The Addams Family (2019)

The Addams Family is

an animated version of Charles Addams series of cartoons about a peculiar ghoulish family

Which doesn’t exactly tell you much and probably assumes a level of familiarity which is probably justified amongst all but the very youngest viewers.

I have been an Addams Family fan since I was quite young, largely because of exposure to the TV series which ran for only two seasons in the early sixties (when I was a toddler) but seemed to be constantly on TV as I was growing up. I always preferred it to The Munsters. As a teenager, I discovered the original cartoons and they fit comfortably into my world view alongside Edward Gorey.

So I was very keen to see the new film and, encouraged by the poster and trailer, we trooped along just before Halloween. If two people can troop, that is.

Can you feel a but coming?

It was fine, I suppose, with lots of lovely in-jokes for us old folks who remember the original but the kicker for me was that the story was weak. This was the same issue I had with the 90s films – the thing that makes the Addams Family for me is what they are, not what they do. Does that make sense?

And it was nothing we hadn’t seen before.

Oh, and it seemed longer than its stated running time.

Having said all of that I loved the character design and the voice cast was wonderful, especially Charlize Theron, but sadly this felt like a missed opportunity.

I still aspire to be a (shorter, fatter, older) version of Morticia, though 😀

Dazzling details: directed by Grey Tiernan & Conrad Vernon, TAF is 96m long and rated PG for mild comic threat and language.