Last night my family went and saw Hotel Transylvania 2 and while I enjoyed it, I was discontent with it. It may be the influence of the "media smarts" class I took in college, or the time I've spent listening to the Writing Excuses podcasts. The following blog contains spoilers.
First, the idea that "Human, vampire, unicorn. I'll still love you" a.k.a. love you for being you. Drac, wants Dennis to be a vampire and tries everything he can to help Dennis' fangs come in. Just as Drac accepts Dennis for being human Dennis gets his fangs. While I'm glad that Drac had accepted Dennis before his fangs, Dennis' transformation pulls the teeth out of the whole "accepted for who you are" message - We love you even though you are not special but it turns out you're special so no problems." See what I'm saying.
And this idea of special. Dennis is a cute kid and I would have to say pretty normal. We see that he is picked on a little by his cousins. Nothing that I wouldn't expect from ignorant kids who are interacting with a younger relative who is a different and who they don't see often. He gets into danger when one of Vlad's minions comes after him and Winny. And as soon as his fangs pop in everything is fixed. The cousin's respect him and he is able to beat his captor but lays waste to him and all of his friends. This is a common theme in movies and books - the transformation fixing all problems. I don't have a huge problem with it, but it does get monotonous and predictable. What's more, it's just lazy story writing.
Continuing the idea of being special, the human characters were all portrayed as boring, slacking, insulting, and insensitive. Johnny was practically no-existent as a character and his problems weren't ever taken seriously (more on that later). His family was so two-dimensional that if they turned sideways you wouldn't see them. For all intents and purposes they could have been removed from the script and nothing would have changed. So the message is, be special or be invisible. Special people can protect others. Special people can do anything. If you're special everything will be okay. Great message for kids especially considering the "Human, vampire, unicorn" message they were trying to build the movie around.
While Dennis' transformation seems to solve his problems, there were other issues that weren't resolved and weren't addressed. Mavis and Johnny for instance. Johnny has clearly been booted to the back seat with the arrival of Dennis and while he loves his son, he craves attention from his wife. Yet, despite acknowledging this, as some kind of joke, they focus on his desire to stay at the hotel. They brush what I consider the greater need, under the carpet. It is never resolved but everything appears fine between him and Mavis at the end when Dennis gets his fangs. This is strange considering that the first movie focused on their relationship and on Drac's loss of his wife.
Another issue that I think they could have taken a lot farther was Mavis' over protectiveness of Dennis. They could have easily done a scene where Drac accuses Mavis of being just as overly protective of Dennis as he was of her. Maybe it was one conflict too many, but it seemed an important part of the plot, maybe even critical, and yet was unresolved.
Again, I enjoyed the film. Yes, I would watch it again. I won't lobby for it to be added to the collection, but if it ends up there, I'll be okay with it. I just couldn't help thinking about these things. With all this said there are some pretty big flaws with the movie 10,000 BC but I still really like watching it.
First, the idea that "Human, vampire, unicorn. I'll still love you" a.k.a. love you for being you. Drac, wants Dennis to be a vampire and tries everything he can to help Dennis' fangs come in. Just as Drac accepts Dennis for being human Dennis gets his fangs. While I'm glad that Drac had accepted Dennis before his fangs, Dennis' transformation pulls the teeth out of the whole "accepted for who you are" message - We love you even though you are not special but it turns out you're special so no problems." See what I'm saying.
And this idea of special. Dennis is a cute kid and I would have to say pretty normal. We see that he is picked on a little by his cousins. Nothing that I wouldn't expect from ignorant kids who are interacting with a younger relative who is a different and who they don't see often. He gets into danger when one of Vlad's minions comes after him and Winny. And as soon as his fangs pop in everything is fixed. The cousin's respect him and he is able to beat his captor but lays waste to him and all of his friends. This is a common theme in movies and books - the transformation fixing all problems. I don't have a huge problem with it, but it does get monotonous and predictable. What's more, it's just lazy story writing.
Continuing the idea of being special, the human characters were all portrayed as boring, slacking, insulting, and insensitive. Johnny was practically no-existent as a character and his problems weren't ever taken seriously (more on that later). His family was so two-dimensional that if they turned sideways you wouldn't see them. For all intents and purposes they could have been removed from the script and nothing would have changed. So the message is, be special or be invisible. Special people can protect others. Special people can do anything. If you're special everything will be okay. Great message for kids especially considering the "Human, vampire, unicorn" message they were trying to build the movie around.
While Dennis' transformation seems to solve his problems, there were other issues that weren't resolved and weren't addressed. Mavis and Johnny for instance. Johnny has clearly been booted to the back seat with the arrival of Dennis and while he loves his son, he craves attention from his wife. Yet, despite acknowledging this, as some kind of joke, they focus on his desire to stay at the hotel. They brush what I consider the greater need, under the carpet. It is never resolved but everything appears fine between him and Mavis at the end when Dennis gets his fangs. This is strange considering that the first movie focused on their relationship and on Drac's loss of his wife.
Another issue that I think they could have taken a lot farther was Mavis' over protectiveness of Dennis. They could have easily done a scene where Drac accuses Mavis of being just as overly protective of Dennis as he was of her. Maybe it was one conflict too many, but it seemed an important part of the plot, maybe even critical, and yet was unresolved.
Again, I enjoyed the film. Yes, I would watch it again. I won't lobby for it to be added to the collection, but if it ends up there, I'll be okay with it. I just couldn't help thinking about these things. With all this said there are some pretty big flaws with the movie 10,000 BC but I still really like watching it.
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