Addams Family Values (1993), PG-13

The cast of Addams Family Values, 1993. (Photo: Paramount)

Starring: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd

The ghoulish cartoon family created by Charles Addams returns for a second big-screen outing darker and nastier than the first. When Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston) gives birth to new baby boy Pubert, the other Addams children, Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and Wednesday (Christina Ricci), devise any number of ways to kill off their new sibling. This leads Morticia and her husband, Gomez Raul Julia, to hire a nanny (Joan Cusack) to oversee all three children. But the nanny has an agenda of her own, packing the Addams children off to a horrid parody of summer camp and setting out to seduce Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), all with the goal of getting her hands on the Addams family fortune. Of course, the Addams eventually triumph, with this blacker-than-most satire extolling the virtues of eccentricity and non-conformity above all. It was followed by 1999's direct-to-video Addams Family Reunion, with Darryl Hannah and Tim Curry replacing Huston and the late Julia. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide