Different TV producers and filmmakers have offered up their own takes on the spooky family
created by cartoonist Charles Addams - and some have worked a lot better than others.
Here, then, is every major Addams Family movie and TV series iteration, ranked in order from
worst to best.
The 2019 animated The Addams Family is everything no Addams Family project has ever been: loud,
fast, bright, and moralizing.
This movie feels less like an expansion of the Addams universe and more like a lesser
Tim Burton animated project, or a knockoff of Adam Sandler's Hotel Transylvania movies.
The characters are given an unnecessary and clunky origin story: After an angry mob breaks
up the wedding of Gomez and Morticia because they're too weird, the loving couple runs
away to New Jersey, with Thing in tow.
They take up residence in an abandoned asylum, where they recruit mental patient Lurch to
be their butler.
Flash forward into the future, and the Addams have lived in sad isolation for more than
a decade.
There's also an awkward plot about a reality TV host wanting to get rid of this family
that isn't bothering anybody and how Wednesday befriends that host's tween daughter.
And, of course, there's a lesson about how it's a good thing to be yourself.
The New Addams Family inadvertently gives away its premise in its title: It's the same
old Addams Family as the 1960s sitcom, it's just... new.
It plays like a less-than-great eerie remake of its predecessor, with many of the actors
not so much interpreting their characters, but imitating their counterparts from the
'60s series.
"Gomez, Mrs. Bell from the PTA just called me."
"I hate obscene phone calls."
At least they had the good sense to bring in original Gomez John Astin as occasional
character Grandpapa Addams, but his presence just reminded viewers of the greatness that
once was.
The only true innovation of The New Addams Family is that it seemed to take a cue from
the early '90s Addams Family movies and gave much more screen time to Wednesday and Pugsley.
This early '90s animated cash-in on the popular live-action movies aired on ABC Saturday mornings,
so it's obviously geared toward children.
But the people who made it focused so hard on having it be squeaky clean that they lost
the spirit of what makes the Addams Family special.
"Those screams were half-hearted, and I didn't hear his usual joyous cackle."
Sure, the Addamses live in a creepy, shadowy mansion, and yes, Wednesday and Uncle Fester
like to blow stuff up whenever they get the chance, but the show leans too heavily on
the family's interactions with the outside world and its suffocating normalcy.
At least The Addams Family: The Animated Series restores and updates the 1960s sitcom version's
iconic, snap-happy theme song and draws inspiration from the rich, busy look of the 1991 Addams
Family film.
This first animated take on The Addams Family combines the charmingly grotesque look of
Charles Addams' creations with the voices and vaudevillian interplay of '60s TV Gomez
and Morticia, all mixed in with the trappings and clichés of '70s Saturday morning cartoons.
That is to say, the animation is cheap and stilted, there are wacky animal sidekicks,
and every joke is met with a braying laugh track.
"That's odd.
I never realized this was a music cue."
This Addams Family feels an awful lot like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?-— they even crossed
over at one point - only it embraces the spooky instead of unmasking it.
Like the Mysteries, Inc. gang, this version of the Addams Family also drives around endlessly,
not in a van but a "Creepy Camper," which looks like they miniaturized their mansion
and put it on top of a hearse.
They cause a stir in a new location in every episode, and, true to Addams Family spirit,
they're oblivious to how the way they do things is not the way the rest of the world does
things.
When Raul Julia, the actor who played Gomez Addams in the hit '90s films, passed away,
the chance for a successful Addams Family trilogy seemed to be lost.
What fans eventually got was Addams Family Reunion, a franchise reboot in the form of
a direct-to-video movie.
It doesn't stand up to the other films in its decidedly B-level production values.
The plot is a little weak too, involving the Addamses attending the incorrect family reunion
by mistake and getting mixed up in a guy's killing-for-inheritance scheme.
While it lacks a lot of the dark comedy and joyful playfulness of the two Addams Family
movies that preceded it, it's agreeable and family-friendly, and the filmmakers wisely
cast the great Tim Curry in the role of Gomez, while Daryl Hannah turns in a serviceable
Morticia.
There were a lot of weird sitcoms in the '60s, and many of them were built around fish-out-of-water
scenarios.
The Addams Family took a different approach: let the water come to the fish.
The Addams lived in a gigantic 19th century mansion full of sentient plants, suits of
armor, a lion, and more, enjoying each other's company and occasionally dealing with the
stuffy local conservative figures who populated the generic town outside its doors.
They also casually tossed off references to death, darkness, and the macabre, which certainly
wasn't happening on Gilligan's Island.
"This is going to be the greatest train wreck in railroad history.
I'm going to switch them onto the same track."
Morticia knits or paints while Gomez fences, checks his stocks, and deals mildly in the
dark arts, which occurs between the couple's ferocious displays of affection.
If Charles Addams' original creations were meant to be a thorough contrast to the strictures
of modern life, the TV series helped get the point across.
When the Addams Family made the leap to the big screen in 1991, all the Addams' quirks
and the franchise's tropes were amped up without taking it too far.
Morticia is more elegant and enigmatic than ever, Gomez is bursting with a zest for life
- and death.
Uncle Fester is downright frightening, and Wednesday is just casually, unflinchingly
interested in torture and mayhem.
[Electric chair sounds]
These characters are allowed to finally embrace the behaviors and activities only hinted at
in other Addams Family media, while the film's big budget affords a realistically rendered
Thing, which expressively darts around the Addams' gloriously well-appointed but decaying
mansion.
Moreover, the prevailing message of Addams Family shows of the past is more clearly conveyed
in both The Addams Family and 1993's Addams Family Values.
The people in this family aren't the creeps.
It's the modern world, with its forced cheerfulness and scams with a smile, that's truly villainous.
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