Drac and the pack are back like you’ve never seen them before in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. The fourth and final instalment in the popular Sony Animation franchise is a monster fun-sized epic adventure that’s great for the whole family. It takes the story in new exciting directions whilst still retaining the classic witty and silly humour that the franchise is well known for.

We reunite with our favourite monsters for an all-new story that presents Drac (Brian Hull) with his most terrifying task yet. When Van Helsing’s (Jim Gaffigan) mysterious invention, the “Monsterfication Ray’, goes haywire, Drac and his monster pals are all transformed into humans, and Johnny (Andy Samberg) becomes a monster!. In their new mismatched bodies, it becomes a freaky Friday situation but on a Tuesday. Drac now stripped of his powers, and an exuberant Johnny, loving life as a monster, must team up and race across the globe to find a cure before it’s too late and before they drive each other crazy.

With the help of Mavis (Selena Gomez) and the hilariously human Drac Pack, the heat is on to find a way to switch themselves back before their transformations become permanent.

It has been a long time since Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation was released, as the fourth instalment in the beloved franchise was delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. But now releasing as an Amazon Original, Hotel Transylvania returns with Transformania. A noteworthy improvement from its predecessor and truly a heartfelt addition to the franchise. What I loved about the film was that through the comedy and gags it showcases wholesome messages and discussions such as coming of age, valuing differences, ageing, and ultimately looking for the good in everything. Animation is a fantastic way to convey these themes to the target audience as it has larger-than-life lovable and goofy characters.

The humour is absolutely funny. Hotel Transylvania has always been a good source of laughter as it’s filled with gags galore. kids will be cracking up non-stop as jokes for all ages feature, even some for the adults.

The animation is just mesmerising as the franchise maintains its gift for well-crafted, creepy silliness. It maintains the durability and gives Transformania an upgrade as each sequence is visually stunning. The Hotel full of monsters includes different textures such as fur, scales and slime and in contrast to that is the lush green South American Jungle Drac and Johnny find themselves in when they head off on the quest to find the cure to transform back. Along the way, though they encounter pollen, piranha, and mosquitoes, getting to see these two characters work together after the last three films establishing their differences was great and surprisingly good.

Transformania also shakes things up a little with some sufficiently goofy body-swap transformations which allow the story to take a sufficient turn and perspective, especially seeing each character’s reactions and ultimately how they now view their counterparts. I loved the Human Drac design which is essentially a stripped-down Dracula who’s become instantly more vulnerable and in Dad-mode but stills retain the hilariousness of the character. Turning Drac’s Pack into humans was also a funny sub-plot as its an interesting turn of events, with Frank (Brad Abrell), Wayne (Steve Buscemi), Griffin the invisible man (David Spade), Murray (Keegan-Michael Key) and Blobby all transformed into humans and Jell-O truly make for an entertaining fun watch.

The film features gleefully kinetic visuals with action sequences and the storyline showcases that progress can be made when different types of people/monsters work together.

Youtuber turned professional voice-actor Brian Hull who previously voiced Drac in the Hotel Transylvania short “Monster Pets” does such a good job throughout the movie and manages to grow into the role rather well.

For the final chapter of the Hotel Transylvania film series, franchise creator Genndy Tartakovsky returns as one of the screenwriters and executive producers. Selena Gomez will also serve as an executive producer, while reprising her role as Drac’s daughter, Mavis, alongside Andy Samberg, returning as Johnny. The film also features Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell and Asher Blinkoff. Directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska.

Overall Hotel Transylvania: Transformania was a fun pleasant spooktacular surprise and perfect for the whole family to enjoy. Featuring great life lessons for the young audience and adult fans of animation alike.

Amazon Studios will release Hotel Transylvania: Transformania this Friday, January 14th globally on Prime Video.