This is the sequel to 2012’s “Hotel Transylvania.”

    This time around, greater attention has been paid to story and character development, with pleasing results.

    Having had a change of heart over his monster-only guest policy, Hotel Transylvania owner Drac (voiced by Adam Sandler) decides humans are allowed, just in time for the big wedding between his 125-year-old daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her human fiancé* Jonathan (Andy Samberg).

    But while he’s opened up to the idea of monsters and humans living together in relative harmony*, he’s having trouble accepting the possibility that his newborn, red-headed grandson, Dennis (Asher Blinkoff), may never grow a pair of fangs*.

    Overprotective Mavis, meanwhile, unsure that the hotel is the best environment to raise a child, checks out her husband’s Santa Cruz hometown, while Drac and his friends send Dennis on a “monster-in-training” trip to his old childhood haunts*.

    As was the case of the previous film, the story doesn’t really click into gear* until the action moves beyond the hotel, but the exciting part starts much earlier this time.

    There’s still no shortage of sight gags, but most of them work, including a sequence in which Mavis tries to childproof* the hotel and its staff, as well as a scene in which technophobe* Drac discovers that it’s hard using touch screens with long fingernails.

    Given a larger canvas to fill, director Tartakovsky has fun contrasting Jonathan’s Northern California stomping grounds* with the world of Drac’s growing-up years, with more colorful computer-generated results.

    The character development is further boosted by the voice cast, including Kevin James as Frank, Steve Buscemi as werewolf Wayne, Keegan-Michael Key, who replaces Cee-Lo Green as Murray the mummy, as well as David Spade, Molly Shannon and Fran Drescher, who are joined by fresh blood Mel Brooks, fittingly cast as Drac’s human-hating dad Vlad.

    (SD-Agencies)