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— Abraham vows to defeat Dracula | ||
Professor Abraham Van Helsing is the main antagonist of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, serving as the unseen overarching antagonist of Hotel Transylvania and Hotel Transylvania 2, the (former) main antagonist of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, and a supporting character in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. He is a famous former monster hunter and the great-grandfather of Ericka Van Helsing. Abraham has extended his lifespan beyond the human norm thanks to his kale diet and self-made modifications to his body making him essentially immortal. However, he later abandons his life as a monster hunter when his great-granddaughter falls in love with Dracula.
Van Helsing currently lives with his great-granddaughter Erika at Hotel Transylvania. He spends most of his time in the basement which he has reconstructed into his own laboratory.
Profile[]
Age[]
He describes having searched for Atlantis for 120 years, indicating he is at least that old. He appears to be a fully mature adult when battling Dracula in 1897 possibly near age of 200 years old.
Physical Appearance[]
Abraham wears a blue turtleneck sweater, with a white laboratory coat. He also sports tan pants supported by a large brown buckle. In addition, he also wears shiny black gloves and boots. Abraham also has blonde hair with side whiskers and a large hairdo that resembles horns. In Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Abraham is mostly powered by a robot body & legs, and the only human body parts remaining are his arms and his head, as well as an organ floating in some sort of green fluid. (Presumably his spleen.) He appears to have an organic digestive tract, as he was shown to eating in the fourth movie.
Abilities[]
As a young man, Abraham was muscular and athletic, relentlessly chasing Dracula, and surviving devastating mishaps which would kill ordinary humans. Abraham is also a genius and has expansive knowledge of magic, artifacts, ancient history, and science, building a lightening ray and a sceptre which can turn humans into monsters and monsters into humans. He also has vast understanding of medicine, engineering, and human biology, since he achieved immortality by replacing much of his dying old body with machinery in order to stay alive. Also, in his old age, he does not seem to have dementia, meaning he presumably knows how to cure it and subsequently is as sharp and focused as ever. It is also worth noting that in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer vacation, he is slow-moving, yet in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, he can move at a heightened speed. The fourth movie also reveals his mechanical body can change shape and compress itself. It is not known if he could do these things in the third movie's events, or if, between movies, he had upgraded himself.
Personality[]
Abraham is a legendary monster hunter and the arch nemesis of Dracula. Unlike other noble incarnations of the Van Helsing character, he seemingly hates Dracula for no real reason other than falsely believing he is a threat to humanity. His hatred also expands to all other monsters too, and he considers them to be like animals. Despite this, Van Helsing is a clumsy and incompetent hero who is far more likely to destroy property and spread havoc than to actually slay any monsters, and ironically poses a worse threat to humans than any monster can. His knowledge of engineering, ancient artifacts, and biology do little to compensate for his arrogance and short-sightedness.
Unlike his great-granddaughter, Abraham makes his hatred towards monsters open and known. Abraham is also very persistent. During his youth he would spend countless attempts in trying to defeat Dracula, but he never stood a chance. These failures did not discourage him though, as he would continue to try again and again. Over a century later his grudge and hatred towards Dracula still remained. He was intent on fulfilling his vendetta, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his great granddaughter after she sided with the monsters. Although he was concerned at first, he casually resigned the family legacy would die with him.
Finally, at the end of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, he apologizes and gave them a refund, and the first refund was 30%, but everyone was disappointed, and he reluctantly decides to give them a full refund, then everyone approved. He also apologized to Erika for his treatment of her, having truly changed his ways. In hotel transformania, he spends his time hanging out with the monsters and working on various contraptions in the hotel basement. He's no-longer evil, but his shortsightedness means he is still a threat to everyone around him. He keeps playing god, especially when using an unsafe monster ray on Johnny to turn him into a monster. In short, the poor guy cannot seem to do anything right, and whenever he tries to act the hero, he ends up causing more carnage as a result.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Sometime in the 19th century, Abraham Van Helsing was born into a family famous for hunting monsters. Abraham's family believed that monsters were disgusting and dangerous. His family had already been well known throughout Transylvania for centuries by the time Abraham rose to the rank of monster hunter.
During the late 19th century, Abraham came across the famous vampire, Count Dracula. Abraham vowed to destroy Dracula and all other monsters. Despite his persistence and ambition, Abraham was never able to succeed in defeating Dracula. Eventually, Abraham gave up trying to kill Dracula and accepted that no human could defeat Dracula, but his hatred towards him and other monsters never went away. He fought with Dracula in 1897, Abraham boards a train traveling to Budapest, Hungary in search of monsters on board. While the monsters wear disguises and keep a low profile, the passengers on board mind their business and are perfectly calm, perfect peace between human and monster. Then, Abraham barges into the carriage with his tesla rifle and unintentionally sparks panic. He introduces himself by name to the passengers on the train and explains how his family has spent centuries protecting humanity from the evils of monster kind. Having spotted the monsters, Abraham lights a match directly in front of Frankenstein's face and things go from bad to worse, causing Frankenstein to freak out and expose the monsters on board. The entire carriage descends into chaos as Van Helsing uses his his tesla rifle to try and shoot the monsters and just ends up damaging the carriage instead, most likely endangering the lives of its passengers.
Abraham chases Dracula and the other monsters to the roof of the train where he aims his Tesla rifle at them. Dracula pushes his friends off the train into the nearby woods, and faces off against Abraham. Dracula mocks Abraham, reminding him that none of his ancestors have ever been able to defeat him. Abraham takes aim at Dracula, but before he can fire the train goes under a tunnel. Abraham is knocked down, while Dracula transforms into a mouse and flees.
Abraham began to spend the remainder of the 19th century hunting Dracula. However, each of his attempts were met with failure, with Van Helsing causing more vandalism and endangering more bystanders as he hunts Dracula. Nevertheless, Abraham vowed that he would destroy Dracula and all other monsters even if it was the last thing he ever did. During his final attempt at killing Dracula, Abraham was knocked into the sea. Upon landing in the water Abraham came to the conclusion that no mortal man could defeat Dracula. Abraham began to research an ancient device that belonged to the lost city of Atlantis, an artifact that destroyed an entire civilization of monsters. Abraham began to dedicate his life to find this device, and use it to finally destroy the monsters. Abraham began to use his ship, The Legacy, to sail across the ocean in order to find Atlantis. As the years passed, Abraham's body began to fail him. With the help of a kale diet and modifications to his body, Abraham was able to continue living.
His New Plan[]
Eventually sometime during the 21st century, Abraham finally found Atlantis. Abraham quickly began working on a plan to destroy the monsters with the help of his great-granddaughter, Ericka Van Helsing. Abraham devises a plan to set up a monster cruise on board his ship to lure the monsters to Atlantis where he would finally destroy them. He hacked into monster's televisions with some luck on his side, the monsters took the bait. Having to have seen a commercial for the cruise, Mavis Dracula planned a vacation on board Abraham's ship, unaware of the dangers on board.
After Ericka had finished greeting the monsters, she returned to Abraham in the secret lair hidden in the ship. Abraham begins to discuss his plans with Ericka, however Ericka grows impatient and demands to go and kill Dracula immediately. Abraham scolds Ericka and warns her that she could jeopardize the entire plan. Abraham makes Ericka promise not to try to kill Dracula. Ericka falsely promises before Abraham falls asleep, having run out of energy inside of his robotic body. When Abraham wakes up he returns to Ericka, having suspected she had been trying to kill Dracula behind his back. As Abraham continues to talk with Ericka, Wayne and Wanda appear and spot the two of them. Abraham quickly tranquilizes both of them and tosses them into a closet. After Ericka returns from the Atlantis ruins, Abraham praises her for retrieving the artifact.
Abraham begins to set his plan in motion by hijacking a DJ booth at the party in Atlantis. Abraham finally announces himself to the monsters and Dracula, who thought he is the owner of a commercial rival hotel. Abraham opens up the device, which reveals a music sheet, sets up the music sheet and begins to play the song written on it. As the song begins to play, the Kraken awakens from his sleep beneath the sea. The Kraken, now under Abraham's control, begins to attack the monsters and Abraham commands the Kraken to attack Dracula. The Kraken quickly grabs and subdues both Dracula and Mavis. Having seen enough, Ericka jumps in to help Dracula. Abraham looks on in shock as Ericka frees Dracula from the Kraken's tentacle and both fall down to the destroyed floor below. Ericka grabs onto a ledge, still holding onto Dracula, and tells Abraham he is wrong about monsters. Ericka apologizes to Dracula and tells him that she zinged.
Infuriated, Abraham commands the Kraken to attack both Ericka and Dracula. However, having regained his strength, Dracula flies and saves the both of them. Johnny and Dracula come up with a plan to use kind-hearted songs to help Kraken break free from his mind control. The plan works at first, but Abraham quickly regains control by playing his song more fiercely. Abraham attempts to end things by ordering the Kraken to eat Dracula and Johnny, but Johnny at the last moment turns on the Macarena song. This song breaks Kraken free from Abraham's control, and everyone begins to dance. Abraham attempts to continue playing his song, but the power of the good music causes Abraham's music sheet to disintegrate.
Overwhelmed, Abraham begins to dance as well. While dancing Abraham slips and falls off the edge. Dracula swoops in to save him. Touched by Dracula's kindness, Abraham decides to end his career as a monster hunter and apologizes to the monsters. To apologize, Abraham gives everyone on board a 30% refund. (much to everyone's disappointment) However, Abraham quickly agrees to a full refund. (much to everyone's excitment)
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania[]
Abraham is seen attending the 125th anniversary party for Hotel Transylvania. After overhearing Johnny moping about how Dracula doesn't respect him because he's not a monster, Abraham offers to transform Johnny into a monster using one of his inventions. Which made him ruin the entire party
Memorable Quotes[]
- (Greeting the passengers of the train) "Good evening travelers. I am professor Abraham Van Helsing. That's right, one of the Van Helsings!"
- (After thinking he killed Dracula and Ericka)' "Well, I guess the legacy ends with me. That's an awkward ending. Hehe."
- (Playing the evil music) "Listen to the melody of your destruction!"
- "So... You want to become a Monster, huh?"
- "The monsterfication ray turns humans into monsters and monsters into humans"
- "I've been found! You'll never get me Dracula"
- "What we need is a guinea pig"
Gallery[]
- Main article: Abraham Van Helsing/Gallery
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Unlike many versions of Van Helsing, this version is portrayed as an evil and deluded monster-hating hunter while Dracula is the anti-hero. He has been trying to hunt and kill Dracula and every other monster thinking that they are menaces to humans.
- Ironically during the time in his life when he had hated monsters, Van Helsing turned himself into one. Being largely a machine with just a few human parts attached, he cannot remotely be considered a human any more and is more akin to the undead such as Frankenstein's monster.
- His physical appearance and aspects of his backstory are both somewhat similar to the Dr Who villain Davros. Like Davros, Van Helsing has a rivalry with the immortal protagonist of the series, has no working legs, and replaced much of their own body with machinery in order to outlive their rival.
- His old cyborg form also looks a little like Ratafak Platcha from the Czechoslovakian children's tv show, Slniecko. Like Ratafak, Van Helsing has an inhuman body with humanoid arms, an elongated neck, a receding hairline, bad teeth, the head of an old man, and an ability to contort his body.
- Before the film was released, it was thought that Ericka will be the main antagonist and Abraham will be a posthumous antagonist.
- Van Helsing is the only main antagonist of the franchise to redeem at the end, the first antagonist to be human (with Bela and Quasimodo being monsters), and the only villain not to be licked by Wayne and Wanda's wolf pups. However, Van Helsing gets licked on by Tinkles. He's even the only main villain to appear in more Hotel Transylvania films than once as he appears in the third and fourth films.
- Prior to becoming a cyborg, Van Helsing strongly resembles his voice actor, Jeff Gaffigan.
- He was pretty hidden in the marketing material especially his cyborg self.