Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (released internationally as Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation or simply Hotel Transylvania 3 as marketed on home release) is a 2018 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The third installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015), it was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and written by Tartakovsky and Michael McCullers, and features Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Sadie Sandler, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Joe Whyte, Asher Blinkoff, Chris Parnell and Mel Brooks reprising their roles, as well as new additions to the cast including Jim Gaffigan, Kathryn Hahn, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen and Tartakovsky. In the film, Dracula finds love with a ship captain named Ericka while on a vacation on a cruise liner with his family and friends, but Mavis later discovers that Ericka is actually the great-granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing, Drac's arch-enemy.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 13, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 13. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics and grossed $528 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million. It is the highest-grossing film in the Hotel Transylvania series and Sony Pictures Animation's highest-grossing film worldwide to be completely animated. The sequel, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, was scheduled to be released theatrically on October 1, 2021, with Brian Hull and Brad Abrell taking over the roles of Dracula and Frankenstein from Adam Sandler and Kevin James, respectively. On October 6, Sony Pictures Releasing sold the film's distribution rights to Amazon Studios for $100 million, due to rising cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in the United States, and set a release date of January 14, 2022, worldwide, excluding China, where Sony will handle a theatrical release.



Plot
Back in 1897, Dracula and his friends travel in disguise on a train to Budapest. However, Dracula's arch-enemy Professor Abraham Van Helsing boards the train and unveils the monsters; the monsters escape by climbing through the roof, and Dracula pushes his friends off the train for their safety. Van Helsing becomes obsessed with destroying Dracula, but is constantly outsmarted by him.

In the present day following a few weeks after the second film, Dracula is running his hotel business smoothly with his daughter Mavis and son-in-law Johnny. Drac is depressed that he has remained single since his wife Martha's death despite his attempts to meet someone. Misinterpreting this as stress from overwork, Mavis books a cruise so they can all take a break and spend more time together as a family. Dracula, Johnny, Mavis, their son Dennisovitch, Dracula's father Vlad, and the hotel guests board a cruise ship called the Legacy. Dracula sees the ship's human captain, Ericka, and immediately falls for her, something that he thought was impossible as he had already "zinged" before.

Ericka goes to a private and secret room on the lower decks where she meets Abraham Van Helsing, secretly her great-grandfather. Van Helsing has almost entirely mechanized his body to avoid death, and has a plan to eliminate all the monsters: on the cruise's arrival at the lost city of Atlantis, he will use an Instrument of Destruction in Atlantis' ruins. Van Helsing makes Ericka promise to not assassinate Dracula beforehand, but she makes repeated unsuccessful attempts to do so anyway. Dracula's friends hear Ericka complain about her inability to get him and misinterpret this as a sign of affection. Dracula nervously asks Ericka out on a date, and she accepts since she sees this as another opportunity to kill him. As they dine on a deserted island, Ericka unexpectedly begins to fall in love with Drac, after they learn about each other's pasts.

Mavis discovers Dracula is interested in Ericka and becomes suspicious of Ericka's motives. The cruise ship reaches Atlantis, which has been converted into a casino; Dracula decides to tell Mavis the truth about Ericka but gets distracted seeing Ericka enter an underground crypt. Drac follows her, with Mavis not far behind, and learns that Ericka is after a "family heirloom". With Dracula's help, she evades the booby traps around the object and escapes. Mavis arrives and confronts them, and Dracula confesses that he "zinged" with Ericka, to Mavis' surprise and confusion. After Ericka is told what a "zing" is, she rejects Dracula's romantic feelings, leaving Dracula heartbroken and leaving Mavis feeling guilty.

A regretful Ericka gives Van Helsing the object—the Instrument of Destruction—and he sets a trap for the monsters at a dance party. Noticing that Dracula is still depressed about Ericka, Mavis takes advice from Johnny and tells her father to talk to Ericka, admitting that she was afraid of him leaving her, which allays Drac's fears. Van Helsing shows up and pushes away the DJ, and a saddened Ericka is forced to reveal that she is his great-granddaughter. Van Helsing unveils the Instrument of Destruction, a case for a music note sheet, and plays a song (The song is a "audio edited" version of Astronomia by Vicetone and Tony Igy.) that drives a friendly Kraken living near the island to attack the monsters. Dracula tries to stop the Kraken, but gets injured. Ericka saves Dracula from the Kraken and pleads with her great-grandfather to stop the destruction, confessing her love for Drac. This infuriates Van Helsing, and he attacks them both.

To pacify the Kraken, Johnny opens up a portable DJ kit and plays positive songs ("Good Vibrations" and "Don't Worry, Be Happy") to beat Van Helsing's song. Upon playing the "Macarena," the Kraken is relaxed and happy for good; Van Helsing is unable to counter the song as the humans and monsters begins to dance, including the music sheet, which rips itself to pieces during the process. When Van Helsing also dances, he accidentally slips and falls, but Dracula saves him. Touched by the act of kindness, Van Helsing apologizes to the monsters and gives everybody a full refund for the cruise, before sending them back.

Back at Hotel Transylvania, Dracula proposes to Ericka, who stammers at the question before accepting.