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First, you got to possess something the late-fanger finds sweet and innocent, then you show them what's what and... POP!
— Vlad explaining to Johnny how to scare the fangs out of a late-fanger.

Vlad Dracula is the father of Dracula, the paternal grandfather of Mavis, the grandfather-in-law of Jonathan and the maternal great-grandfather of Dennis. He’s 2000 years old.[1] After being ignored by his son for over hundreds of years, Vlad took to living in a dark cave. Bela and his cronies lived with him until their treachery.

He appears in Hotel Transylvania 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and was voiced by Mel Brooks.

Biography

Early Life

There is currently nothing much known about Vlad's past other than having brothers name Gene and Bernie, and that he met Drac's mom who begat Drac at some point (possibly also Lydia, although Lydia's mother could be a different woman, or if she had the same mom as Drac, could've had a different dad besides Vlad).

It’s unclear whether or not he married Drac's mother or if he ever married at all. It‘s also possible that he knew the parents of Abraham Van Helsing.

Since he‘s 2000 years old, he can’t be assumed to share historical events with Vlad Tepes (upon who he’s based on) since he was born in the 1420’s-1430’s and would only be around 600 years old. That said, Vlad Tepes' birthplace Sighisoara did influence a location in the film. Born in 18 d.c

Vlad uses the Hebrew word "shalom" prior to "it's a lovely day" 25 minutes into Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (after his son admits to zinging and a fish raps about a moped) after scatting a jaunty tune walking past the witches and doing muscular poses to the tune of "danke schon", indicating he has Jewish background (like his voice actor, Mel Brooks, as well as Count Dracula's actor Adam Sandler).

Hotel Transylvania 2

Arrival at the Hotel

After Mavis and Johnny return from their visit to Johnny's parents Mike and Linda in California, Mavis, Jonathan and Dracula set up a dinner with the rest of Johnny's family at the hotel. As Mavis is talking to Linda she mentions that she invited her grandpa, Vlad, to the party. Dracula spits out his drink surprised upon hearing this, questioning Mavis why she would do such a thing. Mavis insists it is so he can meet his great-grandson while he tries hiding his concern.

Shortly after, Bela receives the invitation letter from Mavis. He quickly delivers it to Vlad. Vlad becomes excited with the fact that a new vampire has joined the family. He happily agrees to attend the party with the intent of meeting his "vampson". Vlad arrives at the Hotel, and bursts through the door.The entire party stops and turns to Vlad. Dracula greets his father, but then leaves to hide Dennis from him, trying to keep the fact that Dennis is only half-vampire away from him. Frank quickly greets Vlad, and tries to stall him from meeting Dennis. Vlad, uninterested in Frank's conversation, walks away. Frank then introduces Vlad to Murray. Murray instantly screams in fear upon meeting Vlad, but tries to keep his cool. Vlad looks over Murray, unsure as to what he is. "Talking toilet paper, well that's a new one", he says. Finally fed up with all this nonsense, Vlad demands Dracula to let him see his great-grandson.

Meeting Dennis

When Vlad first meets Dennis he isn’t aware at first that he’s only half-vampire. When he notices that Dennis has no fangs he concludes that Dennis is just a "Late-Fanger" just like his own son, Dracula. He explains to Johnny that in order to get the fangs to come out you need to possess something the late-fanger finds sweet and innocent, and then you terrorize them with it in order to scare the fangs out. He creates a plan with Dracula to scare the fangs out of Dennis by possessing Kakie The Cake Monster during Dennis' birthday party. As soon as Kakie begins his performance, Vlad, hiding behind the stage possesses Kakie, and turns him into a terrible monster. Vlad smiles with satisfaction that the plan is working, but the plan is ruined after Dracula sees how scared Dennis becomes and frees Kakie from Vlad's control.

Learning the Truth

Hey, what did you just do?! A few more seconds and the kid's fangs would have popped right out!
— Vlad to Drac on his great-grandson's fangs popping out

Vlad becomes outraged at Dracula for stopping the Kakie monster. He yells at Dracula that the plan was working and it was only going to take a few more seconds before the fangs popped out. A huge arguement breaks out between Dracula, Johnny, and Mavis. Mavis yells at Dracula for ruining Dennis' favorite thing. Vlad sees all this and blames Johnny for turning Dennis into such a wuss. Johnny promptly explodes with anger at Vlad, and unintentionally throws off his vampire costume saying that he's a yellow belt since 1997. When a shocked Vlad realizes that Johnny is human, and that Dennis is not a pure vampire, he becomes outraged and blames Dracula for ruining the family bloodline and breaking tradition. He also is appalled to discover that Dracula now accepts humans into the Hotel after years of hiding from them.

Change of Heart

After Dracula and Mavis yell at Vlad for not accepting Dennis for who he is, they storm out of the hotel in search of Dennis, Vlad starts to think about what his son and granddaughter had said to him, and trailing slowly behind, he exits the hotel and transforms into a bat flying toward the forest in search of his great-grandson, as he approaches Dennis' location, he observes Dennis transform into a bat and fight off Bela. He watches as all the monsters and humans of the hotel work together in fending off Bela's bat cronies.

In the final moments of the battle, Bela grabs a sharp branch from a tree and lunges toward Johnny intending to impale him. Fortunately, Vlad sees this and freezes Bela in his tracks. Everyone watches, as Vlad sternly warns Bela to never come near him or his family again and shrinks him down to a harmless size and letting Wayne's kids have at him. Dracula chuckles at Vlad, while letting him know that he just saved a human's life.

Vlad apologizes to Dennis about all the pressure he put on him about his fangs, noting that in the long run, it's actually not really that big of a deal, and eventually, all of his teeth (and not just his fangs) will come out; Vlad pulls out his own teeth, revealing he has to wear dentures now. Having accepted Dennis and humans into his life, Vlad and the rest of the group return to the hotel to resume Dennis' birthday party.

Vlad dances with his son Dracula then Vlad is seen one last time as he watches Dennis prepare to blow out the candle on his birthday cake. Then Vlad has an angry expression on his face when the elderly gremlin devours Dennis' entire birthday cake when she says, "I didn't do it".

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Monster Vacation

Back in my day, people took trains!
— Vlad on how he travels

Vlad is first shown to be sitting in the seat behind Dracula and Mavis inside the Gremlin Airplane. Vlad comments to Dracula that back in his day people took trains instead of planes, while Mavis listens with a smile. Dracula scoffs, reminding Vlad of the days where they would spend hours on the train while Vlad and Uncle Bernie would argue over who was more beautiful — Cleopatra or Nefertiti. Vlad smiles and leans back in his chair, thinking of Nefertiti; he is also shown to be in amazement upon seeing the Bermuda Triangle alongside others from the hotel.

On board the cruise ship, Vlad strips down to his swim trunks and relaxes on a lounge chair, showing off his body to the witch maids sitting next to him, which embarrasses Drac. Vlad also participates in a game of volleyball on the cruise. When the ball bounced towards Vlad he would scream and hiss at the ball, causing the ball to fly back to the other side of the net in fear.

Atlantis

Vlad is later shown enjoying himself in the background through out the film on the ship and in Atlantis, seen gambling, much to Frank's wanting.

Dance Party

At the end of the film, Vlad notices that Johnny's corny song and music causes the Kraken to become docile. Vlad joins everyone else in dancing to the song, though at first he says it stinks.

Epilogue

Then, after returning back to the hotel, when Dracula takes Ericka to the roof and proposes to her, Vlad, along with many people from the hotel tell Ericka to say yes, which she does.

Personality

Honey, your gramps would not have been cool with this. He's old-school.
— Dracula on Vlad's ways

Vlad is depicted as being very old-fashioned and stuck in tradition. Being well over a thousand years old, Vlad can be annoyed by change, he had a firm belief that humans and monsters should not interact, for to do so would cause all out war, comparing to his former assistant, Bela, he was more like simply hating humans instead of willing to attack them, however; he is quite calm when mentioning humans or Hotel Transylvania (on the other hand, Bela is often out of control when he talks about or smells humans) after encountering his grandson-in-law (who's a human) and great-grandson (who's a vampire-human hybrid), he had a change of heart and realized that he misjudged humans.

Vlad appears too indifferent to many other things except his relatives, whom he treats pretty amiable; on the other hand, he is very sarcastic and bitter to things that he finds unfamiliar, such as Murray's appearance (he calls "talking toilet paper") or Johnny's wig ("it looks like my grandmothers boobies").

Relationships

Dracula

Dracula is Vlad's son. Dracula can't stand being around his father due to a burning disgust of his brutal and grumpy ways from when he was five. Because Drac's fangs were late coming out, Vlad scared them out ("a sort of wussy exorcism") by possessing Drac's beloved baby raccoon Lulu. After Vlad accepted Johnny Loughran, the two became closer, seen dancing together at Dennis' birthday party. Though he is shown to still have embarrassment with his father, as shown during their vacation.

Bela

Vlad's right-hand demonic cronie. Vlad has spent his time with a horde of demons for over 600 years since Dracula refused to visit him. Bela enjoys stealing souls and destroying buildings. However, after Bela attempts to hurt Dennis and the rest of his family Vlad turns against Bela and banishes him.

Mavis Dracula

Mavis is Vlad's granddaughter. Vlad met her at some point when she was younger but never really talked with Mavis or gotten to know her because of Dracula's determination to keep her away from him. Even so, Mavis still keeps Vlad in her thoughts, shown when she wondered why he didn't come to her wedding; and deciding to invite him to Dennis' birthday party, Vlad and Mavis get off to a rocky start after Vlad unintentionally scares Dennis away from the hotel. However, after the hotel is successfully protected from the Bat Cronies, Vlad appears to get along well with Mavis, especially when he saves her husband.

Jonathan

Jonathan is Vlad's grandson-in-law via Mavis. At first Vlad hated Johnny when he discovered he was a human, but soon learned to accept him as his family after watching Johnny assist in defending the hotel and Dennis. Vlad even saved Johnny's life when Bela attempted to kill him. Because Johnny is Mavis' husband and Dennis' father, Vlad sees him as a member of the family and ordered Bela to never come near his family ever again.

Frankenstein

Frank is a longtime friend of Dracula's and appears to know Vlad. First of all, Vlad ignores Frank when he talks about his friends in second film, though however they likely reform as no trouble comes between them during their vacation alongside Dracula and Mavis, among others.

Murray

Murray is a longtime friend of Dracula, Vlad's son, yet they seem to have never met. When Frank introduces each other, Murray reacts with complete fright, though he then calms down, though Vlad then comments on Murray, calling him "talking toilet paper", much to Murray's chagrin.

Dennis

Dennis is Vlad's great-grandson. It appears that Vlad doesn't know (to begin with) that Dennis is only half-vampire. When Vlad first meets Dennis he concludes that his great-grandson is a "Late Fanger" just like Dracula was. When Vlad does find out that Dennis is half-human, he at first refuses to accept him for who he is. However, after watching him defend his family against Bela, does he sees the error of his ways and happily accepts Dennis as part of the family.

Bernie

Bernie is Vlad's brother. He’s only mentioned by Dracula during the plane trip to the Legacy in which he used to debate with Vlad about who’s more attractive Nefertiti or Cleopatra during a train trip. It’s unknown if Bernie is still alive or deceased.

Memorable Quotes

  • "Are we ready to do this thing?"
  • "Talking toilet paper... well, that's a new one."
  • "This hotel must be extinguished."
  • (To Dracula) "Hey, what did you just do?! A few more seconds and the kid's fangs would have popped right out!"
  • "You let your daughter marry a human?!"
  • "Easy, Bela. At least there's another vampire in the family!"
  • (To Bela) "You know what, just wait outside for me. This is family stuff. You'll only get in the way."
  • (To Bela) "Don't ever come near me, or my family again!"
  • "So you run a hotel now? From prince of darkness to king of room service..."
  • "Alright, where's my vamp son?"
  • (To Dennis) "Let me see those fangs."
  • (To Dracula) "Why don't you just put a stake through my heart!"
  • (Referring to Dracula) "Holy rabies, he finally invites me to something."
  • "It's at a hotel? Fancy Schmancy."
  • (Upon arriving at the Hotel) "Hotel... Transylvania...?"
  • "Bela, we're in the outside world. You're gonna smell humans."
  • (To Johnny in his vampire disguise) "What's that thing on your head? It looks like my grandmother's boobies."
  • "All this pressure about when the boy’s fangs were coming out. Who cares? Mine came out years ago. Look."
  • "Back in my day, people took trains."
  • "Hey, Johnny’s corny music is defeating the evil music. I kinda like it."
  • "Boy, that stinks."
  • "He used to pee in his bed."

Gallery

See Vlad Dracula/Gallery

Trivia

  • His name is a reference to Vlad the Impaler, in which Bram Stokers's Dracula is based on.
  • Vlad's attitude towards humans is very similar to Dracula's attitude towards them in the first film.
    • This is likely part of why Dracula was mistrustful and suspicious of humans during the first film.
    • Interestingly they’re also similar to King Triton and how he protects Ariel in The Little Mermaid and forbids her to have any contact with humans but they soon have a change of heart.
  • Vlad's address is 666 Gory Cliff Lane.
    • This number must be to prove what malefic and diabolical Vlad is.
  • In the original script of Hotel Transylvania 2, Vlad wasn't in it at all. It wasn't until much later, and after several plot changes that Vlad was written in.
  • Vlad was originally going to live in a castle, but after some time the writers and animators thought it was too similar to Dracula's home, the Hotel, so it was changed to a Cave.
  • He’s the first vampire to show signs of senility like a human would, meaning while vampires (in this movie) have greater longevity, even they have their limits.
  • Based on a comment that Dracula made it’s shown Vlad hates the "Bleh, Bleh-Bleh" thing more than Dracula does.
  • He thinks Nefertiti is more attractive than Cleopatra.
  • Mavis claims she doesn’t know why she EVER invited Vlad, when she said Vlad has never seen Dennis.
  • There is an unused scene/sequence in Hotel Transylvania 2 called "Meet Vlad" that didn't make the final cut.
    • This scene would have shown Dracula and Frankenstein driving to Vlad's cave where they would fall down a pit into the cave and been greeted by Bela or one of the Bat Cronies and escorted to Vlad.
  • He appears in the Chinese poster of Hotel Transylvania 4, despite not appearing in the actual film itself.

References

  1. http://archive.is/ftg5v Meet the Monsters: ""Vlad is a 2,000 year old vampire"
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