The members of the mysterious and spooky Addams family — Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester and Grandma — are readily preparing for a visit from their even creepier relatives. But trouble soon arises when shady TV personality Margaux Needler realizes that the Addams’ eerie hilltop mansion is standing in the way of her lifelong dream to sell all the houses in the neighborhood.
Plot: The eccentrically macabre family moves to a bland suburb where Wednesday Addams’ friendship with the daughter of a hostile and conformist local reality show host exacerbates conflict between the families.
Director: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Aspect Ratio: 2.85.1
Runtime: 86 min
Rotten Tomatoes Consensus: The Addams Family‘s starry voice cast and eye-catching animation aren’t enough to outweigh its saccharine handling of the delightfully dark source material.
Online Ratings:
- Rotten Tomatoes 43% (Audience: 69%)
- IMDB 5.8
- Metacritic 46
- Cinemascore B+
“An entry-level Addams family, perfect for the kids.”
Review:
We start things off with Gomez and Morticia Addams being chased away with the rest of the Addams clan during their wedding ceremony by an angry mob. To stay away from the mob, they decide to move to New Jersey, a place “no one would be caught dead in.” Once there, they find their “perfect” home in an abandoned asylum on a hill. Thirteen years later, the Addams family grows, adding two children who (due to their parents) live in isolation from the outside world. The problem? The family struggles to keep their daughter, Wednesday, from wanting to experience the world outside of the mansion after a balloon and confetti appear on their property. What could be worse than that? The fog that hides the mansion begins to lift.
When the fog lifts (revealing the Addams’ mansion) reality TV host Margaux Needler, who is building a perfect planned community called “Assimilation,” discovers the Addams family’s household and becomes determined to rid the town of it when the family refuses to change.
Wednesday then meets Margaux’s neglected daughter Parker and convinces her mother to let her attend junior high school. At school, she defends Parker and her twin friends from the school bully and naturally, their friendship begins to blossom. Together, they discuss their frustrations and change their dressing habits – Parker becomes more gothic and Wednesday dresses more colorfully – to the shock of both of their mothers. Later, Wednesday and Parker discover a secret room under Parker’s house revealing that Margaux has planted hidden cameras in every house she designed in town to spreading rumors about the Addams family through social media.
What happens from here? You will need to watch the film to find out!
In conclusion —
I was born in the 90’s, so I didn’t grow up on The Addams Family — I vaguely remember seeing Addams Family Values when I was kid, but it wasn’t a staple in my home — I’m no expert. If you’re like me and you aren’t naturally attracted on this family, it certainly is a strange and creepy group of people to get used to, but they always stick together in their own unique way. Good news for the children? Behind this movie is actually a powerful hidden message — accept everyone’s quirks, be happy with who you are and don’t be afraid to let to show. Beyond that, you can guarantee that this movie is full of hilarious puns and dumb-humor that should hit with children, maybe even the adults.
I’ve seen some reviews that spoke on the animation not being top notch and while that’s true, it isn’t as negative as they make it out to be. Not every studio can make Pixar level animation, but I do believe it’s contemporary enough to pass the eye-ball test. This movie made $200 million worldwide at the box office, making back their budget 8x over — I’m always happy for success when it arrives in the film industry. Beyond the movie, the bonus features on this disc also include a slew of deleted/extended scenes, plus some featurettes that include; the making of the animated characters, learning about the storyboards behind the film, playing Charades… with just a hand, lyric videos and more. If you’re looking for extra material, this release will give you everything you might be interested in and then some. Two thumbs up!
Taking everything into account, The Addams Family ultimately gets my recommendation for a purchase. It’s a safe bet for the whole family to enjoy so make sure you grab a copy at your local retailer when it releases on Blu-ray & DVD Tuesday, January 21st.
Did you catch The Addams Family in theaters? Were you a fan of this movie? Will you be picking it up to own? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Cheers,
Matt.
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