Addams Family Values

After the eminently amusing Addams Family, which was good due to impeccible casting, fabulously over the top designs and plenty of tasteless jokes. The sequel was inevitably more of the same and once again Marc Shaiman was drafted in to write the score. To preserve the same kind of mood as the original Marc Shaiman's score is basically an extension of the first using the basic ideas and working the material a little more. There are no new terribly memorable themes, but Shaiman avoids repeating too much material from the original so it remains generally fresh and interesting. The most welcome return are the few fleeting glimpses of Shaiman's original Rota-esque family theme, which is fair more ravishing and suitable than Vic Mizzy's more famous television theme (which makes a few appearances), but Mizzy's does serve the comedic side well.

The film was chaotic and incoherent and so is the score; darting from one idea to another, it does at least have the good sense to remain coherent within tracks. There are a number of crackling set pieces, the best of these being perhaps the absolutely psychotic The Tango which is one of those out of control, darkly comic dance numbers that injects healthy doses of Spanish Flamenco in for good measure. It has the added bonus of being absolutely brilliantly performed by a studio orchestra on especially cracking form. Of the more subdued sections, Fester and Debbie's Courtship is a highlight with large quantities of golden age melodrama it manages to avoid being either sappy or subdued to the point where it would get lost amongst the onslaught of comedy and excitement.

I must admit that the first time I listened to the sequel I was pretty disappointed, although in retrospect I can't imagine why. It's no better or worse than the original particularly. I'm not entirely sure that I can say that it has few original touches yet avoids repeating the original, as that seems to be a contradiction in terms. Ah well, you get the idea, more music in a very similar style, but not stretching the boundries too much and if you enjoyed the first this will doubtlessly go down like a carving knife in the throat.