Addams Family Values is a 1993 American supernatural black comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Paul Rudnick, based on the characters created by Charles Addams. It is the sequel to The Addams Family (1991). The film features almost all the main cast members from the original film, including Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Carel Struycken, Jimmy Workman, and Christopher Hart. Joan Cusack plays Debbie Jellinsky, a serial killer who marries Fester Addams (Lloyd) intending to murder him for his inheritance, while teenagers Wednesday (Ricci) and Pugsley (Workman) are sent to summer camp. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the 1960s sitcom, Addams Family Values is played more for very dark and macabre laughs.

The film was well received by critics, in contrast to its predecessor s mixed critical reception. However, it did not perform as well as the first film, grossing $111 million on a budget of $47 million. This was also the final film starring Julia to be released in his lifetime before his death in 1994.

Plot

Gomez and Morticia Addams hire a nanny named Debbie Jellinsky to take care of their newborn son Pubert after his older siblings (Wednesday and Pugsley) s failed attempts to kill him, for which Gomez and Morticia gently rebuke them.

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. To maintain her cover, Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into believing Wednesday and Pugsley want to go to summer camp.

Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the always cheerful and lively Gary and Becky Granger, where they are singled out by the counselors and popular (and snobbish) girl Amanda Buckman for their macabre appearance and behavior. Joel Glicker, a nerdy bookworm and fellow outcast, becomes attracted to Wednesday. Debbie and Fester become engaged.

At her bachelorette party, Debbie is repulsed by the Addams family and their relatives. On their honeymoon, she tries to kill Fester by throwing a boombox into the bathtub, but she fails. Frustrated, Debbie forces him to cut ties with his family; when they try to visit Fester and Debbie at their home, they are removed from the premises. The Addams are alarmed to find that Pubert has transformed into a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, blond-haired baby. Grandmama diagnoses this as a result of his disrupted family life and Gomez becomes horribly depressed.

At camp, the counselors cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in Gary s Thanksgiving play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley, and Joel are all sent to the camp s Harmony Hut , where they are forced to watch Bambi, Lassie Come Home, The Little Mermaid, The Sound of Music, The Brady Bunch (despite said title later having a feature film in 1995) and Annie. Afterwards, the three feign cheerfulness, and Wednesday agrees to take part. However, during the performance, she reveals her deception and returns to her old self and stages a coup, with the help of her brother and Joel, with fellow outcast campers. They capture Amanda, Gary, and Becky, and set the camp on fire. Later, Wednesday and Joel share their first kiss before separating for a time, with Joel staying behind to lead their friends to ensure the camp s permanent destruction while the Addams siblings return home via a hijacked camp van.

Debbie tries to kill Fester by blowing up their mansion, but he survives. She then pulls a gun and reveals she never loved him and that she was only interested in his money. The Thing drives Debbie s car into her and helps Fester escape. Fester apologizes to Gomez upon his return to the Addams house, and Wednesday and Pugsley return, successfully reuniting the family together. Debbie takes another car and drives to Fester s house, where she ties the family to electric chairs, explaining—while the Addamses listen sympathetically—that she killed her parents and two previous husbands for incredibly frivolous and materialistic reasons. Upstairs, the now-restored-to-normally pale, moustached Pubert escapes from his crib and, via a series of improbable events, is propelled into the room where the family is being held. Debbie throws the switch to electrocute them, but Pubert manipulates the wires and reverses the current, electrocuting her instead and incinerating her into a pile of ash and credit cards by rescuing all of his family members from their deaths, fulfilling the family s creed of vengeance against those who cross them.

Some time later, at Pubert s first-birthday party (attended by all the Addams relatives and Joel), Fester laments Debbie s loss, but soon becomes smitten with Dementia (the new baby nanny for Cousin Itt and his wife, Margaret). In the 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 emerges from the earth and grabs him. He screams while Wednesday smiles.

Cast

• Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams
• Raul Julia as Gomez Addams
• Christopher Lloyd as Fester Addams
• Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams
• Christopher Hart 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
• Dana Ivey as Margaret Alford Addams (Mrs. Cousin Itt)
• David Krumholtz as Joel Glicker
• Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper as Pubert Addams
• Peter MacNicol as Gary Granger
• Christine Baranski as Becky Martin-Granger
• Mercedes McNab as Amanda Buckman, a camper at Camp Chippewa (McNab played the Girl Scout in the first film)

Cameo roles

• Director Barry Sonnenfeld and Julie Halston as the parents of Joel Glicker.
• Nathan Lane as the police desk sergeant. Lane would eventually go on to play Gomez in the Addams Family Broadway musical.
• David Hyde Pierce as the delivery room doctor
• Peter Graves as America s Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes anchorman
• Sam McMurray and Harriet Sansom Harris as Amanda s parents
• Ian Abercrombie as a driver
• Chris Ellis as a furniture delivery driver
• Tony Shalhoub as Jorge
• Cynthia Nixon as a nanny interviewee

Production

The family values in the film s title is a tongue-in-cheek reference by writer Paul Rudnick to a 1992 speech ( Reflections on Urban America ) made by then-Vice Presidential candidate Dan Quayle. In the speech, Quayle controversially blamed the 1992 Los Angeles riots on a breakdown of family values .

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 less than 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 .

Music

• 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 singer Michael Jackson was supposed to feature a song in the film called Addams Groove/Family Thing . The song is mostly rumored to have been removed due to the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson; in reality, it was because of contractual differences with Paramount Pictures. The song has since been leaked online. Jackson is referenced in the film via a poster in the Harmony Hut advertising his 1992 single Heal the World , which horrifies Joel.

Release

Home media

The Addams Family Values video game was produced by Ocean Software.

The film was released on VHS and DVD in 2000 with only 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 October 2019, the film debuted on the Blu-ray format when Paramount Pictures released double feature of Addams Family and Addams Family Values on Blu-ray in the United States, along with standalone releases. 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.

Reception

Box office

Addams Family Values opened at number 1 at the US box office in its opening weekend with a reported gross of $14,117,545. In its second week, the film dropped to number 2 behind Mrs. Doubtfire, and in its third week to number 3 behind Mrs. Doubtfire and A Perfect World. Its final box office gross in the United States and Canada was $48,919,043, a significant decline from the previous film s domestic total of $113,502,426. Internationally it grossed $62 million, for a worldwide total of $110.9 million. In retrospect, Barry Sonnenfeld recalled: I was disappointed in the box office for the second film. I think the first film is more romantic and the second film is funnier. Part of the reason it didn’t do as well is that the marketing of the movie was so similar to the first one that people didn’t think it was going to be any value-added and I really wanted to push the Pubert of it all and the Fester of it all. Instead, the whole campaign was back with the original Addams Family, so it wasn’t really promising anything new. I think that’s in part why it didn’t do as well. Many people love it as much or more as the first one .

Critical response

I’m of the firm belief that the Addams Family are the most loving, caring and connected family that has ever graced the silver screen. They are wildly devoted to each other, show an interest in what the others are doing and spend tons of quality time together. In all honesty, there’s quite a bit to be jealous when watching them.

—Jonathan Barkan, Bloody Disgusting, 2015

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 76% based on 54 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 61 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews . Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale, a grade up from the B earned by the previous film.

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 than Maslin: 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, was even less enthuastic than Klady, calling 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 had disliked the first film. Siskel gave Addams Family Values a mixed review and accused Sonnenfeld of caring more about how the film looks than how the jokes play. Ebert, however, gave the film three stars out of four and thought that, unusually for a sequel, it improved upon its predecessor. 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), but lost to Schindler s List; 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.

Year	1993
ReleaseDate	1993-11-19
RuntimeMins	94
RuntimeStr	1h 34min
Plot	The Addams Family try to rescue their beloved Uncle Fester from his gold-digging new love, a black widow named Debbie.
Awards	Nominated for 1 Oscar, 3 wins & 16 nominations total
Directors	Barry Sonnenfeld
Writers	Charles Addams, Paul Rudnick
Stars	Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd
Produced by	David Nicksay,Susan Ringo,Scott Rudin
Music by	Marc Shaiman
Cinematography by	Donald Peterman
Film Editing by	Jim Miller,Arthur Schmidt
Casting By	David Rubin
Production Design by	Ken Adam
Art Direction by	William J. Durrell Jr.
Set Decoration by	Marvin March
Costume Design by	Theoni V. Aldredge
Makeup Department	Fred C. Blau Jr.,Fern Buchner,Bill Fletcher,Tony Gardner,Susan Germaine,Kevin Haney,Katherine James,Steve LaPorte,Cheri Minns,Gerald Quist,Kim Santantonio,Susan Schuler-Page,Toni-Ann Walker,Dean Gates
Production Management	D. Scott Easton,Michael Tadross
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Michael Scott Bryant,Burtt Harris,Mark McGann,Rebecca Strickland,Ian Woolf
Art Department	Daril Alder,Fred Apolito,Craig B. Ayers Sr.,Mychael Bates,Charles William Breen,Tamara Clinard,Michael D. Combs,Lauren Cory,Emily Ferry,John Giuliano,Otniel Gonzalez,Jeffery J. Jenkins,Johnny Knight,John Leimanis,Frank Musitelle,Joseph Musso,Jim Ondrejko,Joe Ondrejko,Caroline Perzan,Bob Skemp,Joy Taylor,Justin Walker,J. Todd Anderson,John Ballowe,Daren Dochterman,Jann K. Engel,Steven Hintz,Tom Hrupcho,Anthony Klaiman,Kacy Magedman,David Napoli,William H. Phen Jr.,D.A. Zingelewicz
Sound Department	Bob Baron,Pamela Bentkowski,Noah Blough,Kay Colvin,Anne Couk,Ken Dufva,Juno J. Ellis,Douglas Greenfield,Cecelia Hall,Robin Harlan,Frank Howard,Joseph A. Ippolito,Suhail Kafity,Peter F. Kurland,Robert J. Litt,Steve Mann,Martin Maryska,James M. McCann,Sarah Monat,Frank A. Montaño,Jonathan Phillips,Greg P. Russell,Randy Singer,Thomas W. Small,Beth Sterner,David Behle,Greg Curda,Gloria D Alessandro,Jesse Dodd,Robert W. Hedland,Marcy Stoeven,David Wolowic
Special Effects by	James Belohovek,Barry Crane,Albert Delgado,Mike Elizalde,Eric Fiedler,Scott Forbes,Tony Gardner,Vance Hartwell,Gary L. Karas,Michael Levitre,Frank Charles Lutkus III,John Mauvezin,Dave Nelson,Carolyn Oros,Brian Penikas,Jeff Pepiot,Ken Pepiot,Gintar Repecka,V. Jude Ruta,Greg Solomon,Robert Cole,Carol Koch,Becky Ochoa,Gary Pawlowski,Bill Sturgeon
Visual Effects by	Katsuyoshi Arita,Jim Aupperle,Janine Monique Brauns,Laura Buff,Craig Clark,Thomas Conley,William S. Conner,Lowell Crisp,Syd Dutton,David Emerson,Ken Fisher,Jody Gaber,Brian Griffin,Robin Griffin,Todd Hall,Bill Harden,Brian Jochum,Kelly Kerby,Ingin Kim,Barry R. Koper,Michael Krueger,Peter Kuran,Kevin Kutchaver,Lisa Mann,Barbu Marian,Gary Martin,Jo Martin,David McCue,Alan Munro,Karen M. Murphy,Marilyn Nave,Valerie T. O Brien,Kevin O Neill,Robert L. Olmstead,Keith Peterman,Vic Petrotta Jr.,Cynthia Pusheck,Walter Riley,Mark Sawicki,Ted Shinneman,Robert Stromberg,Greg Tagawa,Bill Taylor,Frederick E.O. Toye,Pam Vick,Don Waller,David S. Williams Jr.,Jacqueline Zietlow,Thomas R. Dickens,George Herthel,Brian Prosser,Enid Zentelis
Stunts	Joni Avery,Mickey Cassidy,Richie Gaona,Gary Hymes,Alex Gaona,Keii Johnston,Steve Madaras,Larry Nicholas,Bobby Porter,Pat Romano,Myke Schwartz,Patricia Tallman
Camera and Electrical Department	Jenna Abrahamson-Minardi,Adam Alphin,Mike Amorelli,Michael Anderson,Billy Blackman,Michael W. Blymyer,Hugo Cortina,Lowell Crisp,David E. Diano,Melinda Sue Gordon,Pascal M. Guillemard,Donald L. Hartley,Vic Keatley,James E. Krattiger,Brad Peterman,Jay Peterman,Keith Peterman,Waverly Smothers,Calvin Sterry,Pattie Stone,Francis X. Valdez III,Renee Kayon,Mark Mele,Randy Nolen,Michael Shanman
Animation Department	Kathy St. Germain
Casting Department	Kenneth Chamitoff,Barbara Harris,Charlie Messenger,Marshall Peck,Amy Taksen,Debra Zane,Michele Bancroft
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Sue Crosby,Mitchell Ray Kenney,Wallace G. Lane Jr.,Linda Matthews,Bob Moore Jr.,Alina Panova,Kelly Porter,Nava R. Sadan,Susan J. Wright,Donna Beltran
Editorial Department	Leigh Davis,Tara Duncan,Mark Herman,Jeremiah O Driscoll,Bob Putynkowski,Karen Rasch,Theresa Repola Mohammed,Carin-Anne Strohmaier
Location Management	Karen White,Beth Tate
Music Department	Jeff Atmajian,Bob Bornstein,Tom Boyd,Tim Boyle,Wade Culbreath,Brad Dechter,Sandy DeCrescent,Bruce Dukov,Nancy Fogarty,The Hollywood Studio Orchestra,Alexander Janko,Artie Kane,Norman Ludwin,Hummie Mann,Chris Montan,Maria Newman,Bryan Pezzone,Ralph Sall,Scott Stambler,Michael Starobin,Tony Terran,James Thatcher,Louise Di Tullio,Paul Wertheimer,Booker White,The Hollywood Studio Symphony,Nick Vidar
Script and Continuity Department	Judi Townsend
Transportation Department	Randy Peters,Mike Phillips,Timothy P. Ryan,Candace Wells
Additional Crew	Peter Anastos,David Ascher,Paula Benson-Himes,Kevin Braker,Kathy Breen,Brandon Camp,Scott Chorna,John Coldiron,Maggie Davis,Frank Dutro,Allen Ferro,Pablo Ferro,AnaMarie C. Gonzaga,Rhona Gordon,Alonzo Greer,Victoria Hall,Vance Hartwell,Daren Hicks,Pat Jackson,Cee Lizarraga,Sandra McNeil,Ryan McWhorter,Daniella Milton,Charles Monaco,Robert Newhart,Heather Nicksay,Kathy Orloff,Adam Shankman,John J. Smith Jr.,Mike Thompson,Susan Towner,Bruce Wright,Marcus Canty,June Jordan,Jesse Merz,Stan Rodarte,Barbara Rosing Hoke,Lisa Wilhoit
Thanks	Lady Colyton,William Sherak
Genres	Comedy, Fantasy
Companies	Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.8
ImDbRatingVotes	93039
MetacriticRating	61
Keywords	brother brother relationship,husband wife relationship,murder attempt,black widow,jealousy