The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. Earlier Addams had worked in collaboration with his friend Ray Bradbury. In a 2001 interview Bradbury states that after failing to find a publisher, they went their own separate ways, with Bradbury creating the Elliott Family and Addams creating the Addams family.

The Addamses are a satirical inversion of the ideal American family; an eccentric, wealthy family who delight in the macabre and are unaware that people find them bizarre or frightening. They originally appeared as a series of single panel cartoons, published in The New Yorker magazine between 1938 and Addams' 1988 death. They have since been adapted to other media, including television series, films and video games.

 

The movie opens as Morticia calmly gives birth to a baby boy, Pubert; the older children, Wednesday and Pugsley, immediately develop an extreme case of sibling rivalry as well as go by a tradition that "when a new baby is born, one of the other children has to die." So they make numerous attempts to kill the baby. When Gomez and Morticia try to hire a nanny, the children frighten them all away. The last applicant, Debbie Jellinsky, seems to be made of sterner stuff; however, she's also a serial killer known as "The Black Widow," who's set her sights on Uncle Fester and the vast Addams fortune. On television's "America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes" it is revealed that Debbie has been traveling in disguise for quite some time, marrying rich men just to kill them and claim their fortunes. When Wednesday becomes suspicious of Debbie's interest in Fester's money, Debbie persuades Gomez and Morticia to send the older children to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp for privileged children. The parents seem horrified at the thought of doing so, but take them anyways as Debbie tells them to just take them even though she's sure that they'll deny everything.

After a romantic dinner at the Addams' favorite bistro, Fester and Debbie walk in the graveyard behind the mansion. Debbie then lies to Fester by saying she is a virgin and wishes she had a man for herself. Fester, believing she really loves him, becomes engaged to her. Debbie marries Fester, then promptly tries to kill him on their Hawaiian honeymoon by electrocuting him in the jacuzzi; however, Fester is an Addams (and hence practically indestructible as he is practically indulged to death and suffering) and he mistakes her murderous actions for ordinary affection. At her wits' end, Debbie denies him sex until he promises never to see his family again; in anguish, he agrees. The newlyweds couple then move to a garish McMansion in the suburbs, Debbie driving them there in her Lincoln Town Car. Several weeks later, Gomez, Morticia, Granny, and Lurch come to the mansion in hopes to be able to visit Fester. They fail to do so as Debbie threatens to lock them up if they try to visit again. After the Addamses fail to get the police to arrest Debbie, Debbie renews her passport, telling the clerk that she will be traveling alone because "she'll be a widow."

With Fester gone, brother Gomez goes into a depression and Pubert becomes "possessed," causing him to become blonde, rosy and cheerful. Meanwhile, at Camp Chippewa, Wednesday and Pugsley don't fit in with the rest of the wealthy campers. During the lifesaving activity, Wednesday intentionally lets her partner drown in the lake. At night, during the ghost story, when it is Wednesday's turn to continue the story, she tells of the ghost undoing all of the camper's nose jobs overnight, which causes her fellow campers to scream in terror. The Addams children try to escape at night when they receive word of Uncle Fester's marriage to Debbie, but are caught by the other campers. The camp's golden girl Amanda Buckman (played by Mercedes McNab), and the rest of the campers suggest that the Addams kids be punished for their escape attempt, but the camp counselors Gary and Becky, would prefer to inspire them by singing Kumbaya which makes Wednesday and Pugsley cringe. Meanwhile, Wednesday encounters a soul mate (of sorts) in the person of Joel Glicker, an introverted Jewish boy plagued by allergies. He confirms her suspicions that Debbie is the "Black Widow" and Fester is her next target.

Meanwhile, at Fester and Debbie's house, Debbie has indeed come up with a new plan to kill Fester for his fortune. For their "3 week anniversary", she wraps up a time bomb in a gift box and tells Fester not to open it until she comes back with some champagne. Thing is seen watching through the window as Debbie says "she'll be right back" even though she is seen carrying two suitcases out to her car. Fester, excited about everything, returns to the kitchen to finish cooking their dinner with the time bomb ticking away on the dining room table.

Back at Camp Chippewa, for the end of the summer,the camp is about to put on a play about "The First Thanksgiving" with the snobbish rich kids cast as the pilgrims with Amanda as Sarah Miller, the leading pilgrim, and the social outcasts cast as the Chippewa natives with Wednesday as Pocahantas. When Wednesday, Pugsley and Joel refuse to act in the play, all three outcasts are locked in the "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch movies and TV shows ranging from Bambi to Lassie Come Home to The Little Mermaid to The Sound of Music to The Brady Bunch to Annie. When the three come out, they pretend that they have changed from gloomy to cheerful. During the performance, however, Wednesday breaks out of her character and rants about how the American colonists would exploit the Native Americans in the future and leads the other outcasts in destroying the set, tying up Amanda and placing an apple in her mouth as a gag. Afterwards the Addams siblings flee the camp for home.