The Addams Family (2019 Animated Film)

“Creep, kooky, and… kind of crappy.”


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Lets start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

🎥 Trailers / Opening

Remember when the trailers dropped and the marketing tried to play up the “They’re creepy and they’re kooky” nostalgia angle? Yeah, that was the bait. The switch? A shallow kids’ film full of pop culture gags, with visuals that somehow make the humans uglier than the Addamses. Wrap your head around that: the characters who are supposed to be “normal” look like plastic balloon nightmares, while the Addams family (who are supposed to stand out as the oddballs) actually look… normal by comparison. Brilliant move, animators.


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🕸️ Non-Spoiler Overview

The premise is paper-thin: a shiny, soulless suburban town wants to demolish the Addams family mansion because “different is bad.” Groundbreaking stuff. Wednesday befriends the daughter of the town’s control-freak designer, which naturally sparks a “we’re rebelling against our parents” subplot. Meanwhile, Pugsley is under pressure to prove himself in a family ritual. It’s an “outsider vs. suburbia” tale that could’ve been clever, but it’s bogged down by lazy jokes, hideous human character models, and a climax so predictable you can set your watch to it.

It’s not the worst animated film I’ve ever seen — but it’s painfully bland. The Addamses deserved better than this “DreamWorks knockoff” energy.


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🧛 Character Rundown

Gomez Addams (Oscar Isaac): Weirdly sidelined. His big thing here is pressuring Pugsley into completing the family ritual. Not a bad angle, but it’s handled clumsily.

Morticia Addams (Charlize Theron): Disapproves of Wednesday’s experimentation with color. Elegant in theory, but the movie gives her nothing interesting to do.

Wednesday Addams (Chloë Grace Moretz): The heart of the film. She rebels by wearing a pink hairpin and bonding with the designer’s daughter. A solid arc wasted in a limp story.

Pugsley Addams (Finn Wolfhard): His subplot is supposed to be about proving himself as a “true Addams.” Instead, it’s filler that drags down the runtime.

Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll): Mostly comic relief… until the film forces him into the most baffling ending twist possible. More on that in spoilers.

Margaux Needler (Allison Janney): The villainous house designer who hates the Addams mansion. She’s cartoonishly evil, in a lazy “I want everything picture-perfect” kind of way.

Parker Needler (Elsie Fisher): Margaux’s daughter who becomes Wednesday’s rebellious friend. Honestly, she’s the only “normie” who feels remotely human.

Also yes the animation looks ugly but that was done on purpose to match the original comic stirps, however that doesn’t equal good because not eveytbing translates well into an adaptation.



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⏳ Pacing

At 87 minutes, it should fly by. Instead, it drags because the humor is flat and the stakes are low. Every beat feels recycled from better “outsider vs. suburbia” stories (Edward Scissorhands says hi). The B-plot with Pugsley is especially rough — it grinds momentum to a halt whenever the main story threatens to pick up steam.


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✅ Pros

Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday actually works.

The mansion design is atmospheric, even if everything around it looks generic.

Kids might laugh at Fester’s goofiness. (Keyword: might.)



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❌ Cons

The “normie” humans look worse than the Addams family. Design fail. They look mroe like rejected character designs from illumination.

Pop culture references already feel dated.

The Pugsley ritual subplot kills the pacing.

Lazy moral: “Be yourself, suburbia will eventually clap for you.” Seen it. A million times.

That Uncle Fester ending twist. Yikes.

Also, make what you will of this scene.

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🪦 Final Thoughts

This movie isn’t offensively bad — it’s just offensively boring. The Addamses are supposed to be strange, stylish, and darkly funny. Here, they’re watered down into a PG babysitter flick with no real bite.

If you’re curious, give it one watch. Otherwise, skip straight to the live-action films or the classic show. At least those understand that the Addamses aren’t supposed to be “relatable” suburbanites — they’re supposed to be unapologetically themselves.

Rating: 5/10


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🚨 Spoiler Warning


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🧟 Spoilers and Snark

Wednesday’s Rebellion: Her big rebellious move? Wearing a pink hairpin. That’s it. Meanwhile, Parker rebels against her mother by dressing in black. Oh wow, role reversal. Groundbreaking.

Pugsley’s Ritual: He has to perform a sword dance in front of the entire Addams extended family to prove he’s a true Addams. He’s terrible at it, Gomez pressures him, and it’s played for repetitive jokes. The subplot feels like padding, nothing more.

The Town vs. the Addamses: Margaux whips the town into a frenzy because “odd = bad.” Cue mob scene. But instead of a clever Addams-style twist, the town just turns on Margaux once they realize she’s the real villain. Predictable, boring, and safe.

Uncle Fester Dating Margaux: The cherry on top of this trash sundae. Margaux, who literally tried to demolish the Addams mansion, ends up dating Uncle Fester because… they “have a lot in common.” WHAT. No chemistry, no buildup — just lazy writing.