Two years after the first chapter, the Addams family is back on the screen, with a new and fun adventure, but with the same main themes as always
ORIGINAL TITLE: The Addams Family 2. GENDER: animation, comedy, horror, fantasy, adventure. COUNTRY: USA, UK, Canada. DIRECTOR: Greg Tiernan, Laura Brousseau, Kevin Pavlovic. CAST :Oscar Isaac; Charlize Theron;Chloë Grace Moretz; Javon Walton; Nick Kroll; Bette Midler; Cyrus Strange; Snoop Dogg; Conrad Vernon; Wallace Shawn. DURATION: 93 min. PROUTION: BermanBraun, Bron Studios, Cinesite Animation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Nitrogen Studios Canada. EXIT: 2021
Two years after the first film, here it is back on our screens and, starting from 11 February, also available on DVD or Blu-ray, the Addams Family in a cartoonish guise by Greg Tiernan, reread in the macabre kind and comical of universes like that of Hotel Transylvania or Nightmare Before Christmas or Despicable Me etc.
The plot this time is all about Wednesday, in fact once again it is the eldest of the Addams children to act as a “bridge” between their strange and macabre world and our world modern which is staged through the lens of the gaze of the family of our loved ones, as weird protagonists.
The plot | The Addams Family Review 2
Either way, in this new story, Wednesday, like any other teenager on the other hand, feels different from the rest of the family and starting to suffer from this difference, he finds refuge in his scientific experiments, which attract the attention of a famous scientist, Cyrus Strange, who begins to see in the girl the key to a project he has been working on for several years. Taking advantage of Wednesday’s momentary emotional distance from the rest of the family he will be able to get close to her and steal the formula that will make her experiment workbut the situation will take a completely unexpected turn …
In The Addams Family 2, the creators make us wonder about “different” and Wednesday’s questions are the same as any teenager would ask who does not recognize himself in his own family and seeks an answer on his identity and his place in the world.
Differences and similarities with the first chapter | The Addams Family Review 2
The Addams Family of 2019 it was a truly remarkable success: 204 million dollars in receipts for 24 of budget, it was therefore natural that it would soon generate a following. A mission undoubtedly simple to carry out thanks to the modus operandi of directors Conrad Vernon and Grieg Ternan.
The 2019 film had the easy task of re-proposing the evergreen characters created by Charles Addams in a finally graphic and caricatural form, it did absolutely nothing to thematically empower the Addams Familywhich was revived as we all remembered it, except in appearance (in fact we were used to seeing this monstrous family on screen via live-action).
The Addams Family 2 continues to play it safe and to the end the results of the two feature films are equivalentbecause where the second chapter does not have that aura of novelty and loses further blows in the predictability of the story, it gains something in terms of pure cinematic rhythm and even slightly more confident and richer animation.
General aspects of the film
With The Addams Family 2 it seems almost sure that this film series is embracing a technical and artistic register similar to that of a long-running TV series both for the good, but also for the bad: for the good, because it is difficult not to like the wild sympathy of the Addams and seeing them periodically is not sorry and in any case never tires, but in the bad, for the absence of a type of aesthetic and narrative research that makes situations less standard (and talking about Addams and the “standard” context really seems like a contradiction).
With a soundtrack that mixes hip hop, historical hits and of course Vic Mizzy’s immortal musical theme, between placid clownish moments and simple morality, The Addams Family 2 has an extended sitcom soul and, in context, it can also be understood.
And you? did you appreciate the return of the Addams in a second chapter? Let us know in a comment!
Funny, but already seen
Points in favor
- Pressing rhythm
- Rich and detailed animation
- Engaging and well balanced soundtrack
Points against
- Themes already seen and already treated
- Simple and obvious morality
- Standardized situations
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