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There are about half a dozen bright spots in the new animated feature "The Addams Family," but in between them is the unbright and unoriginal storyline about how the real monsters are the ordinary people, not the weird people.

Charles Addams began creating his deliciously macabre characters for one-panel New Yorker cartoons in 1938, but they didn't get names and storylines until the 1960's television series, taking the last name from the cartoonist who created them. It was only on the air for two seasons, but just about everyone remembers that finger-snapping Vic Mizzy theme song and TV Guide listed them as one of the all-time top ten television families. The series spin-offs include two live-action feature films, a Saturday morning cartoon show, and a Broadway musical. 

What makes the Addams Family so appealing is the contrast between the ghoulish details of their lives and the endearing sweetness of their family dynamic. Father Gomez (here voiced by Oscar Isaac ) and mother Morticia ( Charlize Theron ) adore each other and are loving and devoted parents to their daughter Wednesday ( Chloe Grace Moretz ) and son Pugsley ( Finn Wolfhard ). And their deep enjoyment of what otherwise might seem scary—having an escaped prisoner from the asylum for the criminally insane as a butler, a disembodied hand as an all-purpose helper, applying the ashes of dead parents as make-up, encouraging a child to play with explosives—makes it funny and even endearing instead.  

In this modernized, animated version, we first see Morticia putting on that ashy make-up for what turns out to be her midnight wedding, interrupted by angry neighbors with torches and pitchforks who want all the people they consider weirdos out of town. Gomez promises her they will find a home that "no one in their right mind would be caught dead in." Cue the 'Welcome to New Jersey' sign. They literally run into the above-mentioned escaped prisoner. "Is he all right?" No, comes the relieved and delighted reply. "He seems perfectly demented." The asylum is deserted (except by ghosts), the entrance blocked with yellow crime scene tape. Inside, there are white outlines showing where bodies were discovered. Home sweet home!

Fast forward to 13 years later, with tweens Wednesday and Pugsley happily creating mayhem, or happily unhappily, as Addams family members would never enjoy anything so cheery as happiness. The entire extended family will be arriving in two weeks for the traditional Addams coming-of-age ceremony. It involves an intricate dance with the family scimitar, and Pugsley and Gomez are both worried he will not be able to do it. Wednesday, whose long braids are tied up like nooses, asks if she can try going to the public school, where she makes a friend ("Eighth Grade's" Elsie Fisher as Parker) and stands up to a mean girl. This interaction with the "normal" world is intriguing, but quickly abandoned.

Parker's mother, Margaux Needler ( Allison Janney ) is the star of a home makeover reality show and she is determined to sell the houses in the new Assimilation community (that is the actual name of the town), where children sing, "What's so great about being yourself when you can be like everyone else? It's easy to be happy if you have no choice." Worried that the big, gloomy Addams mansion will affect sales and the ratings of her live special, she plans to give them a makeover, whether they want one or not. And she uses fake profiles on social media to spread lies that frighten the neighbors, just as the Addams relatives arrive for Pugsley's big day. It looks like pitchforks and torches again.

The voice talent does their best with the dialogue, but cannot make it snap like Paul Rudnick's wonderfully witty quips in " Addams Family Values ." The artwork for the characters and setting is fun, though never takes advantage of the possibilities of animation when staging the gestures, expressions, or action sequences. And there is an oddly casual resolution with a child deciding to leave home and move in with another family that may lead to some questions. Children will enjoy the upside-down world—where dusting the house means making it dustier, and an invitation to the mall is heard as an invitation to a maul—but even children will understand that the theme of encouraging individual expression would be more compelling if the storyline wasn't so resolutely dull.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film Credits

The Addams Family (2019)

105 minutes

Oscar Isaac as Gomez Addams (voice)

Charlize Theron as Morticia Addams (voice)

Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday Addams (voice)

Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley Addams (voice)

Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester (voice)

Bette Midler as Grandmama (voice)

Allison Janney as Margaux Needler (voice)

Elsie Fisher as Parker Needler (voice)

Aimee Garcia as Denise (voice)

Karen Gillan as Abigail Addams (voice)

• Conrad Vernon
• Greg Tiernan
• Charles Addams
• Matt Lieberman
• Pamela Pettler
• Kevin Pavlovic
• David Ian Salter

Original Music Composer

• Mychael Danna

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Film Review: ‘The Addams Family’

With a digitally animated makeover, the macabre antics of the Addams Family now blend into the kiddified monster culture they helped create.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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There must have been something in the water the week of Sept. 18, 1964. That’s when the ghouls-are-us sitcom “ The Addams Family ” premiered on ABC — and exactly six days later, the ghouls-are-us sitcom “The Munsters” premiered on CBS. True, only one of those shows was based on the sinister genius of Charles Addams (whose first cartoon to feature what would ultimately be known as the Addams Family appeared in The New Yorker in 1937). Yet the two shows shared a remarkably similar trajectory and attitude.

Each one lasted for just two seasons (“The Addams Family” ran for 64 episodes, “The Munsters” for 70), but together they marked a decisive turn of the entertainment screw, with the shows transforming Old Hollywood horror into gothic-absurdist laugh-track kitsch. You could say that “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” got there first, but that 1948 classic played the monsters straight, whereas “The Addams Family” and “The Munsters,” taking off from the camp spirit (and spirits) of Bobby Pickett’s 1962 novelty hit “Monster Mash,” turned their cavalcades of plaster demons into unabashed undead fun. Though the shows were aimed at adults, their natural audience was children. (I know. I was five at the time, and they seemed like the coolest shows ever.)

Fifty-five years later, it’s hard to imagine a world in which “The Addams Family,” with its harpsichord-and-beatnik-finger-snap theme song, was ever anything but ooky kids’ stuff. That’s not just because of the two previous tyke-friendly movie versions: the genial but lumbering “The Addams Family” (1991), and the breezier and wittier “Adams Family Values” (1993). It’s because of the whole rise of kiddie monster culture, which was kicked into overdrive by Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993), followed by such creature-feature black comedies as Burton’s “Corpse Bride” (2005), the bravura “Coraline” (2009), the “Hotel Transylvania” films, and TV cartoons like “Vampirina” (which I watch religiously with my 6-year-old daughter).

So when you go to see the new digitally animated version of “The Addams Family,” you should be prepared for a film that has all the comic danger of a bowl of Count Chocula.

And yet, that’s a little disappointing. Monster farces for kids succeed on the basis of how darkly delightful their off-color central characters are. Adam Sandler, for instance, has a field day in the “Hotel Transylvania” films, where his imperious daddy Dracula is in a constant otherworldly huff about the respect he thinks he’s owed. In the new “Addams Family,” on the other hand, the ferocious Oscar Isaac , speaking in some sort of generic East European accent, gets all but buried under the role of Gomez Addams, who has never come off as quite this quaintly old-world innocuous. Ditto for Charlize Theron , who elegantly vamps the role of Morticia without taking it over and owning it.

These two play off the flourishes of macabre comedy that are sprinkled through the film like marshmallow bits: Morticia, in the opening sequence, spooning out ashes from the urns of her late mother and father and dabbing them on as blush and mascara, or Lurch using a vacuum cleaner to spread dust throughout the Addams Family mansion and taking a good ten seconds to croak out the words “ You-u-u-u ra-a-a-ang?, ” or 12-year-old Pugsley blowing himself up with a cherry bomb so that Gomez can say, “They blow up so fast these days!,” or Wednesday taking over a middle-school science class to play Frankenstein with her dissection frog, or Gomez walking into a coffee shop and saying, “Don’t let me interrupt your cup of Joe — or whoever you have in there!”

Jokes like these provoke a mild grin of amusement. Yet if the movie really wanted to run with how the members of the Addams Family are united in their antisocial dark glee, it should have turned them into flip superstars of demonic flamboyance; it should have made them into the Indreadables. And it should have invested their story with something to actually care about.

Instead, “The Addams Family” has a rote plot built out of bits and pieces from a lot of other animated films that had nothing to do with lumbering eight-foot-tall butlers or posh mistresses of the house who look like spindly vampiric cadavers. The movie serves up the standardized tale of an alienated tween — Wednesday, so pale and sad that she looks like a punk bowling pin, and voiced with winning disaffection by Chloë Grace Moretz. It throws in an impending Addams Family reunion built around the birthday of Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), who as he turns 13 will celebrate his “mazurka,” a scared rite of passage that makes us think, “Funny, they don’t look Jewish.”

The movie combines all that with a battle against one of those conformist towns, like the city of awesomeness in “The Lego Movie” or the starliner Axiom in “WALL·E” or the Institute of Perfection in “UglyDolls,” that have become so satirically commonplace that they’re barely satirizing conformity anymore. They’re just mimicking it. The Addamses live in a haunted mansion on a hilltop in New Jersey, which they never leave, but below the hill is the prefab pastel paradise of Assimilation, presided over by a reality-TV Martha Stewart named Margaux Needler (Allison Janney), whose cascade of hair is larger than her personality, and who fixes her eye on the Addams house as the ultimate fixer-upper.

“The Addams Family” is a luscious piece of macabre design. The characters have been computer-drawn so that they’re exceedingly close to the ones in Charles Addams’ original cartoons, and the film is full of keen visual details like Lurch’s ancient cracked fingernails, or Wednesday’s pigtails braided like hanging nooses, or the army of spiders that comes scuttling out of Morticia’s dress to form a bridge over the bottomless pit in the basement. Cousin Itt gets voiced by Snoop Dogg as a hairball in pimp duds. Yet this kind of animated trope will take you only so far. The movie was directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, the co-directors of “Sausage Party,” which was an exuberantly accomplished R-rated bash, one that had a script (by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, among others) that sizzled with an imagination as profuse as it was naughty; in its dirty-minded way, it had a vision. “The Addams Family” has an overly processed outré harmlessness. It’s so busy treating its famous domesticated ghouls as icons that it forgets to rediscover what’s memorable about them.

Reviewed at AMC 34th St., New York, Oct. 9, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 87 MIN.

• Production: A United Artists Releasing release of an MGM, Cinesite Animation, Bron Creative, BermanBraun, Nitrogen Studios Canada production. Producers: Gail Berman, Conrad Vernon, Alex Schwartz, Alison O’Brien. Executive producers: Jason Cloth, Pilar Flynn, Aaron L. Gilbert, Kevin Miserocchi, Andrew Mittman, Charlize Theron, Greg Tiernan.
• Crew: Directors: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon. Screenplay: Matt Liberman, Pamela Pettler. Editors: Kevin Pavlovic, David Ian Salter. Music: Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna.
• With: Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, Allison Janney, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Tituss Burgess, Jenifer Lewis, Elsie Fisher, Conrad Vernon.

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Screen Rant

The addams family review: a cute animated remake with heart, the addams family is a cute 3d animated reboot of the classic macabre family, with an important message at its heart about accepting others..

Created by Charles Addams, The Addams Family property was originally a comic strip published in The New Yorker starting in 1938, offering a satirical take on the prototypical nuclear family with a clan of horror-minded folks. It was adapted to live-action in the black comedy sitcom that aired from 1964-1966. Though the original series was short-lived, the franchise lived on in the form of two animated series, one in the 70s and another in the 90s. The Addams Family also received a trilogy of live-action movies in the 90s, introducing a new generation to the family. Now, America's favorite horror clan returns in animated form with a new, modernized adventure. The Addams Family is a cute 3D animated reboot of the classic macabre family, with an important message at its heart about accepting others.

The Addams Family follows Morticia (Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) as they flee from angry townsfolk who don't understand their ways, making a life for themselves in an abandoned asylum in New Jersey and raising their two children: Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard). Having been isolated from society for 13 years, that changes when Margaux Needler (Allison Janney) builds a town at the base of the mountain on which the Addams family home sits. Though Gomez and Uncle Fester (Nick Kroll) are busy preparing Pugsley for an Addams family tradition, Morticia and Grandmama (Bette Midler) become worried when Wednesday grows curious of the outside world and makes friends with Parker Needler (Elsie Fisher). With Margaux's plans for the town threatening the Addams' way of life, it remains to be seen if everyone will remain divided or find a way to get along despite their differences.

Directed by Conrad Vernon ( Shrek 2 , Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted ) and Greg Tiernan ( Sausage Party ) from a script by Matt Lieberman ( The Christmas Chronicles ) and Pamela Pettler ( Corpse Bride ), The Addams Family maintains the macabre humor of the franchise, with the animated medium allowing the filmmakers to take it a step further. Some aspects of the movie may be a bit too horrific - like Wednesday Addams' typical braids ending in hangman's nooses - but those will fly over the heads of the young children the movie is generally aimed at. For those young viewers, The Addams Family does contain an important message about allowing everyone to be themselves and accepting those differences rather than try to force everyone to assimilate. All in all, there's something for everyone in The Addams Family , plenty of heart and silly humor for kids and an important message for viewers of any age.

The Addams Family is helped a great deal by its voice cast, with such big stars as Theron, Isaac and Janney leading the adult roles while Moretz, Wolfard and Fisher play the younger generation. All the stars manage to bring a great deal of personality to their characters through their voice performances. Theron and Moretz especially shine as the women of the Addams family, affecting deceptively difficult accents and tones in order to bring Morticia and Wednesday to life. Similarly, Kroll gives a kooky performance at Uncle Fester that brings plenty of silliness to the movie. While The Addams Family has assembled a cast of A-list stars, some of the actors shine far above others, but they all come together to make the movie as enjoyable as it is.

All in all, The Addams Family attempts to modernize the titular family for a new generation, which invariably leads to differences in tone and the themes at the core of the film. This isn't a satire of modern America, but a treatise about allowing the weirdness within all of us to flourish and accepting each other despite our differences. While those changes may not work for all viewers, especially those that grew up with the original comic strip, the 60s TV show or the 90s movies, this Addams Family illustrates how media evolves to fit the times in which it's made. Certainly, the message it delivers is important for folks of all ages to hear, but The Addams Family never makes it a chore to learn.

Because, ultimately, The Addams Family does deliver an enjoyable animated adventure. There's humor for kids and adults alike, ranging from silly, cartoonish gags to some of the black comedy longtime Addams Family fans expect of the property. As such, the new animated movie is a decent watch for fans of the franchise, especially families whose children are excited to see the new adventure. Though The Addams Family isn't so good it demands to be seen in a theater, it's a solid enough choice for a day out with the family before the (better) more family-friendly titles release next month when the holiday season kicks off. Plus, though it's not really scary, The Addams Family is spooky enough to get viewers in the mood for Halloween.

The Addams Family is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 87 minutes long and rated PG for macabre and suggestive humor, and some action.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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‘The Addams Family’ Review: A Mostly Snappy Reboot

This animated film from the directors of “Sausage Party” is pretty much the diversion you would expect.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

In 2019 , even the creepiest and kookiest movie characters must have origin stories. The new animated version of “The Addams Family” begins with the wedding of Gomez ( Oscar Isaac ) and Morticia ( Charlize Theron ) before they are chased off by angry villagers. Refugees, they wind up in New Jersey and make their home in an abandoned asylum where Thing gives Lurch tips on tickling the ivories. (The pair’s eventual duet on the rock-and-soul standard “Green Onions” is quite the sight.)

Although returning the Addamses to illustrated form brings them full circle (Charles Addams’s New Yorker cartoons long predated the 1960s TV series), this movie exists in the shadow of Barry Sonnenfeld’s live-action films from 1991 and 1993. As spot on as the casting of Isaac and Theron may sound, animation spares them from having to match the ingenious physical comedy of Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston.

In other respects, the movie — from the “Sausage Party” directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan — is the diversion you would expect, getting laughs from the disparity between the Addams’ congenital gloominess and the planned community, called Assimilation, that’s being developed near their mansion. (Allison Janney voices the villain, a home makeover guru who is, in her own way, mysterious and spooky.)

Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard) nervously prepares for his mazurka, which resembles a bar mitzvah with a saber instead of a Torah portion, while Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) experiences pangs of teenage rebellion, which means adding the “gateway color” pink to her wardrobe. If this installment lays on the moral (all families are freaky in their own ways) a bit thick, it has just enough wit and weirdness to honor its source material.

The Addams Family

Rated PG. Bright colors, sunshine, happiness. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes.

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The Addams Family Parent Guide

If you're looking for laughs, watch the trailer. the rest of this movie drags, slowed down by jokes that don't land and heavy-handed messages..

The Addams family has always been a little odd- but now that they’ve moved, their new neighbours are unprepared for exactly how weird things are going to get.

Release date October 11, 2019

Run Time: 105 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

Everyone’s favorite creepy clan is back, this time in an animated feature film, made more horrifying by its 3D option. Fans of macabre mayhem will be pleased to know that the Addams family are still their strange, scary selves: Morticia (voiced by Charlize Theron) uses her late parents’ ashes as cosmetics, Wednesday (voiced deadpan by Chloe Grace Moretz) guillotines her dolls, Pugsley (voiced by Finn Wolfhard) sets off explosives instead of training in swordsmanship.

The plot of this film turns on two points: Pugsley’s fast approaching coming-of-age ceremony - the Addams mazurka - and the desire of Margaux (voiced by Allison Janney) a property developer/reality TV host to sell the homes she has designed and built in the neighboring community. But the Addams’ gloomy mansion stands in her way…

If, however, you’re looking for a movie with a message, The Addams Family comes with some big ones. The most obvious is about accepting people for who they are. When Wednesday decides to attend the local junior high, she becomes friends with Margaux’s daughter, Parker (voiced by Elsie Fisher) and they become catalysts for each other’s adolescent rebellions. The results are amusing, especially when Wednesday comes home wearing a pink unicorn in her hair. (“Pink is a gateway color!” gasps a horrified Morticia.) However, not all parents will be charmed by some of Wednesday and Parker’s defiant comments to their mothers or by Parker’s goth makeover.

Oddly enough, the main theme of this movie is political and turns on immigration policy. And it isn’t subtle. Margaux’s designer community is named Assimilation; not surprisingly this pastel-toned slice of suburbia has no room for the peculiarities of the Addams family. When the panicked residents are manipulated into seeing the Addams clan as an evil infestation bound to destroy their community, they attack the mansion. After the dust settles, one resident speaks up: “What have we done? They’re just a family.” Families who cherish cultural diversity and believe in extending a welcome to newcomers will appreciate this message. On the other hand, parents who want to “build the wall” might be less enthused - although it’s worth pointing out that their kids will be blissfully oblivious of any and all political messaging and will likely laugh at the silly scariness in the movie.

Although The Addams Family has frightening moments aplenty, none of them are gory. There are crossbows, guillotines, an electric chair, and explosives but no one is harmed by them. There are also lots of ominous moments involving eerie settings, ghostly sounds, and menacing music. Adult viewers will be most disturbed by the frequent scenes of family members trying to kill each other – although since they seem to be impervious to arrows or explosives, maybe this isn’t a problem after all. Sensitive children and preschoolers will be upset by the frightening scenes, but most kids will shrug off the scares and laugh. Parents, on the other hand, may find that what really terrifies them is having to navigate political messages in a kids’ film.

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Kirsten hawkes, watch the trailer for the addams family.

The Addams Family Rating & Content Info

Why is The Addams Family rated PG? The Addams Family is rated PG by the MPAA for macabre and suggestive humor, and some action

Violence: A woman uses her parents’ ashes as cosmetics. There are lots of violent moments in this film, but no one actually gets hurt. People are chased by pitchfork wielding neighbors. There are several scenes involving catapults. Sword fights take place. A man is repeatedly shot at with arrows and seems unharmed even when they lodge in his body. A man is hit by a car. A house is shown with what looks like blood dripping down a wall. There are repeated scenes involving explosions. A child escapes a guillotine; she uses it to remove her dolls’ heads. A girl shoots a crossbow at her brother. A girl buries her brother alive; he escapes. A girl grabs her brother’s tongue with pliers. A boy crawls into a lion’s mouth to retrieve his dinner. A woman squeezes a man’s head in a vise. A woman faints. A woman locks up two children. Frightening monsters are briefly seen as are creepy bugs. Sexual Content: None noted. Profanity: None noted. Alcohol / Drug Use: None noted.

Page last updated April 6, 2020

The Addams Family Parents' Guide

The Addams clan is feared by their surrounding community. Why? Have you ever been afraid of people who seem different from you? Did you ever get to know them better? What did you learn from them?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

Kids who enjoy the tongue-in-cheek scary comedy of the Addams Family movies or TV shows will love Deb Gliori’s Pure Dead series. It begins with Pure Dead Magic and tells the story of the Strega-Borgia clan and their adventures with magic, mischief, and mayhem.

Lighthearted magic adventures for elementary school readers can be found in Bruce Coville’s Magic Shop series. The five book series has something for everyone.

Kids who want scary reading material can try Roald Dahl’s classic The Witches.

Older readers looking for a strange and magical family can read Ray Bradbury’s classic From the Dust Returned.

Dyed-in-the-wool fans of the Addams family will be interested in The Addams Family: An Evilution. Editor Kevin Miserocchi traces the cartoons created by Charles Addams and reproduces his descriptions of the characters.

The most recent home video release of The Addams Family movie is January 21, 2020. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

The live-action Addams Family Values was much more violent than this animated production. Only hardcore fans of the clan will enjoy this film.

Viewers who get a kick out of watching Wednesday reanimate the frogs in biology class will enjoy Frankenweenie and the story of the pup who is brought back to life.

Corpse Bride provides more macabre comedy for families who enjoy offbeat movies.

If you’re looking for a genuinely frightening Hallowe’en movie scaled down for older kids, you might enjoy The House with a Clock in its Walls .

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The addams family 2, common sense media reviewers.

Silly sequel focuses on family love; peril, some racy jokes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Audiences will learn about the classic Addams fami

Promotes honesty in family communication, acceptin

Gomez and Morticia are incredibly affectionate, lo

Not much cultural inclusion. Majority of character

A youth beauty pageant includes a tribute to Carri

Morticia and Gomez are frequently passionate with

"He gave me the finger" joke when Uncle Fester lit

Big Progressive Insurance billboard is featured in

Wednesday serves a potion in a martini glass. Adul

Parents need to know that The Addams Family 2 is the "family road trip" sequel to 2019's animated The Addams Family . Like that film, it's not as scary as its live-action predecessors, but there's no shortage of dark humor or cartoon violence. Wednesday (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz) is perpetually…

Educational Value

Audiences will learn about the classic Addams family, but otherwise this is for entertainment.

Positive Messages

Promotes honesty in family communication, accepting those who are different from you, realizing that families can include members with different personalities and interests. Character strengths such as teamwork and empathy are important to the story.

Positive Role Models

Gomez and Morticia are incredibly affectionate, love each other, are attentive and kind parents. Wednesday is very intelligent and curious; her feelings about being different from others/her family are developmentally appropriate for someone her age (though trying to kill her brother is not). Fester is a kind and encouraging uncle, if sometimes misguided.

Diverse Representations

Not much cultural inclusion. Majority of characters present as White, although Snoop Dogg plays Cousin It. Female characters have agency. Despite being kooky and creepy outsiders, the Addamses are a traditional multigenerational family.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A youth beauty pageant includes a tribute to Carrie ; red paint rains down on contestants, covering them like blood. Bikers at a bar get into a brief brawl, arm wrestle, push and shove one another. Lurch and another bodyguard are scary looking. Wednesday traps a man who hangs upside down over a cliff. Later he's gone, so it's assumed he's fallen to his death. A scientist uses a gas to poison and sedate people. A man holds a family captive, plans to experiment on them. A man turns into a giant octopus and fights another human who has transformed into a giant blend of three animals. The Addams family causes an explosion at the Grand Canyon and mass chaos at a science fair.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Morticia and Gomez are frequently passionate with each other: kissing, embracing, slow-dancing. Pugsley has a crush on Ophelia, and they flirt and eventually hug and touch foreheads. Uncle Fester offers dating advice and mentions writing a how-to book about dating and romance. Fester and Pugsley have several conversations about dating. Cousin It is shown to be a ladies' creature. A joke substitutes "tentacles" for "testicles."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"He gave me the finger" joke when Uncle Fester literally hands a man a severed finger. "Freak," "weird," "monsters," "poop," etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Big Progressive Insurance billboard is featured in a scene. Addams Family franchise has lots of off-screen tie-ins.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wednesday serves a potion in a martini glass. Adults (including party-goers at the "Lyfe Festival") drink on a couple of occasions, including a Bloody Mary.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Addams Family 2 is the "family road trip" sequel to 2019's animated The Addams Family . Like that film, it's not as scary as its live-action predecessors, but there's no shortage of dark humor or cartoon violence. Wednesday (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz ) is perpetually trying to kill/harm her brother Pugsley (Javon "Wanna" Walton), and she traps a man who hangs upside down over a cliff before presumably falling to his death. It has big explosions; characters in peril, held captive, or sedated; human experimentation; fighting; an homage to the movie Carrie (with red paint instead of blood); and a destructive battle between gigantic monsters. Some of the creatures in the Addams Family world can look scary, and the family experiences emotional moments when they're told that Wednesday may not biologically be an Addams. Expect to hear insult language like "freak" and "weirdo," as well as a few Addams-style endearments (like "murderous maternal instincts" and "witch"). Gomez ( Oscar Isaac ) and Morticia ( Charlize Theron ) continue to be depicted as caring parents who are very much in love (kissing, dancing, and exchanging affectionate gestures and innuendoes fairly frequently). This movie also finds Uncle Fester ( Nick Kroll ) advising Pugsley on dating, resulting in some pretty cheesy pickup lines and flirting. A joke substitutes "tentacles" for "testicles." Adult characters drink in a couple of scenes. Ultimately, the movie promotes communication, teamwork, and the value of a family's unconditional love. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (11)
• Kids say (13)

Based on 11 parent reviews

What's the Story?

THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2 starts with Wednesday Addams (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz ) showing off an impressive science fair project but being disappointed when everyone at the fair is deemed a winner. When Gomez ( Oscar Isaac ) worries that angsty Wednesday is distancing herself from the family, he decides to plan a last-minute road trip across the United States for the family, including his wife Morticia ( Charlize Theron ), kids Wednesday and Pugsley (Javon "Wanna" Walton), Uncle Fester ( Nick Kroll ), their butler/bodyguard Lurch ( Conrad Vernon ), and Thing, a disembodied hand servant. The family's trip is complicated by the fact that a mysterious man named Rupert ( Wallace Shawn ) shows up insisting that he has clients who believe that Wednesday and their daughter might have been switched at birth, making Wednesday their biological daughter. Morticia and Gomez use the trip to manufacture more forced family fun -- and also to avoid Rupert. Meanwhile, back at the Addams mansion, Grandma ( Bette Midler ) hosts a profitable (but fake) music festival.

Is It Any Good?

This serviceable animated sequel focuses on Wednesday's feelings of alienation and benefits from the family's kid-friendly jokes and road trip adventures. Perhaps because the first movie was so underwhelming, this follow-up seems a bit more rooted in the family's kooky antics. Since the Addamses visit well-known places on their trips -- like Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, etc. -- the movie offers a relatable storyline, despite the family's generally eccentric nature. Isaac and Theron once again channel the passionately in-love Gomez and Morticia (they're arguably the most ardent animated parents in movie history) but manage to also convey -- in between arm kisses and caresses -- how worried they are about Wednesday. Parents will empathize with Gomez and Morticia's desire to encourage more family togetherness as their kids get older.

But the sequel is definitely Wednesday's show, and Moretz's flat, emotionless performance is exactly what the role requires. She does a fine job evoking the clever young scientist's disinterest in anything emotional or sentimental. The writing and comedy gags include a memorable sequence that's like Little Miss Sunshine meets Carrie , as well as a running joke about Uncle Fester slowly turning into an octopus. At one point the word "tentacles" is obviously a stand-in for the word "testicles," although it's unlikely that really young viewers will pick up on that or the movie's other risqué/suggestive comments (usually courtesy of the Addams parents). The subplot about Grandma's Fyre Festival-like event (which eventually features Snoop Dogg as Cousin It) is underused and unnecessary, but it's not featured enough to detract from the main story, which takes enough zany twists and turns to amuse younger viewers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the suggestive jokes in The Addams Family 2 . Are they necessary to the story?

Are animated movies less frightening than live-action ones? Why, or why not? Do they impact younger viewers differently? How much scary stuff can young kids handle?

Do you consider anyone in the story a role model ? What character strengths do they display? Why are communication , empathy , and teamwork important?

Discuss the way family dynamics are explored in the movie. Why does Wednesday feel like she's not "really" an Addams? Is biology what makes someone part of a family, or is it something else?

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 1, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : January 18, 2022
• Cast : Oscar Isaac , Charlize Theron , Chloe Grace Moretz , Bill Hader
• Directors : Greg Tiernan , Conard Vernon , Laura Brousseau
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors
• Studio : MGM
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Brothers and Sisters , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Character Strengths : Communication , Empathy , Teamwork
• Run time : 93 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : macabre and rude humor, violence and language
• Last updated : September 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Addams Family 2

Where to watch.

Rent The Addams Family 2 on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Altogether ooky, and not in a good way.

The story's sort of thin and it doesn't really capture the characters' classic flavor, but as a family-friendly viewing option, The Addams Family 2 mostly delivers.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Greg Tiernan

Conrad Vernon

Oscar Isaac

Gomez Addams

Charlize Theron

Morticia Addams

Chloë Grace Moretz

Wednesday Addams

Cyrus Strange

Movie Clips

More like this, critics reviews.

The Addams Family Tree, Explained

The first family of horror has quite the gnarled family tree!

The Addams Family is the first family of horror. They're creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky... and they've been around in one medium or another since 1938. Starting out as a comic strip by cartoonist Charles Addams, the family was made famous on the small screen in 1964 with the emergence of their iconic self-titled TV show. From film and cartoon appearances to fan-favorite offshoots like Wednesday , this family has lasted in some form or other for nearly a century.

One thing about them that's not nearly so well known, however, is their lineage. The Addams Family, not to be mistaken for the iconic American ancestors, are a proud and rambunctious breed, many of whom reside just within or outside the confines of the family home. From the famous nuclear family to the staff they treat like family and everyone in between, here is an overview of the twists and turns in their gnarled family tree.

The Addams Family Tree

The nuclear addams family.

The first family of horror centers first and foremost around a singular nuclear family – The Addams Four. At the helm are husband Gomez and wife Morticia, a pair whose undying love for each other and disdain for all things suburbia easily sets them apart from the typical nuclear family . Their primary offspring are goth girl extraordinaire Wednesday and riff-raff son, Pugsley. Together, this foursome proves a delightfully decadent pairing.

Gomez Addams — Husband

Ever the mischievous scrap, Gomez is the patriarch of the family . Fun-loving with a macabre streak, he is a bit of a Renaissance man, indulging in golf, juggling, and model train wrecks. He is an eclectic business owner of crocodile farms and tombstone factories, as well as an accomplished lawyer with an impressive no-win, no-loss record. His love for his wife, Morticia , borders on hero worship, which might come from the fact that her appearance in his life took him from a sickly young lad to a strapping young man. The character has been played by a whole host of Hollywood greats, starting with John Astin, and including Tim Curry, Oscar Issac, Raul Julia, and Luis Guzmán.

Morticia Addams — Wife

Morticia Addams is the cool, demure, and utterly irresistible wife of Gomez Addams . Mother to Wednesday and Pugsley, she is known for her snark, her sarcasm, and her dark, long, and lean ensemble and piercingly pale features. Her background implies witchcraft, but she’s equally talented at music, gardening, and languages (a fact that Gomez, of course, finds irresistible). While Carolyn Jones took up the initial helm, she has also been played by heavy hitters like Anjelica Houston, Charlize Theron, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Wednesday Addams — Daughter

Wednesday Addams is the daughter of the clan , combining the best of traits from both father and mother. She is as mischievous as her father but with the outward stoniness of her mother (with some impressive dance skills to boot). She has been played by several actresses over the years, from Christina Ricci to Jenna Ortega. An icon in her own right, she’s even gone on to inspire her own highly-rated spin-off on Netflix.

Read Our Review

Pugsley Addams — Son

Pugsley Addams is the son of Morticia and Gomez . Pugsley is perhaps known best for his penchant for boyhood pranks like cutting off the heads of his sister’s dolls. A pre-pubescent henchman in training, he is easily led by his father and sister into just about any one of their schemes. Pugsley has been played by any number of actors over the years, including Ken Weatherwax, Jimmy Workman, and Isaac Ordonez.

Every Member of The Addams Family, Ranked

The addams family grandparents, aunts, and uncles, oh my.

While the Addams Family is known for their dysfunctional extended family, there are a few among these potential characters who share the spotlight with ongoing regularity. These include the mothers of both Gomez and Morticia, as well as their respective siblings, and even an iconic uncle. It is also worth noting that not one Grandfather makes an appearance. Could this be as a result of a pair of merry widows?

Grandmama Addams — Gomez's Mother

Grandmama Addams, Gomez's mother , is portrayed as a classic doom and gloom spell-caster, though she also specializes in potions, hexes, and fortune-telling. She comes from a long lineage of witches and is just as likely to help with the dishes as cheat someone out of house and home over a game of cards. Her nicknames and aliases are about as fluid as they come, from Granny to Eudora Addams. Her aliases include the acclaimed Madame Bovary, Madame de Pompadour, and Madame X. She has been portrayed by several actors onscreen, including Blossom Rock, Jane Rose, and Betty Phillips.

Granny Frump — Morticia's Mother

This cast is notorious for name changes, starting with this very character. At first onset, Grandmama Addams was Morticia's mother, Granny Frump. This was later retconned for the television series. Now Grandmama Addams is the mother to Gomez, while Granny Frump is Morticia's mother , though it is fair to say the two look rather similar. Her daughters Morticia and Ophelia became a vital part of the series. She has been played by the likes of Carol Channing, Carol Kane, and Margaret Hamilton.

Uncle Fester — Gomez's Brother

Uncle Fester is the gloomy undertaker of the group . At first, considered an Uncle to Morticia, but his role changed to that of Gomez's brother in a later series. Balding with sunken eyes, he is shown to have the power to generate electricity, which comes in handy when reviving the dead or nearly so. A mashup of Igor meets an evil scientist, he doesn't speak much, and would much rather hide in the shadows. He might have remained either missing or a Bachelor were it not for the family. Past actors for Uncle Fester include Christopher Lloyd, Jackie Coogan, and Fred Armisen .

Ophelia Frump — Morticia's Sister

Flighty sister to Morticia, Ophelia is portrayed as the flower-power child to Morticia's gloom. Flighty and fond of daisies, her moods are known to change at the best of times. She nearly married Gomez in an arranged marriage before falling for Cousin Itt. In a later series, she marries Gomez's barely talked-about brother, Pancho. Still, she is perhaps the closest to 'normal' of the clan. She has been played by Carolyn Jones (who also played Morticia), Allegra Kent, Laura Esterman, and Lisa Calder.

Cousin Itt — Gomez's Cousin

Cousin Itt comes from somewhere along the Addams Family line. They are likely cousins to Fester and Gomez . Known for their iconic floor-length hair , their high-pitched speech can only be understood by other members of the Addams Family. One of the few family members to not be created by Charles Addams, he was instead brought into this world thanks to a producer on the original series. Felix Silla and Snoop Dog have both played this iconic role.

The Unrelated (But Still Cherished) Members of the Addams Family

Perhaps two of the most iconic characters in the whole series are housemates Lurch and Thing . While neither is closely related by blood (so far as we know), their ghastly natures are exceedingly helpful in and around the house. Whether they are lending a hand in the kitchen or burying a corpse in the backyard, these two are just as, if not more beloved than the family they work for, according to audiences at least.

Thing — Handservant

A glorified 'handservant', Thing is literally a disembodied hand who stumbles about the mansion performing various household tasks. Mysterious, helpful, and surprisingly charismatic for a living, breathing body part, Thing was iconically brought to life using a wide variety of special effects sleights of hand over the years, most recently using an actor in a blue-chroma suit. As their presence on screen has grown, they've become a more integral part of the plot.

The Addams Family: Every Version of the Comedy Horror Story, Ranked

Lurch — butler.

At nearly seven feet tall, it's nearly impossible to miss the iconic Lurch. His voice is deep, and he communicates with little more than moans, though the family is, of course, still able to understand him well enough. Lurch serves as a butler for the household , a henchperson who can and will do just about anything for the family. This ghoulish giant has been played over the years by many, including Ted Cassidy, John DeSantis, and George Burcea.

Want More Horror Comedy? Check These Out:

Limited Edition Morticia & Wednesday Addams ‘Monster High’ Dolls Releasing Next Week!

Following in the wake of dolls based on  The Shining , Stephen King’s  IT ,  Beetlejuice,  Gremlins 2 , Elvira, Annabelle , and Creature from the Black Lagoon , Mattel’s Monster High line next welcomes both Morticia and Wednesday Addams from “The Addams Family” !

On Friday, May 10th at 9am PT , Mattel Creations, Mattel’s e-commerce and content platform for creators, collaborations, and innovators, will be releasing the newest Monster High Skullector set, The Addams Family 2 Pack, featuring Morticia and Wednesday Addams, based on The Addams Family animated movies.

In collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, Monster High is reimagining your favorite gothic, mother daughter duo from the animated movies, just in time for Mother’s Day.

Selling for $90, this Monster High Skullector doll 2-pack honors icons Morticia and Wednesday Addams in all their gore-geous glory and makes the perfect Mother’s Day present.

Morticia is dolled up in a black spiderweb lace dress with sheer waterfall sleeves and a jagged hem. Her accessories include pruning shears on a chain, rose heels, and a long-stemmed rose with a detachable bud that’s perfect for snipping – how romantic!

Wednesday wears a skull-print puff sleeve dress, a purse inspired by her octopus Socrates. Complete with glossy boots and heels inspired by Thing and Cousin It.

Head over to the Mattel Creations website to learn more and see more images.

The Monster High Skullector series reimagines horror icons through the lens of fabulous Monster High style. Morticia and Wednesday Addams follows previous Skullector sellout drops of Jack and Sally from Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas , Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Universal Monsters’ Creature from the Black Lagoon, Chucky and Tiffany, The Bride of Frankenstein and her betrothed, Dracula, and classic monsters from Warner Brothers Pictures Beetlejuice and Lydia, Pennywise, the Grady Twins and Greta Gremlin.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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‘Eat the Reich’ Review – Vampires vs Nazis Tabletop RPG Plays Like a Blood-Splattered Blockbuster

Some tabletop roleplaying games are meant for you to create your own character and lead them on an open-ended journey with a personal arc that you craft through a combination of interactions with your fellow players and the roll of the dice. Eat the Reich , the latest game from writer Grant Howitt and artist Will Kirkby, is not that. It’s designed to tell one story: the final mission of a squad of vampires out to kill Hitler in Nazi-occupied Paris.

Through this game, a group of three to six players, along with a game master, will collaborate to tell a rip-roaring cathartic story of violently tearing supernaturally-enhanced Nazis limb from limb. Last year, publisher Rowan, Rook and Decard ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign , and now the book is finally being delivered in all its blood-splattered glory.

At some point the book’s text describes the game as a “big, gross, stupid evisceration party,” and that is an incredibly succinct way to sum up the game. It’s a slim book, clocking in at just over 70 pages, but its brevity is part of what makes it a special game. Filled to the brim with eye-popping art and macabre details, the alternate history horror-themed world of Eat the Reich feels like a fully-realized playground for your band of monstrous Nazi hunters. It’s written in a casual voice that never sacrifices clarity, conveying the tone of the game vividly on every page.

The core of the game’s action is the Havoc Engine, a resolution system that Howitt created for an older tabletop RPG called Havoc Brigade . The GM presents a scene with a certain number of threats and objectives, which each have a number that has to be reached for it to be taken off the board. As a player, you declare what they want to do, they roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the relevant stat and look at the results. Fours and fives count as a success, six counts as two successes, and the rest are discarded.  The GM will also roll dice based on the enemy forces threat value, keeping successes in the same way.

Once you have your pool of rolled dice, you allocate the successes in various ways, while narrating what each one looks like fictionally. Successes can be used to advance an objective, attack a threat, defend yourself from the enemy attack, feed on Nazi blood or activate one of your character’s special abilities. Once you’ve narrated all your dice, the enemy does damage to you based on their roll, which is reduced by any dice you spent on defense.

While this seems like it could make for a very dry, mechanical adjusting of numbers, the way each die you spend encourages narrative is extremely clever. Spending on the objective may be you deftly dodge between cars to advance on a museum that’s being guarded by enemy snipers, while allocating a die to an attack could be you swinging on a grappling hook and landing on an enemy soldier claws first. The game is built from the ground up to be a power fantasy, so you’ve heavily encouraged to add extra flourishes to the scene in order to be as over-the-top as you want in all the action.

Your actions can always be enhanced by equipment, either items on your sheet or things you’ve scavenged around the battlefield. In addition to their standard effect, each item has a bonus requirement that can yield extra dice if met. For example, a submachine gun may say +flanking after it, which means that if you describe using it in a way that bypasses enemy cover, you get an extra die. This once again provides another vector for you to add flavor to your descriptions, making the story you tell more dynamic and exciting. In order to encourage you to continue to use your items, the final use of a multi-use item always grants one additional die, keeping you constantly using equipment and scrounging for new toys to pick up along the way.

Instead of having an in-depth character creation process, you choose from one of six premade characters, each accompanied by Kirkby’s gorgeous portraits. All members of F.A.N.G., your special ops vampire unit, have brief descriptions, unique sets of stats, equipment, and a set of abilities that set them apart from the others. The book highly encourages you to expand upon the characters, giving them their own history and quirks that build upon the included information, so there’s definitely room for you to make things your own in play. They each fill fun archetypes like demolitions expert, necromancer, or cowboy gunslinger, making for a fun and varied party no matter which characters you choose.

There are additional mechanics in Eat the Reich that push you towards filling out elements of your character’s backstory. If you ever roll two or fewer successes when doing an action, you can trigger a flashback sequence that gives you extra dice and a chance to reroll. There’s a pair of tables to roll on to give you context for the scene, providing you with a prompt so you’re not on the spot to make it up out of nowhere, allowing you to craft a brief scene of how you and another member bonded during some sort of mission during the war. These flashbacks allow you to really make these premade characters your own while helping flesh out the dynamic of your unit.

Characters each have a unique set of injuries specific to them. There are three columns, each with two escalating injuries in them. If the GM still has attack dice that the player has not defended, you’ll roll a D6 to see which column you take an injury in. When you mark the second injury in a column, that will have some mechanical disadvantage that will be worked into future actions. These injuries can be healed by spending blood, but when you mark all six of your injuries, you’re dead. Fortunately, that’s not the end. Each character has a last stand listed on their sheet, which gives them one final thing to do when they go out. These are brief little narrative prompts like “final form” or “rigged to blow” that give you a way to go out in style. You’ll roll a whopping eight dice and apply those to objectives and threats, describing your final, heroic sacrifice before being eliminated from the game.

On the GM side of things, there’s a series of locations, along with a gloriously rendered map, that are provided, each with their own narrative setup, threats, and objectives. The game plays fast and loose with history in the name of fun, so while there may be real-life places in the game, they are presented in outlandish and over-the-top situations. In addition to lists of the standard threats, there are also miniboss enemies called Ubermensch that pose a massive threat to the players. These set pieces are meant to be big challenges with special rules that the players need to work around, providing a nice change of pace from the normal fodder enemies that you tear through.

Aside from the tight rules and great GM resources, Eat the Reich is a stunning book to behold. The art throughout is shockingly bright, eschewing the normal drab color palette you associate with war fiction, splashing the pages with wild dayglow colors and vibrant hues. Every portrait communicates so much information about the character that it makes it easy to find ways to embody them after just a glance at their image. Many of the pages look like cartoony versions of classified government briefings, with various objects, ranging from occult objects to lit cigarettes, sitting around the margins of the page. Blood splatter and fingerprints mark sections of the book, making it all feel so alive. It’s printed in a beautifully bound softcover binding with raised blood splatter on the cover, making it really stand out on the shelf.

Despite the game’s grindhouse-esque premise, they do a very careful job of trying to respect the real-life issues surrounding Nazis and World War II. Working with sensitivity readers, they made sure to come up with advice for players on playing marginalized characters, helping players responsibly navigate the tragedies depicted while still having a tastelessly violent romp through Nazi-occupied Paris. The book feels like a cathartic burst of violence meant to give players an outlet for their frustration with the current political climate.

I always find it very interesting when an RPG narrows its focus to such a specific story, and Eat the Reich is all the better for it. Every inch of this book is designed to maximize Nazi-killing, bombastic action. The art, the setting, and the rules all come together perfectly in an efficient and attractive package. Eat the Reich ’s gore-drenched campaign can be played through in about three sessions, so it’s perfect for players looking for the tabletop equivalent of an over-the-top summer action blockbuster. Also, you get to kill Hitler in the bloodiest possible fashion. What more could you want from a game?

Eat the Reich can be purchased here.

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2.13: The Addams Family (1991) feat. Jason of Binge Movies

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