Hotel Transylvania 2 is a 2015 American animated monster comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with LStar Capital, animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and written by Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler, it is the second installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise, serving as the sequel to Hotel Transylvania (2012).
Hotel Transylvania 2 takes place several years after the events of the first film. Mavis and Johnny have a young son named Dennis, whose lack of any vampire abilities worries both Mavis and his maternal grandfather Dracula for differing reasons. When Mavis and Johnny travel to Johnny's hometown in Santa Cruz, California, Drac calls his friends to help him make Dennis a vampire, much to Mavis's dismay.
Original voices from the first film — Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Fran Drescher, Rob Riggle, Sadie Sandler, Jonny Solomon, Luenell, Chris Parnell and Jon Lovitz — returned for the sequel, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray. New additions to the cast include Asher Blinkoff, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Dana Carvey and Mel Brooks.
Hotel Transylvania 2 was released on September 25, 2015, by Sony Pictures Releasing under the Columbia Pictures label. Like its predecessor, it received mixed, but this time slightly better, reviews from critics, though some deemed it inferior to the original film, while some considered it an improvement. The film grossed over $474 million worldwide on an $80 million budget. A sequel, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, was released in July 2018.
Plot
Some time after the events of the first film, Mavis and Johnny are finally married, with the approval of her father Count Dracula. A year after the wedding, Mavis reveals to Drac that she is pregnant and later gives birth to a baby boy whom the couple name Dennis, nicknamed “Denisovich” by Dracula.
As Dennis's fifth birthday nears, he has yet to grow his fangs and Drac worries that his grandson might not gain vampire powers. Noticing the potential dangers her son might face living in Transylvania, Mavis starts to consider moving to Johnny's hometown in Santa Cruz, California in order to give Dennis a more “normal” childhood, much to Drac's disapproval. Drac tells Johnny, who does not want to leave the hotel either, to bring Mavis to California to visit his parents, Mike and Linda, but to make sure to keep her distracted so that she will not move, leaving Drac to "babysit" Dennis.
Convinced that Dennis is a "late fanger", Drac enlists his friends Frank, Wayne, Griffin, Murray, and Blobby to help train Dennis to become a monster, but every attempt that some of them try fails. Drac and the gang then go to Camp Winnepacaca, Drac's childhood summer camp, only to sneak away after Drac finds out that the camp has become much safer and child-friendly. Drac attempts to hurl Dennis from a tall, unstable tower to pressure the boy's transformation into a bat, but he fails to transform and Drac flies down and rescues him at the last second. Afterwards, Frank ends up loosening the tower and it collapses onto the campfire setting both the tower and a screaming Frank on fire as he runs through all the buildings, setting the entire camp on fire.
Meanwhile, in California, Mavis enjoys exploring the more human world. When the couple arrive at Mike and Linda's house, Linda unsuccessfully attempts to make Mavis feel more comfortable by covering her room with spooky, Halloween decorations and inviting other monster/human couples over. Feeling like a stranger, Mavis retreats up to the roof, and Johnny tells her that if they stay together, Dennis will live normally, persuading her to stay at the hotel. However, Johnny then discovers a video of Dennis falling that was filmed by the campers, and he and a furious Mavis go back to Transylvania, with Drac and his friends reaching the hotel at the same time. Mavis confronts her father for putting Dennis in grave danger and failing to accept him as a human, and shows him a pop music remix parody of Dennis in danger and Drac arguing with the staff. Mavis says that they will move out of the hotel after Dennis's birthday party.