THE ADDAMS FAMILY (2019) ** ½

If you need something to tide you over in between Hotel Transylvania sequels, you can do a lot worse than this CGI animated Addams Family remake.  It has character designs and art direction similar to the Hotel Transylvania franchise, but with a sharper edge that adults will enjoy.  As far as Addams Family movies go, it’s much better than either of the limp big screen adaptations.  Still, it’s somewhat lacking the charm of the original show. 

I especially enjoyed seeing the Addams Family origin story during the pre-title sequence, mostly because it’s something we haven’t already seen before.  The rest of the picture plays like an overlong episode updated for modern times.  There are a few amusing one-liners and sight gags, and at least one big laugh-out-loud moment, courtesy of Thing’s shall we say… internet habits.  Unfortunately, the laugh ratio is about the same as an average episode.  That’s okay for a half-hour TV show, but for a ninety-minute movie, it needed a few more guffaws to really make it worthwhile. 

The voice cast is great.  Charlize Theron maybe vamps it up too much but is nevertheless amusing.  Getting Oscar Isaac to play Gomez was pretty much spot-on casting.  He has the same enthusiasm John Astin brought to the role without the gratuitous overacting of Raul Julia.  It’s Chloe Grace Moretz who steals the movie as Wednesday.  Her most memorable scene plays like a cross between Frankenstein and the frog scene in E.T.  It’s almost enough to make you wish they made a live-action version with the same talent. 

Too bad you’ve got to sit through a plot thinner than Gomez’s mustache.  Even Allison Janney is unable to do much with the shrill home makeover show villain.  The updating of characters interactions with the family are fairly obvious too.  That said, it’s a nice little rainy-day afternoon matinee for kids to enjoy with just enough a bite to keep the adults from squirming in their seats.