I'll be honest with you, dear reader, and maybe this will invalidate my opinion for you: I could not finish watching this. Before you write me off, let me tell you why.
I am probably considered a casual fan of the Addams Family. I like the characters, and while I've seen the original TV series, I have not seen every episode. I've barely read any of the original comics. But I do enjoy them a great deal.
This is not a joke: I figured this movie had to be building up to some kind of ending only to look down at the run time and realize I'd only been watching for about 30-40 minutes. It had felt like an eternity had passed, and I still had at least half of the movie left to go. I struggled to keep watching and eventually turned it off.
The plot is typical Addams Family guff: thieves attempt to burgle the vast Addams fortune, only to get cold feet and freak out at how weird everybody is. Except this time around, it just doesn't feel weird enough. This is set in a different house, one that looks far more contemporary and a lot less macabre. On the inside, it's cramped and cluttered, but rarely ever "spooky." It's too colorful, too well lit, too sunny. Completely different from what would be considered the "signature" Addams Family home decor.
Many of the jokes do not feel fresh. A whole secondary cast of characters gets introduced that are carbon copies of existing members of the family. Take Gomez's brother Pancho, for instance, who is nearly indistinguishable from Gomez, right down to the fact he can't control himself when Morticia speaks French. There's a Wednesday Jr. and a Puggsly Jr., who fill in the same roles as the original children, given the old actors were now grown adults. There's two Grandmas, too, and even a feminine version of Thing called Ladyfingers. Very little is done to establish these as their own unique people. They merely exist to clutter the screen and double up the cast.
The other issue is the fact this movie centers around Halloween. That's the perfect holiday to suit The Addams Family, but this movie seems to have been shot at the peak of summer in the middle of California. Uncle Fester's out in a sunny back yard, moving among graves set in vivid green grass, under swaying palm trees. Doesn't exactly scream "Autumn" nor does it say "Addams Family." They try to offset this by scattering around clumps of fake straw, but it just doesn't feel creepy, mysterious, or ooky.
As if that wasn't enough to spoil the mood, this movie indulges in some weird, left-field 1970's pop culture references. From gags mocking Life cereal commercials to Star Wars jokes, it feels out of place compared to the tone of typical Addams Family media.
I honestly get the feeling this was originally pitched as a stealth pilot for a new (1970's) Addams Family TV show, because that would theoretically allow them to keep making more episodes with a new cast of very familiar (but technically distinct) characters. The fact that no such TV series followed "Halloween with the New Addams Family" says more about the quality of this movie than anything I could write here. It is completely unnecessary fluff.
I am probably considered a casual fan of the Addams Family. I like the characters, and while I've seen the original TV series, I have not seen every episode. I've barely read any of the original comics. But I do enjoy them a great deal.
This is not a joke: I figured this movie had to be building up to some kind of ending only to look down at the run time and realize I'd only been watching for about 30-40 minutes. It had felt like an eternity had passed, and I still had at least half of the movie left to go. I struggled to keep watching and eventually turned it off.
The plot is typical Addams Family guff: thieves attempt to burgle the vast Addams fortune, only to get cold feet and freak out at how weird everybody is. Except this time around, it just doesn't feel weird enough. This is set in a different house, one that looks far more contemporary and a lot less macabre. On the inside, it's cramped and cluttered, but rarely ever "spooky." It's too colorful, too well lit, too sunny. Completely different from what would be considered the "signature" Addams Family home decor.
Many of the jokes do not feel fresh. A whole secondary cast of characters gets introduced that are carbon copies of existing members of the family. Take Gomez's brother Pancho, for instance, who is nearly indistinguishable from Gomez, right down to the fact he can't control himself when Morticia speaks French. There's a Wednesday Jr. and a Puggsly Jr., who fill in the same roles as the original children, given the old actors were now grown adults. There's two Grandmas, too, and even a feminine version of Thing called Ladyfingers. Very little is done to establish these as their own unique people. They merely exist to clutter the screen and double up the cast.
The other issue is the fact this movie centers around Halloween. That's the perfect holiday to suit The Addams Family, but this movie seems to have been shot at the peak of summer in the middle of California. Uncle Fester's out in a sunny back yard, moving among graves set in vivid green grass, under swaying palm trees. Doesn't exactly scream "Autumn" nor does it say "Addams Family." They try to offset this by scattering around clumps of fake straw, but it just doesn't feel creepy, mysterious, or ooky.
As if that wasn't enough to spoil the mood, this movie indulges in some weird, left-field 1970's pop culture references. From gags mocking Life cereal commercials to Star Wars jokes, it feels out of place compared to the tone of typical Addams Family media.
I honestly get the feeling this was originally pitched as a stealth pilot for a new (1970's) Addams Family TV show, because that would theoretically allow them to keep making more episodes with a new cast of very familiar (but technically distinct) characters. The fact that no such TV series followed "Halloween with the New Addams Family" says more about the quality of this movie than anything I could write here. It is completely unnecessary fluff.