The Addams Family (2019.) Movie Review.

The Addams Family is one of those things I’m aware of by cultural osmosis (i’d hazard a guess and say that most people know the theme tune) but I have not seen any incarnation of this franchise before this new animated movie. Despite the rather negative reviews it was another one I could cross off in terms of theatrically released animation for 2019 and the voice cast seemed pretty strong. Was this a good introduction to the franchise?
No. In fact The Addams Family 2019 is one of the most visually blind animated films I’ve seen in the past few years. It’s going for a visual style somewhere between Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and the recent Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events but possesses the wit or style of neither It honestly looks like a direct to DVD/ streaming release that has been shoved out into theatres and the animation very much reflects that. The feeble and mostly laugh free script certainly doesn’t help matters despite some solid voice work (you can tell the majority of the cast are of trying to bring something to the below average material.) I saw this with a big audience of kids on opening weekend in the UK and beyond the typical noise you expect when you see this type of animation with a big audience they did not seem massively engaged and there were no big laughs (one or two mild chuckles at best.) Getting this type of reaction from the supposed target audience (although I question how much the children of today know about The Addams Family) is perhaps the best indicator that this film is a failure.
Even as a fan of theatrical animation the film was rough to get through. The might be something in it for fans of the franchise but as a newbie (beyond the theme tune) it was mediocre on all levels aside from the voice acting. Most bizarrely of all the film ends with a trap remix of the original theme by Migos (the first time they’ve likely appeared in a kid’s movie) that has to be heard to be believed. In some ways it’s the most memorable element of the film but it’s a good indicator that it does not really know who its audience is beyond die Hard fans of the source material.
4/10