‘Hotel Transylvania: Transformania’ Monsterification Ray Creates a Huge Plot Hole
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania returns audiences to the creepy and family-friendly animated world of monsters. It finds a fresh, new way to continue the story after the previous installment’s monster vacation. However, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania introduces the Monsterification Ray, which creates a big plot hole for both monster and human characters.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from Hotel Transylvania: Transformania.]
‘Hotel Transylvania: Transformania’ introduces the Monsterification Ray
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania begins with Dracula (voiced by Brian Hull) and his wife, Ericka (voiced by Kathryn Hahn), as they decide to retire. They plan to pass the hotel onto Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) and her husband, Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg). However, the idea of Jonathan ruining the hotel’s future terrifies Dracula. He tells his son-in-law that “monster real estate” requires him to be a monster as an excuse for why he won’t pass along the hotel.
Jonathan seeks out help from Van Helsing (voiced by Jim Gaffigan). He introduces the Monsterification Ray, which turns Jonathan into a monster. However, a wild night full of ridiculous antics results in Dracula, Frankenstein (voiced by Brad Abrell), Wayne (voiced by Steve Buscemi), Griffin (voiced by David Spade), Murray (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key), Blobby being turned human.
The Monsterification Ray creates a huge plot hole for both monsters and humans
The Monsterification Ray in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania has two settings. One reads “monster” and the other reads “human.” Dracula, Frankenstein, Wayne, Griffin, and Murray all turn into human iterations, although Blobby simply turns into a piece of Jell-O.
Helsing discovers that the monster ray has a dangerous side effect. As a result, the monster strain continues to mutate in unstable ways, turning them into mindless monsters that seek only to destroy. The first instance is shown after Helsing uses it on a hamster, which ultimately leads to the destruction of the hotel.
However, the Hotel Transylvania: Transformania Monsterification Ray doesn’t entirely operate that way. The ending of the movie finds all of the monsters turned back into their normal selves with the “monster” setting on the ray. However, their powers never evolve or go haywire as they did for the hamster or Jonathan.
Perhaps the monster strain only mutates in negative ways for those who were never monsters to begin with. However, the film never makes that point clear. Otherwise, Dracula and all of his friends would continue to mutate until they’re mindless monsters causing endless destruction.
If the Monsterification Ray has such a glaring issue with turning humans into monsters, how come there don’t seem to be very negative effects for turning a monster into a human? There’s the risk of staying human forever. However, there’s a continued evolution toward the monster strain, but that logic would likely also apply to the “human” setting. If so, monsters turned into humans would continue to have additional side effects.
The Hotel Transylvania: Transformania Monsterifiction Ray’s logic begs answers to an assortment of questions regarding its continuity and how it operates between the two settings.
‘Hotel Transylvania: Transformania’ concludes the franchise
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is the fourth and final installment of the animated franchise. It takes major narrative steps forward. Dracula is retiring and Mavis is truly coming into her own. The first installment is a coming-of-age love story for the “young” vampire and now she is taking her rightful role as the future of the hotel.
The Hotel Transylvania franchise has a loyal fan base that adores the movie’s endearing nature. It’s easy-to-digest family entertainment that viewers of all ages can enjoy. However, there’s no telling if one day they could continue the story in some fashion, including other mediums.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
