Addams Family Values

Addams Family Values is a 1993 American comedy film, the sequel to The Addams Family (1991). It was written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and features many cast members from the original, including Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Carel Struycken, Jimmy Workman and Christopher Hart. Joan Cusack plays a serial killer who marries Uncle Fester (Lloyd) intending to murder him for his inheritance, while teenagers Wednesday (Ricci) and Pugsley (Workman) are sent to summer camp. Included in the soundtrack is "Supernatural Thing", which was a chart success for Ben E. King.

Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the 1960s sitcom, Addams Family Values is played more for macabre laughs. The film was well received by critics, in contrast to its predecessor's mixed critical reception. However, unlike the first movie, it was a box office disappointment, earning only $48.9 million against its $47 million budget.

Plot
Gomez and Morticia Addams hire a nanny named Debbie to take care of their newborn son, Pubert, after older siblings Wednesday and Pugsley's failed attempts to murder him. Unbeknownst to them, Debbie is a serial killer who marries rich bachelors and murders them to collect their inheritances.

After Debbie seduces Uncle Fester, Wednesday becomes suspicious of her intentions. In order to maintain her cover, Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into believing Wednesday and Pugsley want to go to summer camp. They are sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the overzealous Gary and Becky Granger, where they are singled out by the counselors, as well as popular girl Amanda Buckman, for their macabre appearance and behavior. Joel, a nerdy bookworm who also doesn’t fit in, becomes attracted to Wednesday.

Debbie and Fester become engaged. At their bachelor and bachelorette parties, Debbie is horrified by the entire Addams family. On their honeymoon, she tries to kill Fester by throwing a boombox in the bathtub, but she fails. Frustrated, Debbie forces him to sever ties with his family; when they try to visit Fester at Debbie's mansion, they’re removed from the premises. The Addams are alarmed to find that Pubert has transformed into a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, golden-haired baby. Grandmama Addams diagnoses this as a result of his disrupted family life (the disappearance of Fester), and Gomez becomes horribly depressed.

At camp, Wednesday is casted as Pocahontas in Gary's Thanksgiving play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley and Joel are forced to watch upbeat, heartwarming Disney and family films. Afterwards, Wednesday feigns cheerfulness and agrees to take part. During the performance, she stages a coup, capturing Amanda, Gary and Becky, and setting the camp on fire. She, Joel and Pugsley escape via a camp van, and Wednesday and Joel share their first kiss.

Debbie tries to kill Fester by blowing up their mansion. However, Fester survives. After this, she pulls a gun and tells him she doesn’t love him and is only interested in his money. Thing intervenes and helps Fester escape. Fester apologizes to Gomez, and Wednesday and Pugsley return, reuniting the family. Debbie arrives and ties the family to electric chairs, explaining that she killed her parents and previous husbands for incredibly selfish and materialistic reasons while the Addams listen with sympathy and compassion. Upstairs, Pubert, who has returned to normal, escapes from his crib and is propelled into the room where the family is being held. Debbie throws the switch to electrocute the family, but Pubert manipulates the wires and electrocutes her instead, incinerating her into a pile of ash.

Months later, at Pubert's first birthday party, Fester laments Debbie's loss but becomes smitten with Cousin Itt and Margaret’s nanny, Dementia. In the Addams family graveyard, Wednesday tells Joel that Debbie was a sloppy killer, and she would instead scare her husband to death. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand erupts from the earth and grabs him; he screams while Wednesday smiles.

Cast

 * Raul Julia as Gomez Addams
 * Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams
 * Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester
 * Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams
 * Christopher Hart's Hand as Thing
 * Carel Struycken as Lurch
 * Jimmy Workman as Pugsley Addams
 * Carol Kane as Grandmama Addams (replacing Judith Malina)
 * John Franklin as Cousin Itt
 * Joan Cusack as Debbie Jellinsky, a professional black widow.
 * Dana Ivey as Margaret Alford (Mrs. Cousin Itt), the ex-wife of Tully Alford and current wife of Cousin Itt.
 * David Krumholtz as Joel Glicker, Wednesday's love interest.
 * Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper as Pubert Addams, the newborn child of Gomez and Morticia.
 * Peter MacNicol as Gary Granger, the co-owner of Camp Chippewa.
 * Christine Baranski as Becky Martin-Granger, the wife of Gary and co-proprietor of Camp Chippewa.
 * Mercedes McNab as Amanda Buckman, a camper at Camp Chippea. McNab previously portrayed the Girl Scout in the first film.
 * Cynthia Nixon as Heather, one of the potential nannies for Pubert--a hippie.
 * Charles Busch as Countess Aphasia du Berry, a countess and relative of the Addams Family.
 * Douglas Brian Martin and Steven M. Martin as Dexter and Donald Addams, the two-headed relative of the Addams Family.
 * Allegra Kent as Cousin Ophelia Addams, the sister of Morticia Addams.
 * Ryan Holihan as Lumpy Addams, a hunchback relative of the Addams Family.
 * Maureen Sue Levin and Darlene Levin as Flora and Fauna Amor, a conjoined twin that Gomez and Fester used to date and attends Fester and Debbie's wedding.
 * Carol Hankins as Dementia, a bald woman who becomes the nanny of Cousin Itt and Margaret's child What.


 * Cameo roles
 * Director Barry Sonnenfeld as Mr. Glicker, the father of Joel Glicker.
 * Julie Halston as Mrs. Glicker, the mother of Joel Glicker.
 * Nathan Lane as Police Desk Sergeant, a desk sergeant who listened to Gomez' rant about Fester and Debbie's wedding. Lane would eventually go on to playing Gomez in The Addams Family musical.
 * David Hyde Pierce as Delivery Room Doctor, a doctor who helped to deliver Pubert.
 * Peter Graves as America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes anchorman
 * Sam McMurray as Don Buckman, Amanda's father
 * Harriet Sansom Harris as Ellen Buckman, Amanda's mother
 * Ian Abercrombie as a driver who picked up Fester and Debbie from their Hawaiian honeymoon.
 * Tony Shalhoub as Jorge, a patron at the bar Debbie goes to

Production
The "family values" in the film's title is a tongue-in-cheek reference by writer Paul Rudnick to an infamous 1992 speech ("Reflections on Urban America") made by then-Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle. In the speech, Quayle had blamed the 1992 Los Angeles riots on a breakdown of "family values", which caused much controversy and derision afterwards.

According to Anjelica Huston, during the filming of Addams Family Values it became increasingly clear that Raul Julia's health was deteriorating. He had trouble eating, and was losing weight as a result. He died within a year after the film was released.

Sequoia National Park, particularly Sequoia Lake, in the Sierra Nevada of California, was the site of the movie's "Camp Chippewa".

Critical response
Addams Family Values was well received, receiving significantly better reviews than the first film. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 74% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "New, well-developed characters add dimension to this batty satire, creating a comedy much more substantial than the original." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wondered if "the making of this sequel was sheer drudgery for all concerned", then answered herself by writing, "There's simply too much glee on the screen, thanks to a cast and visual conception that were perfect in the first place, and a screenplay by Paul Rudnick that specializes in delightfully arch, subversive humor." Leonard Klady of Variety was slightly less enthusiastic: "It remains perilously slim in the story department, but glides over the thin ice with technical razzle-dazzle and an exceptionally winning cast."

Richard Schickel, writing for Time, called the film "an essentially lazy movie, too often settling for easy gags and special effects that don't come to any really funny point."

Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert disliked the first film. Siskel gave this film a mixed review and accused Sonnenfeld of caring more about how the film looks than how the jokes play. Ebert thought that unusually for a sequel, it was better than the first film and he enjoyed the various subplots, and recommended the film.

Accolades
The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction (Ken Adam, Marvin March), and Huston was nominated for the 1993 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance as Morticia, a reprise of her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1991 original. The film won also a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song for the Tag Team track "Addams Family (Whoomp!)".

Addams Family Values was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. In 2016, James Charisma of Playboy ranked the film #15 on a list of 15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals.

Box office
Addams Family Values opened at #1 at its initial weekend with a reported total of $14,117,545. In its second week, the film dropped to #2 behind Mrs. Doubtfire, and in its third week to #3 behind Mrs. Doubtfire and A Perfect World.

Its final domestic box office take was $48,919,043, a significant decline from the previous film's domestic total of $113,502,426.

Soundtrack

 * Addams Family Values: The Original Orchestral Score composed by Marc Shaiman
 * Addams Family Values: Music from the Motion Picture Various artist soundtrack album

Michael Jackson's involvement
American popular singer Michael Jackson was supposed to feature a song in the film called Addams Groove/Family Thing. The song was ultimately removed due to child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson. The song has been leaked online.

Home media
The film was released on DVD in 2000 with two theatrical trailers as special features. It was re-released in 2006 with the first film on a single disc, with no new features. It will be released on Blu-ray on October 1, 2019.

In Australia, the film was released on VHS by Paramount Home Entertainment (Australasia) in 1994. In 2002 the film was released on DVD with theatrical trailers in the extra features.