They're Creepy & They're KookyA closer look at all the iterations of The Addams Family, who first appeared as cartoons in The New Yorker in 1938 and star in a brand new Tim Burton series in 2022. Watch 'Wednesday' on Netflix.
On October 11, 2019, everyone's favorite creepy, kooky family is coming back to the big screen. The new Addams Family movie is animated and directed by the team behind Sausage Party, focusing on never-before-told stories about the beloved family and their devilishly bizarre home life. Reportedly, the new film features the family's arch-nemesis, Margaux, a reality television show host who attempts to turn their Gothic abode into a suburban nicety while the family prepares for a giant Addams family reunion.
Though some fans wish the new film was live action (the 1991 and 1993 Addams Family films remain cult classics), a stellar cast, as well as designs that pay homage to Charles Addams's original New Yorker cartoons, give the animated reboot a refreshing spin to the classic tale of a scary family and their twisted love for one another.
The First Official Teaser Gives A Sneak Peak Into The Daily Lives Of The Animated Addams Family
The first official teaser for the film debuted on April 9, 2019. It features the titular characters going about their daily lives with that classic Addams family charm. Since the film is animated, the spooky ooky effects are exaggerated. They really are quite hideous, horrible, and ultimately make you feel right at home.
The Character Designs Are Heavily Influenced By Charles Addams's Original Cartoons
America's favorite macabre family started as an unnamed and unrelated group of cartoons created by Charles Addams in 1938. Before his passing in 1988, Addams published a total of 150 single panels involving members of what came to be known as the Addams family. Half of these panels were published in The New Yorker. Addams created the cartoon to satirize America's concept of an ideal family, drawing a group of people with strange, dark attributes who also harbored deep affection and love for one another.
In 1964, TheAddams Family television show debuted, finally giving names to each member of the strange yet beloved family. The names Morticia, Gomez, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and butler Lurch joined the cultural zeitgeist.
The co-director of the new animated film, Conrad Vernon, told Deadline the team "drew from the brilliantly original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons for the look of the film."
Oscar Isaac And Charlize Theron Voice Gomez And Morticia
The cool and frightening Morticia Addams is voiced by Charlize Theron of Mad Max: Fury Road, while doting, exuberant Gomez Addams is voiced by Oscar Isaac of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ex Machina.
Theron and Isaac have some big shoes to fill, however: Anjelica Huston and Raúl Juliá played the iconic roles of Morticia and Gomez in the 1991 Paramount feature film, The Addams Family, and its 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values. The two actors remain fan favorites.
Chloë Grace Moretz voices Wednesday, the morose teenager played famously by Christina Ricci in the 1991 and 1993 live-action films.The character of Wednesday is usually seen wearing long pigtail braids and a black dress with a white collar. Charles Addams said of Wednesday:
Child of woe is wane and delicate... sensitive and on the quiet side, she loves the picnics and outings to the underground caverns... a solemn child, prim in dress and, on the whole, pretty lost... secretive and imaginative, poetic, seems underprivileged and given to occasional tantrums... has six toes on one foot...
After playing the title character of Carrie in the 2013 remake of Stephen King's horrifying tale of a telekinetic teenager brought to the edge of her sanity, Moretz can likely handle the witchy humor of everyone's favorite dark-edged child.
After starring in Netflix's Stranger Things - an homage to '80s sci-fi horror - and 2017's terrifying remake of Stephen King's It, Finn Wolfhard serves as an exciting addition to the Addams family animated team. Wolfhard voices the eldest Addams child, Pugsley. Of Pugsley, Charles Addams said:
[He is] an energetic monster of a boy... popped blue eyes and a dedicated troublemaker, in other words, the kid next door... genius in his own way, he makes toy guillotines, full-size racks, [says he will give toxins to] his sister, can turn himself into a Mr. Hyde with an ordinary chemical set... his voice is hoarse...
Bette Midler, Allison Janney, And Nick Kroll Round Out The Main Cast
Two-time Oscar nominee for best actress Bette Midler voices Grandmama, a character Charles Addams described as a "disrespectful [elderly woman who] is the mother of Gomez... she willingly helps with the dishes, cheats at solitaire, and is roughly dishonest." Midler played the eldest Sanderson sisters in Hocus Pocus, Disney's comedy-horror-fantasy film that achieved cult status since its release in 1993.
Allison Janney of I, Tonya plays the enemy of the Addams family, Margaux Needler, while Nick Kroll of Parks and Rec voices Uncle Fester, previously played by Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd in the 1990s Addams Family iterations.
