Sometimes sequels are better made but don’t get the recogntion they deserve until many years later. A movie like Addams Family Values is a wonderful improvement over the original The Addams Family movie mainly because it has a darker sense of humor in how it handles the Addams in a modern-day world where they are seen as the “weirdos” but are actually more loving and caring of each other.
Whereas the first movie seemed to have more of a macabre feel to it, getting the Addams, especially the children, out of the house more and having them interact with other people gives the movie a funnier edge. When the movie opens, Morticia (Anjelica Huston) is giving birth to their third child, Pubert (Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper). The new addition causes some tension in the house as Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) go to humorous lengths to try to harm or even kill Pubert. Morticia and her husband, Gomez (Raul Julia) decide to hire a live-in nanny to hilarious results (Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City fame has an early role as one of the unfortunate candidates.)
Finally, another applicant, Debbie Jellinsky (Joan Cusack) arrives immediately looking promising to Gomez and Morticia. But Debbie has an ulterior motive. She’s actually a serial killer who marries rich bachelors and murders them. And she has her eyes on Fester (Christopher Lloyd). To keep her cover from the suspicious Wednesday and Puglsey, she convinces Gomez and Morticia to send the children to Camp Chippewa. It’s run by Gary and Becky Granger (Peter MacNichol and Christine Barinski) who have a cheerful and lively demeanor they make Ned and Maude Flanders look like Sid and Nancy.
But because most of the children at the camp seem “normal,” Wednesday and Puglsey find themselves constantly butting heads with the Grangers and Amanda Buckman (Mercedes McNab) a popular, snobbish camper. They do become chummy with Joel Glicker (David Krumholtz), a nerdy outcast with a laundry list of allergies, some of which can kill him, which attracts Wednesday to him.
Back at the Addams Manson, Debbie works her claws in to Fester and they become engaged and eventually married. But at the same time, Wednesday suspects Debbie is the infamous “Black Widow Killer” in a set of trading cards that she and Puglsey and Joel are into. However, Debbie’s attempts to kill Fester backfire with outrageous results leading to a showdown between her and the entire family.
In many ways, it works as two separate movies that work most independently before they come together. The camp scenes are a refreshing change by having the children in a sunny summer setting where they are “forced” to be normal through marathon viewing of Disney movies in the Happy Hut. The movie was written by Paul Rudnick, an openly gay writer/playwright, and I can see the metaphor for gay conversion. Along with Nixon, Nathan Lane and David Hyde Pierce, who are also openly gay, have small roles.
The Addams themselves seem to be a metaphor for the LGBTQIA community as they truly love each other and care about each other. Joel’s parents are critical of him. The Grangers think they’re perfect but they are very prejudice to Wednesday, Puglsey, Joel or anyone non-white and non-preppy/rich. And you can tell from Amanda’s parents (Sam McMurray and Harriet Samson Harris) where she gets a lot of her snobbish attitude but her parents think they’re better than everyone else.
It’s almost funny how the marriage of Fester to Debbie tears the family apart as Gomez becomes ill and Pubert’s hair turns blonde and curly. This leads Grandma Addams (Carol Kane) to suspect that if Pubert continues on this way, he can one day become a doctor, lawyer or even President much to the horror of Gomez and Morticia. In a way to get back at the Grangers and escape the camp, Wednesday cast as Pocahontas in a First Thanksgiving Play where Amanda has the lead, orchestrates a take-over with the other neglected campers.
Also, in regards to the Thanksgiving play, the movie was released on Nov. 19, 1993, so I’m guessing Rudnick and director Barry Sonnenfield (who also plays Joel’s father), were trying to make it topical with the Thanksgiving holiday. However, it’s intentional that everything in the play is historically inaccurate, except for Wednesday delivering a speech about the plight of Indigenous Native Americans as Europearn settlers/colonizers turn the New World into a paradise for white people. Again, you can sense that Rudnick is subtlely showing how those in the LGBTQIA were ostracized.
While I’ll admit Gomez and Morticia seem to be regulated to supporting characters as the main focus is on Fester and Debbie, that’s just how sequels go sometimes. You can probably take Lurch (Carel Struycken) out of the movie without missing a thing. Cousin Itt (John Franklin and his new wife, Margaret Alford-Addams (Dana Ivey) appear briefly in a few scenes. Even Thing (Christopher Hart) seems to regulate to an even minor role. But there’s only so much you can squeeze into a 94 minute-movie with credits. I guess that’s why Thing shows suddenly appears at the house where Fester and Debbie live without any explanation why he’s there.
Cusack does a great job sending up the femme fatale trope. Ricci is even better as Wednesday this time around and I like that Rudnick gave Pugsley more to do. He seemed mostly to react in the first movie. Cast and crew would say Julia became ill during filming and was losing weight. That might explain why he’s not in some scenes or appears to be sitting or lying down a lot. He had been battling stomach cancer and hadn’t told many people. He passed away on Oct. 24, 1994. He really nailed this performance and his death is probably why we never got a third Addams Family movie with the same cast.
Or it could be the movie wasn’t a big success commercially over its predecessor even though critics liked it more. The movie was released one week before the highly anticipated Mrs. Doubtfire opened and knocked it off the No. 1 spot. In the end Family Values ended up making $111 million wordwide as opposed to the $191 million worldwide the first movie made.
I say it’s a better movie that found its audience over the years on the cable TV and home video market. The darker humor may have turned some people off as the jokes are more about death and murder as Debbie recalls why she killed people, especially her parents because they gave her a Malibu Barbie instead of a Ballerina Barbie. But everyone in the cast seems to have so much fun and the addition of Cusack, MacNichols, Baranski, Krumholtz and McNab works perfectly.
While the torch has been passed to a new Addams Family show, Wednesday, with Jenna Ortega as the titular character, people who grew up on these movies still consider Gomez and Morticia one of the perfect couples and parents. Julia and Huston had a great chemistry together and it’s a testament to how good an actor Julia was and how short his career and life was.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 