Annie (1999, directed by Gary Marshall)
Annie was produced for Wonderful World of Disney in 1999. It was adapted from the stage musical by Irene Mecchi and had the usual assortment of “I know that person!” that a lot of these Wonderful World of Disney productions had at the time.
Alicia Morton has the right amount of sass and cuteness as Annie. Kathy Bates plays a bit of a darker and sadder Miss Hannigan. Victor Garber is perfect as “Daddy” Warbucks. Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth show up too, because of course they do.
Marshall’s direction gives this a much more live theater vibe in sections, and that works. I like how much it leans into the musical theater aspects of Annie and it also uses the 4:3 format very well. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a theatrical production of Annie but this feels like it’s closer than the 1982 theatrical movie was (although clearly trimmed to fit into the 90 minutes required of a two-hour block of TV).
Neither Punjab nor The Asp are here, thankfully, but the cast is surprisingly diverse, even just in the background. Audra McDonald shines as Miss Grace and I appreciate the move toward colorblind casting.
The musical numbers aren’t particularly strong, though. They’re mostly just adequate, but at the same time, it’s Annie so it’s never going to be that great. “Easy Street” was my favorite sequence from the theatrical version, mostly because it was Carol Burnett, Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters just being weird and wacky. I love Bates, Cumming and Chenoweth but they can’t quite compare there.
If you’re going to watch a version of Annie, this should be the one. Not necessarily in my life, but I could see how this could (and should!) be rediscovered as a holiday classic.
Annie (2014, directed by Will Gluck)
This means well and I think everyone had good intentions, but the 2014 Annie is just a mess.
I appreciate the attempt to update Annie’s story to the modern day, but that leads to questions like “Would one woman really be allowed five foster children who have to share one room in a New York City apartment?” It doesn’t really work under any kind of scrutiny. Annie is a fantasy story, after all, and any time “reality” encroaches, it falls apart.
Quvenzhané Wallis makes a good Annie, though — all pluck and sweetness. Jamie Foxx as Will Stacks, the “Daddy” Warbucks character, mostly just shows up. He’s charming, certainly, but his major character trait is being a germophobe. Rose Byrne’s Miss Grace is a delight, though, and I love her.
Cameron Diaz’s Miss Hannigan is just a mess and not in a good way. While Carol Burnett’s drunken man-chaser may have set the standard for Miss Hannigan in some ways, Diaz just comes across as cruel and pathetic even when the movie wants you to think she’s funny.
It’s colorful and it looks like it was (more or less) actually shot in New York City. The celebrity cameos are odd and distracting (good for these people for having … celebrity friends?). Parts of this are perfectly adequate in an “It’s something to watch on Sunday afternoon way.”
But this is a musical that seems to hate music.
I am, as I’ve said, not a particular fan of the songs from Annie but they deserve none of what happens to them here.
I understand the need to update some of the lyrics. I get that not all of these people are strong singers. However, the songs feel just sort of tacked in as an afterthought and the over-reliance on autotune is maddening. I can’t overstate this: There is so much autotune in this movie. It feels like they autotuned the songs and then autotuned them again. It’s incredibly distracting and ruins every song. It strips them of any actual emotion they may have had.
The songs don’t contribute anything to the plot and the numbers aren’t staged in any particularly interesting way (and wow, is “Easy Street” here awful and truncated). The songs could basically be pulled from the movie without much effect, except that might actually make the movie better.
And for some reason, the plot involves Annie not being able to read, which feels like a weird choice. Miss Hannigan’s sudden crisis of conscience is also unearned. Gluck and co-screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna are better than this.
“Everyone showed up and tried hard” doesn’t make a good movie, no, but I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It just actively prevented me from doing so.
I also never need to watch any version of Annie again. You don’t either, unless a small relative is in an elementary school production of it. That’s really the only reason you should.
