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 fearless 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' exit from 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 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..."

And speaking of Freaky Friday, *Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania* is scheduled to stream on Anaya+ on October 1st for those who aren't willing to risk their lives during the 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 encounters his longtime nemesis Ethan The Great (Jim Gaffigan) inside some mysterious log cabin. The latter asks Mag if he could sign the so called "Treaty Of Traversmania" in order to establish peace and quiet on Earth, but of course the sly Ethan wanted to deceive Mag's special powers. What resulted in being the most macabre dystopia Mag and his friends must survive turns to action mode as The Great Magician & Monster Denny barrel race against Gorzo's goblins at Niagara Falls and take some ridiculous road trip across South America, while Ava and the rest accompany them with the help of Marco - yes, everyone's favorite teen spy, who's now in charge of the S.S Traversmania - and the "Traversmania Blues" to take down Ethan's intimidating ghost and goblin empire for once and for all, and turning back to their strange normal selves once it's all over again.

*Hotel Cloudylandia 3: Traversmania* seems like getting the point but it almost fails to deliver us that magic charisma of Mag and his friends. Now, I do like the film's amazing premise: strange Addams Family-like creatures of fantasy that convert themselves to simple normal humans, but the execution was somewhat bad thinking it was going to fare well enough like the two previous films. Despite some funny moments here and there, the film feels too much exaggerated in terms of pop culture hysteria and a confusing kooky tone, as we hear Billie Eilish crying upstairs for no apparent reason and seeing Mag floss over Ava's Snapchat profile with the former saying something about Fortnite being bad for kids.