ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (1993)
I don’t believe many of us really prepared for the Addams Family to become the internet’s eccentric example of a loving family. A television staple spanning many generations, The Addams Family just kept getting better and better with each iteration. From passionate Gomez to their silent butler Lurch, the family's hijinks were a celebration of the weird and the hysterical. In 1993’s ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, they’re just as kooky, mysterious, and spooky, while still having nonstop laughs that only director Barry Sonnenfeld could accomplish (THE ADDAMS FAMILY, MEN IN BLACK, WILD WILD WEST, MEN IN BLACK II).
In ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, we seemingly pick up where we left off with 1991’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY: a baby is coming! But just as quickly as this mustachioed Addams is brought into the world, a bigger problem arises: Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) declare the baby a problem to be eliminated in some hysterical ways. It’s because of these antics that the family decides to get a nanny.
After a parade of nannies come and go, terrified of the children, it is here we meet Debbie (Joan Cusack), an almost perfect mirror to the Addams: dressed in all white, but just as quirky, unabashed, and quite forward. This is promptly revealed to all be an act. Debbie is a murderous Black Widow, desperate for money and now after the Addams’ fortune, all held by the everlasting bachelor, Fester (Christopher Lloyd).
He’s quickly bewitched by her, along with all the other Addams—except, of course, Wednesday. Always a step ahead, Debbie convinces Gomez and Morticia to send Wednesday and Pugsley to summer camp.
As with any Addams movie, chaos reigns in the summer camp, Fester has quite a close one, and the meaning of family brings the Addams back together again.
ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES takes on many of the ‘90s stereotypes of Americana in media and makes us point, laugh, and realize how ridiculous they are. From Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia’s (Anjelica Huston) passionate love for each other to their very not tongue-in-cheek take on the children’s fellow campers, director Sonnenfeld definitely went into this sequel with the intention to really push the button on certain topics.
When Pugsley and Wednesday go to summer camp, we are introduced to camp counselors Gary Granger (Peter MacNicol) and Becky Martin-Granger (Christine Baranski).
To say they are nauseatingly upbeat is an understatement.
But they say something pretty alarming in their introduction:
“...Camp Chippewa, America’s foremost facility for privileged young adults. And we’re here to learn, to grow, and to have fun! ‘Cause, that’s what being privileged is all about!”
This is all but personified when we meet Amanda Buckman (Mercedes McNab), a pastel-wearing, blond aspiring child actress.
She and everyone at camp is purposely dressed in copy-paste outfits, making the two Addams children, and the asthmatic camper Wednesday befriends, Joel (David Krumholtz) stand out even more.
We see this problematic behavior continue in the camp’s attempts to break Pugsley and Wednesday’s spirits. From the “Harmony Hut” (a pop culture house full of posters and playing nonstop Disney films) to their very incorrect and problematic Thanksgiving play. The way that plays out is something I can’t even put into words, it’s that satisfying. Another example of problematic behavior is Amanda’s reaction to Fester and Debbie’s engagement shows how “privileged” their outlook is. “…marrying the help? Disgusting!”
Speaking of engagement, Debbie says all the right things to get Fester in her clutches—not that it was hard to do, anyway. When Fester announces his engagement, Morticia mentions that Debbie’s ring was worn by Fester's mother and was buried with her. Debbie slyly whips out a shovel, adding a literal component to her character's "golddigger" status.
It’s here we start to see the lengths she’ll go to get that Addams fortune. The thing is, Fester will not die! She’s at her wit’s end with him, but it isn’t until her confrontation with Gomez and Morticia that we see just how cruel she really is. Though one of my favorite lines from Morticia comes from this scene: “You have gone too far. You have married Fester, you have destroyed his spirit, you have taken him from us. All that I could forgive. But Debbie...Pastels?”
On the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of love, the most celebrated aspect of these films is the relationship between Gomez and Morticia. It isn’t common in comedies to see a man who absolutely worships the ground his wife walks on; Raul and Anjelica have a chemistry that one doesn’t usually see in a kid’s movie. The lighting on Morticia’s face in her scenes is always something that makes me wonder if this is how Gomez would see her: it always consists of one beam of light across her eyes that fades outward to enhance her classic look, achieved by chief lighting technician Michael Krueger. It’s a noir sense of beauty that only a romantic like Gomez would have.
Considering this was his last film released before his death a year later, Raul Julia truly shines, even in the moments where his cancer is visibly progress weakening his body. For a movie that is all about the absurdity of the macabre in everyday living, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES is ta comfort film of the ages, one where we can forgive its fast pace due to its many hearty laughs.
