Addams Family 2, The

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Short takes

Not suitable under 6; parental guidance to 9 (violence, themes, imitative behaviour)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Addams Family 2, The
  • a review of Addams Family 2, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 January 2022.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 6 Not suitable due to themes, violence, and imitative behaviour.
Children aged 6–9 Parental guidance recommended due to themes, violence, and imitative behaviour.
Children over the age of 9 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Addams Family 2, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, animated violence and crude humour
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

After an outstanding presentation at a school fair, Wednesday Addams (voice of Chloe Grace Moretz) feels jilted by the fact that her breakthrough contribution to science was ignored and that every student was given a prize merely for participating. Disgruntled by the snub, she is not appeased by the keen interest shown by Dr Cyrus Strange (voice of Bill Hader), a mad scientist obsessed with genetic mutations. Wednesday is mortified by the fact that her family has disobeyed her instructions not to attend the fair, along with the fact they are responsible for inadvertently setting the entire place on fire. Wanting nothing to do with her unusual family, she seeks to maintain her distance at all times. However, this drives her father, Gomez (voice of Oscar Isaac), to organize a family road trip in an effort to bring them closer together. Wednesday’s mother, Morticia (voice of Charlize Theron), recognises her daughter’s need for solitude but goes along with her husband’s plan to see the States in an Addams-style mobile home. They are joined by Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley (voice of Javon “Wanna” Walton), the children’s Uncle Fester (voice of Nick Kroll) and their servant Lurch (voice of Conrad Vernon). Cousin It (voice of Snoop Dog) also makes a brief appearance. While the family enjoys their own adventures at such iconic spots as Niagara Falls, The Alamo, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon they are relentlessly pursued by a lawyer (voice of Wallace Shawn) acting on behalf of Dr Strange, who claims that Wednesday is his long-lost daughter and who does everything in his power to destroy the Addams family and end their relationship with Wednesday. Wednesday’s response goes to show that even though her family is unusual, there are some bonds that cannot be broken.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family challenges; Child rebellion; Sibling rivalry; Cruelty to others; Dishonesty in scientific experimentation and animal testing.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Pugsley explodes out of a science fair volcano and sets off a chain reaction of unfortunate events: a character’s head catches on fire, ice spills into an electrical experiment, windows shatter as flames engulf the building, and children run for their lives. Meanwhile, Morticia and Gomez are dancing around the fire.
  • Wednesday uses a Voodoo doll of Pugsley and snaps his neck. The real Pugsley gets his neck cracked and falls to the floor.
  • Uncle Fester unceremoniously falls down the stairs and nearly gets his hand chopped with an axe.
  • Wednesday tries to suffocate Pugsley with a pillow, smothering him till he is nearly unconscious.
  • The Salem Witch Trials are briefly discussed where young girls were burned at the stake.
  • A character confesses to decapitating a barbershop quartet.
  • Wednesday attempts to behead Pugsley with a sand guillotine.
  • Pugsley attempts to blow up the Grand Canyon. Rocks explode amidst fiery blasts as people are knocked to the ground.
  • A character is caught in a snare trap. Wednesday says she let him go, but it is implied that she dropped him over the side of a steep cliff and the character was never seen or heard from again.
  • Characters have a bar fight, punching, wrestling and hitting each other.
  • Pugsley detonates a grenade in the tube in which he is being held captive.
  • A character is used as a basketball and as a soccer ball.
  • The mutated scientist tries to stab and throw other characters.
  • Uncle Fester attacks the mutant beast. They both go over a cliff and crash onto a couple below.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Dr Strange morphs into a demonic beast made up of random animals. He repeatedly tries to attack and kill the Addams family. He is larger than life, extremely violent and scary-looking.
  • Wednesday’s eyes roll to the back of her head and the room goes dark as she proceeds to terrify a little girl who asks what her talent for the beauty pageant is.
  • While camping in the woods of Sleepy Hollow the Addams family sit around the campfire telling stories. Their faces are initially distorted by the firelight and dark shadows. Some look scarier than others.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • The above-mentioned scenes and images may scare or disturb some children in this age group.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • The above-mentioned scenes and images may scare or disturb some younger children in this age group.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Rubik's Cube.
  • Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Billie Eilish are all mentioned by name.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Wednesday tells her mother, “If you want my permission to take a new lover you have it”.
  • Uncle Fester is constantly trying to give Pugsley unsuccessful tips on how to ‘woo’ women.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Uncle Fester is shown on a couple of occasions wearing nothing but his spider underwear.
  • Gomez and Morticia kiss passionately on occasion.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Two characters are shown on the floor looking vague and dishevelled. It is mentioned that they hit the catnip pretty hard the previous night.
  • Empty martini glasses are shown on occasion.
  • Characters drink in a bar and one drunken character stumbles up the steps.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Imbecile.

In a nutshell

The Addams Family 2 (a standalone sequel to the 2019 film, The Addams Family) is an animated adventure with a predictable plot and lots of crude humour, often involving poo: lion poo, driving into a massive pile of poo, being blown out of the Grand Canyon on a port-a-potty and Uncle Fester having an “accident”. This is a film that will be best enjoyed by slightly older children and fans of the Addams Family. Not suitable under 6 and parental guidance to 9.

The main messages from this movie are to be true to yourself even when you are different from everyone else; that great thinkers need obstacles to function; and that the invisible bonds that bind a family are far stronger than we may imagine.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Persistence
  • Courage
  • Uniqueness
  • Creativity
  • Love.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Hurting your siblings or attempting to kill them with pillows, knives, Voodoo, a guillotine and other dangerous behaviours.
  • Running tests on people or injecting them with substances without their understanding or consent.
  • Animal testing and genetic mutations.
  • Teenage rebellion.
  • The use of violence to solve conflict.