The (Latter-day Saint?) Addams Family Movie is In Theaters Right Now!

Sister missionaries meet the Addams Family.

A couple weeks ago, I took my ten year old daughter to see the new animated “The Addams Family” movie. (Unless you have kids (or really love the franchise) you probably won’t see this show, and the plot line was by no means shocking or hard to guess, but warning – major spoilers ahead.)

While sitting in the theater eating my candy and watching the show, I had an unexpected flashback to watching my nephews be ordained to the priesthood while my nieces sat in the background and applauded (symbolically speaking) their brothers. Here’s a rundown of the particular story line that triggered this reaction:

The Addams Family have two kids. Wednesday is the older, more collected and cool junior high aged daughter. Pugsley is her doofy, destructive and poorly behaved little brother.

Their parents were married 13 years earlier, and that was the last time all of the relatives had come to visit them. Now there is a sacred ceremony about to occur for Pugsley, and all of the extended family is traveling from across the country to see him perform it. He’s not practicing enough because he’d rather set off explosives and play, and everyone is worried he won’t pass (spoiler alert again – he obviously does pass in the end, just by using explosives to protect and save his family rather than the traditional sword he was supposed to be learning about.)

Meanwhile Wednesday, his older sister, becomes distant from her family and starts freaking them out by doing rebellious things like wearing pink bows and unicorn clips. She runs away and doesn’t come home on time to her brother’s important ceremony and they have to start without her, which turns out to be a good thing – because when the family is under attack by outsiders who think they’re freaks, she shows up at the last minute to rescue them.

The order of events are a little fuzzy now, but I think she comes back just in time to give them a way out and a second chance, which then gives her brother an opening to use his talents with explosives to save everybody in his family.

Afterwards they all shout to him, “Yay, you passed the ceremony and can protect the family! You are an Addams!”, and everybody is proud and Pugsley is a hero.

I was so annoyed.

First, ummm, Wednesday is older. Why did she never do this ceremony at his age? She would’ve clearly aced it. (Oh. Probably because only boys get the ceremony.)

Second, why had the extended family never come to visit in 13 years on behalf of Wednesday? (Oh, duh. Because she’s a girl and girls don’t have ceremonies that bring the family in from across the country.)

Third, why did everyone applaud Pugsley for what he did for the family and not Wednesday? (Because he was experiencing a sacred rite of passage for young boys in their family, and they were all proud of him. She was just thanked, and they moved on.)

Fourth, why did the script writers not add to her motivation for leaving the house the fact that she was being overlooked by her family in every way because she was female? (Instead she was just mad at her mom and being a moody teenager.)

I have seen the exact same thing play out in my own extended family more than once. Ordination to the priesthood meant that uncles and grandpas and cousins all came together for a big celebration at someone’s house. While the boy was the center of attention in the main living room, his sisters prepared refreshments in the kitchen and were politely thanked while their brother was cheered.

Are the writers of this movie Latter-day Saints, by any chance? Because it’s like they were writing true life events, not fiction. So everyone, please – if you go see this movie with friends and family – complain to them the entire car ride home about how weird this part of the plot was. It’s only fair that people other than my daughter get to hear this lecture as well.

And Happy Halloween (unless you live somewhere that doesn’t celebrate this holiday, in which case – I’m totally sorry, because Halloween is awesome!) Now go enjoy your trick or treaters, and of course – duh-nuh-nuh-nuh. *snap, snap*. 🙂