Wednesday Addams Appearances
After the original comics, Wednesday and the Addams family have been adapted a number of times. While live-action versions of the character tend to all relate back to the classic 1964 telivison series, animated ones often draw more from the classic comic.
6-year-old Lisa Loring played in the original Wednesday in the iconic 1964 TV series, and reprised the role in the 1977 reunion film. Unlike Ken Weatherwax whol played Pugsley and lost his interest in acting when he was typecast, Lisa continues to work today.
Wednesday, as she appears in the comics, is more of a contrast with the weirdness of the rest of the family; seeming very sweet and innocent rather than being one of the most sadistic family members as she often appears in live-action adaptations. The 1973 animated series Wednesday, voiced by Cindy Henderson, was closer to the comic character.
The 1992 animated series was a direct adaptation to the recent Barry Sonnenfeld film, so Wednesday was meant to mirror her character there, but like other animated takes on the character she still skewed closer to the sweeter, more innocent comic version. She was voiced by veteran performer Debi Derryberry.
The 1998 direct-to-video Addams Family film (which made the very wise decision to cast Tim Curry as Gomez) was another attempt to capitalize on the feature films. This was translated into a follow-up live-action tv series which basically recast everyone, the exception being Nicole Fugere as Wednesday. She was filling some big shoes, basically just replicating the 1991 version of the character, but did an admirable job.
The 2010 Addams Family broadway musical made some pretty big changes to the character, but it worked really well. Traditionally Wednesday is the younger sister, but here she's 18, and the entire plot revolves around her bringing her new fiance, the totally normal Lucas, to the Addams household along with his parents. This take on Wednesday is REALLY good, because it mixes the classic kind-of-normal-and-sweet Wednesday with the sadistic version from the live-action adaptations. She was originated on Broadway by Krysta Rodriguez, who is just tons of fun to watch.
There are a lot of different Wednesdays from the various touring companies of the muisical, but I just wanted to share the UK version Carrie Hope Fletcher, because i just really, really loved her take.
The new 2019 cg animated film marks the first time that an animated Wednesday is depicted closer to her traditional live-action characterization, where she's clearly a sadist. She's voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz.
It's actually really fun to look at a character with this much history and realize just how much a single actresses performance can influence it. Christina Ricci played Wednesday in the beloved-and-still-awesome 1991 Barry Sonnenfeld movie and again in the 1993 sequel where here role was vastly expanded. She was 10 at the time, and even then she had such an unmistakeable star quality that she redefined the character. After this movie the Addams family is largely ABOUT Wednesday. We all love her and her sadism, and that's almost entirely because of Christina.