In 1938 Charles Addams created a cartoon family that would become his legacy. The Addams family was a satirical inversion of your typical American family of the time. The all American family was seen a certain way and this was Addams twisted view on the matter. Addams macabre little family of ghouls, misfits, and monsters has since gone on to become a staple of American pop culture alongside the similarly themed Munster Family with cartoons, TV series, and movies. This 2019 animated movie is apparently a reboot of the classic 1991 movie.
The plot is unfortunately you're average affair which has been played out many many many times before (including the 1993 film 'Addams Family Values' and the basis for the entire 1992 animated series). The Addams move into their new home (I'll get to that) and go about their daily strange lives. All the while Gomez and Morticia are keeping Pugsley and Wednesday unaware of the small local town nearby. Their reason is they know they will come across as weird outcasts to the 'normies' and they don't want Pugsley or Wednesday to deal with it.
As expected Wednesday does eventually discover the outside world and wants to explore it after meeting another local girl her own age. As expected Morticia is firmly against this but struggles to keep Wednesday from exploring. Meanwhile in the town there is an obsessive reality TV host who is wanting to turn the local town into the perfect community; as expected the Addams are getting the way of her vision. Her solution? Get rid of the Addams family.
So firstly as already mentioned, at the start of this movie we see Gomez and Morticia before they are married. We also see how they get the mansion and how they meet Lurch. None of this satisfied me in the slightest. Allow me to elaborate. Firstly where does Morticia live at the very start? It appears as though she's living in the sewers? Eh?? Where is this located? It kinda looks like a period set village. Secondly, after the newlyweds are run out of whatever town they live in, they reach an abandoned loony bin. This asylum becomes their new home, the Addams mansion. I hated this! Surely in Addams lore the mansion has been the family home for generations of Addams before Gomez and Morticia, right? But here they just stumble upon it and basically take it? Does this mean the Addams family are swatting in this abandoned asylum? I mean, they haven't bought it, surely it belongs to the state (?).
This leads me to the introduction of Lurch. Gomez hits Lurch with his car just before they find the abandoned asylum. Turns out Lurch is an ex-patient of the asylum and is somehow just wondering around in the wild. So how did Lurch get into this situation? What happened to the asylum? Why wasn't Lurch switched to another asylum with the other patients? (I'm guessing that's what happened). This also leads me to query Lurch's mental state seeing as he's a patient. He isn't working for the Addams by choice per se, it happened by accident and mentally he's not stable. So with the proper help, he could get well again and this could mean he wouldn't want to be a butler for the Addams. So if you wanna be technical and picky, this plotline basically has a mentally sick person being abused for the Addams gain, almost slavery. They should have just stuck to the original storyline.
Indeed the opening of the movie does lend itself to many questions as I've mentioned. I really didn't like how they handled it because I was left yearning to know more about the origins of the family. Where does Gomez hale from? What was Morticia doing in the sewers? What about the other Addams family members etc...Ripe for a prequel. Alas I really don't like the way they went with the origins for the mansion and Lurch. Also the fact they wanted to live somewhere dangerous and away from people who don't understand them, so they chose New Jersey. Yeah I know its a joke but obviously there are far better, more isolated places they could have gone.
I do like how the characters now resemble the original comic strips from Charles Addams from back in 1938. Neat touch although not entirely necessary to be truthful. As the two 90's movies proved the characters can be highly successful not looking exactly the same. I say this because I've never been a fan of the original look for Gomez. I loved how Morticia seemed to be portrayed as a bit of a gothic slut at the start of the movie with her black knee-high boots, black mini skirt, and black tight-fitting corset. Nice to see the Addams pet octopus (now named Socrates) make an appearance. Oscar Isaac did a great job with Gomez's voice and actually sounded like the late Raul Julia (unsure if that was intentional). But I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Uncle Fester. Must admit I didn't like some of the designs for other Addams family members.
I had been looking forward to this movie ever since I heard about it (I'm a huge Addams fan). And whilst I'm not totally disappointed, this wasn't quite as good as I was hoping for. Visually its gorgeous no doubt. I love how the mansion looks both exterior and interior (would have liked to see more of that really. Mores secret passages etc...) Would have liked to see more of the Addams estate too, the grounds around the house.
As said the plot is a bit deary and unoriginal leading to screentime with 'regular characters' which, for me, were the boring parts because I just wanted to see the Addams getting up to spooky hijinks. Yes it's for kids but not overtly so, there are some nice tiny touches here and there that will make older folks smile. The small 'IT' gag was appreciated. A quick exorcist visual reference and a clever and quite adult-themed visual gag surrounding Thing being online was amusing. So yeah its solid but I hated what they did with Lurch and the mansion origins, can't get past that. Oh and the rap song over the end credits is nowhere near as good as MC Hammer's 'Addams Groove'.
7/10
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