The Addams family popped up on my Netflix some days back and it looked visually striking. Long looking characters with funny faces but still very regal in appearance and speech and I thought to myself 'now that's what I'm missing'. It's been a while since I watched an animation so it felt like the proper time to break the trend.
The Addams family is a family of ghouls who were driven out of the town they'd previously lived in because the neighbors just could not stand how weird they believed them to be. To be fair, they were weird but they were not harmful at all. Just a bit scary as they were colorless in appearance(black and white) but very lively in personality. Father Gomez and Morticia were the couple driven out with their relatives on the night they were supposed to get married and they had to relocate to a place out of town that contained a terrifying house spirit. All this was to their taste, just as the demented man they almost killed who'd been on his way to an asylum was to their taste when they picked him up to serve as their new butler.
Years later, we see them with their two kids Wednesday(a girl) and Pugsley(a boy) who's being prepared for what's called the Mazurka. It's basically a coming of age ceremony where Pugsley has to fight with the sword and be deemed a man by all the strange and creepy relatives who'd be travelling all the way to watch and pass their judgement. In addition to all these going ons, the town they departed is being redesigned architecturally by a woman named Margaux Needler who plans to sell all the houses there and make a great fortune.
To her surprise,(since the mansion the Adam's family have been living in interesting states of isolation becomes more visible) this dark monstrosity one day stands out like a sore. In hopes of turning things around with the limited time she's been given, she rushes off to initiate a whole new mansion makeover. Things don't go according to plan of course, because the Mazurka is happening at the time when she does not need all that strangeness and of course, Morticia is not up for all that change.
The link that ties both families together though is the friendship between the Addams family's daughter, Wednesday who's very eccentric and quite evil/ naughty but good natured all the same and Margaux's daughter Parker. Both girls are at the rebellious phase of their lives where they view their parents as helpless and overbearing and no longer want to conform to family rules. So they form an alliance and try out things from each other's worlds in hopes of getting themselves new personalities and upsetting their mothers.
I really liked this film because of the interesting themes that were explored. Themes like identity and living in harmony where there are differences. Integrating into society for the Adam's family came at a cost because their neighbors, fueled with lies from a desperate Margaux who spread fake news marched on the destroy this family's mansion. Thankfully, they realized that they'd had no reason to fear in the first place. They learnt they could live with seeing a lion run in their town because he was pretty harmless and they could as well adjust to seeing bats fly around in broad daylight. Tolerance and looking out for one's neighbor with the best intentions at heart and no judgement before getting to know them, were some of the key values I felt this film succeeded in relaying.
That being said, I was sooo surprised to see so many negative reviews about this film and I can understand why, now that's I've looked up some history. This is one of those films with a cult gathering that has lasted since 1938. There's a history of cartoons and remakes that I won't go deep into, since I've not read or watched any others, but I can see how there would be a lot of material to compare to and be highly critical of this remake. Since I don't have the privilege of being in this class of people and can fortunately like the film as it was portrayed to be, I have to say it was very well done. I rate it a 10/10 for all it's witty dialogue, for the dry factual humor and the general feel of its characters. I was impressed.
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