Review of “The Addams Family” (2019)

The film begins with Morticia waking up and getting ready for the wedding between her and Gomez. The citizens close their windows as Morticia makes her way there.

Morticia and Gomez are getting married, but the civilians are crashing their wedding as an angry mob. 

While escaping the villagers, Gomez suggests moving somewhere “horrible.” He also promises Morticia a home where they will be safe.

They run over a monstrous man, Lurch, who leads them into an asylum house on the top of a hill. He plays different songs on the piano until the moving hand commands that play the theme song.

Thirteen years later and the Addams couple has two children: Pugsley and Wednesday. Pugsley is being forced to train for a sword-fighting event he doesn’t value and is pretty unprepared for. Wednesday is her usual grim self who tries to kill or hurt Pugsley.

Wednesday sees a girl outside the gate and wants to know what’s beyond their property. But Morticia says that it’s nothing, except marsh. Yet, Wednesday also thought she saw a village.

Uncle Fester visits and discusses where he’s traveled to, leaving Wednesday envious. He does say that there are places where he can’t go, however.

Morticia assures Wednesday that she can leave when she’s older.

But one of the family members discovers a commercial where a woman named Margaux Needler offers a service to renovate people’s houses in any way they like. 

Unfortunately, when the Addams family leaves their home and goes out in public, everybody is afraid of them.

Wednesday, however, befriends Margaux’s daughter, Parker, and attends school with her. Parker has a poor relationship with her mother, who is still obsessed with promoting her business. 

Wednesday also displeases her mom with pink outfits. As both girls end up in conflicts with their moms, stakes rise from there.

I was surprised how short this film was. As a fiction writer myself, I was able to point out all the major plot points, which kind of made the duration predictable.

One thing I found a bit strange was that the setting was changed to modern times, like this decade, despite how this was originally created in the mid-twentieth century. I understand the creators probably wanted to make this more relatable to young audiences today. 

But since it’s animated, they wouldn’t have needed to struggle with finding outdated technology as much as if this were live action. I could be wrong, though.

That being said, there are many moments that I admire, such as when Wednesday brought the dead frogs in science class back to life. There was also a reference to It by Stephen King. 

One moment I found a bit strange was when Uncle Fester compared a certain woman’s breath to a baby’s diaper. I sure hope he meant a clean one.

Uncle Fester was actually the funniest character in this film, especially when he said where he “couldn’t go” after Wednesday wanted to know what was beyond the gates because Uncle Fester got to travel.

Another moment that made me laugh was when Uncle Fester had Morticia and Gomez ride them away from the attacking villagers who ruined their wedding – especially when he had a wardrobe malfunction. 

While on the wardrobe malfunction topic, when the Addams family fought the villagers, some of their pants fell. I also liked when the guests put limes in coconuts and drank them during the ceremony.

It wasn’t just Uncle Fester who cracked me up. Gomez did the same. Lurch even played, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” on the piano after the fog revealed a town and Gomez was interested in checking it out, but things went wrong, although in s funny way.

One part that I found clever was when he frightened the batista at a coffee store when he wanted to place an order. He actually got to buy coffee grounds from a coffee store, because he wanted something strong. Of course, that wouldn’t be allowed in real life. 

I especially liked when Gomez considered Pugsley’s beginner sword a baby’s toy, and had a name involving the babble, “Goo-Goo Ga-Ga.”

Anyway, in spite of not being too familiar with the original Addams Family show, I enjoyed this just enough. Some of it wasn’t super engaging. 

Nevertheless, it was still, overall, a good watch. I admire how the themes focus on accepting differences and flexibility.

I rate The Addams Family 4 out of 5 stars.