THE ADDAMS FAMILY
***
Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
Screenwriters: Matt Lieberman and Pamela Pettler. Story by Lieberman, Conrad Vernon and Erica Rivinoja. Based on characters created by Charles Addams.
Principal cast:
Oscar Isaac
Charlize Theron
Chloë Grace Moretz
Finn Wolfhard
Nick Kroll
Snoop Dog
Country: USA/Canada
Classification: PG
Runtime: 87 mins.
Australian release date: 5 December 2019
Previewed at: Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction, Sydney, on 1 December 2019.
They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family… click, click.
If you recognise the words from The Addams Family television series, which ran from 1964 to 1966, you will probably enjoy the latest incarnation of Charles Addams’ ghoulish family, The Addams Family. Yes, there have been a couple of animated versions made for TV too, in 1973 and 1992, and an attempt at an updated, live-action sitcom, The New Addams Family, in 1998, plus various movies and a musical, but few of these have successfully captured the droll campery of the ‘60s TV series (although the two ‘90s movies starring Raúl Juliá and Anjelica Huston did a pretty good job). This new, computer-animated, film attempts to do just that, right down to keeping the original theme music, but doesn’t quite get there. Still, there’s fun to be had along the way.
The Addams Family features an A-League voice cast (see above) plus Bette Midler, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Pom Klementieff and Allison Janney, so obviously the directors, Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, have gone to a lot of trouble to get this right. The plot sees Gomez (Oscar Isaac), Morticia (Charlize Theron) and the family forced to abandon their dilapidated mansion. Deciding to move to New Jersey, a state “nobody would be caught dead in”, they make their new ‘forever home’ in an abandoned mental asylum. Stumbling on the run-down manor gives the scriptwriters the opportunity to drag out such classic Addams Family jokes as, “It’s ghastly, It’s horrible… I love it!” but they still get a laugh. They settle happily until the day the gloom disappears (“Somebody’s drained the swamp!”) and they discover they are living on the outskirts of a planned community, Assimilation, developed and run by a pushy reality-TV star called Margaux Needler (Alison Janney). Needless to say, the bouffanted, heavily made-up psychopath Margaux (you know the type - every business or strata scheme seems to have one) will stop at nothing to rid the town of the eyesore that is the Addams family home and this brings the conservative townsfolk and the weirdos together. But who are the real misfits here? There are a couple of amusing subplots to all this, one about Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things) training for his Mazurka, a right-of-passage ceremony all the Addams males must complete, and Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) rebelling by wearing pretty barrettes and pink clothing, much to Morticia’s horror. “Pink is a gateway colour!” she exclaims, mortified.
The movie is chock full of film and television references and sight and musical gags, so the more attention you pay, the more you’ll get out of The Addams Family. The computer-generated creations work well, the first time an Addams Family feature has been animated. “They don’t look exactly like Charles Addams’ original cartoons, but they’re very much inspired by them and they’re in the same mold, so they do have an original look for our movie,” says Greg Tiernan. “There’s a direct line, a direct thread that goes from what we’re doing all the way back to Charles Addams’ original cartoons, and that was very important for us to keep that.”
At its core, this is a story of accepting each other for who we are, coming to terms with the fact that we are all different, and in these fractured times, that’s something we need to keep hearing. As Charlize Theron has said, “[The Addams Family] reminds us that whatever we think is normal is something very different for each individual. Of course, it’s a really fun film to go see, but there is an underlying message: being different is not a bad thing and we need to celebrate that a little bit more.” Charles Addams would drink to that.
Screenwriters: Matt Lieberman and Pamela Pettler. Story by Lieberman, Conrad Vernon and Erica Rivinoja. Based on characters created by Charles Addams.
Principal cast:
Oscar Isaac
Charlize Theron
Chloë Grace Moretz
Finn Wolfhard
Nick Kroll
Snoop Dog
Country: USA/Canada
Classification: PG
Runtime: 87 mins.
Australian release date: 5 December 2019
Previewed at: Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction, Sydney, on 1 December 2019.
They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family… click, click.
If you recognise the words from The Addams Family television series, which ran from 1964 to 1966, you will probably enjoy the latest incarnation of Charles Addams’ ghoulish family, The Addams Family. Yes, there have been a couple of animated versions made for TV too, in 1973 and 1992, and an attempt at an updated, live-action sitcom, The New Addams Family, in 1998, plus various movies and a musical, but few of these have successfully captured the droll campery of the ‘60s TV series (although the two ‘90s movies starring Raúl Juliá and Anjelica Huston did a pretty good job). This new, computer-animated, film attempts to do just that, right down to keeping the original theme music, but doesn’t quite get there. Still, there’s fun to be had along the way.
The Addams Family features an A-League voice cast (see above) plus Bette Midler, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Pom Klementieff and Allison Janney, so obviously the directors, Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, have gone to a lot of trouble to get this right. The plot sees Gomez (Oscar Isaac), Morticia (Charlize Theron) and the family forced to abandon their dilapidated mansion. Deciding to move to New Jersey, a state “nobody would be caught dead in”, they make their new ‘forever home’ in an abandoned mental asylum. Stumbling on the run-down manor gives the scriptwriters the opportunity to drag out such classic Addams Family jokes as, “It’s ghastly, It’s horrible… I love it!” but they still get a laugh. They settle happily until the day the gloom disappears (“Somebody’s drained the swamp!”) and they discover they are living on the outskirts of a planned community, Assimilation, developed and run by a pushy reality-TV star called Margaux Needler (Alison Janney). Needless to say, the bouffanted, heavily made-up psychopath Margaux (you know the type - every business or strata scheme seems to have one) will stop at nothing to rid the town of the eyesore that is the Addams family home and this brings the conservative townsfolk and the weirdos together. But who are the real misfits here? There are a couple of amusing subplots to all this, one about Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things) training for his Mazurka, a right-of-passage ceremony all the Addams males must complete, and Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) rebelling by wearing pretty barrettes and pink clothing, much to Morticia’s horror. “Pink is a gateway colour!” she exclaims, mortified.
The movie is chock full of film and television references and sight and musical gags, so the more attention you pay, the more you’ll get out of The Addams Family. The computer-generated creations work well, the first time an Addams Family feature has been animated. “They don’t look exactly like Charles Addams’ original cartoons, but they’re very much inspired by them and they’re in the same mold, so they do have an original look for our movie,” says Greg Tiernan. “There’s a direct line, a direct thread that goes from what we’re doing all the way back to Charles Addams’ original cartoons, and that was very important for us to keep that.”
At its core, this is a story of accepting each other for who we are, coming to terms with the fact that we are all different, and in these fractured times, that’s something we need to keep hearing. As Charlize Theron has said, “[The Addams Family] reminds us that whatever we think is normal is something very different for each individual. Of course, it’s a really fun film to go see, but there is an underlying message: being different is not a bad thing and we need to celebrate that a little bit more.” Charles Addams would drink to that.
