Movie Review - The Addams Family (2019 film)

I first heard of the Addams Family when I watch reruns of the old black and white TV series. I really enjoyed the kookie dark nature of it, and it had a killer theme song. Later I discovered the original gag cartoons it was based on and really enjoyed the line work.

The Addams Family is a 2019 cgi comedy film featuring gag comic characters created by Charles Addams. It is rated PG and is appropriate for all ages.

The Good

Visuals. From the character designs to the production design, this film looks really nice. It's faithful to the original comics while being very contemporary.

Story. The story was pretty good and well paced. All of the twists were obvious as was the ending, but there was enough charm and cleverness that that was okay.

Cleverness. The filmmakers spent some time thinking up some clever gags and charming twists to put into the film that make it fun.

The Bad

Heavy Handedness. The message of this movie is so heavy handed. There is even a song in the middle that literally spells out the message. People are not that stupid, not even little children. The filmmakers need to give the audience some credit.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

More cleverness and less preaching.

Overall

The Addams Family (2019 film) is a clever and fun film. From the character designs to the production design, this film looks really nice. It's faithful to the original comics while being very contemporary. The story was pretty good and well paced. All of the twists were obvious as was the ending, but there was enough charm and cleverness that that was okay. What wasn't okay was the heavy-handed message that different is good. They literally have a song in the middle that spells it out multiple times. The audience is not that stupid--not even the 5 year olds. Have a little faith in your audience, filmmakers. I give this film 4 out of 5 Boxes of Popcorn.