VHS Videos: Annie Video

Average Rating:

Rating: - Schmaltzy but super
Easily the best version of Annie out there (and yes, I saw the play with Martha Raye as Miss Hannigan). This 1982 gem was the last hurrah for the genre of the big-budget feature movie musical. How can you help but smile at the thought of fifty orphans simultaneously breaking out into dance numbers?

Ten-year-old Aileen Quinn sings her heart out to the catchy tunes and will have you singing too, despite yourself. Albert Finney is a walking caricature as billionaire capitalist Daddy Warbucks, who learns that there is more to life than money. Anne Reinking puts in a good showing as his assistant, and you'll recognize others such as Bernadette Peters. But Carol Burnett steals the show as the drunken orphanage proprieter who hates little girls but goes ga-ga over any male, from the local cop to Mr. Bundles the Laundry Man. (This is rated PG rather than G for a reason!)

Very young kids may be frightened by a chase sequence in which the bad guys try to kidnap Annie, but there's plenty here to entertain both children and adults. As a child, I watched it a hundred times without catching allusions to the New Deal, the Bolsheviks, and bathtub gin.

Do not let your kids grow up acquainted only with Disney's dull 1999 TV-remake of Annie! The 1982 movie is twice as exuberant, larger than life, and makes for much better entertainment.