‘The Addams Family’ delivers with macabre humor and odd characters

Posted on October 18, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Although “The Addams Family” television series in the 1960s first popularized Charles Addams’ strange and odd comic panel family, the 1991 film, “The Addams Family,” and its 1993 sequel, “Addams Family Values,” will always be the versions closest to my heart, and the standard by which I judge all future remakes.

That was the case with the new animated film, “The Addams Family,” which reacquaints us with the Addamses, including father Gomez (Oscar Isaac, “Stars Wars: The Force Awakens”), mother Morticia (Charlize Theron, “Long Shot”), daughter Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz, “Greta”), son Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard, “It”) and Gomez’ brother Fester (Nick Kroll, “The League”).

The film is suitably kooky and macabre and packs quite a few laughs into its 87-minute runtime. The story connecting it all together isn’t as strong as the film’s individual characters, but it does a solid job of giving each of the four main family members their own arcs and journeys. Fester gets the least to do, but considering he was one of the main focuses of both live-action films, that’s understandable.

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