When I first saw that there was going to be a new Addams Family film, I was more than skeptical. Since big companies like Disney and Sony have been on the rise of re-booting and re-booting old movies for the nostalgia factor, I find it lazy and boring. Having a retelling of a story that was already told – in a (usually better) way than you are planning to have it in the first place.
Now, I’m not gonna lie, I rolled my eyes when I first saw the ad for the movie and quickly scrolled past. Swearing to myself that I wouldn’t watch that stupid, recycled, animated retelling of a series that I held so dear.
Fast forward a couple months to now, the movie is finally in theaters. As a broke college student, I don’t usually go to the theaters, maybe once in a blue moon to movies I’m really looking forward to (like the Goldfinch). Though a friend of mine and I were planning to go the movies, not sure which one to pick out he mentioned the Addams family, I shrugged, and said, “Sure, why not.”
We got in a couple of minutes late at the beginning of the film, but as I sat down and gazed at the screen in front of me, I found myself smiling, and laughing at all the little gimmicks (of Wednesday burying Pugsly alive), and the traditional throwaway lines, but with a twist (“Don’t forget to kick your father goodnight!”). Not to mention Morticia gazing out the window during a thunderstorm and exclaiming, “Such a beautiful day!” It’s moments like these that made me feel at ease, that what I was watching was The Addams Family.
Suffice to say, I was impressed.
If you haven’t watched it now SPOILERS AHEAD!
You’ve been warned.
The movie begins as an origin story for the Addams Family, starting at Morticia and Gomez’s wedding ceremony. During the ceremony, the Addams are run out by the townspeople.
On the run, they find an abandoned asylum – where they take asylum from the rain and create the building into their new home. The movie then time skips to 13 years later, with Wednesday and Pugsly in the pre-teen stage, isolated from the outside world. Gomez is trying to teach Pugsly the Marzurka, a special dance ceremony that involves swords that Pugsly is not warming up to, while Wednesday starts to wonder what’s outside the gates.
The scene then cuts down the hill to a perky blonde woman, Margaux Needler, who stars in a house-fixer series. She is filming a commercial for her new – purely designed by her – town, titled Assimilation. As they were filming, the clouds part to reveal the Addams Family house, with their dark, creepy vibe. It completely ruined the vibe of the town and would not allow for as many houses to sell, and for Margaux that simply wouldn’t do. So, Margaux does the next best thing and offers to redesign their house.
They decline it in their somewhat charming Addams like way, so to retaliate Margaux goes on social media and blasts the Addams Family, turning the townspeople against the Addams Family.
Long story short, it is revealed that Wednesday and Parker (the daughter of Margaux) had found out that Margaux was spying on the townspeople. Once that’s exposed, then there is a message relayed to Margaux from the network that the show will be canceled because of Parker’s livestream of Margaux’s confession that she was, in fact, spying on them.
When they all realize the error of their ways – the townspeople realizing that Addams family are just like any other family, how Margaux’s totally not cool for spying on everybody, and when Margaux reaches her time of utmost despair, Uncle Fester is there to make a move.
The movie ends with the townspeople helping reconstruct the Addams house (which they destroyed in an angry mob), and the townspeople and the Addams family happily coexist in the neighborhood of Assimilation.
I can’t help but compare this film’s plot, to Addams Family Values (1993), where a typical blonde, white, upper-middle-class woman tries to entrench on the Addams “fortune”, whether it is their actual fortune, like in the 1993 film, or in this recent film where the Addams house is “standing in the way” of Margaux’s extension of the Assimilation neighborhood.
I find it humorous that this woman actually ends up with Uncle Fester, a homage to the 1993 film Addams Family Values where Uncle Fester gets blown up by Debbie, who marries and kills rich bachelors for their inheritance. Margaux, in the recent film, seems like a watered-down, “kid-friendly” version of this character.
In the use of familiarity, having this plot was a calculated move, using similar elements from the previous classic films to embrace skeptical old fans with this new version of the Addams family.
Overall, I think the movie paid homage to the sequel film that was published in 1993. It had a similar plot and therefore was easily acceptable by other lovers of The Addams Family.
The only issue I had was the boring animation (no hate to the animators, I’m sure they worked hard!). Maybe I’ve just been spoiled with Into the Spiderverse, but this animation felt bland, like a filler, a simple mold for the characters to fit. While the design of each character, the overall feel of the animation, with its overall simplicity, felt like the goal of this animation was to create the cheapest landscape to set the stage, no real creativity or daringness. I found it all very plain.
Don’t get me wrong, I think animation can allow an easier time for people to believe that a spear to the head or a 50-foot drop wouldn’t do much as a scratch or a bruise. However, I think with that element integrated into live-action would make the movie even more comical.
That is why if they plan to have yet another The Addams Family reboot anytime soon, that I plead they do it live-action.
There’s a sense of whimsy when you can see these kooky and strange characters in real life. Honestly, even with the cast they just had for voice acting, with some make-up and hair-dye they could have pulled off live-action.
Maybe for the keeping of the plot’s sake, instead of Pugsly’s Mazurka be at 13, make it 16, since Finn Wolfhard is already that age anyway, and with Chloe Mortez’s baby face she could pull off 18 easy (in the context of the movie it would feel more fitting for Wednesday to be older, anyway).
And who wouldn’t want to see Oscar Isaac’s Gomez is action?!
Overall, my review of the movie: 4 out of 5 stars.
My only qualm is with the plainness of the animation. With something as strange and noteworthy as the Addams, the plainness of the animation doesn’t quite add up.