The Biggest Differences Between Netflix's Wednesday And The Movies
Netflix's "Wednesday" was built on the back of two iconic '90s "Addams Family" movies, but it's a lot more than just a rehash of those classic comedies. Here's all the ways the streaming hit changes course.
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00:00Netflix's Wednesday was built on the back of two iconic 90s Addams Family movies,
00:04but it's a lot more than just a rehash of those classic comedies.
00:07Here's all the ways the streaming hit changes course.
00:11Wednesday, the new creepy and kooky Netflix series, takes a closer and arguably overdue
00:15look at Wednesday Addams, a character who has long been a fan favorite. In the Netflix series,
00:20Wednesday goes from being merely a supporting character to the main protagonist.
00:24Although plenty of people are eager to see what Netflix's Wednesday has in store,
00:28it has a lot to live up to. The Barry Sonnenfeld films of the early 90s were a big part of many
00:32millennial childhoods, so fans of the Addams Family franchise are hoping for something new
00:36and compelling, while also maintaining the spirit and fun of the originals.
00:40Of course, Wednesday is not a carbon copy of the Sonnenfeld movies, but even so,
00:45be advised, this is a major spoiler alert, so consider this your final warning.
00:50While Christina Ricci did a lot to make Wednesday a memorable character in the 1991
00:55and 1993 Addams Family movies, she was not the sole focus of the films. The plot of the first
01:00film, The Addams Family, centered around the supposed return of Gomez's long-lost brother,
01:05Fester. In the film, a pair of wicked schemers, Abigail Kramer and her son Gordon, plan to con
01:10the unsuspecting Addams into believing that Gordon, who bears an uncanny resemblance to
01:14the missing Fester, is actually the real deal. Although Wednesday and Pugsley are not the focus
01:19of the plot, their characters are central to the final revelation that Gordon is indeed Fester,
01:24and reuniting the family with their electrifying uncle.
01:26The sequel to The Addams Family is set two years later, with Gomez and Morticia welcoming their
01:31newest little monster, a son they whimsically name Pubert. Once again, the unsuspecting Addams hire
01:36a scheming nanny who plans to seduce and marry Uncle Fester in order to gain control of the
01:41family fortune. When Wednesday becomes suspicious of her motives, Nanny Debbie convinces Morticia
01:46and Gomez to send the two older siblings to summer camp. Forced to endure swimming lessons
01:51in the pristine lake and moonlit evenings, huddled around a campfire singing endless rounds
01:55of kumbaya, Wednesday finally gets a chance to mope in the spotlight, biding her time until
02:00she takes her revenge in epic fashion. It isn't, however, until the new Netflix series Wednesday
02:12that the Addams Family's deadpan diva finally gets the full attention she deserves. Played by
02:17Jenna Ortega, best known for portraying the role of Harley in the Disney Channel's Stuck in the
02:21Middle, Wednesday is no longer the little girl from the movies. Now 15, she has wilted into an
02:26angsty, gothic teenager who has been expelled from her public high school for taking particularly
02:31gruesome revenge on some school bullies. Enrolled in her parents' old alma mater,
02:35Nevermore Academy, Wednesday is forced to contend with a bubbly roommate, a suspicious principal,
02:40and a murder mystery threatening not only the lives of her fellow students, but her entire family.
02:46One notable difference between the Netflix series and the Addams Family movies is that
02:50in the Netflix show, we discover that Wednesday has developed psychic powers.
02:53Though there is no explicit mention of Wednesday having psychic visions in the Addams Family
02:57movies, there were hints she might have some kind of supernatural ability, perhaps sensing
03:02that something was amiss even if she couldn't put her finger on precisely what. In the series,
03:06we learn Wednesday's visions started just a few months before arriving at Nevermore,
03:10and her mother gives her an amulet that also seems to trigger something in her.
03:13The visions reveal both the past and the future and center around her ancestor,
03:17Goody Addams, as well as the violent attacks of a strange monster that stalks the school grounds.
03:22You are the key."
03:25Wednesday Addams may have a sadistic streak, but she also has a creative side.
03:29In the Addams Family movies, Wednesday's hobbies mainly include torturing her brother Pugsley and
03:34baby Pubert, and she can get pretty imaginative with it, too. It takes an inventive mind to shake
03:39things up in a torture chamber, after all. Away at boarding school, however, without access to
03:43her go-to torture tools from home, Wednesday uses a typewriter as a creative outlet instead.
03:48Devoting an hour every day to writing her novel, we see her hard at work at it throughout the
03:52series, taking inspiration for characters and plot from her own real-life murder investigation.
03:57We learn that Wednesday has actually written three novels, all starring a teenage girl detective
04:02named Viper De La Muerte, who is smart, perceptive, and chronically misunderstood.
04:06It's no accident, perhaps, that her heroine sounds suspiciously like someone we know.
04:11Sadly, Wednesday's gratuitously morbid subject matter keeps her work from getting published.
04:16Although Wednesday Addams is 15 years old in the Netflix series, it soon becomes apparent that she
04:20hasn't had much time for romance. After all, regular relationships are enough of a challenge
04:25for someone with her socially awkward disposition. Yet, in Wednesday, she finds herself with two
04:29young men who are both attracted to her and competing for her attention. The first is
04:33Xavier Thorpe, a fellow student at Nevermore with both magical and artistic talents,
04:38and Tyler Galpin, son of the local sheriff and a normie. At first,
04:42Wednesday deduces that the murderous Hyde monster stalking the town and Nevermore is Xavier. However,
04:47she later realizes she has made a grave error after sharing a kiss with Tyler that triggers a vision.
04:53Of course the first boy I kiss would turn out to be a psychotic, serial-killing monster.
04:59I guess I have a type.
05:01And speaking of kisses, Wednesday's first kiss in the series happens very differently than in
05:06the movie, Addams Family Values. Wednesday's first kiss is a sweet peck through a chain-link
05:10fence, while in the series, it is definitely much more passionate.
05:14In the movies, Wednesday never seemed to be inclined toward music. Still,
05:18she did exhibit a leaning toward the theater, as seen in The Addams Family,
05:21when she and Pugsley perform a dramatic Shakespearean scene together at the school talent
05:25show. Thanks to some help from Uncle Fester, the Addams siblings manage to leave the audience
05:29speechless and drenched in stage blood. In the series, however, Wednesday turns her artistic
05:34interests to creative writing and playing the cello, and has become a masterful musician.
05:39The show actually treats us to two memorable performances — the first,
05:42an instrumental rendition of Paint It Black, which Wednesday plays on the balcony outside
05:46her dorm room, as well as a jaunty rendition of Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop, which she plays as
05:51a statue of town founder Joseph Crackstone goes up in flames. Though she may not show emotions
05:56in her day-to-day routines, Wednesday's passion clearly comes out as she plays the cello,
06:00and it's a change from the original movies that helps give more dimension to her character.
06:05For more than 30 years, The Addams Family consisted of Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday,
06:10Uncle Fester, and Granny. Of course, Thing and Lurch are also like family, but let's stick to
06:14immediate blood relations for the moment. In the original movie, The Addams Family,
06:18Morticia reveals to her beloved Gomez that they are about to welcome a new addition to the family,
06:22and the 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values, begins with Morticia giving birth to baby Pubert.
06:27Though the Wednesday series includes iconic Addams Family characters such as Thing,
06:31Lurch, Gomez, Morticia, and Fester, Pubert has been left out altogether.
06:36It seems that while the show's creators have drawn on a few elements of the Sonnenfeld movies,
06:40it was decided to stick with the original family lineup from the New Yorker cartoon.
06:45While The Addams Family movies are examples of the classic fish-out-of-water story,
06:49compared to the world around them, The Addamses are strange, spooky,
06:52and even at times borderline psychotic. It's their attempts to interact with normal people
06:57that make for the most hilarious moments in the Sonnenfeld films.
07:00You are too precious for words. Why, I could just eat you alive.
07:06Oh no, Margaret, too young.
07:08However, despite their eccentricities, The Addamses are still mostly human. While the
07:12family might be creepy, the original Addams Family films never really took a full plunge
07:16into the realm of the supernatural. All of that changes in Wednesday, though.
07:20The students of Nevermore Academy are called outcasts, but the school offers a safe space
07:24for sirens, werewolves, gorgons, vampires, and the just plain weird-to-be themselves.
07:29There is also a murderous creature known as a Hyde haunting the woods whose identity is a mystery
07:33until Wednesday takes the case. Other paranormal elements, including Wednesday's visions and a
07:38connection with her ghostly ancestor, Goody Addams, feel organic, even if none of the
07:43preceding films went in that direction. The original Addams Family films clearly
07:47fall into the comedy genre, with plenty of dark humor accompanying the family's zany antics and
07:52hilarious shenanigans. And the tone is generally light. Most of the violence in the movies is
07:57either implied or happens off-screen, with even the darkest moments carried out in an almost
08:02Looney Tunes-type style. The Wednesday series on Netflix, on the other hand, is not afraid to go
08:06all-in and does not shy away from displaying a more gruesome and horror-fueled tableau.
08:11The murder and mayhem are far from implied, and we get to see some of it up close and personal.
08:16The added murder mystery element in Wednesday also allows room for the series to branch out.
08:20The deeper her investigation goes, the more danger Wednesday finds herself in as she,
08:24her friends, and her family members become targets for the killer. The ghosts, demons,
08:28and bloodthirsty creatures are very real, and the lives of everyone at Nevermore hang in the balance.
08:34Although the Wednesday series goes deeper into the bond between the two siblings,
08:38in the Addams Family movies, brother and sister Pugsley and Wednesday are quite the dynamic duo.
08:43Wednesday is the leader of the two, and Pugsley is more than happy to go along with whatever she
08:47has planned. Whether he is the victim of her sadistic devices or assisting her with getting
08:51rid of their baby brother, Pugsley is her willing sidekick.
08:54It's a tradition. One of us has to go.
08:57Which one?
08:59Well, they only need one boy.
09:01It's rarely apparent why Pugsley is so amenable to Wednesday's methods in the 90s films.
09:06Is it purely his mischievous nature, or perhaps an innate sadomasochistic streak?
09:10The relationship between them is left ambiguous, so it's difficult to tell whether the two hate
09:15or love one another, or if they feel any emotion towards each other at all.
09:18Netflix's Wednesday gives a bit more clarity to the relationship between the Addams siblings.
09:23First, in the series, it's established that Wednesday is older than Pugsley,
09:26and Pugsley is less of a mischief-maker and more of a somewhat dim but sensitive soul,
09:31a fault Wednesday criticizes him for, calling showing emotion a sign of weakness.
09:35It's also made apparent that Pugsley has a great deal of affection for his sister,
09:39and that Wednesday is very protective of her little brother.
09:42This is a closed practice.
09:44The only person who gets to torture my brother is me.
09:48By the end of the series, though, Wednesday's chilly personality has thawed somewhat,
09:52and her experiences have perhaps warmed her just enough to release her iron-clad control
09:56over her emotions, at least temporarily. Although it seems unlikely that she will
10:00ever give up on viewing her life through a darker lens, Wednesday does appear to
10:04be opening up a bit to the possibilities offered by her new life at Nevermore Academy.
10:08New friends, a new cell phone, and her very first stalker all look like they might be in her future,
10:13if only she would take a chance and send her first text.
10:16A new chapter also seems to be opening on the Addams family home front when Wednesday finally
10:20decides to confide in her mother that she has violent, dark visions and is afraid because
10:25she can't control them. For the first time, Morticia offers her daughter some advice,
10:29one seer to another, and a new, stronger bond of trust and respect is forged between mother
10:33and daughter, built on a better understanding of their different natures and approaches to life.
10:38The show does seem to lay the groundwork for future adventures. Wednesday is growing up,
10:42and who knows, it might be possible that even sibling rivalry could be cast aside,
10:47and she might one day begin to express a little bit of fondness for Pugsley.
10:51Don't push it.