The Addams Family review

THE ADDAMS FAMILY:

ANIMATED FILM ADAPTATION IS APPEALING BUT FAMILIAR!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

MGM

Gomez, Uncle Fester, Thing, Lurch, Wednesday, Morticia, Pugsley, and Grandmama in The Addams Family (2019)

            Everyone’s favorite spooky family returns to the screen in animated form in The Addams Family, the new CG film based on the beloved comic strips and live-action TV series of the same name created by Charles Addams. This isn’t their first big-screen outing as The Addams Family originally made their cinematic debut in 1991 with the live-action movie starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci which earned mostly positive reviews from critics and was a box-office hit. 

            While I never really watched the 1964 TV series, the two live-action Addams Family movies directed by Barry Sonnenfeld of Get Shorty and Men in Black fame were spooky fun and featured a colorful cast of characters and some humorous homages to classic monster movies and gothic soap operas like Dark Shadows. The 1991 Addams Familyand its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values are very funny and entertaining movies for both kids and adults in spite of their PG-13 ratings and much like Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus, and The Nightmare Before Christmas they’re staples of Halloween…and we don’t need to speak of that dreadful Addams Family Reunion, moving on.

            Now we have this animated reboot which was apparently in development since 2010 with Illumination Entertainment as the original animation studio and Tim Burton as a producer and co-writer but it never came through. It wasn’t until Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan (Sausage Party) were announced to direct when the project really took off and with a strange, gothic, but also very lively world like The Addams Family, it would be perfect to bring to life in animation form. 

            And it did not disappoint in the animation department, from the backgrounds, character designs, and colors it captures exactly what an animated Addams Family movie should look like. The story on the other hand…could use some rewrites. 

            While the animation, character designs, and voice cast are enjoyable as well as many of the references to horror movies like the balloons from It or the possessed child from The Exorcist, the plot is heavily recycled from other family-friendly scary movies like Hotel Transylvania, Casper, or Monster House and doesn’t quite have the dark sense of humor its source material is known for, we get some glimmers of it here and there but that’s about it.

            The film follows an unusual family known as the Addams consisting of Gomez (voiced by Oscar Issac-Inside Llewyn Davis, Star Wars sequel trilogy, X-Men: Apocalypse), Morticia (voiced by Charlize Theron-The Cider House Rules, Mad Max: Fury Road, Long Shot), Wednesday (voiced by Chloe Grace-Moretz-Kick-Ass 1 and 2, Hugo, Carrie(2013)), Pugsley (voiced by Finn Wolfhard-Stranger Things, It: Chapters 1 and 2, Ghostbusters 2020), Lurch (voiced by Vernon), Uncle Fester (voiced by Nick Kroll-The Nick Kroll Show, Sausage Party, Sing), Grandmama (voiced by Bette Midler-Ruthless People, Beaches, Hocus Pocus), Cousin Itt (voiced by Snoop Dogg-Training Day, Bones (2001 movie), Soul Plane), and a walking hand simply known as Thing living in a creepy old mansion on top of a hill. They do all the usual family activities such as eating revolting dinners, Wednesday torturing Pugsley with an electric chair, crossbow, or whatever she can get her hands on all in the name of fun, and lots of wild festivities most notably Gomez and Morticia’s son Pugsley’s upcoming Mazurka, a rite of passage that every Addams family member has taken, kind of like a bar mitzvah except for ghouls and involves sword fighting.

            Meanwhile, Wednesday gets tired of living in isolation and wants to explore the outside world. She gets her chance by enrolling in junior high school and all sorts of hijinks ensue. However, the Addams are greeted by a reality TV host known as Margaux Needler (voiced by Allison Janney-The West Wing, Mom, I, Tonya) who is building a perfect planned community called Assimilation and upon realizing that their mansion is ancient and for a lack of better word ugly, she is determined to rid the neighborhood of its presence because she claims it to be an eyesore in her sunny community under the hill. 

            The film also features the voices of Elsie Fisher (Masha and the Bear, Despicable Me 1 and 2, Eighth Grade) as Margaux’s daughter Parker Needler who Wednesday befriends, Martin Short (Innerspace, Father of the Bride: Parts 1 and 2, Mars Attacks!) as Grandpa Frump, Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice, Home Alone 1 and 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas) as Grandma Frump, Aimee Garcia (George Lopez, Dexter, Lucifer) as Denise, Pom Klementieff (Ingrid Goes West, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Uncut Gems) as Layla and Kayla, Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Angry Birds Movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village) as Glenn, Jenifer Lewis (Beaches, Sister Act, The Princess and the Frog) as Great Auntie Sloom, Maggie Wheeler (Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ellen) as Trudy Pickering, and Harland Williams (Half Baked, Robots, Meet the Robinsons) as Norman Pickering and Ggerri.

            Overall, The Addams Family (2019) is a perfectly fine animated movie that has appealing animation, quirky characters, and a nice message about being yourself. But as an Addams Family movie it’s rather lacking in substance and focuses more on being a kid-friendly adaptation rather than an entertaining Addams Family movie for everyone, yes, the original movie is PG-13 but at least it tried to be fun for both kids and adults while still having a dark sense of humor, this one however is mostly just for kids and it’s harmless with some moments of the dark wit of its source material tucked inside. 

            The plot is recycled from other movies and is very predictable, humans scaring a bunch of monsters away and hiding in a spooky old mansion for all eternity? That sounds familiar. Oh, the house is alive and has a spirit living inside the walls. Hmmm, Monster…House, oh of course the remake of The Haunting! Okay, I’ll stop now but you get the idea just about everything about this movie is borrowed from something else, even the suburban neighborhoods in Assimilation looked very reminiscent of the houses from Edward Scissorhands and the villain is so bland and generic it’s flat-out laughable, the moment Margaux was introduced I knew she would be the villain, the basic corporate greedy villain who wants to tear the house down for money. 

            With that said, there are some positive aspects about this movie, the animation and art design is otherworldly and unique mirroring the tone of the earlier films and TV show, the voice cast is top-notch with the highlights being Charlize Theron as Morticia, Chloe Grace-Moretz as Wednesday, and Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester, and some of the horror movie references and callbacks to the other movies and TV show can get a laugh. If you’re nostalgic for The Addams Family or just want something to take the kids to then this animated outing is a decent attempt at being “Spooky” and “Kooky”, but it could have used a little bit more.