When news first broke that The Addams Family was returning to the big screen in 2019 as an animated feature, purists were skeptical. How could anything compete with the gothic perfection of the 90s live-action films or the nostalgic charm of the 60s sitcom? Yet, this version managed to do something the others hadn't: it went back to the roots while looking squarely at the present.
The plot pits the Addams clan against Margaux Needler, a home-makeover TV host obsessed with "assimilation." This creates a brilliant satirical contrast. Who is actually weirder? The family that enjoys "explosive" playtime and wakes the dead, or the suburbanites living in a pastel-colored town called "Assimilation" where everyone is forced to be identical? La famiglia Addams 2019
Why the 2019 Addams Family is the "Modern Macabre" We Needed When news first broke that The Addams Family
The most striking thing about the 2019 film is the character design. While Wednesday and Gomez might look "off" to fans of the live-action movies, they are actually near-perfect translations of Charles Addams’ original New Yorker cartoons . Gomez is shorter and stouter; Morticia is more ethereal and elongated. It’s a love letter to the 1938 pen-and-ink drawings that started it all. The plot pits the Addams clan against Margaux