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MOVIE: Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation

STARRING: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, David Spade

RATING: PG

REVIEWER: Leigh Paatsch 2.5/5

WITHOUT anyone really noticing – but obviously, a hell of a lot of people watching – the Hotel Transylvania series has become one of the biggest animation franchises still on active duty.

The first two instalments have racked up almost $1.2 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, and the third looks set to spook up more big business this school holidays.

As is often the case, a lot of the freshness so abundant in the original is all but gone now from Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation.

Nevertheless, primary schoolers hard-pressed for decent alternatives currently on the market will get the goodtime goofing-off they need.

The only real hook in play here is a dramatic change of locale for the good-naturedly grotesque action.

Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is getting jaded after running his luxury resort for ghouls, ghosts and gremlins for more than a century without a break.

So the family drag the beleaguered bloodsucker along on a holiday cruise, where romance beckons in the unlikely (and possibly suspicious) form of a chipper ship’s captain, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn).

The breezy pacing of Hotel Transylvania 3 certainly poses no problems, and it must be said that for an Adam Sandler-propelled vehicle, the comedian’s grosser tendencies (save for a flatulence gag or two) are held well in check.

However, those who appreciate quality animation on a technical level will definitely noticed a downgrading in visual flair from previous outings.

A bulk of the key scenes take place at night on the decks of the cruise liner, hardly a conducive atmosphere for haunting high-jinks.