The Addams Family

They're creepy and they're kooky but... that's about it in this animated take on the Charles Addams creations. Sausage Party directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan take cinema's greatest gothic family back to their roots, drawing them as near as possible to Addams's original 1930s cartoons. Along with cute gruesome touches such as singing shrunken heads and make-up made from human ashes, Morticia (Charlize Theron) and Gomez (Oscar Isaac) lead a voice cast that includes Bette Midler, Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara. But top acting talent, loving details and innovative art direction cannot atone for a story contrived to the point of sadism - it begins with the clan's origins and ends up with a suburban showdown and a failed family gathering. Beloved characters like Cousin It (voiced by Snoop Dogg, but why?), Lurch and Thing are all present, along with relatives we haven't seen before. But Wednesday's pigtails being braided into hangman's nooses is not enough to save this feature from flatlining. Expect only the tiniest monsters to be amused.