DVD Reviews

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation DVD Review

By Bryan Weatherall | October 21, 2018

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation is a film which comes directed by Genndy Tartakovsky who some may know as the same director that worked on Hotel Transylvania 2. The film stars Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade and Kathryn Hahn. It is the 3rd film in the franchise and this time around, Dracula and the rest of his monster friends decide to go out on a vacation of their own. They all go out to sea on a wild adventure on a cruise.

With Halloween fast approaching yet again and having to this year once more find some new films to watch during that week. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation was high up on my list for films I’d love to watch this month. Sure I do like to have a big bunch of scary horror films which are much more adult to watch during Halloween, but having a bunch of spooky films that kids can also watch during October is also good to have, just in case you’ve got kids coming over or any in your household.

Having not seen Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation at the cinema, I wasn’t really sure what I’d be in for with this one on DVD. I’ve always liked the franchise and do occasionally like watching these sort of kids films so was keen to see how this one was this weekend. I’m happy to say that I rather enjoyed seeing this film at home and it’s filled with quite a bit of laughs throughout.

For the kids I think all the variety of monsters appearing in this and all the interesting looks of each of the many characters will keep them entertained. Additionally, there’s a fairly easy to follow story for young people. But there’s quite a bit in there for adults as well. Many adults will be familiar with the lore of the many characters in the film such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Van Helsing, but this is also maybe an area young kids may be a little lost with, especially if they’ve missed the previous two films.

As a Halloween film to watch this October, Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation is the perfect choice family film. It’s got a mixture of things for both adults and kids to enjoy. It’s both colourful and funny, with good music throughout. The film doesn’t really slow down all that much, it may not be many people’s favourite film in the franchise, but if you’ve spent the last few Halloween’s on the other two, this year this is one of the better family film offerings that’s new to watch.

As far as the DVD goes. It does come filled with quite a few special features. The special features actually do all play after the film’s credits. So if you’ve got kids at home watching this and you leave it on, there’s no need to really come back and individually press play on every single special feature on the DVD. A handy feature to have and one I wish was standard on many Blu-Ray and DVD releases (not just kid ones).

The highlights of the special features include 2 mini movies which are included on the disc. These are called Puppy! and Good Night Mr. Foot. Both are quite short features and remind me a lot of the Looney Tunes shorts we used to get on old VHS releases, why don’t we get to have those anymore? For fans of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, the two shorts are nice additions to have. Additionally the DVD release also comes with the following special features:

Scary-Oke Sing Alongs
Monster Lullaby Scary-Oke Sing Along With Dennisovitch
Johnny’s Home Movies
Drac’s Zing Tastic Read Along
I See Love Dance Party
Lyric Videos

For me out of these available special features. I really enjoyed the lyric videos the most. There’s quite a few of them inside there to watch and they are well put together musical segments. Overall actually Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation does have quite a few good musical tracks and themes. It’s a definitely a strength of the film.

Generally if you’re looking for a new release spooky film to watch this Halloween, then Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation is a good choice to have in you collection. It’s got decent special features on the DVD disc and the film is rather entertaining for both adults and kids to watch. It’s a solid at home family film experience.