Released in September 2012, Hotel Transylvania was so successful that another 3 films followed. Hotel Transylvania focused on a group of mythological monsters who stay at a vacation resort dedicated to their wellbeing, far away from the dangers of human civilization.
Countless characters are pulled from creepy lore and literature, including vampires, mummies, Frankenstein, werewolves, and the Invisible Man. Nevertheless, the story is swarming with delightful personalities who bring their charming world to life. As the franchise continues, Hotel Transylvania has created numerous characters who could belong in other movies or headline their own productions.
10 Mavis’s Storyline Shares Similarities To Ariel
Mavis is the only child of Count Dracula and his late wife Martha. When Hotel Transylvania begins, Mavis is celebrating her 118th birthday and trying to get her dad to let her experience the human world. When Johnny wanders into her father’s hotel by accident, Mavis immediately “zings” with him and doesn’t care when she finds out about his human status.
With her interest in humans, her status as the daughter of the esteemed Dracula, and her star-crossed romance with Johnny, Mavis’ character and storyline bear resemblance to Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Just like Ariel, Mavis is met with her father’s disapproval over her interests but finally receives her happy ending.
9 Johnny’s Character Arc And Storyline Are Pointedly Mundane Like Emmet Brickowski
As the hapless and fully human character who stumbles into Hotel Transylvania without realizing the supernatural line he has crossed, Johnny is frequently out of his depth. With his laidback persona and adventurous tendencies, Johnny is a relaxed, carefree guy. His character is laughably mundane in comparison to the chaotic and supernatural nature of everything around him. Johnny is much like Emmet Brickowski from The Lego Movie.
This is the point of his character and the heart of his story as he struggles to fit in with the monster world while trying to appease Mavis’s father. The normalcy of his arc almost seems to imply how humans and monsters are more alike than first thought.
8 Martha’s Story Is A Universal Monster Story Flipped On Its Head
When Mavis was an infant, Dracula’s beloved wife Martha was killed by an angry mob who wanted them dead for being vampires. When Johnny tells a legend inspired by their story, it is conveyed as a tragic love story with abstract artwork, fitting Hotel Transylvania‘s whimsical style.
When Dracula tells the true version of events, the flashbacks feel gritty and horrifying with no underlying comedy at all. Martha’s demise feels more like the gothic atmosphere of the old Universal Monster movies like Frankenstein (1931) or Dracula (1931), except the monster is the innocent victim.
7 Fran Drescher’s Voice Makes Eunice Sound Like A Rom-Com Addition
A loving and opinionated woman, Eunice is the wife of Frankenstein and acts as a mother figure to Mavis. She is voiced by Fran Drescher, best remembered for her role as Fran Fine on the TV sitcom The Nanny. Drescher also starred in the 1997 rom-com The Beautician And The Beast, which has similar elements to The Nanny.
With her signature cadence and accent, Drescher can add an entertainingly chatty note and light breeziness to any role. Eunice is no exception. Eunice also has Drescher’s other characters’ no-nonsense attitudes and flashy dress sense, making Eunice seem like one of Drescher’s Queens-based rom-com characters.
6 Quasimodo Is A Dark Buffalo Bill-Like Character
Based on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame‘s eponymous character, Quasimodo is a violent and picky perfectionist. He’s obsessed with everything going correctly in his kitchen and takes his frustrations out on his staff. His attempts to kill and cook Johnny for being human are a surprisingly dark plot point for a kids’ film.
With his desire to hurt humans, psychopathic tendencies, sinister tone, and relentless pursuit of what he wants, Quasimodo possesses some features in common with those of Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs. Just like Buffalo Bill, while Quasimodo is technically the primary antagonist, he is subsumed by more memorable aspects of Hotel Transylvania when he appears.
5 Wayne Is The Werewolf Version Of Mr. Incredible
In stark contrast to the usual expectations of a werewolf, Wayne is an exhausted and cynical father with numerous excitable children, a perpetually pregnant wife, and a 9-5 data processing job. Bemoaning the loss of skills from when he was in his prime, Wayne feels akin to someone undergoing a mid-life crisis.
Wayne would be perfect in The Incredibles with his similarities to Mr. Incredible, a man who’s dissatisfied with the state of his current life. Mr. Incredible also rediscovers his deep love and appreciation for his family when he goes in search of what thinks he’s lost. However, while feeling lost, both characters demonstrate they are still good-hearted men.
4 Winnie’s Ambition Is Something From Legally Blonde
The daughter of Wayne and Wanda, Winnie was immediately distinctive in Hotel Transylvania for her hyper-sensitive sense of smell. Her popularity led to more focus in the sequels and her future relationship with Johnny and Mavis’ son Dennis being developed. While their relationship deserves its own story, Winnie also states her desire to attend business school and be a career woman.
This could be its own inspirational movie for girls and women like Legally Blonde, where the female protagonist struggles against expectations to reach career goals. In Winnie’s case, her supernatural identity could function as her obstacle against human perspectives.
3 Griffin’s Powers Means He Would Be Perfect In Halloween
Seeing as he’s already an unsympathetic character taken from H.G. Wells’s The Invisible Man, Griffin’s potential to be darker doesn’t come as a shock. Thankfully, in Hotel Transylvania, Griffin has been written as a humiliation-prone, kind, and harmless person.
Even so, his invisible nature elicits some uncomfortable questions as to how far he could go with his powers if he had less of a moral compass and were to remove his glasses. The possibility of Griffin being able to watch and follow people undetected means he would be a perfect addition to the Halloween series. In Halloween, Michale Myers can follow and stalk his victims before striking.
2 The Kraken Shares Traits With Godzilla When Mind-Controlled
Appearing in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, the Kraken lives in Atlantis and regularly serenades visitors who arrive on Legacy, the cruise ship. Since the Hotel Transylvania films are not musicals, he stands out immediately for his bombastic performance.
The Kraken can be hypnotized and encouraged to go on a rampage by playing certain sheet music. When this occurs, the Kraken feels like it belongs to a more conventional monster movie such as Godzilla or Cloverfield. The screaming vacationers who try to avoid the carnage only heighten the similarities.
1 Johnny’s Parents Could Be From My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Just like their son, Johnny’s parents are exceedingly “normal” and have no prior experience or knowledge of the supernatural world. While they accept Mavis as Johnny’s love in Hotel Transylvania 2 and try to make her feel welcome, their actions show a certain prejudice towards Mavis’ background.
With no malice, Johnny’s parents fill a corner of the room with stereotypical Halloween decor. Such misunderstandings are found in films such as Meet The Parents or My Big Fat Greek Wedding where parents struggle to be sensitive to new additions to the family, especially when they hail from unfamiliar backgrounds.
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