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Mommy? Are we going away... because I'm not a monster?
— Dennis asking Mavis why she wants to move

Dennis Dracula-Loughran is the half-vampire son of Mavis Dracula. He is half-human due to his father Jonathan Loughran. He is also the grandson of Dracula and Martha (his maternal grandparents) as well as Mike and Linda (his paternal grandparents). Through Mavis, Dennis is also the great-grandson of Vlad Dracula (his mother's paternal grandfather).

While born showing no vampire traits, by his fifth birthday, he finally grew his fangs and likewise manifested his vampire abilities.

He first appeared in Hotel Transylvania 2 as the protagonist. He appeared in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation as a supporting character and in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania as a minor character.

Etymology

Dennis Dracula or Dennis Loughran or hyphenated combinations (Dracula-Loughran or Loughran-Dracula) of his parent's surnames have been speculatively used to refer to him by fans, but he has never been officially given a full name in any of the films.

Official Profile

Age

Dennis is depicted at birth (0 years old) in the second film. According to the film novelization, Mavis announced her pregnancy to her father "a few years" after wedding Jonathan prior to turning 120, so Mavis would be at least 120 when she made the announcement.

A height chart shows his measurements at 1 and 2 years of age. References are then made to his upcoming 5th birthday:

  • "Technically, you have until you're five to get your vampire fangs.
  • "He's practically five already."
  • "Boy turns five next week."
  • "We'll have his birthday party here on Wednesday."
  • "Happy birthday, Dennis."

This indicates he’s 5 years old by the end of the second film. The third film does not appear to indicate if has gotten any older or not.

A 2015 Facebook status is shown in the 2nd film after the height chart shows he's two but before his 3rd birthday, indicating he was 2 in 2015, born in 2013, and that it is 2018 by the end of the 2nd film.

When Hotel Transylvania was rebuilt at the end of Hotel Transylvania Transformania Dennis is now 6 evidence by the "One Year Later" Time Card.

Appearance

Dennis is a small boy with unruly, striking red hair and blue eyes, a combination of genes he inherited from both his parents. He is dressed in a sports jersey (with the number "4" on it in Hotel Transylvania 2) and shorts similar to Johnny. According to creators, Dennis inherited Mavis's blue eyes and pale skin and Johnny's bright hair. After manifesting his vampire traits, his baby canine teeth fell out to reveal his adult teeth as vampire fangs.

Personality

Dennis is outwardly portrayed as being optimistic and childish such as any child his age. He appears to have a fairly similar temperament to Johnathan: easygoing, insouciant, and exuberant in most scenarios. Aside from his high-spirited demeanor, Dennis has substantiated noticeable signs of maturity for his age - even as a five-year-old he finds himself too old for any childish needs Mavis attempts to provide him with. Overall, he is rather naïve about certain things; he expressed a large amount of naivety when he lacked any sort of monstrous abilities. Initially, Dennis is unaware that his apparent lack of vampire skills was an immense problem and would impact him negatively; when he is exposed to the realities of the world, Dennis began taking this fact more seriously, attempting to become a vampire in order to remain at Hotel Transylvania.

Biography

Hotel Transylvania 2

Dennis was born 2 years after the events of the first film (June 13th, 2013) to Johnny and Mavis and lived with them at his maternal grandfather's hotel. According to Mike (his paternal grandfather), Dennis was named after Mike's father (a great-grandfather).

HT2 height chart

According to the height chart, "Dennis 1 YEAR!" was taller than "Mavis year 1", but "Dennis 2 YEARS!" was not as tall as "Mavis year 2".

As he showed an apparent lack of vampire traits, he was raised mostly human, being fed healthy foods and taught by his parents. He often played with the Werewolf kids, and he loved to watch Kakie The Cake Monster's show.

Due to his heritage and possibly his young age, Dennis shows no signs of becoming a monster, much to the distress of Dracula. Dennis' apparent lack of powers seem to be because he looks more human like his father than his vampire mother.

After Mavis and Johnny head to California to visit Dennis' paternal grandparents, Mike and Linda, Dennis is left in the care of Drac and his friends Wayne, Murray, Griffin and Frank. Though, unknown to Mavis, Drac, wanting to bring out Dennis' monster genes, decides to recruit his friends into putting the little boy through a monster training boot camp.

First, Drac had Frank show Dennis how to scare people by jumping out and scaring two joggers. However, the joggers recognize Frank and ask to take a selfie with him instead. Dennis tries to jump out and scare them, but they just think he's adorable. Next, Drac has Wayne show Dennis how to eat an entire deer, but Wayne, being the old wolf, forgets how to attack the deer and instead chases a frisbee a nearby human threw for his dog. Finally, Drac asks Murray to conjure up a huge sandstorm to show Dennis how to be a ruthless monster. However, as Murray is performing his spell, he throws out his back and only summons a small amount of sand in which Dennis begins to play in and makes a snowman out of the sand with Frank.

When all else failed, Drac decided to take Dennis to his childhood camp, Camp Winnepacaca, where he learned how to use his vampire skills as a kid. However, the trip did not help Dennis as the camp was under new management, and was "too safe". Drac throws Dennis off a tower to teach him how to fly, but Drac has to save Dennis from falling to his death. The tower collapses under the combined weight of Griffin, Wayne, Murray and Frankenstein's monster, setting the camp on fire. Mavis was extremely mad and upset when she heard what Drac had done and felt that Drac had betrayed her trust (she had placed Dennis under Drac's care while she went to visit Johnny's hometown). Mavis then decides it would be best for them to move following Dennis's party.

When Vlad comes to the party after being invited by Mavis, Johnny has to don a vampire costume. Vlad exclaimed that Johnny's wig looked like "his great-grandma's boobies", but seemed to believe the facade. Upon learning that Dennis was a late-fanger, he volunteered to help Dennis to grow out his fangs. He explained that what he needed to do was take something that Dennis found sweet and innocent (Kakie) and twist it into something terrible. Vlad possessed Kakie the cake monster mascot during his performance to see if Dennis' fangs would pop out, but was interrupted by Dracula as he saw what a traumatizing effect it had on Dennis.

Dennis vs Bela

Dennis' vampire side unleashed.

Dennis becomes upset over the arguments between the adults and runs into the woods. Winnie follows him and leads him to her hideout. Bela, who had discovered that Dennis has human blood, tried to kill Dennis, but Winnie got in the way. Bela hits her and Winnie whimpers on the ground. Dennis was enraged and his fangs finally popped out, finally revealing his true life. He quickly turns into a bat and fights Bela, followed by super strength, super speed, and enhanced vision which allows him to be able to see that Bela's gang was coming. After Dennis and the rest of the group defeat Bela and his army, Dennis asks Drac if he's cool now. Drac reassures Dennis that he was always cool, and that he is perfect no matter what.

Dennis' birthday cake

Dennis going to blow out the candles on his birthday cake

Then Dennis and his family go back to the hotel to continue celebrating his 5th birthday party. Dennis is seen dancing with his father Johnny, his mother Mavis, and Winnie. Dennis then freezes Linda in place. Dennis is last seen dancing some more with Winnie. Just then, Dennis sees his birthday cake and flies up to blow the candle out on his birthday cake. However, just as he about to blow out the candle on his cake, the Elderly Gremlin eats his entire cake, which stuns Dennis as the Elderly Gremlin says she didn't do it.

Puppy!

Dennis is one of the major characters in this short film. He asks Mavis and Johnny for a puppy to which they decline due to saying how taking care of a puppy is a big responsibility. Dennis cries out in sorrow, transforming into a bat and flies away wailing, “I WANT A PUPPY!!!”

As Drac is wandering through the hotel he notices Dennis sitting sadly on the ledge near the window. He asks Dennis what's wrong and Dennis tells him that his parents won't let him get a puppy. Dennis quickly cheers up and asks Dracula if he could get him a Puppy. Dracula is hesitant at first but quickly gives in after seeing Dennis' pouty bat face.

Dennis Puppy

Dennis after seeing his new puppy

Dennis is seen playing with his toys with Johnny on the floor as Mavis reads a book on the couch. A knock is then heard at the door. Dracula opens up, but before he can speak, gets knocked into the room with extreme force, crashing into a wall. A gigantic blue dog bursts its way into the room panting loudly. Dennis' face lights up and jumps up to hug his new friend. Mavis looks at her father angrily but Dracula insists that every monster needs a good pet. Dennis named the mutt, Tinkles.

Due to Dennis needing to go to school Mavis has Drac watch Tinkles as she takes him. After school Mavis and Dennis enters the hotel and see's the huge mess that Tinkles caused while they where gone.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

DennisWinnieKiss

Winnie kissing Dennis

Dennis is one of the major characters in the threequel, who take part in the ensuing cruise. A running gag is when he and Winnie play with their giant dog, Tinkles. Their friendship has then blossomed into a soon to be "zing," though Dennis is too afraid to zing with Winnie when she tries to force him to look into her eyes, stating that he's too young to zing. In the scene, where she helps him sneak Tinkles to the cruise they perform a fistbump and she kisses him on the cheek. Surprised, Dennis blushes in embarrassment as Winnie stares at him.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

Everything is Normal

Dennis and Winnie being hypnotized by Dracula

Dennis mostly plays with Winnie and walks Tinkles and the other dogs; Diablo, Spike, Pebbles, Blobby Puppy, and Poochy Stein. During a dance scene Winnie stares at Dennis making him uncomfortable showing that she still has a crush on him and is still trying to make them zing by him looking at her.

While Drac is chasing Johnny to turn him back into a human he comes across Dennis and Winnie and talks to them for a brief second. Dennis asks Drac if the monster was his Dad to which Drac hypnotizes Dennis and Winnie into believing that Johnny was a random monster and everything is normal.

Later Mavis comes across them and asks if they have seen Johnny in which Dennis and Winnie (still hypnotize) say "That is not my father, just a random monster, everything is normal".

When Hotel Transylvania was rebuilt at the end Dennis is now 6 evidence by the "One Year Later" Time Card.

Relationships

Family

MileyCyrus-Mavis 320

Mavis, Dennis' vampire mother.

Mavis Dracula

Mavis is Dennis's mother. She's shown to be very protective of her son, such as making her dad babyproof the entire hotel and even going so far as to consider moving out of the hotel to a place that would probably be safer for Dennis to live (unaware that Johnny, like Dracula, is against it, and also that Dennis is against it too). Due to Dennis's human heritage and apparent lack of any monster abilities, she only feeds him healthy human food, mostly avocados, and has him sleep most of the night. She first appears in the second teaser trailer for the second film putting Dennis to bed when Dracula pops up, saying that the lullaby she is singing is incorrect.

Jonathan

Jonathan, Dennis' human father.

Jonathan Loughran

Jonathan is Dennis's father. Johnny cares for his son like any other father would, but still maintains his slacker attitude. In contrast to Mavis, who inherited Dracula's over-protectiveness, Johnny's concern is on a normal level; such an example is that Mavis freaked out over Dennis losing a baby tooth, while Johnny was more optimistic and congratulating. Due to how much he loves living at the hotel (which doesn't require him to have an actual job to provide for his family), Johnny is willing to cooperate with Dracula to train Dennis as a monster. Unbeknownst to both is that Dennis loves living at the hotel just as much, and hates the idea of leaving.

Dracula

Drac welcome

Count Dracula, Dennis's maternal grandfather

Dracula is Dennis's maternal grandfather. Since Dennis was born, Drac vowed to always protect him. Dennis loves his "papa Drac", who often amuses him by causing self-harm. Dracula has been waiting for the day Dennis gets his fangs, but becomes concerned as his 5th birthday nears, which is when the chance completely vanishes. Dennis is taken to various spooky places by his grandfather, to inspire his inner monster to surface. In the movie, Drac is all for Mavis and Johnny to go visit Johnny's parents in California so when they leave, Drac and his friends put Dennis through "monster training boot camp".

Martha

Martha is Dennis's maternal grandmother. Due to the fact that Martha got killed by a mob of angry humans when Mavis was a baby, he never met her. She was mentioned by Dennis when he asked Dracula if he missed her.

Vlad Dracula

VladHotelT

Vlad, Dennis's maternal great-grandfather.

Vlad is Dennis's maternal great-grandfather. When Vlad finds out that he has a great-grandson, he goes to the hotel and when he sees Dennis still doesn't have his fangs, he thinks he is a "late fang-er" like his son, Dracula, was. So, Vlad tries to "scare" Dennis's fangs out by possessing Dennis's favorite monster, Kakie the cake monster. Vlad, at first, rejects Dennis for accepting what he is (half-human/half-vampire), but after being called out by his son and granddaughter and watching Dennis and the rest of their friends and family fight off Bela and his cronies, does he accept Dennis for who he is. Dennis was happy Vlad saved his father from Bela and is happy apologizes for putting so much pressure on him about his fangs, noting how as he gets older, all of his teeth will eventually come out (revealing that his own teeth are now dentures). Vlad later celebrates with everyone at Dennis' party.

Mike and Linda

Mike&Linda

Dennis' paternal grandparents

Mike and Linda are Dennis's paternal grandparents. They love Dennis, but like their daughter-in-law, Mavis, Mike and Linda wonder if Hotel Transylvania (and, by extension, Transylvania itself) is a safe place for Dennis to live in, mostly due to his lack of monster abilities. Linda is a little cautious of the vampires at first while Mike is cynical, but they become more accepting and prouder of their grandson’s vampire heritage after taking off their zombie makeup.

Other Characters

Frank, Wayne, Murray and Griffin

In the second film, it is shown that Dennis has a nephew/surrogate uncle relationship with his Grandfather's friends. Similar to Mavis, Drac's friends don't seem to think it's big deal that Dennis hasn't shown any monster abilities, since Dennis is technically half-human, so even if he does have any monster abilities, it will probably be a little while before they show.

One example of Frank, Wayne, Murray and Griffin's concern for Dennis's safety and well-being is when Drac tossed Dennis over the tall tower to try and get him to fly during his monster training. Until Drac actually went in to save Dennis (once it became apparent that he wasn't going to fly), the guys kept noting that Dennis wasn't flying and urging Drac to go and save him, especially when Murray pointed out that Dennis was getting too close to the ground.

Winnie Werewolf

Zing

Dennis and Winnie fist bumping in triumph.

Wayne and Wanda's well-behaved daughter. She is Dennis‘s best friend, though she considers him her zing. Her normal greeting is pouncing on Dennis and licking him. She considers him the kindest boy she knows due to her unruly brothers usually causing havoc and chaos. Dennis claims that they are just friends, He sees her as just a friend and seeing Bela hurt her was enough for him to gain his vampire abilities and defend her.

In the third film, Dennis and Winnie are still best friends but Winnie wants to be more than that, judging from her kissing him. He was uncomfortable from this but they spent most of their time on the cruise together. At the end of the film, Winnie once again makes a move on him and Dennis runs off saying he’s too young to “Zing” while Winnie chases him.

Quotes

  • "Me, me, like a superhero!"
  • "Bleh, Bleh, Bleh!" (His first word)
  • "I love monsters. Video, video!"
  • "Mommy, I'm too old for lullabies."
  • "Papa Drac, do you miss Grandma?"
  • "Mommy, I flew!"
  • (Trying to turn into a bat) "I'm a bat... I'm a bat... I'm a bat! I'm a bat!"
  • "I got a candy!"
  • "Who's in a monster?"
  • "That sounds mean."
  • "Cebause."
  • "I'm scared, Papa. What's happening to Kakie?"
  • "Cebause I'm Batman; to the bat mobile!"
  • "You're the coolest guy who wears a cape, Papa Drac!"
  • "Are we bad guys papa Drac?"
  • ”Hey Daddy Who’s the man with the funny face?”
  • "Are you okay Winnie?"

Trivia

  • Due to his heritage as the son of a vampire and a human, Dennis is a Dhampir, a half-vampire/half-human hybrid; however, the term wasn’t used in the second film.
    • He's the only hybrid in the entire series.
  • Dennis, as a human/vampire hybrid, is able to consume both human food and monster food, although he’s mostly fed human food by Mavis.
  • His favorite superhero is Batman.
  • He's named after his paternal great-grandfather (Mike's father).
  • With the exception of having blue eyes and pale skin like his mom, Dennis looks just like his dad.
  • As a baby, Dennis was taught to say "Bleh, Bleh-Bleh" as his first words by his mother to annoy Dracula.
  • While having grown his fangs and likewise showcased various vampire abilities, as he’s still technically half-human. However, given how many abilities he instantly manifested and likewise quickly adjusted to, it is likely that he is immortal.
  • Throughout the films, Dracula consistently refers to Dennis as "Denisovich". The suffix "-ovich" is Slavic in origin and translates to "Son of". So Drac is actually referring to Dennis as "Son of Dennis", which is slightly (but not entirely) erroneous.
  • Dennis' hair was originally going to be a lot larger. However, the animators had trouble with animating all the hair, and found it to look awkward when Dennis was being hugged or held by people.
  • He strongly resembles Harris, Hubert, and Hamish from Disney Pixar's Brave. He also resembles Dil Pickles from All Grown Up!.
  • Dennis (being half human) doesn’t burn in daylight, but he dislikes the sunlight and prefers nighttime. This is likely due to his vampire heritage. It’s also possible that him being half human allows him to also resist certain vampire weaknesses.
  • In some concept arts, Dennis' shirt originally had the number 7 before it was changed to 4.
    • It’s likely that he was planned to be almost 8 years old before going down to 5.
  • He often mispronounces "because" as "cebause."
  • His favorite TV character, Kakie, is a parody of Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.
  • It’s unknown if he has a reflection or not.
  • Dennis was born on Friday the 13th.
  • He’s shown to be ticklish when the guys were trying to be back at the hotel before his parents get there, Dracula tickles Dennis' tummy and sides.
  • Dennis takes after his father in dancing, as he can be seen imitating him.
  • He named his dog Tinkles because Tinkles peed in the living room.
  • His fangs are a lot smaller in the third movie.
  • In the fourth movie we may see that Dennis, unlike the pure blood vampires, isn’t immune to the powers of the vampires, as when Dracula freezes the time to prevent a disaster, or when Dracula hypnotizes him and Winnie so that he didn’t report to Mavis he saw his father transformed into a monster.

Gallery

See Dennis/Gallery

References

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