Addams Family Values is an enjoyable follow-up to the hugely successful Addams Family movie that delivers more of the familiar ghoulish laughs.
This time around, Uncle Fester (Lloyd) finds love in the form of Debbie Jellinsky (Joan Cusack), little suspecting that she is actually after his money. Meanwhile, kids Wednesday (Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are sent away to a ‘normal’ summer camp after they try to kill Morticia and Gomez’s new baby Pubert, leading to a hilarious Thanksgiving play that descends into chaos, driving the camp counsellors (the marvellous Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski) close to the edge of sanity.
With Wednesday developing her first crush, Fester abandoning his family and embracing suburbia for his gold-digging love, and Debbie resorting to increasingly silly methods of bumping him off, this has even more laughs than the original movie and a scene-stealing turn from Cusack. A third film, Addams Family Reunion, featuring none of the original cast, was made in 1998 for video/DVD but is best left on the shelf.
Is Addams Family Values suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This is lighter than the first movie, but still darkly comic and best suited to older children who will appreciate the black humour. Younger ones may not be too thrilled at watching the various ways Wednesday and Pugsley try to get rid of their baby sibling (on the other hand, they may love it).
If you like this, why not try: Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, The Witches, Scooby-Doo, Despicable Me,