Addams Family Values is a 1993
sequelA sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to the 1991
comedyComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
The Addams FamilyThe Addams Family is a 1991 American black comedy film based on the characters from the cartoon of the same name created by cartoonist Charles Addams....
. The film was written by
Paul RudnickPaul M. Rudnick is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His plays include I Hate Hamlet, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla and The New Century. He also wrote for Premiere magazine under the pseudonym Libby Gelman-Waxner, and for Spy.Rudnick grew up in Piscataway...
and directed by
Barry SonnenfeldBarry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He worked as cinematographer for the Coen brothers, then later he directed and produced big budget films such as Men in Black.-Life and career:...
, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including
Raúl JuliáRaúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
,
Anjelica HustonAnjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
,
Christopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, and
Christina RicciChristina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the
1960s sitcomThe Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
,
Values is played more for
macabreIn works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
laughs.
Plot
GomezGomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s....
(
Raúl JuliáRaúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
) and
Morticia AddamsMorticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams and based on his first wife Barbara .Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams...
(
Anjelica HustonAnjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
) welcome the birth of their third child, Pubert (Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper). Older siblings
WednesdayWednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.-Wednesday:In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names...
(
Christina RicciChristina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
) and
PugsleyPugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams.Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia and Gomez Addams. He is a pre-teen boy who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
(
Jimmy WorkmanJames Martin "Jimmy" Workman, Jr. is an American actor, known for playing the role of Pugsley Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values .-Early life:...
) are antagonistic toward their new baby brother and attempt to kill him several times, but Pubert fortuitously survives each attempt. Worried by this behavior, Gomez and Morticia seek out a
nannyA nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
to help look after the children. After Wednesday and Pugsley scare off the first few applicants, Debbie Jelinsky (
Joan CusackJoan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
) is hired. Gomez's brother Fester (
Christopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
) is immediately infatuated with her. Unbeknownst to the family, Debbie is a
serial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
known as "The Black Widow" who seeks out wealthy bachelors, marries them, and then murders them on their wedding night, making the deaths appear accidental so that she inherits their fortunes.
Wednesday and Pugsley become suspicious of Debbie's intentions toward Fester, believing that she is after his vast riches. Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into sending the children away to a
summer campSummer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
, where they quickly make enemies of the perky camp owners Gary (
Peter MacNicolPeter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
) and Becky Granger (
Christine BaranskiChristine Jane Baranski is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award winning portrayal as "Maryanne Thorpe" in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy nominated portrayal of "Diane Lockhart" in The Good Wife...
) and the snobby Amanda Buckman (
Mercedes McNabMercedes Alicia McNab is a Canadian-born actress perhaps best known for playing Harmony Kendall on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel...
). Joel Glicker (
David KrumholtzDavid Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
), another social outcast, develops a crush on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Debbie advances her plot to seduce Fester: She professes to love him, but claims to be a
virginVirginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
and says they cannot
consummateConsummation is the initial sexual act made within a marriage.Consummation can also refer to:* Consummation , 1970 recordingSee also:* Consummation of days, event predicted in Daniel Chapter 12, verses 1-4...
their relationship until marriage, prompting Fester to propose. Wednesday and Pugsley are distraught at the news and try to escape from camp, while Gary and Becky repeatedly attempt to get them to be peppy. They are allowed to attend the wedding, and Wednesday brings Joel along.
On their honeymoon, Debbie attempts to electrocute Fester by dropping a radio into the bathtub with him, but he is unaffected. Frustrated by his resilience, Debbie uses her sexual hold over Fester to manipulate him into severing all ties with his family. The two move into a lavish mansion, and when Gomez, Morticia, Grandmama (
Carol KaneCarolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
), and butler Lurch (
Carel StruyckenCarel Struycken is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Mr. Homn on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lurch in the films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values...
) attempt to visit, Debbie forbids them from seeing Fester. Pubert soon goes through dramatic changes, becoming blonde-haired, rosy-cheeked, and cheerful. Grandmama determines that he is possessed, a condition brought on by anxiety over Fester's separation from the family.
Back at camp, Wednesday refuses to participate in Gary's play, a musical production of the first
ThanksgivingThanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
. She, Pugsley, and Joel are locked in the "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch upbeat
family filmA family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
s to curb their antisocial behavior. On emerging from the hut, Wednesday feigns perkiness and agrees to play the role of
PocahontasPocahontas was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in Tidewater Virginia...
. However, during the play, she leads the other social outcasts—who have all been cast as
Native AmericansThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
—in a revolt, capturing Gary, Becky, and Amanda and leaving the camp in chaos. Before she leaves, Wednesday and Joel kiss.
Debbie tries once again to kill Fester, this time by blowing up their mansion with a bomb. When he again survives, she pulls a gun on him and admits that she never loved him. Thing—the Addams’ animate, disembodied hand—helps him to escape. Fester, Wednesday, and Pugsley arrive at the Addams mansion, but the family's reunion is interrupted by Debbie who straps them—with the exception of Pubert—into
electric chairExecution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
s and forces them to watch a slide show detailing how she murdered her parents and previous husbands. Pubert, having returned to normal, is propelled into the room via a chain reaction of events and manipulates the wires just as Debbie throws the switch, causing her to be incinerated while the rest of the family is spared.
At Pubert's first birthday party, Uncle Fester becomes enamored with cousin It's child's new nanny, Dementia. Wednesday and Joel visit Debbie's grave in the family cemetery; Wednesday says that if she wanted to kill her husband, she would simply scare him to death. As Joel lays flowers on the grave, a hand shoots up from the ground and grabs him.
Cast
- Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
as Gomez AddamsGomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s....
- Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
as Morticia AddamsMorticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams and based on his first wife Barbara .Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams...
- Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
as Uncle FesterGordon Craven, Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, is a member of the fictional Addams Family. He was played by Jackie Coogan in the original television series, by Christopher Lloyd in the first two feature films, and by Patrick Thomas in the third, Addams Family Reunion. Finally, Michael Roberds...
Addams
- Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
as Wednesday AddamsWednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.-Wednesday:In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names...
- Christopher Hart's Hand as Thing
Thing T. Thing, referred to as just Thing, is a fictional character in the The Addams Family. Thing was originally portrayed as a whole person , but was changed to a disembodied hand for the television series...
- Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken is a Dutch film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Mr. Homn on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Lurch in the films The Addams Family and Addams Family Values...
as Lurch
- Jimmy Workman
James Martin "Jimmy" Workman, Jr. is an American actor, known for playing the role of Pugsley Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values .-Early life:...
as Pugsley AddamsPugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams.Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia and Gomez Addams. He is a pre-teen boy who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
- John Franklin
John Franklin is an American actor.-Personal life:John Franklin was born in Blue Island, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago on June 16, 1959. He has three older brothers, an older sister and a younger brother and grew up in a close knit, loving family. In 1977, John graduated from Dwight D...
as Cousin IttCousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
- Dana Ivey
Dana Robins Ivey is an American character actress, who has performed on Broadway and other stage roles, in film and on television.-Early life and family:Ivey was born in Atlanta, Georgia...
as Margaret Alford Addams (Mrs. Cousin IttCousin Itt is a member of the fictional Addams Family. Unlike the other characters, Cousin Itt was not originally created by cartoonist Charles Addams, but by producer David Levy, though he did appear as an unnamed character in Addams's cartoons.- Character :...
)
- Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
as Grandmama AddamsGrandmama is a fictional character within The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams.Grandmama is the grandmother of the Addams children, Pugsley and Wednesday Addams, although her relationship to the other family members is somewhat inconsistent in the various incarnations of the family...
, replacing Judith MalinaJudith Malina is an American theater and film actress, writer, and director, who was one of the founders of The Living Theatre.-Early life:...
- Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
as Debbie Jellinsky, a professional black widowBlack widow is a common name of some spiders in the genus Latrodectus.Black Widow may also refer to:-Fiction:* Black Widow: A Novel, a 1981 novel by Christina Crawford...
- David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
as Joel Glicker, Wednesday's love interest
- Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper as Pubert Addams
- Peter MacNicol
Peter MacNicol is an American actor. He may be best known in films for his roles of Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II, Stingo in Sophie's Choice, Thomas Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It and David Langley in Bean...
as Gary Granger; he and his wife Becky are in charge of Camp Chippewa
- Christine Baranski
Christine Jane Baranski is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award winning portrayal as "Maryanne Thorpe" in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy nominated portrayal of "Diane Lockhart" in The Good Wife...
as Becky Martin-Granger
- Mercedes McNab
Mercedes Alicia McNab is a Canadian-born actress perhaps best known for playing Harmony Kendall on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel...
as Amanda Buckman (she was the Girl Scout in the first film)
- Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
as Heather, one of the potential nannies
Cameo roles
- Director Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeld is an American filmmaker and television director. He worked as cinematographer for the Coen brothers, then later he directed and produced big budget films such as Men in Black.-Life and career:...
as Mr. Glicker
- Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
as a police desk sergeant (Lane would eventually go on to playing Gomez in The Addams Family musicalThe Addams Family is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The show is based upon The Addams Family characters created by Charles Addams in his single-panel gag cartoons, which depict a ghoulish American family with an affinity for...
.)
- David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...
as the delivery room doctor
- Sam McMurray
Sam McMurray is an American television, film and voice actor.-Early life:McMurray was born in New York City, the son of Jane and Richard McMurray, both actors...
as Don Buckman, Amanda's father
- Harriet Sansom Harris
Harriet Sansom Harris , often credited as "Harriet Harris" is an American actress best known for her portrayals of Bebe Glazer on Frasier and Felicia Tilman on Desperate Housewives. She won a Tony Award in 2002 as a Featured Actress in a Musical for playing the evil white slaver Mrs. Meers in...
as Ellen Buckman, Amanda's mother
- Ian Abercrombie
Ian Abercrombie is an English actor, best known for playing Alfred Pennyworth in Birds of Prey. He appeared as Elaine Benes' boss Justin Pitt during the sixth season of Seinfeld, and as a fastidious butler on Desperate Housewives.-Biography:He is the cousin of John Abercrombie, a jazz guitarist of...
as a driver
- Tony Shalhoub
Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
as Jorge, a patron at the bar Debbie goes to
- Peter Graves
Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973...
as the host of America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes
Critical reception
The film was better received compared with the mixed reaction of the original. Critics complemented the film with largely positive reviews.
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a 75% based on 35 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "New, well-developed characters add dimension to this batty satire, creating a comedy much more substantial than the original."
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
of
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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 was slightly less enthusiastic in his
VarietyVariety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
review, noting, "It remains perilously slim in the story department, but glides over the thin ice with technical razzle-dazzle and an exceptionally winning cast."
Richard SchickelRichard Warren Schickel is an American author, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He is a film critic for Time magazine, having also written for Life magazine and the Los Angeles Times Book Review....
writing for
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, called it "an essentially lazy movie, too often settling for easy gags and special effects that don't come to any really funny point."
The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category
Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(
Ken AdamSir Kenneth Adam, OBE, born Klaus Hugo Adam , is a motion picture production designer most famous for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Childhood in Germany:...
,
Marvin MarchMarvin March is an American set decorator. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:March has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Art Direction:* Addams Family Values...
), 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.
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. DoubtfireMrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 American comedy film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field and based on the novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup...
, and in its third week to #3 behind
Mrs. Doubtfire and
A Perfect WorldA Perfect World is a 1993 drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who befriends a young boy , and ends up embarking on a road trip with the child...
.
Its final box office take was $48,919,043, a significant decline from the previous film's $113,502,426.
Home media
The film was released on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
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.
In Australia, the film was released on VHS by Paramount Home Entertainment (Australasia) in 1994 with other movie trailers shown before the beginning of the feature film. In 2002 the film was released on DVD with theatrical trailers in the extra features.