Addams Family Values (1993)

The Addams Family try to rescue their beloved uncle Fester from his gold-digging new love, a black widow named Debbie.

Director:

Barry Sonnenfeld

Writers:

Charles Addams (characters), Paul Rudnick

Stars:

Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anjelica Huston	...	Morticia Addams
Raul Julia	...	Gomez Addams
Christopher Lloyd	...	Uncle Fester Addams
Joan Cusack	...	Debbie Jellinsky
Christina Ricci	...	Wednesday Addams
Carol Kane	...	Granny
Jimmy Workman	...	Pugsley Addams
Kaitlyn Hooper	...	Pubert Addams
Kristen Hooper	...	Pubert Addams
Carel Struycken	...	Lurch
David Krumholtz	...	Joel Glicker
Christopher Hart	...	Thing
Dana Ivey	...	Margaret Addams
Peter MacNicol	...	Gary Granger
Christine Baranski	...	Becky Martin-Granger

Storyline

When an adorable baby boy is added to the Addams household, Wednesday and Pugsley do not hate the baby, they just aren't necessarily excited about his existence. Ok, yeah they do hate the baby. So Wednesday and Pugsley must get rid of the new addition one way or another. Meanwhile a new nanny is added to the household who overtakes Fester. The Addams must stop the nanny, but how?

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Plot Keywords:

baby boy | baby brother | brother brother relationship | husband wife relationship | baby son | 

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Taglines:

The Family Just Got A Little Stranger.

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for macabre humor

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 November 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

Addams Family Values

Filming Locations:

Long Beach Airport - 4101 E. Donald Douglas Drive, Long Beach, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$47,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,117,545, 21 November 1993

Gross USA:

$48,919,043

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mercedes McNab (Amanda Buckman) appeared in The Addams Family (1991) as a Girl Scout.

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Goofs

Debbie first attempts to kill Fester by throwing an AC-powered boombox into the hotel bathtub, where Fester is relaxing. When she does, a ton of sparks fly from the bathtub, and all the light bulbs around the mirror blow out. This shouldn't happen for two reasons. First, the light bulbs would have to be in series with the boombox to blow out if the boombox was short-circuited; which would mean that they wouldn't work unless something was plugged into that outlet all the time, and that only one would blow out (it would act like a fuse). Obviously, lights and outlets are not wired in series, so those bulbs should not have blown out. Additionally, the boombox is plugged into a GFCI-protected outlet, which would turn off in milliseconds in that situation, preventing any sparks or short-circuits from occurring. This is also assuming that the tap water was conductive enough to short the boombox.

In real life, if the tap water was that conductive, and Debbie threw the boombox in, its power would be interrupted in milliseconds. The light bulbs wouldn't blow out either - if anything, they would dim until power was turned off (i.e. when the GFCI outlet tripped).

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Quotes

[first lines]
Wednesday: [giving a funeral to a cat in a shoe-box] Come, sorrow; we welcome thee. Let us join in grief, rejoice in despair, and honor the fortunate dead.
Grandma: Dearly beloved...
Wednesday: [the cat mews and Wednesday shakes the box] Shh! Quiet!
Grandma: [starts piling dirt on the box]

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Alternate Versions

When Joel first enters the Harmony Hut to join Wednesday and Pugsley, after Gary takes his book away, he looks around and shrieks in horror to see a poster of Michael Jackson on the far wall. This part has been removed from some TV broadcasts.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: Addams Family Values/The Snapper/Dangerous Game/The Saint of Fort Washington/Like Water for Chocolate (1993)

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Soundtracks

Disgusting Crime Theme
Written and Performed by D. Brent Nelson

User Reviews

Darkly funny and enjoyable sequel albeit lacking anything that new (if that's a bad thing)

The Addams family just got a little stranger with the addition of a new baby boy. However with the new arrival, Wednesday and Pugsley become isolated and try to kill little Pubert. With all this squabbling, Morticia sounds gets tired and seeks help from a nanny. After many failures, they settle on the sparky Debbie – although Wednesday has her suspicions. These suspicions seem to be justified whenever Debbie convinces Morticia and Gomez to send their children away to a summer camp and then marry Uncle Fester – a man so repulsive that love cannot be the reason.

Many films wheel out sequels by simply adding something to the original film; often it is a child and often it doesn't work. However with this film the child is not the focus but a plot device for bringing in a nanny who in turn splits the plot. The result is a solid plot that basically retreads the mood and humour of the original film which, for fans, is not a bad thing at all. For me I enjoy the dark world of the modern Addams family and felt that the plot did enough to be more than just the frame for it. The silly dark humour works well and it produced many laughs while also achieving a consistent humorous tone. I can understand why some people don't like it because it is the sort of thing you really need to "get" and I "got" it; also slightly more uptight parents may not like the examples set their kids in the film (but f**k 'em if they can't take a joke).

The cast are a major factor in the humour working. Although Fester is the focus of the film, Julia is still a real joy and his chemistry with Huston is really enjoyable and they make their lines work well. Lloyd is a perfect Fester and he is consistently funny. Cusack makes the most of her role and she fits in well with the tone of the film. Ricci yet again steals the film and her deadpan delivery is funny across the whole film. The support cast have lots of cameos and smaller roles and it is fun without being distracting to watch the faces including Kane, MacNicol, Pierce, Shalhoub, Lane and Sonnenfeld himself.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first film then you'll like this, and vice versa. Personally I enjoy the darkly comic tone and consistent laughs that it produced, while the good performances across the board raise the material and provide some real joys in Julia and Ricci.