Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet

Hotel Transylvania 2 is a 2018 American computer-animated monster family comedy drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Kerner Entertainment Company, in association with MRC, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2012 film Hotel Transylvania. Directed by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, Phil Johnston (in his feature directorial debut), from a screenplay by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Johnston, Pamela Ribon, from a story by Howard, Moore, Ribon, Johnston, Robert Smigel, Sandler, and Jennifer Lee, produced by Clark Spencer and Jordan Kerner, and executive-produced by John Lasseter, Sandler, Chris Meledandri, Jennifer Lee, Chris Williams, Howard, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

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 — Selena Gomez, Sandler, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin James, Jack McBrayer, John C. Reilly, Fran Drescher, Sadie Sandler, Jonny Solomon, Luenell, Chris Parnell and Jon Lovitz — returned for the sequel, with Keegan-Michael Key replacing CeeLo Green as Murray and Maya Rudolph replacing Molly Shannon as Wanda. New additions to the cast include Asher Blinkoff, Tony Hale, Jenny Slate, Dana Carvey, Taraji P. Henson, Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Trey Parker, and Idris Elba.

The first discussions about a sequel to Hotel Transylvania began in September 2012, and the new installment went through three different scripts before the filmmakers settled on the final plot. When the film was officially announced in June 2016 as Hotel Transylvania 2, much of the original cast confirmed they had signed on, with new cast members added in 2018. It is Walt Disney Animation Studios' first computer-animated film sequel and is the first sequel from the studio to be created by the original film's creative team.

The first "Hotel Transylvania" film with a female protagonist, along with The Smurfs 2 (2022). The film was inspired on The LEGO Movie (2014), The Smurfs (2016), Rovio and Illumination's The Angry Birds Movie (2016), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and The Croods: A New Age (2020).

The film grossed over $1.1 billion, making it the thirty-highest-grossing film of 2018, and received generally positive reviews from critics. The film was winning for Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards, 76th Golden Globe Awards, 46th Annie Awards, and 24th Critics' Choice Awards, losing all four awards to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A sequel, titled, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, will be released on June 21, 2024.

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. However they met up J. P. Spamley, who brokers items obtained from video games offers them a lucrative job of stealing a car from Shank, the lead character in the popular racing-centered battle royale Slaughter Race. They steal Shank's car, but she stops them before they can leave the game with it. Suggesting another way to make money on the Internet, she proceeds to make a viral video of Johnny and uploads it to video-sharing site BuzzzTube. She directs them to BuzzzTube's head algorithm, Yesss, who capitalizes on Johnny's video popularity. 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. Johnny has Yesss send her to Oh My Disney. There, while being chased by Stormtroopers for advertising on the site, Mavis befriends the Disney Princesses, being encouraged by them to discuss her sense of un-fulfillment and reaching an epiphany in the form of an "I Want" song on the subject. 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. When she met up with Shank, Mavis talking with Shank, overhearing how she wants to says that they will move out of the hotel after Dennis's birthday party.

The night before the party, Drac hosts Johnny's family, including Shank, Spamley and Yesss, and finds out that Mavis invited his father Vlad. As Vlad is more hateful of humans than he was, Drac tells Johnny to have his family disguise themselves as monsters. The next day, Vlad arrives with his monstrous bat-like servant Bela, and meets Dennis for the first time. Believing that fear will cause Dennis' fangs to sprout, Vlad possesses a stage performer, named Brandon, dressed as Dennis' favorite TV monster Kakie to scare him, but Drac shields his frightened grandson at the last moment, breaking Vlad's hold over the performer. Mavis mistakenly believes that Drac was responsible for the ruse, and while the family argues about whether or not Dennis can be happy in California, a guilt-ridden Dennis flees the hotel and enters the forest with Wayne and Wanda's daughter Winnie, whom he has a crush on, in tow.

Irritated with Vlad, Johnny and his family expose themselves, and an irate Vlad reprimands Drac for accepting humans. During their time together, Hope finally comes to terms with her prejudice against the others and accepts them as equals. They decide to name themselves "The Thunder Sisters." They eventually locate the men and save them. Upon hearing that Dennis is a human, Bela attacks him and Winnie in their treehouse and abducts them. When Bela injures Winnie and threatens to destroy the hotel, Dennis's anger causes him to instantly grow his fangs and develop his vampire abilities, and he bashes up Bela. A furious but defeated Bela calls his giant-bat minions, but Drac, Johnny, Mavis, Dennis, and the rest of the monsters team up to defeat Bela's minions and drive them away, while Bela is shrunk by Vlad, who has been won over by Drac's claim that humans now coexist peacefully. With Dennis finally embracing his vampire abilities, Johnny and Mavis decide to continue raising him in Transylvania, and they resume the party with his friends and family.

Cast
Bill Hader provides the voice of J. P. Spamley, a personification of clickbait pop-up ads represented as a desperate salesman who cannot make a sale; Alfred Molina as Double Dan, a half-worm virus creator who inhabits the dark web.
 * Selena Gomez as Mavis Dracula-Loughran, Johnny's vampire wife, Dennis's mother, and daughter of Count Dracula and his late wife Martha.
 * Adam Sandler as Count "Drac" Dracula, Mavis's father, Johnny's father-in-law, and Dennis's maternal grandfather.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Jonathan "Johnny" Loughran, Mavis's husband, Dennis's father, and son-in-law of Dracula.
 * Kevin James as Frankenstein, Drac's friend who hangs with Murray.
 * John C. Reilly as Wayne, a werewolf.
 * Keegan-Michael Key as Murray, a mummy who hangs with Frank. He was previously voiced by CeeLo Green in the first film.
 * Jack McBrayer as Griffin the Invisible Man
 * Maya Rudolph as Wanda, a werewolf and Wayne's wife. He was previously voiced by Molly Shannon in the first film.
 * Fran Drescher as Eunice, the wife of Frankenstein.
 * Idris Elba as Vlad, Dracula's father, Mavis's paternal grandfather, and Dennis's great-grandfather.
 * Gal Gadot as Shank, a tough and talented racer.
 * Taraji P. Henson as Yesss, an algorithm that determines the trending videos on YouTube. Parts of her character were modeled after Cruella de Vil, as both characters are seen as fashionable.
 * Asher Blinkoff as Dennis "Dennisovitch" Dracula-Loughran, Mavis and Johnny's dhampir son, and Dracula's grandson.
 * Sunny Sandler as baby Dennis
 * Sadie Sandler as Winnie, Wayne and Wanda's werewolf daughter, and Dennis's friend.
 * Jenny Slate as Linda Loughran, Johnny's mother, Mavis's mother-in-law, and Dennis' paternal grandmother.
 * Tony Hale as Michael "Mike" Loughran, Johnny's father, Mavis's father-in-law, and Dennis' paternal grandfather.
 * Steve Carell as Phil Betterman, the patriarch of the Bettermans who had a history with Johnny's parents.
 * Kristen Wiig as Hope Betterman, the matriarch of the Bettermans and Phil's wife.
 * Sarah Silverman as Vanellope Loughran, who befriends Mavis and is Johnny's sister.
 * Trey Parker as Bela, Vlad's vampire bat monster servant.
 * Dana Carvey as Dana, the vampire camp director at Camp Winnepacaca.
 * Chris Kattan as Kakie, a cake monster from Dennis' favorite television series.
 * Alan Tudyk as Erik, the Phantom of the Opera and the hotel's residential musician. Tudyk was previously the voice of Quasimodo in the first film.
 * Luenell as a Shrunken head.
 * Paul Brittain as Pandragora, an easygoing monster with tentacled hair that lives in Santa Cruz.
 * Nick Swardson as Kelsey, a bearded man who is Mike and Linda's neighbor.
 * Chris Parnell as Fly, Hotel Transylvania's fitness instructor.
 * Doug Dale as Kal, a Mini-Mart worker in Santa Cruz.
 * Jared Sandler as a tourist driver

The first t Bill Hader provides the voice of J. P. Spamley, a personification of clickbait pop-up ads represented as a desperate salesman who cannot make a sale; Alfred Molina as Double Dan, a half-worm virus creator who inhabits the dark web.

The first twelve characters in the Disney Princess line appear, along with Anna and Elsa from Frozen.Al The first eleven characters in the Disney Princess line appear, along with Anna and Elsa from Frozen. All were voiced by the voice actresses who originated the roles, except for Cinderella and Aurora, who were voiced by the voice actresses who currently portray them in Disney Princess material, Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins, respectively, as Cinderella's original voice actress, Ilene Woods, died in 2010, and Aurora's original voice actress, Mary Costa, had retired, and Snow White, who was voiced by screenwriter Pamela Ribon, as Snow White's original voice actress, Adriana Caselotti, had died in 1997. Additionally, Rajah (Jasmine's pet tiger), Meeko (Pocahontas' pet raccoon), Cinderella's mice (including Jaq and Gus) and her bird companions, and Prince Naveen also appear in the film.

Several characters from other films and media also cameo with their original or current voice actors, such as Brad Garrett as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, Corey Burton as Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO from Star Wars, Vin Diesel as Groot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. Film composer Michael Giacchino also reprised his role as the First Orderstormtrooper FN-3181 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Development
In September 2012, two months before Hotel Transylvania was released, Rich Moore said that there were already ideas for a sequel, and in March 2013, Moore said and commented that he and Disney had ideas about a sequel that would bring the characters up to date, "Everyone is talking about it, but we haven't started writing it. There are a lot of fun ideas we could totally play with. It's a ripe world." In 2014, the first film's composer Henry Jackman said that a story for the sequel was being written. On March 12, 2014, it was announced that Moore would return to direct the sequel, even though he was originally too busy due to his developing an adaptation of The Smurfs (2016), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2017). In June 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that the sequel would be released on March 9, 2018, with Byron Howard, Moore (who they previously doing The Smurfs (2016)), and Phil Johnston attached as co-director. In March 2017, the sequel's title was officially announced as Hotel Transylvania 2, with Moore returning as director joined by the first film's co-writer, Johnston and Robert Smigel, with Pamela Ribon, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio attached as screenwriter, and Clark Spencer also returning as producer. Later that day, producer Jordan Kerner confirmed to produced the film, after The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2017). It was suggested by Howard and Moore that Adam Sandler had more creative control over this film than its predecessor, and that at times he was difficult to work with. Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller confirmed as an executive producers. Shortly thereafter, Ed Skudder, who after doing The Smurfs (2016), confirmed that he worked as head of story on the film, along with co-head of story, Aaron Springer and Josie Trinidad.

Writing
For a while, "the filmmakers were very committed" to that version of the story for the sequel, but then in November 2016, the filmmakers realized the film's plot would be more engaging if they reversed the roles to instead focus on Mavis as opposed to Dracula.

Casting
On July 20, 2016, before the release of The Smurfs (2016), Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Ryan Reynolds said they has signed on to reprised their previous roles, as Dracula, Mavis, and Johnny, respectively. CeeLo Green did not reprise the role of Murray the Mummy for the sequel after he was charged for giving a woman ecstasy in July 2012 which led to Disney parting ways with Green and replacing him with Keegan-Michael Key. In December 2016, Alan Tudyk confirmed his return in the sequel as a different character, named Phantom of Opera, after previously voicing Quasimodo in the first film. In March 2017, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Jack McBrayer and John C. Reilly were reported as being set to reprise their roles. In May 2018, Taraji P. Henson was in the cast. During production, Moore invited film composer Michael Giacchino to reprise his role as the Stormtrooper FN-3128 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the film. In August 2018, actress Gal Gadot joined the cast as Shank.

Animation
Hand-Drawn animation was done by Eric Goldberg. The film contains over 150 unique sets and 5,726 assets, and includes the highest number of characters in any Disney Animation film, with 434 individual characters with 6,752 variants. One of the Disney animators who helped out to bring the Disney Princesses into CGI animation was Mark Henn, who was also the original supervising animator of princesses Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, and Tiana. Henn also served as the supervising animator for the film's background hand-drawn animated characters. Animators had to work out various techniques to take the different styles of animation into a single approach, and figure out the proportions of the characters using official figurines. Unlike their original film counterparts, the Disney Princesses in the film were rendered in a more cartoony style with bigger eyes and ears.

In the initial trailer for the film, the African-American princess character Tiana appeared to have a lighter skin tone, a narrower nose, and more European features than she did in the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. This led to some backlashes on social media as these drew her appearance away from that expected of African-Americans. As a result, Disney contacted Tiana's voice actress, Anika Noni Rose, and the advocacy group Color of Change to redesign Tiana for Ralph Breaks the Internet to make sure she resembles more closely to her 2009 appearance; the updated character model was revealed in the second trailer. The same treatment was given to Pocahontas, the titular character of the 1995 film, as many viewers had pointed out that she was also given a much lighter skin tone.

Music
American girl group Fifth Harmony recorded a song for the film entitled "I'm in Love with a Monster". It was featured in the film's official trailer and was also played when the film itself was released. It was written by Harmony Samuels, Carmen Reece, Sarah Mancuso, Edgar Etienne and Ericka Coulter. Samuels also produced the track, as well as being responsible for trombones, drums, percussion, bass and vocal production. When speaking on working with group, Samuels, who previously worked on the Reflection track "Body Rock" stated that the girls knew how to "work among themselves" and made the production process "very easy". In other interviews, he called the group "mature" and that after several years recording music, they are "starting to explore their individualities", which was a goal producing this track.

The film features an original song called "A Place Called Slaughter Race", performed by Selena Gomez and Gal Gadot, the voice actresses of Mavis and Shank, respectively. The song, which focuses on Mavis was leaving to California, it was written by Tom MacDougall and the film's co-director Phil Johnston, while the music for the song was composed by Disney's recurring composer, Alan Menken.

The song's pop version, "In This Place", was performed by Julia Michaels. Michaels said that the character of Mavis was one of her favorite things of the film "because she's just completely misunderstood. I think a lot of people feel that way —misunderstood— and go through life trying to find their power. And when they find it, it's really beautiful." Johnston said that Michaels "made the song her own. "She took the longing and the desire that Mavis has and translated it into something she's clearly feeling. It's a very personal interpretation of the song. Her soul is on fire", while MacDougall said that the song was hard to convert to pop "When you try to translate it into a more contemporary arrangement, you still have lyrics about dumpster fires and burning tires, among other colorful ideas. But Julia's such a huge fan of Disney Animation that she really wanted to see what she could come up with. She was able to extract something that even if you heard the song without any knowledge of the original, there's so much to enjoy". Michaels was shown 15 minutes of the film for inspiration, and Johnston said that "she was laughing and I think she cried twice. She has very easy access to her emotions, and ultimately was able to honor the song while making a genuine connection".

The film also features songs from various Disney Princess films, as well as Demi Lovato's cover of "Let it Go" played in the beginning of the Oh My Disney scene.

The soundtrack was composed by Henry Jackman, who also composed the score from the previous film. It was released digitally on November 16, 2018, and on CD on November 30, 2018.

Marketing
In the month of the release of the film, the world builder video game Disney Magic Kingdoms included a limited time Event focused on Hotel Transylvania 2 to promote it, with the characters involved in a new storyline unrelated to the events of the film, including Mavis, Vanellope, Dracula, Johnny, Yesss, Shank, Spamley, Frankenstein, Wayne, Murray, Phil, Dennis, Hope, Eunice, Wanda, Winnie and Vlad as playable characters, some attractions based on locations of the film, and the Comfy Costumes that Cinderella, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine wear in the film.

Theatrical
Hotel Transylvania 2 premiered on October 31, 2018, coinciding Halloween Day, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. It was initially scheduled for release on March 9, but was later pushed back to November 21. The film was also released in IMAX and 3D formats.

Home media
Hotel Transylvania 2 was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on digital on February 12, 2019, and on Blu-ray and DVD on February 26. Noticeably, all home media releases of the film have one of puppet character Kakie's lines of dialogue changed to remove a joke involving diabetes. However, it was kept in television airings of the film.

Sequel
Clark Spencer, the film's producer, said before the film's release that the studio was "talking about number 3 and moving forward and taking the franchise to the next level." On January 5, 2021, it was announced Hotel Transylvania 3 would be released on November 22, 2024. Despite previously leaving the series to direct other projects, Tim Hill confirmed that he would not direct the film for this installment. In August 2021, it emerged that Teen Titans Go! creators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic were directing the film, before it was announcement The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh creator Thurop Van Orman, in his feature directional debut. According to Horvath and Jelenic, were doing the sequel of The Smurfs 2 and The Smurfs 3. According to Van Orman, he joined after he got an inspiration from a "miserable" family vacation. Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Ryan Reynolds also reprised their previous roles as Drac, Mavis and Johnny in the film, which was written by The Smurfs 2, Illumination's Minions: The Rise Of Gru, and PAW Patrol: The Movie films writer Matthew Fogel. The film took place aboard a cruise ship. On February 6, 2023, the release date was moved up to June 21, 2024.