Movie Musicals That Got It Wrong: Annie (1982)
I decided to watch this version of Annie as a refresher in case I felt like seeing the new one due out this month. (I'm wavering: on the one hand, Quevenzhane Wallis was adorable in Beasts of the Southern Wild , but on the other hand, clips of Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan were disturbing.) When I was little, I adored Annie . Adored it. Some of my earliest drawings were of blank-eyed, curly-haired Annie from the comics and her pointy-eared canine friend, Sandy. I was Annie for Halloween. I listened to and sang all of the songs all the time for what seemed like two years. Then when I watched it again a few years ago? Eh. Looking back, I think what really drew me to Annie was aspiration. Who wouldn't want to be a plucky orphan living in luxury with her adoring "Daddy" Warbucks? Then there were the songs, the colors, those dance numbers. In many ways, Annie was an antecedent to Punky Brewster , which premiered a few years later and also featured a pluc