“I don’t say blah blah blah!” — Dracula is technically correct when he says this in Hotel Transylvania as the animated character doesn’t naturally have a voice, one is given to him. Did I just blow your mind with some nonsense philosophy?
Back to serious mode, Hotel Transylvania is the perfect vampire comedy gold that’s fun to watch with the whole family. But while many know the over-the-top vampire dad’s amazing performance as the signature creation of the iconic Adam Sandler, the voice-acting credits in the series are a bit more complex than they appear on the surface.
Why was Adam Sandler replaced as Dracula in Hotel Transylvania?
To make it clear, Adam Sandler did voice Dracula in the first three movies of the series: Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. But things get confusing as the fourth movie, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania suddenly replaced Sandler with voice actor and YouTuber Brian Hull. While Hull had done voices in previous films, they had been for projects with absolutely terrible reviews like the Pup Star series, so why did he get a role in an iconic franchise over Adam freakin’ Sandler?
The co-director of Transformania, Derek Drymon, in a chat with U.K.’s Radio Times (via Newsweek), gave a reason that basically no one on Earth believed.
“The fact that [Sandler] turns into a human [in the new film] was a good opportunity to do things a little differently. He could be a little different than he was in the movies, and it would be natural. So, it kind of was the perfect movie to have a person come in and fill those shoes.”
Yeah, that sounds like corporate speak for, “I had to make up something plausible because it’s weird we couldn’t secure a hugely famous name to continue voicing a character he basically brought to life.”
Genndy Tartakovsky, the director of the first three films that featured Sandler, gave curious fans a way better answer, even if it wasn’t exactly definitive either. “I think it was purely a scheduling thing,” he told Decider. “Maybe there’s more to it, but as far as I know, he just had other stuff going on. I know he’s got the Netflix deal, that keeps him occupied, and they’re working on expanding their animation too. Who knows, could be he’s focused on that.”
There are plenty of awesome Adam Sandler movies on Netflix to watch thanks to that deal, but it’s sad that he didn’t get to finish the story of Dracula. It’s still hard to deny that Hall did a pretty good job with the voice and likely earned himself a spot on other major projects in the future.
