The Addams Family (2019 film)

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The Addams Family is an animated adaptation of the cartoons created by Charles Addams. It is directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernen (both known for their work on Sausage Party), featuring the voices of Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Oscar Isaac, Nick Kroll, and Finn Wolfhard. The film was released on October 11th, 2019 by United Artists Releasing in America, and Universal Pictures internationally.

Thirteen years ago, the newlywed Gomez and Morticia Addams fled “the old country”, in order to settle into an isolated existence, far from the places they knew they weren’t welcome. Now in the present time, the cheerful but rather macabre family (including their daughter Wednesday, their son Pugsley, their loyal butler Lurch, and the disembodied crawling hand, Thing) have lived happily, separated from a world that doesn’t understand or accept them. Until one day, the fog around their house lifts, revealing, to their shock, that a whole town has been built around them!

Now, they again try to fit it, but find that the town’s resident real estate guru and reality show star has big plans for the town of Assimilation, New Jersey, and those plans don’t involve the new eyesore of a house that was just as hidden to them. Nor is she pleased with the idea of the Addamses' extended family showing up for for Pugsley's "Sabre Mazurka" on the same day she's filming her intended blockbuster of a season finale…

After a successful opening weekend at the box office, a sequel for the film has been announced, with a planned release date of October 22, 2021.

Tropes used in The Addams Family (2019 film) include:
  • Adaptational Badass: Pugsley. In most adaptations, he rarely serves much purpose except to be on the submissive side of his sister's torture-games. While there are some scenes like that here, there are also plenty where he takes incentive himself, symbolized by the way he literally sprouts a beard at the Mazurka.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Possibly the Family themselves, as Pugsley's "Mazurka" has quite a few similarities to a Bar Mitzvah.
  • Bedlam House: The Addamses' Big Fancy House used to be one of these, which they find abandoned and decrepit. This is also where they find Lurch, who seems to have been a patient who was left behind when the place was abandoned.
  • Broken Aesop: The overall message seems to be, "conformity is bad, originality is good, just be yourself". Unfortunately, Morticia seems just as intolerant of change as the residents of Assimilation, making the message sound a little hollow.
  • Covert Pervert: Who'd have ever thought that Thing - a disembodied, crawling hand - had a foot fetish?
  • Credits Gag: The first part of the end credits is an animated reenactment of the opening credits of the 1964-66 series.
  • Disappeared DadL In contrast to Wednesday's Happily Married parents, Parker's parents seem to be divorced. In one scene, she expresses regret that she didn't choose to live with her dad.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Margeaux's grudge against the Family seems to start simply because she thinks their house is an eyesore. A valid point, maybe, but she eventually evolves into wanting to kill them.
  • Dirty Old Man: Fester seems to be one in this version, commenting on how he likes Assimilation because of "all the windows you can look into". And then there's the Long List he recites of places he isn't allowed to visit...
  • Easily Forgiven: Unlike the live-action adaptations, the Addams' family motto ( "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us") doesn't seem to apply here, as they gladly forgive the residents of Assimilation - even Margeaux - for forming a lynch mob and destroying their house.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Kittykat isn't a typical lion, as she's able to eat anything. In one scene where Lurch clears the dinner plates, he feeds the uneaten food to Kittykat, who then eats the plate and silverware.
  • Karma Houdini: Not only does Margeaux get no comeuppance at all for orchestrating the plot to murder the Addams, she seems to benefit at the end, gaining a new market to sell houses to and dating Fester. While her show is cancelled by the network, it's clear that was only a secondary occupation for her.
  • Genius Loci: The Addams' house is possessed by a grouchy spirit who doesn't like the Family much and often plots to kill them, although it calms down a little when it's had its morning coffee, which Morticia gives it through the plumbing.
  • The Greatest Story Never Told: Grandmama shows up two weeks early, relating how she was kicked out of Prague for trying to smuggle alligators out of the zoo; after which, she hitched a ride on a Somali pirate ship and took them to the cleaners by playing cards. And she also hasn't bathed in two weeks because of it all.
  • Got Me Doing It: Works both ways here. After spending time with Wednesday, Parker starts to dress with a Goth outfit and hairstyle. Wednesday, on the other hand, starts to dress like a "preppy". Both their mothers aren't pleased.
  • Hartman Hips: Margeaux exaggerates this concept, in stark contrast to how Morticia's Impossible Hourglass Figure.
  • I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Assimilation, New Jersey. The name might go over the heads of younger viewers, but parents will understand why the Trope fits.
  • Logo Joke: At the beginning of the film, the Lion in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo turns into Kittykat mid-roar. Then a red ball lands in front of the logo, causing Kittykat to leap out and play with it, knocking the rest of the logo over.
  • Malicious Slander: Margeaux uses the internet to spread phony stories about the Addamses to drive the townsfolk into a frenzy.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: When the townspeople realized they were harming a family -- even one as odd as the Addams -- for no reason, they immediately regret it. When the whole mess between Margeaux and the Addamses is settled, they get right to work fixing the house they helped destroy.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: No doubt, Pugsley would have become the second Addams to flunk his Mazurka, had not the angry mob shown up to give him more of a incentive.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Margeaux is sort of an evil parody of Martha Stewart.
  • Not Hyperbole: When Morticia claims Pugsley is "crawling the walls with anticipation", she isn't kidding.
  • Of Corset Hurts: Lampshaded. At the beginning, Morticia literally uses a wrench and power-drill to tighten her corset, a reminder of how women used to regard the things as torture devices. This, of course, means Morticia herself isn't bothered by it.
  • Persona Non Grata: Fester recites a very Long List of places he isn't allowed to visit, which includes all of Europe, all of Asia, most coastal nations in Africa, but he adds he is still allowed in Antarctica.
  • Phantom Zone Picture: Zigzagged. Wednesday has never seen an iPod before, and when seeing Parker use it, asks how so many people can fit inside it, noting that her mirror can only hold 14 captive souls at one time.
  • Place Worse Than Death: "Now entering New Jersey. What are you looking at?"
  • Wedding Smashers: Happened at Morticia and Gomez's wedding, which was crashed by a mob with Torches and Pitchforks, the minister having to rush the "I do" before fighting broke out. It seems this happened to them a lot in "the old country".