“You think your family is weird?”

America’s favorite spooky, kooky and all together ooky family is back, and this time, they’re animated.

“The Addams Family” has been a mainstay of American pop culture ever since the first episode of their television show aired back in 1964. The series continued to get rebooted or re-imagined for the remainder of the 20th century, with their last major motion picture “The Addams Family Reunion,” which was released in 1998.

It seemed as if the Addams would be, for the most part, left out of the current decade. Other than a Broadway musical, no major projects have been produced in the last 20 years. That was until this year’s animated film.

When the first trailer for the new movie dropped, I was immediately excited. As a huge fan of the 1991 “The Addams Family” and its sequel “Addams Family Values” I was excited to see the creepy group return. However, that excitement was met with little but mediocrity.

“The Addams Family” sees Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Lurch and Thing moving to the darkest, dankest place they could think of: New Jersey. While almost all of the family loves their mostly isolated life, Wednesday begins to long for something different. Her wish is granted when it is revealed that a brand-new community — Assimilation — is being built right down the street from the Addams.

This film felt like a rollercoaster that just went downhill. The film’s cold opening was absolutely wonderful, with a slew of dark, twisted gags and jokes that I was really surprised to see in a PG-rated movie.

As the film continued to show a day in the life of the family, I found myself consistently laughing and generally enjoying myself. The Addams were all wonderfully animated, and I was really digging the vibe of the film for the first 10 minutes or so.

However, this did not last.

Once the film introduced its actual plot, I knew I was in for another generic animated movie. The film tries to tell a story about being an individual and sticking out from the crowd, which seems like something I’ve seen a million times.

I wish I could say that it at least tells the story in a unique way, but it really doesn’t.

Aside from the Addams themselves, every character design in this film is hideous. This might have been the point, but it made it extremely hard for me to connect to any of the characters when I could barely stand to look at them.

One thing that really irks me about animated movies as of late is the apparent need to have the entire cast voiced by huge celebrities. Such is the case with this film, since almost every single character that speaks in the film is voiced by a celebrity. However, the cast does an alright job with what they were given.

“The Addams Family” is incredibly short, barely making it past 80 minutes. This short length was felt in the film, as everything seems to wrap up and end incredibly quickly. Seeing as how I really wasn’t enjoying myself towards the end, however, this might have been a blessing in disguise.

I didn’t hate this movie. If anything, I was just let down that so much potential went to waste. As the film went on, little jokes or gags consistently gave me hope that the film would turn itself around. Sadly, it never did.

There is enough to enjoy about this film to save it from being terrible, but its generic plot and — mostly — ugly character designs hold it back from being anything but mediocre.

2.5/5 Stars