Annie

Per usual, Disney takes a perfectly good story and botches it. What happened to Punjab. Ms. Hannagan should have been more to her true character, which just happens to be a man wanting alcoholic. Of course Disney had to keep it clean to stamp it's name upon it. I feel cheated after watching this poor excuse of film.

First of all I really like both the 1982 version and the 1999 version- the reason why I do prefer the 1982 version is because that in particular is a childhood favourite. I do admit there was a time when I didn't really like this, but now considering that it was a TV remake, and that it is a lot more faithful to the stage play, it is not as bad as I initially thought. True it is too short, and despite her truly beautiful voice I just wasn't sure about Audra MacDonald as Grace. For my tastebuds, it was a tad sugary sweet at times for my liking. However, it does look lovely, and the music is marvellous, and the same with the 1982 version. The performances are great too. I really loved Aileen Quinn,(and I wish people would stop making horrible comments about her) but Alicia Morton is closer than what Annie is like in the stage show, in terms of age, and while both girls were wonderful, Morton has got the better voice. Annie's friends were well done too, but the scene stealer has to be Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan, just like the wonderful Carol Burnett. There were times when she was absolutely hilarious, and Victor Garber while just lacking the gruffness of Albert Finney was a delight as Daddy Warbucks. Alan Cumming and Kristen Chenoweth were fine as Rooster and Lily, and I also much enjoyed the portrayals of Tim Curry(who is my favourite actor of all time and vastly underrated as an actor) and Bernadette Peters. This version is closer to the stage musical, and has a real Christmas feel to it. The problem I had with the 1982 version were John Huston's direction, and I know they changed the ending, but to be fair, the 1982 version is NOT the first musical adaptation to take liberties with the stage musical, how about My Fair Lady and Oklahoma! Overall, seeing this again recently proved my initial opinion of it wrong. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is a pathetic attempt at revisiting a far superior film released in 1982. For fans of the better version, you will find yourself snoring through this one. The acting ability, musical numbers, set designs, and overall feel of this telefilm is nothing compared to the theatrical presentation on which this one attempts to immitate.

I have to say, I am an avid Annie fan. I first saw the 1982 version, like most people and I loved it. I then saw the stage musical twice and loved that too. There were a lot of differences in the stories on the stage and on the film. Then I saw the 1999 version and I thought that it was great, about as great as the 1982 one but with better actors. I now have both film versions on video and I have seen both many times and I can honestly say that in my opinion the 1999 one is far better. The 1982 one is bigger, with more action and generally a larger production, but that is to be expected as the 1999 one was only a TV movie and with a much smaller budget. I like Alicia Morton a lot more as I think she is perfect for the part. Aileen Quinn was good for the spunky, tough side of Annie but she wasn't really very sweet and was not at all good vocally. One thing that has stood out for me with the 1999 version is the music and orchestration - I have never really noticed the quality of the music (not the vocals, the orchestra) in anything before this. Basically I love the 1999 version as I think it captures the story wonderfully. The 1982 version as also very good but they tailed off the original story too much and made too Hollywood-y for me, so I recommend the 1999 version overall.

A lot of the reviews are saying that this tv version of Annie was a remake of the 1982 film of the same name. This is simply not true. This version of Annie is a remake of the stage musical. If you have ever seen the stage musical you will realize that it is extremely different than the 1982 film.

That being said, those who have fallen in love with the earlier film will most likely not like this version. Those who are true to the stage musical will probably enjoy it. Falling in the latter category, I like this version better.

To me, Alicia Morton was superior to Aileen Quinn in every way, but most noticeably voice quality. Alicia has a great voice for the part. And I personally wasn't bothered by the fact that she had straight hair as opposed to curly. The rest of the orphans did great too.

Kathy Bates was also a standout. As much as I love Carol Burnett, I thought Kathy Bates did a fantastic job as Ms. Hannigan and Alan Cumming was a nice surprise as Rooster.

One last thing to remember is that since this was for tv, their budget was a lot smaller than a feature film. Taking that into consideration, I think Rob Marshall did a commendable job updating the play Annie for a new generation to view.