Charles Addams’ creation called The Addams Family made its debut as a comic strip in 1938, then most famously ran as a television show from 1964 to 1966. Three more television series followed (two of them animated), plus two made-for-television movies and two 1990s feature films. The newest incarnation of Addams’ macabre family is an animated feature film which has in-jokes and sly references to the original series and the comic strip, but which isn’t nearly as offbeat as it could have been.
Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon’s film finds Gomez and Morticia Addams (voices of Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron) looking for somewhere to live where the local populace doesn’t attack them with pitchforks. The answer? New Jersey, of course. Into an abandoned mental asylum, which they convert to a comfortable home, then populate it with two children, Wednesday (voice of Chloë Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (voice of Finn Wolfhard). The story involves Pugsley’s upcoming initiation into adulthood, involving swordplay (?) and Wednesday’s foray into a local school to see how the other half lives. A blowsy TV realtor (voice of Allison Janney) sees her success threatened by the weird family and tries to force them to leave.
The story is irrelevant most of the time, but intrudes now and then to point the film in a particular direction. What matters are the kids, especially the disaffected Wednesday, and how they interact with “normal” people. This is aimed at young audiences, so gross humor is celebrated, the romantic urges of Gomez and Morticia are all but eliminated, and, eventually, inclusion is the lesson learned by all. Wednesday’s droll style turns her new friend Parker (voice of Elsie Fisher) into a goth girl, but Parker has a colorful influence on Wednesday as well.
This doesn’t seem to be a very ambitious project thematically, but I admit that I found the film fairly clever and occasionally funny. This version will not replace the original TV show in my mind, nor the two theatrical films starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci, Jimmy Workman and Christopher Lloyd. But for those uninitiated with this kooky clan, it serves its subjects well. Lurch is a particular delight; who knew he was a musical virtuoso? Enjoy its oddness. ☆ ☆ 1/2. 3 December 2019.