The Addams Family: What is it missing?

well that was disappointing The Addams Family started as a single panel New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams a satire on 20th century traditional families by featuring a family that enjoyed all things dark horrific and McCobb it became a sitcom in the 60s an animated series in the 70s a better animated series in the 90s a smattering of other stuff including a scooby-doo cameo but who hasn't and probably the most well-known incarnation to this generation the two live action theatrical films made in the early 90s and that one made for TV in 98 but it had Tim Curry in it it's enduring popularity through the decades is partially due to it'd be one of the few rare horror aesthetic properties deemed acceptable ish for the family market able to get away with as much as it could because it was technically a comedy and of course the comedy chops of Charles Adams and the memorability of its theme song however just as important to their massive appeal the matically and comedic Lee was that they were an unconventional family something that appealed to both Goffe and geeky kids that were unashamed or even unaware of how odd they seemed to mainstream Outsiders including how affectionate the parents were to each other in fact they often thought the other people were weird but they still treated them nicely the new Addams Family is almost the complete opposite of that kind of Gomez is still his enthusiastic internally cheerful self but after being chased out of their hometown at their wedding Morticia is nervous and apprehensive of normal people they pick out their house partially because it's secluded and they don't have to deal with normal people but then a town suddenly appears and there is this tyrannical home makeover star that wants to redo their home to make it look like everyone else's and when that doesn't work she then employs social media rumors an outrage to encourage others to commit almost murder or at least destruction and yes I spoiled this because I don't respect this movie enough to not spoil it now this isn't to imply that this is the worst story idea to have at the Addams Family aside from the not remotely subtle gentrification condemnation the town itself is literally called assimilation they are representative of the other or the outcasts and this is a classic prejudice of the other it however the most obvious take they could have gone with heck especially in family media cartoonish bullies and prejudice and racism metaphors are become very widespread in fact it's prejudice but for semi justifiable reasons be getting more prejudice causing the daughter wanting to explore outside of restrictive boundaries plot sounds remarkably similar to the other mainstream animated horror adjacent property the Hotel Transylvania Series yes it's relevant to modern times and always but in the end all that's really been accomplished is taking an iconic unique premise with an arguably just as important message about enjoying being you but still being nice and decent other people who are different and instead of being preoccupied by other people's judgment you can just not care and instead made it exactly like a hundred other mainstream family movies now part of me gets what they were up against literally since the beginning what's worked about the Addams Family is the fairly surface level joke the family does a family thing but with a horror like twist or that an outsider is shocked by how odd they are but the family is pleasantly ignorant so it's kind of difficult trying to take ultimately a series of gags and turning it into a feature-length conventional three-act structure in the TV format it's short enough to work but for the 90s movies even people who like those admit that the plot is the weakest part also that they both feature women trying to reap money out of Uncle Fester so I do get that they wanted to make this story have a little bit more substance or try to stretch beyond that one level gimmick but when you start thinking about the Addams Family to in depth or to literally it tends to ruin the joke are they immortal are they a different species and pervious to pain do they actually kill people and so people's fear of them is mildly justified and despite the plot the 90s films are remembered well because they're individual jokes and character moments are very strong even in their climaxes they're funny because they're ridiculous they're not masterpieces but they are pretty solid comedies however in this Pixar age even cartoony comedies can't just be funny they have to be emotional and say something so now we have another Addams Family movie where the story is the least interesting part only now the story is trying to have a wait so it requires more invested screen time to set up their story beats stealing time away from the Addams Family just being themselves but even then the movie still could have been enjoyable if the story was told in an entertaining way or was at least funny enough to compensate for a lackluster story unfortunately this movie under performs on both fronts and unfortunately not in a way that can be conveyed with a hilarious recap oh the awful puns in this movie they blow up so fast this day and outside of the voice there is nothing entertaining about Margo Kneedler one of the most one-dimensional not fun to hate villains on par with what's-his-face from The Lorax and then guess who gets a semi happy ending but Pugsley subplot is the true dead weight of this film except that it's building up to a massive Addams Family gathering which is at least amusing on a design level Gomez is preparing Pugsley Ferrand Addams Family Bar Mitzvah basically that involves swords but Pugsley is more into bombs but as dad pressures him anyway not remotely original but I can see the attempt to mirror Wednesday's personal path versus family tradition subplot that just was mildly more successful except we don't see very much of pugs Lee's personal path we just see him trying and failing and him and Gomez looking sad a lot the way it's told is so straight and devoid of personality and humor there's not much about this that feels very Addams Family and to give a firm example of how weak the story writing is in here at the very end after Pugsley fails and his father says I should have let you be who you wanted to be but there was no character or story established reason for him to say that he has spent the entire movie being fretful that Pugsley was gonna fail in front of the family and at no time did he have a conversation or personal revelation about whether him doing the ceremony at all was the right thing for him to do he just says it because it's a kids movie and that's how that subplot is expected to end and then there's the animation the first thing a bunch of people had negative feelings about outside of the cringy movie posters some people weren't thrilled about these designs especially Wednesday but depressingly this is not the first time the Internet has made a stir about redesigns of their childhood waifu's because there suddenly no longer bangable but on a design level mostly everything related to the family itself including the house are done really well they're great 3d recreations of the designs of the original cartoon everything else so ever I can only describe as illumination but warps Wednesday's friend Parker especially there's trying to make an odd-looking character which this movie has spades of but her face just looks unfinished that goes for Parker as a character to who literally has no other dimensions beyond oh my mom sucks this is for an animated theatrical a pretty cheap movie which is both obvious but also commendable for what they were able to do for a meager 40 million dollars still this is 2019 I should not be reminded so much of Igor from 2008 and being made by the same guys who did sausage party not only am i shocked by how not funny this movie is but also highly suspect of the treatment of the animators and then there's this tiny thing at the end it's probably not a big deal but I'm gonna complain about it anyway at the very end of the movie after everyone has reconciled and also by the way the villain is defeated by someone secretly recording her being a terrible person and then getting fired The Addams Family House gets painted pink which initially made me and then someone told me that that was actually a reference to the Addams Family TV show because they're the actual house was painted pink so that it would pop better at a black and white TV and I admit I didn't know that and I don't care well not not care it does show that the creator's put more thought into it than I originally thought and it is a cute reference but if you don't know that very specific bit of trivia this whole bit in story context makes no god damn sense yes it's only a second before the house gets repossessed by the spirit of the house and then it goes back to the dark and gloomy place that it was and Morticia and Gomez go I guess back to normal so if they liked it better the dark and gloomy way that it was why was it partially painted pink in the first place assumedly it's a compromise that now the entire town is now a mix of bright colors and scary stuff because yes at the end of a movie about how bad it is when everything looks the same and how great it is to be different let's end the movie with all of the houses looking the same I suppose it could have just symbolized the reconstruction in process and just a gesture of the neighbors willingness to help okay oh and then there's this techno song over the credits but the 90s movies had those too okay so I gave this movie a lot of grief but now I will give it some credit the actual Addams Family characters are pretty spot-on the movie just doesn't have them do a lot as well as excellently voiced by celebrities that are actually trying to do unique voices by the way props to the new season of Bojack for calling that out on top of just being great in general and the handful of iconic Addams Family gags and darkest humour that do exist are the places where the movie is the funniest like Morticia using her parents ashes for her makeup her face becoming flushed when she's mad and suddenly a bat appearing to suck the blood out of her face Morticia say on sing with her parents about parenting issues is a great scene and the house isn't just creepy but a living entity that keeps telling them to get out which is fun the movie also has quite a few references obvious and subtle to The Addams Family History and if one subplot is significantly better than all of the others it is Wednesday's no I don't particularly love that under this movies rules but now Wednesday doesn't like what she liked because she chose to but now it's because it's literally the only thing she's been exposed to because her family doesn't let her leave the house making more to show one of those parents which is depressing so now rather than being defiance of mainstream girly things she's intrigued by them if ironically however cueing slightly from the 90s film Wednesday is still the monotone gloomy self-assured person that takes no flack from others still has a chunk of the best lines and isn't remotely ashamed to be herself only now that extends to her being willing and open to try new things without it's shaking her sense of identity there is that part of her plot of what likely starts as mildly ironic intrigue elevates to deliberate parental provocation because she found her mother's acceptance disappointing but when it works - well Wednesday suddenly feels the need to run away because now she feels her parents won't love her if she's different that felt jarring and excessive but I also know it is a real thing some kids do to test their parents it may in fact have particular modern significance in an age where it's more common for parents to be open about their nerdy geeky hobbies and even if the parents are from their own perspective cool it's still disorienting to see your child be into something that's so totally not you I know it's at least a little disappointing to patton oswalt that his daughter isn't as into Star Wars as he is but then when you consider this from the perspective of Morticia of her daughter's growing P occupation with the kind of people that used to oppress them this isn't just shocked at an unusual fashion choice this is if your child came home wearing Nazi paraphernalia but then again The Addams Family themselves might be murderers and see what I mean by The Addams Family isn't something that you can think too literally about in conclusion the Addams Family animated film is frustratingly mediocre despite decent engines it takes a unique property and weighs it down with a weak narrative not enough humor and way too many mainstream studio trappings the irony that an anti gentrification movie ended up feeling pretty gentrified or you know it would be if that wasn't already a common staple in a lot of kids movies and why is it that a series about how happy this family is being weird have so many moments where everyone is worried and sad it's not that that couldn't have worked but in this case it didn't work it wasn't emotional it just kept the movie from being fun and even though I like it you should know how much it hurts me to admit that the live version of this is a more entertaining cartoon than the animated one I like many others really had hopes for this because we all really want more horror esque animation in theaters or even just in general especially since we didn't get any from Lika this year still at least as a young person's horror gateway this can work is a sort of midway point between most CGI comedies and most Disney films the average of which is more scary more atmospheric and funnier than this let alone Don Bluth or Laika but okay it is a light intro to PG level dark humor and the haunted house aesthetics sure it's fine for all of that still it's clear that the creator's know about and like this property as they did do a good job with the actual characters so even though I'm both surprised and not surprised I'm not against these people doing another Addams Family movie in the future just crossing my fingers for a better script next time and as usual the upside to reboots is that it reminds or introduces people to the originals did you know that MGM has been uploading full episodes of the original sitcom on their YouTube channel happy Halloween and you stay shiny Animaniacs you [Music]

Channel: CellSpex

Views: 490,340

Rating: 4.9000053 out of 5

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Id: b6dYkS1YIp8

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 31 2019