The Addams Family turned out to be a short film series after Raul Julia, the actor who played Gomez, died in 1994. Addams Family Values didn't quite have the box office draw that The Addams Family did, making less than half as much, so perhaps the end of the series was in sight regardless. But it feels almost apt that The Addams Family would end on such a tragic note. The loss of Raul Julia certainly makes Addams Family Values somewhat bittersweet. He brought so much life and love to the role, defining the character in a lot of ways. The whole cast from The Addams Family returns for the sequel, and just as with the first one everyone is playing with their heart out on screen.
Addams Family Values took my advice retroactively and decided to give the story some more attention. The plot is corny as ever, little more than two cartoon episodes stitched together, but it works in tandem with what the Addams do best: act really fucking weird. The plot follows the Addams hiring a nanny for their new child (but moreso to watch their other kids, Pugsly and Wednesday, to prevent them from killing the child, who they harbor resentment towards). The nanny is Joan Cusack's Debbie, a black widow serial killer after uncle Fester's fortune. The story basically writes itself from that point. Addams Family Values gets a lot of mileage out of such a basic plot, mostly due to the titular family. Debbie and Fester have plenty of funny scenes together, with her trying to woo the socially self destructive uncle and then, in the latter half, trying to kill the seemingly indestructible Addams. Addams Family Values' plot is little more than a line to string together skits and jokes on. Look no further than the plot involving the Addams children. After Wednesday - quick and clever as ever - catches on to Debbie's plot to kill Fester, Debbie manages to get them sent to summer camp, and can you think of a more perfect place to have Wednesday Addams for a film? The stuff at the summer camp is absolutely pitch-perfect, with Wednesday undermining the cheery camp counselors and tormenting the perky pre-teens in attendance, all the while falling in love with a nerdy camper whose most attractive trait is that he is so allergic to everything he could die with hardly any effort.
Addams Family Values is a heck of a lot funnier than The Addams Family. The set up, for one, lets the film really stretch the ridiculousness of these characters in a way that plays to their strengths. Gomez, realizing that Debbie has manipulated Fester with her overt sexuality ("I can respect that", Morticia remarks), goes to the police to get her arrested. "She married him, took him to Hawaii, moved him into a giant mansion and has sex with him all day. Arrest her!" Gomez screams. When the chief of police tells him he is being ridiculous, Gomez breaks down yelling "has the whole world gone mad?" It lovingly plays off of these characters, leaning into the corniness of the whole thing and embracing the sheer joy of it all. The film also tries to play on racism in aristocratic, wealthy white families as well through the summer camp plot. There are numerous references to Fester marrying "the help", as one camper puts it in disgust, and other racist comments directed towards Native Americans. A thanksgiving play is put on at camp that Wednesday, naturally, tears down completely by reinforcing the near genocidal tendencies white people showed the indigenous people of North America at the time being depicted. It is an excellent use of the Addams impropriety to knock down stupid and ignorant walls, partially what the characters were created to do. The Addams Family are weird, they are obsessed with the occult and murder, but they are a hell of a lot nicer and accepting than the norm, and that is what makes them so lovable. Occultists and (implied) murderers become more likable so long as they aren't like you.
Addams Family Values is far from a perfect film. The plot drags here and there, and, as I said before, the film is essentially tied together with a cliche, but the jokes they are able to rapid fire at the audience make this one hell of an enjoyable film. There is so much love and warmth in this movie that my score below really doesn't matter at all. The film is great on its own, showing the rich possibilities these characters still have, but it also works as a touching send off for Raul Julia, a man with great passion in a role made perfectly for him.
7.0
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