Movie Info
Movie Name: The Addams Family
Studio: Movie Studio
Genre(s): Movie Genre
Release Date(s): Movie Release Date
MPAA Rating: Movie Rating
The Addams Family is back!
Hounded, the Addams have decided to abandon their native country and move to a former asylum in New Jersey. There, Morticia and Gomez start a family and add Wednesday and Pugsley to their crew along with their new housekeeper Lurch. The Addams Family now is approaching Puglsey’s Mazurka and the whole family is gathering for the first time in years. Unfortunately in the valley below the Addams’ mansion, a new subdivision created by TV reality star Margaux Needler is being created. The town of Assimilation has no place for people like the Addams though Wednesday seems drawn to it…a showdown is brewing and the Addams could lose their unhappy home again!
Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, The Addams Family is an animated family comedy. The film was released to rather negative reviews and a rather strong box office.
I have always had a soft spot for the original Charles Addams illustrations of The Addams Family though I grew up watching the black-and-white reruns of the series. I saw the first Addams Family movie in the theater and have watched it a few times sense. The negative reviews dissuaded me from initially seeing this movie, but I think the negative reviews were misguided.
Adding color to your dress? Who do you think you are Marilyn Munster?!?
The movie feels like an alternative to Pixar and Disney which dominate the animated market. It has the dark cynicism of the comics and the TV series, but it is lightened enough for a more PC crowd and families. The story feels a bit like a hodgepodge of aspects of the live action movies (and a modernization of them), but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing since the film feels primarily aimed at younger audiences who haven’t necessarily seen those movies instead of their parents. Plus, you get a decent story about differences in people in which no one has to be someone else in the end to be accepted.
The movie also brought in a good cast for the film. Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron play the patriarchs of the Addams Family (though they are less sexualized in their behavior like the original Gomez and Morticia in the TV series). Chloë Grace Moretz and Finn Wolfhard play the younger kids with Nick Kroll providing the voice Uncle Fester. Bette Midler, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Tituss Burgess, Snoop Dogg, Harland Williams, and the director Conrad Vernon (as Lurch) all have roles.
Wait…an actual kids story about acceptance that doesn’t have cheery musical numbers?
The movie also manages to capture the style of the cartoon. In the 1970s, a short lived Addams Family cartoon also modeled their characters after Addams’ work and this also follows suit. It is slick and stylized but it seems to have a good grasp on trying to bring the darkness that the black-and-white originally brought. It might have been interesting to do something like The Wizard of Oz where the movie turned color when they are introduced to the outside world.
Despite reports, The Addams Family is not a bad movie. Is it a great movie? No, but it also isn’t a bad movie. It is the type of movie that kids will enjoy and parents might enjoy…and to me that really is the goal of a kids’ movie. I know parents have to sit through the movies, but they aren’t made for them…so they don’t have to enjoy it. There are few “scary” movies that younger kids can watch around Halloween, and The Addams Family might be a good gateway seasonal movie. With a relatively financial success a sequel is scheduled for release in 2021.
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