Welcome back everyone to a brand new review! Today we will be looking at the latest irritation of everyone’s favorite kooky family, the Addams. When it comes to the Addams Family I’ve never really seen all that much from them, even if I am familiar with their extensive history which stretches all the way to the 40’s as a comic strip. There is of course the classic TV series from the 60’s, the countless cartoons, and the the two live action movies from the 90’s which is the version a lot of people are familiar with. So yeah, they’ve been around for a long time and have clearly made a huge impact on a lot of people with it’s fun dark humor, and social commentary. So when I heard they were making an animated film based on the property, I thought there was a lot of potential for it to be a lot of fun and introduce them to a brand new generation. Unfortunately I left the theater feeling pretty frustrated by the final product. Why’s that you may ask? Well let’s go and find out down below.
We get off to a pretty strong start with a prologue that shows Morticia, and Gomez Addams’s weeding get interrupted by an angry mob of humans. They have no choice but to move somewhere else, which leads to them encountering their future butler, Lurch, near an abandoned asylum on a hill. To them this is the perfect home and they live their lives there later having their two children, Pugsley, and Wednesday Addams. Thirteen year pass by and the Addams are still living in isolation from the outside world, despite Wednesday’s recent desire to learn more about it much to the dismay of Morticia. Pugsley meanwhile is also trying to practice for his upcoming Mazurka, which is a right of passage that each member of the family is supposed to take, but is struggling to live up to his father’s standards. Elsewhere outside the town, a woman named Margot Needler, a reality TV show host, is trying to build a perfect community in her project, “Assimilation”, so her show has a successful season finale. She soon discovers the Addams house and is determined to do anything to get rid of them before the season finale after unsuccessfully trying to change the house. But wait there’s more as Wednesday meets Margot’s daughter, Parker, and the two start to bond with Wednesday now going to junior high school, which also doesn’t sit too well with Morticia. So with Pugsley struggling with his Mazurka, Wednesday wanting to fit in with the outside world, and Needler’s plot to get rid of the Addams, how will the Addams be able to sort out all of these problems, and will they learn to be more accepting of others (and others to them)? Wow that is a lot of stuff going on in this movie!
Like I said, I was actually digging for what the movie was going for at the beginning. I like the how they set up the family (especially with the opening credits), there was some clever macabe humor in there (something the property is known for), and I liked the more slow burn approach it seemed to be taking as something that can be a little annoying with animated movies nowadays is that they can be too frenetic for their own good. So it was looking like there was a lot of potential here, but sadly once we head to Pleasantville that’s when things start to get formulaic, and messy very quickly. It soon becomes a run of the mill family flick with a generic, predictable feeling to it where nothing is really executed in a way that is unique which is also true with the often used “be yourself message” which while admittedly does make sense in a movie like the Addams Family, there’s nothing that made this movie’s tackling of it stand out (save for Addams different views on things from humans). It doesn’t help that the film just has this lack of energy throughout that really hurt it and made it feel longer than it actually was (despite the beginning actually being okay with the slower pacing). There’s also the fact that the story is just all over the place since there’s just so many plotlines happening at the same time, the majority of which aren’t even that compelling. Wednesday’s storyline is the best one by far as it has the most of the best jokes, and it is pretty interesting while the one concerning Pugsley’s Mazurka felt pointless and was barely developed (though it does lead to a pretty fun climax), and the one with Margot Needler felt painfully generic and felt like a lesser version of Gravity Falls (no spoilers but that comparison will make more sense if you’ve seen the movie). To be honest this felt more like a bunch of episodes for an Addams Family TV series thrown together to make a movie (a problem Secret Life of Pets 2 as well, though I enjoyed that one more admittedly), and it makes me wonder if this film were made as an anthology instead which probably would have made the stories work better and is a pretty neat concept as well. If there’s one thing I do like about the script though is that there is a good deal of comedy that did make me laugh as I’ve always found the Addam’s ironic sense of humor to be amusing and there were some well done jokes here and there with not as many hip pop culture references as I was expecting (judging by the trailer), even if there a couple that don’t quite stick the landing. Nevertheless some funny jokes, and a solid beginning can’t save this disappointing mess of a story.
The budget for this film was reportedly $40 million which ain’t a whole lot, but I am glad the animators were mostly able to do the best they could with what they had. There are some things that really for stand out visually here like the designs of the Addams Family themselves which look a lot like their original comic strip looks which I thought which I thought was a nice touch that payed homage to where they first originated. I even like how in the climax where we meet even more members of the family that not one of them looked the same which made them a lot of fun to look at. Speaking of which I also really loved the House of the Addam’s family as it is a (somewhat literal) character unto itself, with its macabre design, and countless little detail throughout. It’s a really fun background and there are a couple of funny jokes with it involved. The character movements are mostly fine, although there are times where it can feel a little limited though it wasn’t too bad. However there are certain aspects of the animation which I wasn’t huge fan and the first one that comes to find is anything to do with the normal people of the community. Not can their movements feel really awkward at times, but also their designs are just really unnatural, and weird to the point where they look weirder than the Addams Family themselves! Oh and the town itself is just a really boring, and basic background that isn’t very nice to look at (which I guess is the point but I’ve seen far more interesting looking places that went for the same idea). Again it’s not awful animation and there was clearly a lot of effort put into the flick it’s just that well it’s just feels more made for TV than theater quality which is a shame considering with a few tweaks it could have been improved a little.
If there is one thing that this movie somewhat gets right besides the humor it’s the personalities of the Addams’s themselves. Each family member had their moments and can be fun to be with like the eccentric Gomez, the well mannered Morticia, the enthusiastic Pugsley, or the dead panned Wednesday. It helps that the Oscar Issac, Charlize Theron, Finn Wolfhard, and Chloe Grace Moretz each do a fantastic job of voicing their respective player (Moretz especially as she truly delivers Wednesday’s deadpan wit with ease), and are almost unrecognizable here. While the characters save for Wednesday may not have gotten the proper time to be developed, I still would not mind seeing them again in a sequel (which is happening apparently). The same could also be said for Nick Kroll as the fun if crazy, Uncle Fester, (yet another great voice performance by Kroll, as like Bill Hader you can kind of tell its him but he also sounds very different at the same time), and Better Milder as the morbid witch, Grandmama who make the most of their short time on screen. And while they don’t speak, Lurch, the family pet, Kitty Kat, and the Addam’s hand servant, thing, get some good laughs with their antics. The only other big players besides the Addams are Allison Janney as Margot Needler, and Elise Fisher as Wednesday’s new friend, and Margot’s daughter, Parker. The former is just a boring, one note villain who only cares about ratings and Janney sounds exactly like how she was in Mr. Peabody in Sherman as Mrs. Grunion who’s character is similar here, and the latter is similarly un interesting and Fisher sounded a little bored playing the character. Their both glorified plot devices just to help move this story forward and aren’t very memorable. Still at least the writers got the titular family themselves right.
The 2019 Addams Family turned out to be a very mixed bag for me as it does plenty of stuff very well like a majority of the comedy, the beginning, most of the animation, and the family, but there was just so much that could have been done so much better like the story, some of the animation, and the lack of energy in the proceedings. It makes me wonder if this were made as a TV pilot or as an anthology movie would it have been any better as those really feel like what this movie was trying to be. It’s definitely one of the more disappointing films of last year, and the weakest animated flick I’ve seen from that year as well. Though I will say that I wound’t be against the sequel pulling an Angry Birds 2 and being better than the first in every way, and I wouldn’t mind seeing these characters again. Still though despite the massive potential for this to be great on paper, it sadly wasn’t nearly as good as I was hoping for a reboot of everyone’s favorite kooky family.
Rating: C+
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