Do we like Wednesday Addams?
A character from The Addams Family (1991)
Our score: 7 out of 10. A gloomy little menace who is fiercely loyal to her own. We'd back her, as long as we stay on her good side and keep well clear of her lemonade stand.
Wednesday is the daughter of the wealthy, macabre Addams clan. She is cold, brilliant and gloomy, and she lives in a mansion full of guillotine toys, a living hand and a very tall butler. The film follows the family's lawyer teaming up with a loan shark to swindle the clan out of its fortune. They plan to do it by having the loan shark's adopted son pose as the Addamses' long-lost Uncle Fester.
Wednesday is the sharpest member of the household. She doubts the story that Fester has come back from the Bermuda Triangle. Her view is that nobody gets out of the Bermuda Triangle. She also warms to the newcomer in her own odd way, as the two kids are taught sword-fighting for their school play. He teaches them about swords for it.
She scores well because she is funny, loyal and completely herself. One reviewer called Ricci a complete joy as the sardonic daughter. The ghoulishness is played for laughs and aimed at people who deserve it. She loses a few points because she is a genuine hazard to her brother and to any Girl Scout who wanders by.
When the schemers take over the mansion, the family is forced out and ends up in a motel. Wednesday and Pugsley try to raise money by selling lemonade, but Wednesday scares away a Girl Scout customer. In the climax the kids get their revenge on the villains. When the lawyer and the loan shark are thrown from the house, they land in graves dug by the Addams children, who bury them.