The modern cartoon version of The Addams Family pales in comparison to the live-action film starring Anjelica Huston and the late Raul Julia.

And it's not really very funny.

This charmless cartoon borrows some visual cues from the original Charles Addams cartoons but adds a "cutesy" veneer and trades the dark, drab palette for a whole lot of color and shine. The story, which has the family on the run until they find a haunted mansion in a New Jersey swampland, focuses on their desire for acceptance when the swamp is drained and a modern cookie-cutter community is built around them.

The antagonist is an aggressive TV home-makeover personality and real estate mogul who installs hidden cameras in homes so she can spy on the residents. She wants the Addams family gone because their towering home spoils her view.

I have no complaints about the vocal cast, despite being nostalgic for the excellent film cast of the early 1990s. Oscar Gomez is fine as the suave Gomez Addams, Charlize Theron is fine as the elegant Morticia Addams and Chloe Grace Moretz (barring a return by Christina Ricci) is about as good a casting as you're going to get as the delightfully macabre Wednesday Addams. Finn Wolfhard is fine as the downtrodden Pugsley Addams, Nick Kroll is -- well, to be honest, Nick Kroll is a little annoying as Uncle Fester. Too high-pitched. Bette Midler is fine as Grandma (whatever happened to Grandmama?) and Snoop Dogg is entirely wasted as Cousin It. Allison Janney and Aimee Garcia are, you guessed it, fine as relentless reality star Margaux Needler and her goth-wannabe daughter, Denise.

They all do a good job with what they're given, but the material is bland. The Addams Family -- both the 1960s TV series and the 1990s pair of films -- won fans with their portrayals of the delightfully ghoulish clan of outcast monsters. This animated feature just goes through the motions, playing to a young, unsophisticated audience and ignoring the wealth of humorous potential that was available to plunder.