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.
The Addams Family is often known as the alternative option to the wholesome, all American family. White picket fences are replaced with barbed wire, and pastels with pitch black. But despite their creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky demeanor, the Addams Family is actually kind of ideal. They're way happier, healthier, and more wholesome than most families in film or TV. In fact, they often represent most people's family goals.
How, and why is this the case? Here are the wholesome moments, details, and tidbits that best demonstrate why the Addams Family is actually picture perfect.
When Morticia reads Fester the family credo in the first movie, it just seems like a veiled threat. After all, she seems quite suspicious of him. However, the scene of her guiding him through a garden filled with the statues of their revered ancestors actually proves something very wholesome: Just how monumentally important family is to the Addamses. They respect and remember those who came before them, they hold on tightly to those who are with them now, and they will defend each other with a vengeance against the world.
They're Deeply And Genuinely Compassionate - Even Towards Villains
At the end of Addams Family Values, the scheming Debbie has the whole family strapped into electrical chairs, awaiting their death as she monologues about her supposedly rough life. However, despite the ridiculousness of her so-called struggles, and despite her horrendous treatment of them in this moment, they still listen to her. They still to their best to empathize and give her the attention she clearly needs. Morticia nods along solemnly, the others don't interrupt, and over all, they're ridiculously polite for all she's put them through.
Their compassion shines through in other parts of their lives as well. They give generous amounts of their fortune to charity, and are great at communicating with each other.
Whether they're plotting to torture their new nanny or terrorizing their camp counselors, there are plenty of parents who would think of Wednesday and Pugsley as absolute nightmare children. But Gomez and Morticia have never been anything but proud of them.
While they visit their children's school, Morticia shows that she encourages Wednesday in her witchy ambitions while still gently reinforcing the importance of education. Moments later we see her and Gomez them applauding their children for adding a heavy dose of morbidity to their school play (to the horror of everyone else). They also give the kids plenty of time and space for independent play, never helicopter parenting, but always nearby if they're needed.
Morticia has always been a beacon of light in the representation of women on screen. This multi-faceted matriarch can't be defined by one trait. She has a strong maternal instinct, and is a supportive wife who still makes time to have romantic dates with her husband. But she also commands respect, embraces her sexuality, can be intimidating, and is more than willing work (even becoming a schoolteacher in the first movie to support her family when they lose their home). She also has her own interests completely outside of the family, including but not limited to the dark forces and their hellish crusade.
Finally, she's an ally to other women. She never belittles or seeks to climb over other women who enter the picture. She compliments Gomez's exes, the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna, saying simply, “Flora, Fauna, how can I compete? You’re twice the woman I am.” She tells Debbie how impressed she is by the black widow's ability to seduce Fester, even if it was an evil plot. She's not interested in tearing women down. She's too kind and confident for pettiness.
There's something very sweet about two outcasts finding each other. Joel (a young boy Wednesday meets in Addams Family Values) is an introverted bookworm, who doesn't seem to belong at Camp Chippewa any more than she does. Their bonding is brief, and impermanent, but adorable nonetheless - it's very likely he was Wednesday's first kiss!
It also shows, comfortingly, that weirdos are never alone, and will find each other even in the most unlikely of places.
Wednesday Is A Role Model For Fierce Individualism
Wednesday is a hero for all the weird little girls who never had any friends. She doesn't have any either - because she neither wants nor needs them. Wednesday is self-sufficient, always finding ways to entertain herself. She doesn't require validation from others, and she's not afraid to stick out like a sore thumb either - qualities just about everyone can aspire to have. All of this is captured in this one moment (and dozens of others like it throughout the franchise).
More than that, she's smart as a whip. She loves to study the macabre, expresses a natural curiosity as she performs experiments on Pugsley, and is always quick with a comeback. With all of these traits, any parent should be proud to have a daughter as confident as Wednesday.
