A staple of 20^th Century TV alongside The Munsters, The Addams Family made it OK to be freaky, kooky and downright weird.

Hell, they even made it fun to be odd, and that’s a crucial message if you’re a kid who doesn’t fit in. So I come to this film with some reverence for the past versions of The Addams Family – a cartoon family born in 1938, televised from 1964 and rejuvenated for the big screen in 1991 and 1993. The success of those films motivated a second animated TV series, a first having run in the early 70s.

So they’ve been around. And now they’re back, this time they’ve moved to New Jersey and living peacefully in their huge creepy home, a converted asylum shrouded in fog.

As the fog lifts and their decrepit mansion is revealed, TV Renovation guru and property developer Margaux Needler becomes fearful that the freaky family will ruin her new suburb “Assimilation”, and hatches a plan to move them on. Margaux’s daughter Parker and Morticia’s daughter Wednesday Addams become friends and shock their respective parents by taking on characteristics of the other.

I had the pleasure of watching this one with my 12 year old daughter and we both laughed the whole way through. The animation aims to pay homage to the original drawings and does a fine job of this. While not necessarily the greatest animation of the year, it’s certainly a great flick for the family these school holidays. With various positive messages throughout, it’s a great introduction for kids to one of the darker cartoon families. That said it’s probably the cleanest version of them so far…

(Squeaky Clean) Freaky Family Fun – 3 Stars.