Anyway, The Addams Family has risen in computer-animated form. Its macabre wackiness makes up for some cliched story elements. Let's see what I mean:
Gomez (Oscar Isaac) and Morticia Addams (Charlize Theron) just want a home for their family. Sure, they and their clan are bizarre and macabre, but they're still good to each other. They already got chased out of "the old country" by fearful townsfolks. So they settle "somewhere no one in their right mind would be caught dead in:" New Jersey. They hire escaped asylum inmate Lurch (co-director Conrad Vernon) as their butler and settle in a haunted asylum.
Thirteen Years Later, the Addams, now with kids Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), live isolated from the world. The fog vanishes and they discover the appallingly sunny town of Assimilation. The town is run by reality show host Margaux Needler (Allison Janney), who decides the gloomy Addams estate needs a makeover. Even if it means flattened to the ground.
Wednesday decides to go to Junior High with Margaux's frustrated daughter Parker (Elsie Fisher). They horrify their mothers by switching their fashion tastes. Meanwhile, Pugsley has to master his "Mazurka" sabre dance for his Addams' right of passage. Unfortunately, there's still the matter of Margaux rallying the townsfolks against the Addams.
The screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Pamela Pettler has plenty of family-friendly macabre humor. A few highlights include Morticia using her parents' ashes as makeup and Wednesday's "Frankenfrogs." Practically anything Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) does is sure to get plenty of laughs. Meanwhile, Assimilation is perfectly creepy before we see the depths of Margaux's villainy. Wednesday and Pugsley's subplots sound familiar, but I forgave the familiarity. Not the ending. The resolution is so rushed that Margaux's comeuppance, if it can be called that, is underwhelming.
The Addams are still delightfully ghoulish. Gomez and Morticia have great chemistry together, while Wednesday and Pugsley are creepy, yet sympathetic kids. Bette Midler is a great choice for the witchy Grandmama while Snoop Dogg as the gibberish-speaking Cousin Itt is a hilariously odd choice. Margaux's best scenes are when she's over-the-top evil.
The character designs are a great CGI approximation of Addams' original drawings. The Addams themselves are an eclectic bunch of eccentrics. The "normals" are generally gaudy. The production design provides a perfect clash between the Addams' gothic environment and Assimilation's eye-gauging "perfectness." The highlight of Mychael and Jeff Danna's score is their rendition of Vic Mizzy's famous theme song. They even re-enact the opening of the sixties show before the end credits.
The Addams Family is a fine reintroduction to this famous family. Its ghoulish humor is sure to entertain the adults as much as the kids. It's not a perfect film, but it wasn't boring. Its 105 minutes should make for a good pre-Halloween matinee.
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