Although this is really a topic for the Home for Wayward Spirits blog, I was having a hard time coming up with something for today and decided to escape with something I really love.

Watching the original Addams Family television series as a girl was where I first fell in love with John Astin, an admiration that survives to this day. The juxtaposition of what they thought was normal with the “real world” they were a part of was enchanting to a girl who also loved The Munsters. Maybe this is what shaped my writing career…

So, today I first watched the 1991 film with Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston. The story is fine. The acting is outstanding, with a stellar cast, but there is something missing…I think it is the fact that–even though they react to the world around them in much the same way as the original–the sense of play is different. They don’t sell the wide-eyed wonder quite as well.

Even though they mirrored several of the iconic scenes, they didn’t feel the same. And adding all the blood seemed unnecessary. Updating to modern morees seemed to take away some of the charm.

Of course, both of these adaptations would be nothing without the original source material. Charles Addams’s cartoons have something that can’t be fully translated to reality, though they’ve come close.

I haven’t watched the animated film yet, but I hope it works as well as the others.

And there are always the cartoons…

Again, sorry for “horror” on the main site, but it definitely helped me feel better to visit the Family.

I give The Addams Family 5 Bats: