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| Shaiman |
Addams Family Values: (Marc Shaiman) After
pleasantly surprising audiences in 1991 with
The Addams Family,
Paramount and director Barry Sonnenfeld returned to the concept in a
1993 sequel that lost some of the charm of the 1960's television show
and added macabre humor in much greater doses. The famously morbid
family welcomes in a new nanny for the youngest new Addams baby, and
this woman takes an immediate interest in Uncle Fester. Meanwhile, the
older children are sent off to a summer camp which, much to their
pleasure, they literally destroy. The nanny's interest in Fester is one
of gold digging, however, and the family must unite to teach the woman
about what happens to people who cross the Addams family.
Addams
Family Values was met with a mixture of opinions depending on how
audiences handled the tonal shift of the story, and with diminished box
office returns and the death of lead actor Raul Julia within a year of
the film, the franchise concluded there. Both movies were treated to
Broadway musical elements despite also being littered with songs; the
sequel's soundtrack is built upon hip-hop covers of 1970's funk tunes
and a pair of sickeningly chipper children's sing-alongs. The latter
were in the wheelhouse of composer Marc Shaiman, who approached these
films with a stage-proven lyricism and unashamed exuberance that
overplays the story's comedy for effect. The scores for
The Addams
Family and
Addams Family Values are exercises in funny waltz
structures and some Carl Stalling residuals, haphazard in pacing and
rarely stopping for a breath. They are undoubtedly fun scores, but they
also tend to exhaust in their combined lengths, the highlights
ultimately residing in the more romantic moments. For
Addams Family
Values, not much is new for Shaiman, many of the first score's
themes returning, the general format of the work's narrative similar,
and the orchestral coloration and their specialty contributors remaining
familiar. The harpsichord seems to receive more airtime in this entry,
often paired with higher woodwinds. A greater emphasis is placed on
action music in
Addams Family Values, wild, cymbal-crashing
sequences of expressiveness for the two main themes especially
pronounced.
The two main themes from
The Addams Family
return in the obligatory placements, the main waltz most often
associated with Morticia continuing to serve well as these film's
primary identity. Here, it's frantic at 1:13 into "It's an Addams!,"
these manic renditions carrying over to the opening of "Sibling
Rivalry." The most alluring performance of the idea occurs in "Love on a
Tombstone," an initial solo violin leading to a lushly romantic but
brief tribute to the theme, like the "Evening" cue in the prior score
but shorter. The waltz informs the memorable "The Tango" scene with wild
integration of famous phrases from other inspirations, building to the
theme's concert-like conclusion from the previous score. The theme sadly
does not figure into the closing cue, Shaiman opting to really
concentrate on the main Vic Mizzy television show theme there instead.
In the action scenes, the waltz is often mashed together with Shaiman's
broader family theme from
The Addams Family. This idea opens
"It's an Addams!" delicately and joins the waltz in swirling action
later, persisting to mingle on harpsichord with that waltz early in
"Sibling Rivalry." It achieves defiant size at 1:16 and 1:29 into
"Escape From Debbie," opens "Wednesday's Revolt" with mystery and builds
to rousing action, shifts to action force at 6:15 into "Debbie's Big
Scene," and closes out "Some Time Later," first in suspense and then as
a horror stinger for the movie's humorously surprising conclusion. The
lighter theme for Fester that doubled as a love theme of sorts for the
two brothers returns in
Addams Family Values and is dedicated to
his swooning over the nanny. Fester's theme occupies most of "Fester's
in Love" in a yearning crescendo, becomes tortured in "Fester and
Debbie's Courtship," returns to full form in the first 80 seconds of
"Debbie's Big Scene," and is back in character at 0:30 into "Some Time
Later" with a downbeat and lovely statement, though it quickly turns
humorously lush at 0:56 for Fester's new love. The sad theme for
Wednesday from the previous movie uses the same chords but different
phrasing here as the character matures into her own potential romantic
interests. It opens "Wednesday and Joel's Courtship" in a lighter, more
hopeful variation, continuing as a soft interlude at 1:56 into "Escape
From Debbie." After whimsically descending late in "Wednesday's Revolt,"
the melody returns to its normal incarnation, though hints of the
lighter version return for the final conversation at 1:52 into "Some
Time Later."
The final returning theme in
Addams Family
Values is, of course, the classic Mizzy television tune, and it
figures as an accent here a little more often than it did in
The
Addams Family. Its full rhythm with finger snapping adorns "It's an
Addams!" at 1:46 without the actual theme, and a fragment of this rhythm
concludes "Wednesday's Revolt" just as it did the equivalent action
scene in the prior movie. The theme enjoys a cute snippet at 1:57 into
"Sibling Rivalry" and informs some of the comedy action in the middle of
"Debbie's Big Scene." It really shines in the first half of "Some Time
Later," opening the cue with harpsichord and woodwind tenderness and
presenting a redemptive moment at 1:20, just like the previous score's
resolution scene. Shaiman does explore new thematic territory in
Addams Family Values, but not with spectacular results. Most of
the new material is related to the nanny, Debbie, which uses the family
waltz formations but in a twisted, cynical way. It espouses mysterious
whimsy in the first half in "Debbie Meets the Family" before segueing to
a sleazy and jazzy tone in "The Big Date." Debbie's music toys
throughout "Fester and Debbie's Courtship," becomes more forceful at the
outset of "The Honeymoon is Over" (and comical later), is sadly
disappointed early in "Escape From Debbie," and disintegrates in the
second minute of "Debbie's Big Scene" before concluding the cue with
appropriate gusto. The composer also introduces a few other waltz
manipulations that sometimes persist. Most obvious of these is a cutely
prancing identity at 0:53 into "Sibling Rivalry" and 1:23 into "Debbie
Meets the Family," possibly representing the new baby. Likewise in
"Sibling Rivalry" is a skittish and naughty identity at 2:14. Outside of
the themes are a few outward parody moments, including the "Rock-a-bye
baby on the tree top" nursery rhyme at 0:52 into "It's an Addams!," the
various borrowings in "The Tango," and the two source-like children's
school songs, "Camp Chippewa Song" and "Eat Us," both quite annoying
despite their humor. Unfortunately, Gomez's tango from the first film
did not return to inform any of "The Tango" here, which is perhaps
Shaiman's most obviously disappointing spotting decision. The two main
themes remain the best attraction in this music, but their appearances
are fewer and less robust. With the new Debbie material and Fester's
love theme not able to pick up the slack,
Addams Family Values
remains a step behind its predecessor. The sequel's score-only album
didn't take long to go out of print and fetch collector's prices.
Ideally, four or five cues from this work would be added to the prior
score's highlights for an affably hyperactive, combined listening
experience.
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| Bias Check: |
For Marc Shaiman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33
(in 12 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.15
(in 19,613 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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