Wednesday Addams
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Wednesday Friday Addams is a member of the fictional Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker.
In Charles Addams's cartoons, Wednesday and other members of the family had no names. When the cartoons were adapted to the television series The Addams Family (1964), he was asked to provide names for the characters, and came up with the name "Wednesday", based on the well-known nursery rhyme line, "Wednesday's child is full of woe".
Wednesday is originally a pale, dark-haired, grim-looking little girl with a fascination with death and the macabre. She is explicitly stated to be six years old in the series' pilot episode. In the 1960s Television series, she is significantly more sweet-natured, although her favorite hobby is raising spiders; She is also a ballerina. Wednesday's favorite toy is her Marie Antoinette doll, which she had guillotined herself and proudly shows to visitors. In one episode, she is shown to have several other headless dolls as well. She also paints pictures (including a picture of trees with human heads) and once writes a poem dedicated to her favorite pet spider, Homer. Wednesday is deceptively strong; she is able to bring her father down with a judo hold.
Wednesday had a close kinship with the family's giant butler Lurch. In the TV series, it was revealed that her middle name is "Friday" . In the Spanish language version, her name is Merlina Addams.
Wednesday is played by Lisa Loring in the original TV series. In the second animated series from Hanna-Barbera, she is voiced by Debi Derryberry.
| “ | Child of woe is wane and delicate…sensitive and on the quiet side, she loves the picnics and outings to the underground caverns…a solemn child, prim in dress and, on the whole, pretty lost…secretive and imaginitive, poetic, seems underprivileged and given to occasional tantrums…has six toes on one foot…[1] | ” |
[edit] Film versions
The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values portray Wednesday as somewhat older (approximately 12 years old) and is more malevolent than her television self. Wednesday's personality is severe, with a deadpan wit and a morbid interest in trying to inflict harm upon her brother, Pugsley. In both films, she is played by Christina Ricci.
In the movie Addams Family Values, Wednesday is sent to a summer camp called Camp Chippewa, where she takes a liking to Joel Glicker (played by David Krumholtz), a neurotic, allergy-ridden Jewish boy with an overbearing mother. Joel would much rather read books or collect serial killer trading cards than participate in outdoor activities. As punishment for their lack of enthusiasm, Wednesday and Joel are sentenced to the "Harmony Hut", where they are forced to watch a barrage of family films as rehabilitation. Wednesday and Joel later stage an uprising during a Thanksgiving-themed play, with Wednesday dressed as Pocahontas. At the end of the film, it is suggested that Wednesday purposely tries to scare Joel to death after he brings up the subject of marriage.
In the 1977 TV movie, Lisa Loring plays a grown-up Wednesday, who mostly entertained their party guests with her flute, and could hear and understand coded help messages by bound-up members of the family, and dispatch help to free them. In the time interval between the original TV series and this movie her parents had had two more children who look just like the original Pugsley and Wednesday.
Wednesday was then portrayed by Nicole Fugere in the movie, Addams Family Reunion and The New Addams Family TV series, which were both produced in 1998.
[edit] References
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