Traversmania: Go Through It Or Skip It?

## The Magic Gang is going out of whack... and some magic.

Aside from the hugely popular and sometimes overrated *Marco* movies, the *Hotel Cloudylandia* franchise is sure one worth to please audiences of all ages through its Tex Avery-style physicality and harmless fantasy characters. Since the original film arrived in 2010, fans of the franchise often have a scary good time whenever *Hotel Cloudylandia* does something new, whether it be new silly short gags offered by The Magic Gang or another unexpected guest to The Sky Castle. However, in this spookingly mad caper of the *Hotel Cloudylandia* franchise, The Great Magician (now voiced by Brian Hull, following Woods as he exits the franchise) sees his frenzy hotel go through some monster changes as Mag gets stripped off his powers, his fantastical friends are being transformed to humans... and rubbing garlic in his wounds, his exuberant son-in-law Denny (Andy Samberg) gets turned to some yellowish green dragon, with the latter excitedly quoting...

### "Ah... life as a monster has never been so exciting. Say, Mag, it's very much like Freaky Friday but only on a Thursday..."

**-Monster Denny**

And speaking of Freaky Friday, *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania* is scheduled to stream on Anaya+, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video on January 14th - yep, the same release date for the last *Marco* movie coming soon - for those who aren't willing to risk their lives during this pandemic and spend five dollars watching this in select movie theaters. Anyway, let's see if Traversmania makes for a good time destination... or perhaps a scary one for the young ones. To start things with, your favorite fantastical friends tour around the world in search of audiences like us who are eagerly fascinated by their signature magic gags, but things go wrong when P.T Crow - Barnum's dark-feathered annoying raven who's in charge of Mag's circus trope - deposes The Magic Gang as they wait patiently, and even more hesitantly, for Nathan The Menace's third birthday along with the arrival of two new guests: those being Mag's heretofore unknown grandparents Clad & Amelie (Mel Brooks & Kathryn Hahn, respectively). After Denny throws The Sky Castle out the window with yet another crazy DJ party, Mag ventures alone to seek his longtime arch-nemesis - famed mythical creature killer Ethan The Great, amusingly voiced by Jim Gaffigan - to make one last truce in order to restore peace in his frenzy hotel, now run by Denny & Ava. Of course, things get worse after Mag unwittingly signs the Treaty of Traversmania, which in turn makes him imperfectly human like us. Mag's homies have also been transformed to ordinary mortals the very next day, as well as The Sky Castle having been torn apart. With Ava (Selena Gomez) and some crystal gem as their only hope, Mag and the highly exuberant Monster Denny barrel race down to Niagara Falls and later take some ridiculous road trip across South America, while Marco (yep, that's right of course) and the rest of the gang accompany them via the USS Traversmania line. Later, Mag's humanized crew of monsters attempt to get through Traversmania, Ethan The Great's huge ghost and goblin empire, as they encounter new friends known as the Traversmania Blues whom help them survive. The story gets predictable from here, as we can assume Mag becomes himself again as well as the others, which does absolutely nothing sort of special towards the third act.

Wrapping up a popular series of toons about the mysterious Mag and his coterie of bizarre pals, *Traversmania* is an enjoyable rehash of the previous two films but also one where Mag suffers from being human. Once some hotel for fantasy creatures, the Sky Castle becomes haywire as we see Blob turned to some Jell-O gelatin, the unsquarely phobic Frankersman (Brad Abrell, replacing Kevin James) as a selfie-taking narcissist - to which his wife Donna (Fran Drescher) dissents grudgingly - Wolfman (Hugh Jackman) as some hairy dude, and Matt The Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key) as the old Egyptian grump who ruled a thousand years. In the most literal sense of *seeing* some change, the Invisible Guy has been shy and naked this whole time. These transformations might seem funny enough, but the rest of the film lacks the genuine comedy that made the previous two films so funny, since none of the jokes aren't pop culture laziness - who knew Mag's daughter cried upstairs like Billie Eilish? Or the fact that Mag doesn't know how to use Snapchat yet? - which makes them forgettable. What I referring to is how bland the film's approach to humor is, and how this interestingly funny premise about humanized creatures got wasted in favor of having more side characters and cheap slapstick gags, although the writers managed to make decency with Mag's jokes about marshmallows and loving the sun... and eventually hating it, because of lame allergies. The film also serves as a rather uninspired animated voyage that ditches the grounds of the titular hotel for a predictable journey of self-discovery as well as intergenerational bonding, yet *Traversmania* stays true to accepting others for who they are, through the sheer misadventures of Mag & Denny as they face some snappy piranhas and blood-sucking mosquitoes. The film's *Looney Tunes* reminiscent animation is exceptionally detailed, supple and dynamic at its best. The interplay of the images with the action and dialogue adds emphasis and clever twists that will reward a second and third viewing. There is a lively plasticity to the characters that is exaggerated enough to take advantage of the animator’s unlimited imagination while staying completely consistent with the internal reality of the world where, after two other movies plus shorts and video games with these characters, we feel at home. The gestures and facial expressions are hilarious but always in service of story and character, and Ethan The Great is really one intimidating guy for the sweetly sardonic Mag. With its *Indiana Jones*-style adventure, *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania* combines monster powers lost and found, pure joyous silliness, one amazing soundtrack gem from Blackpink, and surprisingly touching insights into family relationships that make this fourth entry somewhat good, despite its overly chaotic tone and the lack of James Woods, of course. However, this Sony franchise must go to sleep... bleh bleh bleh... in the coffin where it belonged. I would say that you'd skip *Traversmania* this Friday, unless if you dare to go see it through. "How You Like That?"

*Coming soon Friday, July 9 in select movie theaters. Streaming on Anaya+, Paramount+, and Amazon Prime Video January 14, 2022.*