Director: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Charlie Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, Javon Walton, Nick Kroll, Wallace Shawn, Snoop Dogg, Bette Midler, Bill Hader
Screenplay: Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Ben Queen, Susanna Fogel
93 mins. Rated PG for macabre and rude humor, violence and language.

I love The Addams Family, but I didn’t like the animated film The Addams Family from a few years back. I found it to be lacking in real style, it didn’t feel like an Addams Family movie, and it was ultimately a boring film. With that, I was still interested in seeing the follow-up back in 2021, and the only reason I missed it was that I was still in the process of returning to the theaters throughout most of 2021. Now, a few years later, The Addams Family 2 has entered my realm once again, and I’m sorry to say that it isn’t an improvement.

When their children start growing up, missing dinners, and focused on other things, Gomez (Oscar Isaac, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Morticia Addams (Mad Max: Fury Road) devise a plan to take their family on a road trip across America in order to become closer once again. While Gomez remains obsessed with keeping his family together, daughter Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz, 500 Days of Summer) begins to question whether or not she’s actually a member of the family.

It seems like this sequel was based on the 1973 animated series about the Addams Family on a road trip across America along its episodes, but if the idea of this film came from that show, they missed all the flavor from a solid 70s adaptation of these characters. This sequel has no flavor, and most of the jokes are simply recycled from other, better works. Beyond all that, The Addams Family 2 is just so tame. The only jokes I recall enjoying were few and far between, and I bet I could find other films, even for children and families, that feature the jokes years ago. I need to specifically call out the comedic but overused moment in which Wednesday comes across the sign with directions for Crystal Lake, the Overlook, Amityville, Elm Street, and the like. Sure, it was cute, but I guarantee it’s been done before. So Many Times.

That’s what I find so frustrating about The Addams Family as an animated series. These newer films are tamer and less stylized than Barry Sonnenfeld’s films in the 90s. Hell, they’re tamer than the black-and-white 60s series and the 70s animated series I mentioned earlier. Sadly, outside of Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron, there’s very little to praise in the film at all, though this time around Wallace Shawn (Marriage Story) shines as a man hired to discover Wednesday’s true parentage. How can a movie have four credited screenwriters and two co-directors and yet have no soul or style?

The Addams Family 2 doesn’t make an improvement on its predecessor, and it still has the potential, but this sequel isn’t it. Hopefully the next time around will feature a bit more trying from a writing and directing standpoint. I really want to like these movies. Hell, I still watch a lot of Addams Family, either the 60s show or the 90s movies, but these recent animated works just haven’t hit the mark.

2/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon’s The Addams Family, click here.