May 18th, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
Sony Pictures Animation’s wildly successful Hotel Transylvania franchise is coming to a close. Fourth feature Hotel Transylvania: Transformania will open in theaters on July 23rd. Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon take over the directing reins from Genndy Tartakovsky, who serves as executive producer alongside the film’s star, Selena Gomez. Kluska and Drymon preview what Hotel T fans can expect from the finale, including a new (but familiar) voice actor for Drac.
Jackson Murphy: I really like that Johnny wants to be transformed into a monster. Jennifer, how did you come up with this concept?
Jennifer Kluska: I think the idea of human vs. monster has always been very ingrained into the bones of Hotel Transylvania. And actually, early days it really was just, “Johnny transforms into a monster” because that feels like… that’s something that, as a human, he’s been living in this world of monsters for now four movies. How do we turn that on his head and… it seemed like a fun place to take the fourth movie. And slowly the idea evolved. “What if Drac changed and it becomes a body swap? Well if we’re changing Drac, why don’t we just change everybody?” The fun and promise of the premise of what a body swap could be and seeing these characters in totally new ways seemed so appealing.
JM: I love the visuals that we’ve seen so far. Derek, how was it designing the monster look for Johnny and the human looks for the others?
Derek Drymon: It was a big challenge because these are characters the audience recognizes and knows – and they’re coming to see. The challenge is all of a sudden they’re not recognizable to the audience. We wanted to find funny ideas for why they transform. The Mummy, when his wrappings fall off, turns into a 5,000-year-old man. And how do we still make him recognizable as the character you know? It was a big challenge but we worked with Craig Kellman, who’s a really well known designer. He worked on a lot of the other movies. He was a huge help brainstorming and coming up with these funny designs that I think pay off when you see them.
JM: They’re very funny. Derek, you mentioned coming to see them. Was there any talk in the last year or so about this movie going to a streaming platform or VOD? Or did you always know this has to go to a theater?
DD: No one knew what was gonna happen in the world, right? I think everybody was in the same boat, whether you work in movies or you don’t. It was just timing out where it looked like things were opening up again. The studio really committed hard to putting out in the theaters in the summer. I think that’s probably been about six months… that we’ve hit the gas on that.
JK: They kind of put this flag in the sand of. It really was always, “We want it to be a theatrical release. We’re gonna put our nickel down that hopefully by mid-summer this will all have turned around.” And as we got closer we were like, “Is it gonna shift?” But it always was this ambition and I think it’s now paid off hugely that we get to see the finale of the franchise on the big screen. It’s great.
JM: Sony has been very committed to this franchise over the past decade. Jennifer, with this being the final one… are we gonna see little insertions or something for audiences to know in an emotional sort of way that we’re sort of saying goodbye to these characters?
JK: Yeah. It was always a little bit conceived that… Johnny is the catalyst of change in Drac and Mavis’ life in the first movie. He is this positive force coming into their world and changing everything. And then the next movies have kind of moved away from that. And we felt as a lovely way to bring this franchise full circle… coming back to that relationship between Drac and Johnny. What has his relationship with Drac been like over the course of these four movies now? That really will feel like there’s a finale. There is a sense that this really is a passing of the torch. There’s a finality to these characters and the story we’ve told with them.
JM: Brian Hull voices Drac this time. We heard him in the Monster Pets short, which was a lot of fun. Derek, how was it having him voice Dracula this time?
DD: He did a great job. Big shoes to fill. A lot of expectation. And he really stepped. He worked really hard to kind of find the voice that people are familiar with. But also because the character transforms into a human, there’s an opportunity to bring something new to it. I think he just hit it out of the park. We always look at that first line he says in the movie. Everybody’s biting their nails. And when we showed it to everybody, they were like, “Yeah. Okay. He’s the guy!” It feels seamless.
JK: And Brian has a long relationship with the Hotel T franchise as well. He’s been the guy we’ve always gone to…
DD: …for games and commercials.
JK: We worked with him on the short as well, and that was a great experience for getting our feet wet. And he LOVES animation so much.
DD: You’ll never meet a bigger animation fan than him.
JM: That’s lovely to hear. Jennifer, when did you work on the Monster Pets short in terms of the timeline with the movie? And what are some of the direct connections of that short into the feature?
JK: The short… happened almost entirely before the movie. There was some script overlap. We always knew the Puppy! short was such a great interstitial to keep the world alive and introduce the character of Tinkles. How can we play in that sandbox again?
DD: But the short was a good testing ground for our new production. There were a lot of new faces to the franchise. It was a chance for everyone to work together through the five or six minutes of animation we did – with all the different departments. It was kind of like a test drive. We transitioned from that right into the movie. We figured out how it’s gonna work with all of us together on the short so that when we went into the movie, we really hit the ground running.
JM: Genndy Tartakovsky hands the directing reins over to you two. Derek, was there pressure on your end, and how was that relationship working on this?
DD: Well, there’s always pressure to walk into an established franchise. You definitely don’t wanna ruin it. (laughs) You don’t wanna be the person that screws everything up. Definitely some pressure but I think Genndy was very supportive and worked hard to help… hand off the torch. He was very instrumental early on through all the different departments helping us see how he did things and latching onto his sensibility. He’s got a very clear sensibility, which anybody who’s seen any of his films knows. It’s the kind of thing where you know whether you’re doing it right or wrong just by seeing it. Pressure but as easy as it could be. And everybody was working to make it work.
JM: And Selena Gomez is an executive producer this time. Jennifer, why do you think she really wanted to be a part of this world now more than ever in this role?
JK: Not a lot of franchises make it to a “4”. People are clamming for a “4” because we love these characters. We have an amazing cast and there’s always room for them to grow. The one thing that’s great about this movie… is that Mavis really does have a fairly significant role in this movie, especially once we get into the second and third acts. She really plays a significant role in driving the plot and solving the problem of the movie. Having Selena early on… we shared a lot of early scripts with her and some development work… having her bring so much to that role of Mavis as that role’s expanding was really great.
JM: Is the movie complete? Is it locked? Is it all set?
JK: We are still hard into animation. Obviously we’re very close to the finish line and everything is going great, and everything we’re seeing is amazing. But… nothing is really done. Everyone wants to touch everything until the very last minute. Anyone will tell you that they will touch things right up until the end. And we certainly will too.
DD: We’ll work on it right until they take it away from us.
JM: Wow. It’s amazing how close you get to the release date that you’re still working hard on animation. Is it as crazy as it sounds to be working right up until the last minute on something – when you know there’s a big deadline on the way?
JK: It’s a big push, but I think everyone wants it to be as good as it can be.
DD: We definitely have people over top of us that are keeping track of all those things and letting us know, “Too late for that scene. That one you can work on.”
JM: Overall, what has this franchise… and world… meant to you?
DD: The thing that turned me on from the beginning, and it still turns me on now, is that Hotel T takes its inspiration from 2D, cel animation – and hand-drawn, which to me feels really fresh and unique in the CG feature world. To be able to be part of that and contribute to something that I like so much… big satisfaction for that.
JK: Hotel T has always been a love letter to the medium. And no matter where the technology is, Hotel T has pushed to be as visually distinct and embracing the medium and that cartoony, hand-drawn medium as possible. It’s really opened the door for a lot of other styles of production. And the fact that Sony is a place which is open to… there is no house style… it’s a really rich place where you can experiment with whatever you want. Hotel T really broke down a lot of boundaries for that. I think that’s amazing.
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