For those of you who are dead inside and didn’t enjoy the first animated ‘Addams Family,’because it was too “saccharine” or “wasted talent” or didn’t “do anything new”… well… you’re dead enough inside to feel right at home with this family:

But, with all due seriousness for what is inevitably more of a product designed to entertain than it is meant to stretch the boundaries of wit and “edge,” I can’t help but buy what’s being sold here. Yes… they’re on vacation (though the trailer sells that better than the concept rings, so aggressively, in one’s ears) and yes, Snoop Dog is present in the soundtrack and as cousin It (though the commitment to deliberately avoid using his voice is, to this writer, one of the better running gags here).

But the cast remains strong and for what it is I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt to see if they push a little more with the characters and aim to say something that can be called “new,” even by a stretch.

Bill Hader joins the cast as a new character, “Cyrus,” and Javon “Wanna” Walton replaces Finn Wolfhard the role of Pugsley Addams. Returning cast includes Charlize Theron as Morticia, Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday, Nick Kroll as Fester, and Bette Midler as Grandma Addams.

‘The Addams Family 2’ is directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, scripted by Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, and releases in theaters October 1st, 2021

Let us know your thoughts below! (That’s where you get to yell at me for how wrong I might be!)