The Addams Family doesn't bring anything new to the table but it doesn’t offend either

Justine Smith: For fans, the film hits all the necessary beats without veering too deeply into new territory

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Justine Smith

A long-beloved classic for young goth children, The Addams Family first premiered as an ABC sitcom back in 1964. It has been rebooted and remade many times since, and for the most part, has succeeded in remaining fresh and relevant for each new generation. While the latest 3D animated film version is hardly the most charming iteration, it keeps with tradition and is more of a loving homage than a hackish parody.

The Addams Family opens 13 years into the past as Morticia (Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) are chased out of the “old country” by bigoted villagers. They resettle in New Jersey, taking an isolationist stance lest they meet with pitchforks and torches again. Their life is deliciously macabre until they run into a TV personality with a larger-than-life blonde bouffant, Margaux Needler (Allison Janney). She is trying to sell properties in her perfect plastic village called “Assimilation,” and her mission is to run the Addams Family out of town.

For fans, the film hits all the necessary beats without veering too deeply into new territory. It seems designed to play into the nostalgia of older audiences but also to appeal to children who’ve grown up in a world surrounded by technology.

The underlying message of the film is the importance of being yourself. Some of the best jokes play off the idea of assimilation: One haunting and absurdly funny sequence features preteens singing, “What’s so great about being yourself when you can be like everyone else?” The film makes a good case for the importance of healthy adolescent rebellion and the need to provide an environment for your child to test boundaries.

Stylistically, the movie is competent. Depending on your mileage with the plastic look of movies like Madagascar and Monsters Vs. Aliens, your tolerance for the film’s visuals may vary. Taking advantage of the inventiveness that animation allows, the movie veers into territories that would be impossible in a live-action format. The final confrontation, in particular, plays with the limits of the animated imagination, as the sequence opens with sword dancing and ends in explosions.

The voice-work is more uneven. The stand-outs are Janey’s Bette Midler-esque, old-world nagging Grandma and Nick Kroll’s hilarious and horrifying Uncle Fester. The main cast is serviceable but fails to bring anything new to the table. Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame is D.O.A. as a monotone and one-note Pugsley. Voice-work is an art and celebrity casting rarely pans out. The role would have been a much better fit for a more veteran voice performer who could have brought a little something extra.


The Addams Family manages to be both wholesome and edgy. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table but it doesn’t offend either. It hits all the right macabre notes as it delivers fan service and manages to update the story for a contemporary audience. The film might not wow audiences who grew up loving the movies from the 1990s, but it will likely please parents looking for something to watch with their kids. 

It’s silly and familiar but also doesn’t condescend or lose itself in tangents or pop-cultural references. The bar for family entertainment might be low, but it’s hard not to praise a movie that feels so fundamentally earnest without becoming sappy or overly sentimental.

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