The Addams Family Gets Animated
TV's Famous Goth Family Participates in Various Happenings
In the 1930s, a cartoonist by the name of Charles Addams sold sketches of a strange and morbid family to The New Yorker.
With some work and creativity, the Addams Family had been born! Eventually, this macabre, but lovable family was made famous when a sitcom was developed in the 1960s. Between that decade and 1988 (Addams's death), many panels of the cartoon characters were published.
Later, in 1991, a live action film was produced, and it was such a hit that a cartoon followed almost immediately.
The Addams Family (1992) features the usual characters: Gomez, Morticia, Thing, Uncle Fester, Pugsley and Wednesday Addams are an unusual family and certainly enjoy anything creepy or spooky.
They have no qualms about playing around in graveyards and messing with torture devices, but they are not evil monsters. They are, in fact, a courteous family who will stick together 'till the end and would even accept anyone into their gothic mansion with open arms and loving hearts.
The Addams Family is a Family Like No Other
Starring John Astin (Gomez's original actor in the 1960s show), Rip Taylor (Fester) and Carol Channing (Grandmama), The Addams Family has some real talent in the sound and voice department.
Actors really get into character on the show, bringing out colorful, amusing personalities. Although Wednesday does come across as a bit perkier and sweeter than usual, but the developers probably wanted to fuse all of her previous portrayals into one character, so it seems to work out fine in the end. She's a likeable character and that's all that matters.
The cartoon's score is decent, although nothing original or special since the main theme sounds nearly identical to the 1960's version. However, it does its job and captures the family's scary reputation.
Most of the characters are generally kept true to their counterparts in the films, newspaper cartoons and 1960s sitcom. Gomez and Morticia still share a passionate romance where French coos or kisses up the arms fuel the fire and Pugsley and Wednesday still pull harmful pranks on each other.
The essence of previous shows still exist in the cartoon, if they are not a bit toned down so that everything is more kid-friendly.
The dark humor everyone expects from The Addams Family is still present at times. Viewers will more than likely get a kick out of some of the writing, like when Pugsley mentions eating babies and Grandmama and a house guest play badminton with grenades.
It, too, has been toned down a bit to fit the target audience, but only so much to where the writers can get away with a few morbid jokes here and there.
Plots are usually similar to one another and cliched, but the writers usually put good Addams twists into them (like Gomez wanting to fail instead of succeed in one episode), making them zany and off-the-wall.
While This Animated Series is Fairly Decent, It Doesn't Offer Anything Fresh or Original
The supporting characters in The Addams Family are rather boring and even annoying sometimes, especially the Underwear-producing Normanmeyers.
One exception, of course, is their son N.J. because he has a rather fun personality and even wants to be an Addams at one point.
The cartoon would've done better with funnier rival characters similar to Debbie Jellinsky from the second movie.
The Addams Family has an extremely repetitive formula, usually starting off with the Addamses doing weird things, then something bad happens to them or a friend and in return they must do something to fix the problem. Once the next episode airs, it's usually rinse and repeat.
Stiff and mechanical animation makes the characters look slightly robotic sometimes. Then again, it is still better than a mound of 1980s cartoons, so it's really just a small gripe instead of a huge flaw.
Perhaps the main problem is that The Addams Family doesn't offer anything new to the franchise since it's so much like previous series. However, it is an enjoyable animated program that kids will have fun with as well.
Rating: 3/5
They're the Weirdest and Most Lovable TV Family
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