Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet

Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet (also knows as Hotel Transylvania 2: Escape to Internet) is a 2018 American computer-animated science-fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and The Jim Henson Company, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2012 film Hotel Transylvania, and the second instalment of Hotel Transylvania franchise. Directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston (in his feature directorial debut), from a screenplay by Johnston, Pamela Ribon, from a story by Moore, Johnston, Robert Smigel, Sandler, and Ribon, produced by Clark Spencer, Brian Henson, Janet Healy, and executive-produced by John Lasseter, Sandler, Chris Meledandri, Reynolds, Gomez, Ben Stiller, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet 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. Mavis and Johnny travel across to the Internet, 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, Rachel Bloom, and Danny DeVito, as well as Alan Tudyk, who voiced a new character in this film.

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, with Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were confirmed as an executive producer, along with Ben Stiller (who voices Ralph in Wreck-It Ralph 2) and The Jim Henson Company CEO Brian Henson confirmed as an producer. When the film was officially announced in June 2016 as Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet, 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, and the film's story is similar to that of Sony Pictures Animation's Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).

Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on October 31, 2018, and went into general theatrical release in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats in the United States on November 21, the first Hotel Transylvania film to be presented in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The film grossed over $1 billion, making it the thirty-highest-grossing film of 2018, unlike it’s preciously, the film received generally mostly positive reviews from critics, positive comparisons and similarities to other animated films, especially Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), but criticized its runtime. The film was nominated 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, but it was winning at Kids' Choice Awards 2019, Teen Choice Awards 2019, and 45th People's Choice Awards. A live-action remake is scheduled for release in 2025, with Sandler produced and Nicolas Cage was cast as Dracula, while a sequel, titled, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, was scheduled on June 21, 2024, two sequels was development, and a television series Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures premiered Disney+ on November 30, 2022, and a spin-off series starring Mavis was in development.

Plot
Some time after the events of the first film, Mavis and Johnny are finally married, with the approval of her father Count Dracula. Their journey takes an unexpected turn when Drac discovers a massive wall and leads the family to a paradise-like land on the other side. However, they are soon captured by the land's owners, Phil and Hope Betterman, who were friends with Johnny's parents and are now technologically advanced, well-mannered, and somewhat condescending toward the monsters. 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. Later on, Mavis meets Vanellope von Schwartz, who is Johnny's friend and befriend with Mavis. Vanellope discovers that Phil and Hope's daughter, Dawn, has never left the inside of the wall. Feeling isolated, Eep persuades Dawn to escape with her for a joyride using Chunky, but their adventure goes awry.

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. Remembering eBay, 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.

Mavis and Johnny travel through the space to the world of Internet universe, a place where websites are represented as buildings in a sprawling city, avatars represent users, and programs are people. Mavis enjoys exploring the more Internet world. The search engine KnowsMore directs them to eBay, where they win the auction for Johnny's favorite thing by unintentionally spiking the price to US$27,001 only to find they have just 24 hours to raise the funds, or they will forfeit the bid and lose the item, except Mavis bought the watch. On the way out, they run into clickbait salesman 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 game 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 Mavis, and uploads it to video-sharing site BuzzzTube. She directs them to BuzzzTube's head algorithm, Yesss, who capitalizes on Mavis's video popularity. 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. But Johnny finds Mavis talking with Shank, overhearing how she that if they stay together, Dennis will live normally, persuading her to stay at the hotel. However, a glitch unleashes into Slaughter Race, triggering a server reboot. Johnny, Shank, and the others help Mavis escape before the game resets, but Mavis got injured, Johnny brings her to the hospital in California.

The next day, Mavis blames herself for the crash, and Johnny tells her is not you’re fault is the glitch. When the couple arrive at Mike and Linda's house, in California, 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 with Johnny. 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 convinced that Dennis is a "late fanger". Upon their return, Johnny scolds Vanellope for her recklessness, leading to a falling out between them. During dinner, tensions escalate, and Drac accidentally reveals the plan hatched with Phil. Fed up with the Betterman's condescension and their differences, monsters decide to leave, while Johnny opts to stay behind.

The night before the party, Drac hosts Johnny's family and Betterman's family, including Vanellope, 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. While Spamley brings Mavis to the dark web vendor Bowser. 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, even breaks out, culminating in Vanellope throwing away Mavis's cookie medal and running off, 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. 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 to Arthur copies Bela's insecurities virus and makes duplicates of Bela. The clones overrun the Internet in a global DoS attack. Mavis and Dennis are going to internet to save Vanellope. Mavis and Dennis saves her and attempts to lure the clones into a firewall, but they form a giant Bela monster that seizes them both as The Kraken Mandrilla (portmanteau of "kraken", "mandrill" and "gorilla"), a gigantic primate-virus-like monster. While Drac tries to stop the evil Kraken Mandrilla, but gets injured, including Mavis. 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. The Thunder Sisters and The Thunder Brothers, and the rest of the monsters team up to defeat Bela's virus minions and drive them away, Mavis and Johnny reconcile and use a giant cube to defeat the Kraken Mandrilla. The creature plummets to its death, and the two families manage to escape the danger, 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. Mavis gives half of the broken medal to Vanellope and they bid each other a heartfelt farewell as Shank has arranged for Vanellope to respawn in Slaughter Race. With their differences resolved, Dracula invited the Bettermans to live as neighbors on the hotel.

Cast
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.
 * Selena Gomez as Mavis Dracula-Loughran, Johnny's vampire wife, Dennis's mother, daughter of Count Dracula and his late wife Martha, and the main protagonist.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Jonathan "Johnny" Loughran, Mavis's husband, Dennis's father, and son-in-law of Dracula.
 * Gal Gadot as Shank, a tough and talented racer.
 * Taraji P. Henson as Yesss, an algorithm that determines the trending videos on Buzztube (a portmanteau of YouTube and BuzzFeed). 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
 * Adam Sandler as Count "Drac" Dracula, Mavis's father, Johnny's father-in-law, and Dennis's maternal grandfather.
 * Steve Carell as Phil Betterman, the patriarch of the Bettermans who had a history with Johnny's parents.
 * 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. She was previously voiced by Molly Shannon in the first film.
 * Fran Drescher as Eunice, the wife of Frankenstein.
 * Danny DeVito as Vlad, Dracula's father, Mavis's paternal grandfather, Dennis's great-grandfather and Yesss's love interest.
 * 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.
 * Kristen Wiig as Hope Betterman, the matriarch of the Bettermans and Phil's wife.
 * Sarah Silverman as Vanellope von Schwartz, who befriends Mavis and Dawn.
 * Rachel Bloom as Dawn Betterman, Phil and Hope's daughter and only child who befriends Mavis and Vanellope and is Johnny's old friend.
 * Trey Parker as Bela, Vlad's vampire bat monster servant, another antagonist.
 * Chris Kattan as Kakie, a cake monster from Dennis' favorite television series.
 * Alan Tudyk as KnowsMore, a character representing a search engine of the same name, with an overly aggressive autofill.The character design was mainly inspired by stylized character designs found in Disney shorts and TV specials done in the mid-1960s by Ward Kimball and Marc Davis. Tudyk was previously the voice of Quasimodo in the first film.
 * Jon Lovitz as Erik, the Phantom of the Opera and the hotel's residential musician.
 * Luenell as a Shrunken head.
 * T. J. Miller 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
 * Januel Mercado as Shaman Monkey, the head of the Punch Monkeys.
 * Ryan Naylor as Creepo Monkey, a creepy-eyed member of the Punch Monkeys.

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, Jack Black as Bowser from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. Film composer Michael Giacchino also reprised his role as the First Order stormtrooper FN-3181 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Additionally, 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; John DiMaggio voices Arthur, an insecurity virus, the main antagonist; Sean Giambrone (English YouTuber Daniel Middleton/DanTDM in the UK version, but not on the UK home release) voices eBoy, who informs Mavis and Johnny; Flula Borg voices Maybe, an algorithm who is an assistant to Yesss; and Dianna Agron voices the news anchor covering the virus in the real world. Ali Wong, Timothy Simons, GloZell Green, and Hamish Blake, respectively, voice Felony, Butcher Boy, Little Debbie, and Pyro, all of whom are other characters in Slaughter Race as Shank's racing crew. YouTube personalities Colleen Ballinger, Dani Fernandez, and Tiffany Herrera voice cameos, with Nicole Scherzinger having a cameo voice role in a mid-credits scene.

Popular culture cameos and references
Hotel Transylvania 2 includes a number of cameos and references to video games and various Disney properties, including Walt Disney Animation Studios films, Pixar films, Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and The Muppets franchises. The video game Fortnite Battle Royale is briefly shown, including the battle bus and the floss dance. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' former writer, editor and publisher, makes a cameo appearance in the film. Lee died some days before the film's premiere, making his appearance in Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet one of his final cameos in films.

The filmmakers revealed that the film originally featured a joke about Kylo Ren being a "spoiled child", which was later cut from the film by request from Lucasfilm because it would undermine his role as a villain. Also cut from the film was C-3PO being mockingly called R2-D2 and BB-8 by the princesses. Additionally, the film would originally include The Golden Girls characters, but it was later cut because the directors felt it was a bizarre juxtaposition. The legion of Bela's army, which forms a gigantic Bela monster, resembles the King Kong character from various films, and Kraken. During production, the giant monster form was "The Kraken Mandrilla", is a mix of Kraken and Spiny Mandrilla.

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, Adam Sandler and 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). In June 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that the sequel would be released on March 9, 2018, with Moore, and Phil Johnston attached, and that its story would be one where "Mavis and Johnny leaves the hotel and escape the Internet". In March 2017, the sequel's title was officially announced as Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet, with Howard, Moore returning as director joined by the first film's co-writer, Johnston and Robert Smigel, with Pamela Ribon, and Clark Spencer also returning as producer. Later that day, producer Brian Henson confirmed to produced the film, after producing The Smurfs (2016). It was suggested by Moore and Johnston 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, Ben Stiller, 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, with Janet Healy attached as a producer.

Writing
The film has been widely reported to be a remake of Genndy Tartakovsky, Ben Stiller and Tony Leondis's Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) but Moore claimed that it is his original written story. Moore later admitted that Ralph Breaks the Internet served as the inspiration for Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet and that he had penned a new script. 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. The designs of scenes within the Internet were based on tours made of One Wilshire in Los Angeles, as it is one of the world's largest telecommunications centers. The filmmakers did not approach any of the companies (outside of Disney) that are represented on the Internet and strove to include net branding from all across the world. They also had to explore various Internet memes, making sure to avoid those that lacked long-term presence on the Internet. While the film addresses many positive elements of the Internet, the filmmakers did not want to shy away from covering some of the more unpleasant aspects about it, in part fueled by the success of tackling racism indirectly within The Smurfs. They wanted to follow the same approach as they had with Judy Hopps in The Smurfs, where she experienced, learned, and overcame the racism aspects, and have Mavis similarly learn and become a better person without having to actually solve the issue of hostility on the Internet.

The scene where Mavis is introduced to the Disney Princesses came from screenwriter Pamela Ribon. In 2014, Ribon was still working on Moana when Disney began internally pitching ideas for the sequel to Hotel Transylvania, Mavis fits the definition of a Disney Princess. When work formally began on the sequel after the completion of The Smurfs, Ribon pitched the idea of Disney poking fun at itself by having Mavis meet the other Disney Princesses in the green room of OhMyDisney.com, the Disney fan-driven website. Further inspiration came from a BuzzFeed online quiz that asked which Disney Princess the user was; Moore thought it would be interesting if Dracula and Johnny had encountered that quiz and ended up in an argument with Phil over the result. The script was written by Ribon, which she wanted to include the various tropes of the Princesses, with them making in the final cut for the film. Moore and Johnston were satisfied with the script.

Casting
In July 2015, 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, while Maya Rudolph replaced Molly Shannon for the role of Wanda. In December 2016, Alan Tudyk confirmed his return in the sequel as a different character, named KnowsMore, 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 November 2017, Steve Carell was cast in the film to voice the character Phil Betterman. In January 2018, Kristen Wiig, and Rachel Bloom had joined the voice cast. Wiig would lend her voice to an upscale mother named Hope Betterman, while Bloom was set to voice her daughter, Dawn. 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 June 2018, Disney revealed that Sarah Silverman had joined the cast as Vanellope von Schwartz. On July 13, 2018, Disney announced that Danny DeVito will be cast as Vlad.In August 2018, actress Gal Gadot joined the cast as Shank.

Animation
While the first film had some rough details similar to How to Train Your Dragon, the designs of the second film were more simplified and rendered from DreamWorks Animation's Moonray. 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 Hotel Transylvania: Escape 2 Internet to make sure she resembles more closely to her 2009 appearance; the updated character model was revealed in the second trailer. One of the biggest challenges for the animation team was creating the massive Kraken Mandrilla character and simulating destruction caused by the massive creature. 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. Additional animation and visual effects was done by DNEG.

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. In November 12, 2018, a single called "Feel the Thunder" performed by HAIM was released.

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, Dawn, 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, 2018, but was later pushed up to November 21, 2018. The film was also released in IMAX and 3D formats. Noticeably, all theatrical releases of the film have one of puppet character Kakie's lines of dialogue changed to remove a joke involving diabetes.

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. All the releases include three new short films Puppy!, The Smurfs: Love at First Sight, The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Game Over, deleted scenes, an audio commentary and more.

Pedal Pump

 * Mavis (7 times)
 * Shank (2 times)

Sequels
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." Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston stated that he will not return for the sequel. director Rich Moore stated that he will not return for the sequel. In February 2019, it was reported that Tim Hill was set to direct the film. In January 2022, Walt Disney Animation Studios announced that the third film, under the tentative title of Hotel Transylvania 3, had been set for release on November 27, 2024, with Joel Crawford was attached as director, replacing Hill as director, a additional storyboard artist on the second Hotel Transylvania franchises, having previously helmed DreamWorks Animation's The Croods: A New Age (2020) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022). Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Ryan Reynolds also reprised their previous roles, as Dracula, Mavis, and Johnny, respectively, and the film was written by Despicable Me writer Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio will return. Austin Powers writer Michael McCullers was announced as co-screenwriter along with The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh creator Thurop Van Orman serving as the film's co-director. By early November 2022, the film had been entitled Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. With the new cast members were announced in March 2023, including Jayma Mays, J. K. Simmons, Alfred Molina, Florence Pugh, Jim Gaffigan, Catherine Keener, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Schwartz, Chrissy Teigen, Tiffany Haddish, Awkwafina, Snoop Dogg, Keanu Reeves, Nick Jonas, Pharrell Williams, Joe Whyte, and Tara Strong. Sandler and Mays was worked previously in PAW Patrol: The Movie (2021), The Emoji Movie (2023), and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023).

Live-Action adaptation
In April 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Walt Disney Pictures was developing a live-action adaptation of Hotel Transylvania to be produced by Adam Sandler under their production company Happy Madison Productions, with Ryan Reynolds and Selena Gomez was set to reprise their roles as Johnny and Mavis, with Nicolas Cage was cast as Count Dracula.

Television Series
On December 10, 2020, Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee announced that a series titled Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures and based on Hotel Transylvania is in development at the studio for Disney+. Matt Youngberg and Hyrum Virl Osmond, were set to direct the series, respectively. The series was produced remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which complicated the production process according to producer Bradford Simonsen. Adam Sandler executive-produces the series alongside Jared Bush, and Robert Smigel.

Sequels
Two Hotel Transylvania sequels are in development as of 2023. Sandler, Reynolds and Gomez was set to reprise his role as Dracula, Johnny and Mavis in the fourth and fifth film.

Spin-Offs
On December 10, 2020, Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee announced that a spin-off series that will be focused on Mavis is in development at the studio for Disney+.