Opening Title Sequence: The Addams Family

There isn’t a lot to be said about the opening title sequence of The Addams Family (1991), especially after its one-joke wonder is finished.  But, boy, what a delicious wonder it is.  It’s Christmas time at a cemetery near you.  A short audio clip of "Carol of the Bells" gives way to "Deck the Halls.  Fade into the camera tipping down ever so slightly to the faces of carolers joyfully sharing the spirit of the season at the doorstep of the Addams’ mansion, facing outwards to the neighborhood.  The camera pans the gay apparel of the dozen or so happy campers before curving its way upwards, where, along the way, we glimpse the wickedly burnt wreaths adorning the Addams' entrance.

Portrait of a loving family

After a dissolve before we arrive at the roof, the unconventional and morbid title clan gleefully wait for the perfect moment to dump a huge cauldron of boiling oil on the unsuspecting choir.  Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and her brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) watch patiently, as the excited Gomez (the late, great Raul Julia) kisses his wife Morticia's (cinema legend Angelica Huston) hand.  The immediately identifiable theme kicks in, and Grandmama (Judith Malina) and Lurch (Carel Struycken) begin to giddily tilt the bubbling cauldron forward to a 90-degree angle where Pablo Ferro's title credits continue emerging from within.  No screams are heard, but the mayhem that follows is implied ... Marc Shaiman’s lush and upbeat score plays over plumes wafting across the frame behind the names of cast and crew.

Previous Editions:
Working Girl
Devil in a Blue Dress
The Addams Family
Beetlejuice
The Birdcage
My Best Friend's Wedding
To Die For
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 

This still makes me laugh for maybe
more than one reason.  Clue: think irony.

One of the women in this panned shot reassembled via my rough Photoshop skills (possibly the brunette fourth from left or second/third from right) is Diane Burt, daughter of famous carol writer Alfred Burt