Gomez and Mortisha Addams and their relatives ran for years from ordinary and extremely annoying people who were chasing them. Finally, the couple found peace and (un) happiness in an abandoned mental hospital on a hill in New Jersey. Over time, the Addams family grew: in addition to the butcher Lurch and a nimble hand named Thing, Gomez and Martis got two children - Wensday and Pugsley.
The peace Mortish had been dreaming of for so long is disturbed by the proximity to nauseating sweet neighbors from a city located under a hill with pink houses and lilac paths. For the founder of the town, designer Margot Needler (wearing an eerie hairstyle a la Dolly Parton), the Addams' gothic mansion is an eyesore. Seeking to raise the ratings of her overhaul show and sell as many homes as possible on the air, she sets up the simple-minded townspeople against the (not) normal Addams.
The question of the normality of Addams, however, concerns not only the neighbors below, but also the members of the family themselves. Wensday, for example, does not like ascetic studies at home, she was bored with experiments on her brother and a monochrome in clothes - she wants to attend school with everyone and dress according to the norm. Pugsley does not dream about socialization, but worries that he does not fit into the family tree: he is not interested in the traditional mazurka with sabers. But throwing explosives at the father is another matter.
The eccentricity of the members of this family, coupled with ordinary human problems like teenage riot, fell in love with the audience in the 1960s. Just then, the Adds Family television series was broadcast on ABC, based on cartoons by artist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.
Gloomy parody illustrations for an ideal American family were published in the magazine from 1938 until the end of the 1980s. Addams painted his characters in a Victorian-style mansion, the archetype of which was the richly decorated buildings of the artist’s hometown of Westfield, New Jersey. For the first on-screen embodiment of the characters, the artist came up with their names and gave his last name.
Addams did not try to make his characters negative: yes, they love black humor and do self-harm, but they do not wish anyone harm. They just want to be left alone! In any case, such a background (along with the wedding of Gomez and Mortishi and their acquaintance with the butler Lerc) was shown in his cartoon by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon.
A variation on the theme of family life from the authors of Full Foolish is inspired by the original comic books and illustrations by Charles Addams. Cinesite Animation even tried to imitate his style (which, for example, many foreign critics considered the wrong strategy). Tiernan and Vernon retained the attributes inherent in the family story: light sadism, satire, gloomy gloss, dirty tricks and extravagance.
However, a comparison with Barry Sonnenfeld’s dilogy is inevitable - to recall at least the brothers ’dance called“ Mother ”from the first“ Addams Family ”. And if Gonnes and Mortish at Sonnenfeld are characters with clear motivation, then the creators of the cartoon on the parents of Wensday and Pugsley seemed to have no timekeeping. But it is possible that the situation will change in the sequel, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2021.
- © Universal Pictures Russia
In “Addams Family” you can see references not only to previous adaptations. Screenwriters Pamela Pettler and Matt Lieberman made a rather obvious reference to the American literature of romanticism. The tree at Addams’s house bears the name of the hero from the Washington Irving short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” which was filmed by Tim Burton - Ikabod. By the way, initially it was Burton who was supposed to deal with the film adaptation of The Addams Family in the format of puppet shooting.
Mortici’s phrase that a clown-killer is invariably found near a red ball is an equally obvious reference to the horror “It”, in the sequel of which Finn Wulfhard played a major role.
Despite the fact that the Addams Family does not extract all the visual aesthetics from previously released paintings, but from original illustrations (and elements of the content from pop culture and literature), the creators of the cartoon seem to have made an attempt to embrace Sonnenfeld’s paintings generation. However, for these people, the new "Addams" - like the re-shot Disney animated classic aimed at the same nostalgic audience - is just one more reason to review old films.