Just when I thought the list was done, I find four more things to change.
Let’s cut to the chase. The first one is small, but it works. I moved Abigail Craven’s “I never should have used him” scene. In the original, Fester changed his mind, brought out the props to Wednesday and Pugsley, and then we cut to Mrs. Craven wondering where her son went. This may have worked theatrically, but because I shortened so much of the film, it made more sense to throw a pause before Fester gives the children their props. So now, Craven’s scene comes first, then Fester giving the kids the props. To do otherwise made Fester’s change feel too sudden. We go from him telling the kids, “go away.” to “I’ve changed my mind.” within the span of only a couple scenes, and it makes his change seem more random than it needs to be.
Change #2 is also a different scene placement. This one is more important than the last. In The Addams Family, Gomez went into an emotional conversation with Fester on his belonging to the family. The scene itself was great as is. But placing it before the children’s play sequence wasn’t the best spot for the scene. I decided to move this conversation to the end of the night, after Fester tucks Wednesday in to bed. Climaxing the night of the school play with Fester and Gomez’s conversation is a great way to conclude that sequence, and the emotional resonance is stronger.
For change #3, I have to talk about the transition from the first movie to the second. One criticism I hear about fanmixes are that they can feel like two movies thrown together, and that’s also been a challenge for this fanmix. The beginning of the Addams Family Values section is vulnerable to this problem due to the shift from Fester to Pubert. I moved the “Strange Men and the Women Who Avoid Them” reading to an earlier point. Even after that, the birth of Pubert still felt like the simplicity of the edit was being taken away after the climax of the previous film. So, I moved the reading all the way to the beginning of the Values section. Right after Fester howls at the moon. This way, the edit establishes that while Fester is free from Dr. Pinderschloss and Tully, his character arc is still incomplete. The viewer has an excuse to keep watching after the Addams Family half is over. Of course, the next few smattering of scenes are going to leave you wondering how all of this stuff about Pubert is gonna tie in to Uncle Fester.
Which leads me to change #4, and it’s another heartbreaking removal. I’ve made a lot of those with this one. I deleted the “he has my father’s eyes” scene. Why? It has to do with a lot of things. The first movie was Uncle Fester’s film from start to finish, and because Fester was set up so much, it carried into the Addams Family Values section of the film too. The payoff of Values didn’t work, because it felt like we were setup with Fester only to payoff with Fester, Wednesday, and Pubert. This gave it a similar issue to Full Metal Jacket where the first half of the movie is better than the second. In order to improve the payoff, I placed all the focus on Uncle Fester for the Addams Family Values half instead. Which brings us back to the deletion of change #4. After Pubert is born, the viewer is bound to ask why we’re moving away from Fester after following him for the last 80 minutes. It became clear that Debbie needed to be introduced ASAP so that the reason for all this talk about the baby is answered, and the story doesn’t lose track. This is also why I cut out things like the guillotine, the stuff about one of the kids having to die, and the previous nannies. We needed to meet Debbie sooner rather than later.
That’s all for now. Hopefully, these are the “final” final changes. I’ll update the changes list soon.