The Addams Family Gets Re-Released With The Best Scene Fully Restored
The Addams Family has now been re-released with the greatest sequence reinstated.
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The Addams Family movie just turned 30 this year, and fans, cast, and crew have been reminiscing over the unexpected Hollywood hit. Although America’s favorite spooky family has been around for over 80 years, the titular film from Paramount Pictures remains one of the most memorable adaptations of the household. In celebration of the film turning 30, Paramount Pictures will re-release the movie on 4K and restore the infamous Mamushka dance to its full-screen time.
You can catch the edited version of the dance for yourself here:
Starring Raul Julia as Gomez, Anjelica Huston as Morticia, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester, and Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, the film was a hit that has stuck with movie lovers for decades. But when The Addams Family made over $24 million at the box office in just its first week, execs at Paramount Pictures were shocked. According to director Barry Sonnenfeld and producer Scott Rudin, it was no surprise to anyone working on the film that the studio had already doomed the project. In a recent interview for The Hollywood Reporter, Sonnenfeld opened up about behind-the-scenes details on how the film was viewed throughout production.
“I read the script. It was not very good,“ said Sonnenfeld. But according to Rudin, that was the precise reason Sonnenfeld was asked to direct the film and give it a chance; and that’s exactly what Sonnenfeld did. With a remarkable lineup of both star-studded and upcoming actors, the cast of The Addams Family helped breathe new life into the film, propelling it to accumulate over $191.5 million worldwide and to become the classic it is today.
One scene, in particular, featuring the famous Mamushka dance between brothers Gomez and Fester, was instantly hated by the studio, says Sonnenfeld. The Mamushka, or “dance of brotherly love” is declared by Gomez in the film to be a long-standing tradition in his family for celebrations. The scene in which the brothers perform the eccentric jig takes up less than two minutes of the film. However, Sonnenfeld announced that the upcoming 4K release of The Addams Family will include the entire dance before it was drastically cut in production.
In the popular dance scene from The Addams Family, the brothers are seen dancing a jig as they slap each other across the face and even show off a fancy sword toss leading up to Gomez tossing one sword down Fester’s throat for him to catch in his mouth. According to Sonnenfeld, the version of the Mamushka dance that made it onto film starts halfway through the actual performance the crew filmed, as the director felt he had to cut the dance scene down after negative remarks from Paramount, and the need to shorten the film’s runtime.
Following the success of The Addams Family in 1991, Paramount Pictures greenlit a sequel, which launched Addams Family Values in 1993 and Addams Family Reunion in 1998. The beloved macabre family was recently brought back to the big screen in 2019’s computer-animated The Addams Family, which successfully nabbed a sequel that just hit theatres on October 1st. You can catch the extended Mamushka dance yourself when the extended cut goes on sale on November 9th.
