Saturday 2 May 2009

Annie - The Movie


This is about the 1982 film. For any other Annie things, sod off.

Man, me and my friend Elizabeth were reminiscing about how we used to watch Annie all the time when we were both little. So, a couple of days later, we got together and watched it. It was the first time either of us had watched it in about 15-20 years and we were both freaking out a bit beforehand. When you have such great memories about a movie from your childhood, sometimes it's not a good idea to watch it as an adult. Like, often (as was the case for me with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie), you realise that it's just not that good a film and you feel like you've ruined the idealised memory you had of it. But Annie was just how I remembered it. Awesome.

I think I had a grin on my face through the whole film. Seriously, let me tell you about how I loved the characters:

Little orphan, Annie is really cute. I never realised this when I was little because I guess I was younger than Annie the last time I watched the film. I never realised how optimistic and positive and happy she was. Her best qualities are: a) her smile, b) her singing voice, and c) her ability to beat the living shit out of a gang of boys.

Miss Hannigan, who runs the orphanage and who is perpetually drunk (she brews her own gin in her bathtub), is even more entertaining now that I have experienced being drunk myself. I believe she would be an absolute riot to have as a guest at a wedding reception.

Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks (billionaire) shouts when he talks - like a deaf grandfather type guy, (except me and Liz reckon he's about 50 so he's still got a lot of energy and enthusiasm). He's the ultimate capitalism success story and hates liberals and commies. He owns an Autocopter and he's pretty good mates with the President. The character of Daddy Warbucks really went over my head as a child.

The music in the film is nothing short of genius. My favourites include: Maybe (which makes me well up a bit), Little Girls (sung by an inebriated Miss Hannigan), the heart-warming Dumb Dog/Sandy sequence, and, of course Lets Go To The Movies which is such a bloated epic that it can only exist in a broadway musical setting.

Topping it all though is It's a Hard-Knock Life, OMG what a freakin' sweet sequence. Not only is it the type of song that you can happily have on repeat in your head at work, but the choreography on display in the scene where the girls are singing it, while simultaneously doing advanced acrobatics and cleaning up the orphanage, blew my adult mind.

Other choreography of note is the scene I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here number, where Annie is overwhelmed after arriving at the Warbucks Mansion and finding that the entire staff are really bloody good at singing and dancing.

I don't know whether it'd be quite the same to watch Annie as an adult without having seen it as a kid, but I'd still recommend it. But to all those of you who haven't seen it since being a wee thing (Joanne, I'm looking in your direction), DO IT!