy the heroes will struggle with. Given he’s spent a bit of the film getting to know the monsters, he discovers a few weaknesses he makes use of against the monsters, like maybe he wears something to stop Dracula from hypnotising him.

Below is a drawing of what he looks like.

The story he has is he works for “the best hotel on Earth”, and he is a helper of the boss to go and stop other hotel owners from getting one over his boss. He’s friends with Johnny’s father who is a financier and has helped get the hotel in a few areas to avoid breaking the law.

Johnny’s Arc

The story of Johnny mending wounds between him and his dad gives much the character arc he could have had. Being the weird one in the family, or being seen so by the family, is gonna give a guy like Johnny worries about Mavis meeting his dad, the start of the movie has him stressing over Mavis coming, something we rarely see from him, we get his family antics, they make fun of him but his mother calms him to stop him from fearing over the visit, while his dad is mostly quiet and stern. Johnny is all nervous during the visit, but he calms a bit to propose to Mavis.

Staying behind while Dracula goes back to organise things at the hotel, Mavis goes around town with Johnny for a bit and encounter a few of his school bullies, some of whom try flirting with Mavis. Johnny does give one of them a hit on the head with his bag before Mavis beats them, with Johnny opening up about those who bullied him, he takes her to his school and shows her how things were, admitting he travelled to be free from his old life. Mavis says he was brave enough to meet with his mum and dad again, and it’s a big good thing he is.

Johnny is mostly nervous of what his dad thinks, him and his dad bonding once again. You basically know what happens.

Johnny’s Father

If you look at how Johnny’s father is dressed, he’s dressed in a way that has a look of maturity to him. His wife looks casual professional but he’s dressed with a lot of strength to him which tells you he’s the guy who the family looks to, his face telling you he’s a man who doesn’t take anything lightly. I think of a guy who basically is in a job where you are to act in a certain manner, like you aren’t supposed to be all goofy and funny.

I imagine Mike having a job in finances. This at least can be able to tie him over to Hothman, with him having helped in the hotel’s finances. And with this he’s able to at least find a way to stop Hothman from shutting down the hotel for he carried the inspection illegally.

Mike having a job in finances is a job which can be quite beneficial and he’d want this to be something his kids get into. Hence this is why he and Johnny drifted from each other because Mike had desired Johnny to be a financier, only Johnny had desired to be a musician. He even taught Johnny to not let the bullies get to him, but this didn’t help, they continued to bully him, hence Johnny resents him.

At the end of the movie Mike has basically come to accept his son and to be a bit more laid back in life.

Other Stuff

With this being Hotel Transylvania, you got to include a lot of funny stuff in there, like the monsters trying out human activities and Dracula buying some of them for the hotel, even getting a joke about how video games turn people into zombies but Mr and Mrs Wolf are at least happy to get a video game for their kids to finally get a break, the Invisible Man happy to be getting DVDs of movies he never got to see, and Dracula giving a tour of the hotel to human visitors will lead to some hilarity.

The wedding gives us a chance to bring in monsters we met from the third movie like the Kitsune in this, including other strange creatures like the Headless Horseman, the Minotaur, centaurs and other creatures.

I thinks that’s it. It’s the shortest one I’ve done. Though I have to say, if you like the movies as they are, good on you.

Media Man: Thanks once more to my guest writer, and especially thanks to him for covering a subject I wouldn't do as I have no interest in Hotel Transylvania myself. I hope you enjoyed my friend's post and I'll see you all this Friday for The Career of Hypno-Disc. :)

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