The Addams Family (2019)

(Video On-Demand, April 2020) While I had a hard time letting go of the 1990s Addams Family movies in trying to fairly assess this newest animated version, I please to report that The Addams Family is, all things considered, not too bad. Going back to the original comics for inspiration rather than trying to compete with the classic live-action version, this take gets a lot of mileage in juxtaposing the endearing macabre weirdness of the Family against the clichés of happy upbeat small-town Americana. Crafting a convincing pro-quirkiness message, The Addams Family is firmly in favour of our cynical heroes. Part of this has the film insisting a bit too much on the family members’ constant violent attempt to murder each other, at least until they’re under attack by outsiders. Animation-wise, it’s pretty good—nearly every shot has a sight gag or something interesting to look at: some of the best jokes come from opposing the notion of cute to the Addamses’s sense of style. In terms of character design, Morticia and Wednesday are fine (this is Wednesday’s film most of the time) and so are the not-quite-human characters, but Gomez is a noticeable step down after Raul Julia’s turn. Not everything works well—the copious use of pop music is more in-line with other animated family films than the Addams style, and there’s a case to be made that the film retreats to a very safe idea of the original dark source material. But that’s not much of a knock—This Addams Family will play very well in the family-friendly spooktober weeks leading to Halloween.