A Kooky Road Trip: The Addams Family 2 Parent Review

The Addams Family 2 parent review and discussion questions written by the Elf on October 2nd, 2021. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog. 

Know Before You Watch The Addams Family 2

Movie: The Addams Family 2 (Check out our review of the first movie here!)
Rating: PG
Age Suggestion: 10+
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min
Release Date: October 1st, 2021
Where to Stream The Addams Family 2: You can rent the movie on Prime here or Vudu. It’s also currently in theaters (as of October 2021)
Warnings: *Addams Family 2 Epilepsy Warning: at the very end of the movie there are some psychedelic flashing sequences. Not as fast as a strobe light, but something to be aware of* The Addams are back and so are the violence, explosions, morbid humor, and general craziness- all in a PG fashion of course. Foster/adoptive parents and guardians will also want to know that the movie focuses on biology and family differences. For more on if The Addams Family 2 is appropriate for your family, check out the review below. 

 

Quick Addams Family 2 Summary:

The dark humor and fun animation are back again with the Addams Family 2. Gomez is concerned about how grown up Wednesday and Pugsley are. Connecting with teenagers is hard. So dad plans a big family road trip in a haunted RV. The trip is an adventure that no one could have seen coming. 
One of the hallmarks of The Addams Family is having an underlying moral lesson. The moral lesson of the first Addams Family animated movie was about accepting and including others. While Addams Family 2 is all about accepting yourself and your differences. 

Addams Family 2 Discussion Questions: 

1) Who was the character that tricked (or manipulated) Wednesday in the movie? Why did they do that?

2) What was the funniest disaster in the movie?

3) Which character did you feel the most like?

4) Do you have siblings? If you do, do you fight like Wednesday and Pugsley? How did they help each other in this movie?

5) Are you biologically related to everyone in your family? Why does this matter and not matter at the same time?

5) Did you like the first or the second movie better? Why?

Addams Family 2 Themes to Discuss:

-Loyalty
-Biological vs Chosen or Adoptive Family
-Valuing Yourself
-Being Manipulated
-Relationships
-Siblings
-Friendship

Addams Family 2 Parent Review: 
*Minor Spoilers Ahead*

-Is The Addams Family 2 Appropriate for Kids?:

The new animated movie series is aimed towards kids and reminiscing adults, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is appropriate for kids to watch. You know your kids best, but we wouldn’t suggest it for kids much younger than 10 because of all the violent and morbid content.

For us, as a foster/adoptive family, the biggest concern is the family storyline. Wednesday finds out she might not be biologically an Addams and that sends her into a big-time teen crisis. Here’s where the spoilers come in, so stop reading here if you don’t want any story spoilers…
Wednesday eventually determines that biology is important, but that it does not make a family. Biology might have made her a brilliant scientist, but her parents helped make her who she is. Now, she eventually finds out that she is biologically elated to the Addams, but it’s a small note at the end. And while (again big spoilers) the scientist does not turn out to be her biological father- he is represented as her bio parent for most of the movie. Now, ultimately the bio parents are the loving Addams family and not the villain- but I don’t think that negates how the villain was the biological parent in the movie. There are kids who can relate to that storyline in seeing their biological parent as a villain that they need to break free from, but for many adoptees, it could be a damaging storyline. Further reiterating what they might feel about their biology being bad. Likewise, it might be an impactful storyline for step-siblings and parents as well. Personally, I like that the conclusion seemed to be that while biology does impact us, it doesn’t always make a family but I still wish they had taken it in a little bit of a different direction.

Overall, is The Addams Family 2 family friendly? It is made to be fairly family-friendly. The level of violence and gore is not very different from the first movie. It’s actually a little less tame than the original series. But this is specifically aimed at a younger audience and they do a good job at making the adult references over the kids heads and keeping the morbidity and violence at a younger level.

-The Addams Family 2 Script/Story:

One of the things we have really enjoyed about these movies is finding all of the references and clever one liners. The most clever in The Addams Family 2, in our opinion, were the references to the Donners, Stephen King’s Carrie, and basically the entire biker club scene.

-Is it Worth Renting/Seeing in Theaters?-

Personally, we are fans of the first movie and original series. I love the moral lessons and feel like they do them better than most. That being said, this movie just wasn’t as good as the first in my opinion. It’s still a really fun watch, especially for October. I think it is worth watching if you’re looking for a fun, new, Halloween movie to watch with the family.

Thanks for Checking out our The Addams Family 2 parent review!
Don’t miss these other Halloween streaming suggestions and reviews:

-The first Addams Family animated movie discussion questions and info
–A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting on Netflix
–The House with a Clock in it’s Walls discussion questions and info
–CoCo parent review
–The Witches 2020 movie review
-Where to stream Family-Friendly Halloween Movies!
-The new Hardy Boys remake!

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*Resources: MGM movie and Youtube preview; IMBD Addams Family 2 page
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