Annie (1999 film)

"Annie" is a television film which first aired on ABC on November 7, 1999. Like both the original Broadway musical, which it is based on, and the 1982 Columbia theatrical film version, also based on it, it is based on the cartoon, Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray. The main idea is that the principal character, Annie, intends to find her parents who had left her with a note at the orphanage 11 years ago when she was a baby.

Plot
In Depression-era New York City, Annie (Morton), reads aloud a note to Molly, the youngest orphan, with the others joining in the reading aloud (as they are annoyed by her previous reading of it). While the other orphans are sleeping ("Maybe"), she sneaks out, in hopes that she'll find her parents, afraid that they have never found her. Just as she is about to get outside, Miss Hannigan (Bates) stops her, and brings her back. She then turns on the light and wakes the others. "As a little welcome home party", she has them scrub the floor and strip their beds for Mr. Bundles ("It's the Hard-Knock Life".) As he enters, Annie gets in the laundry basket (with help from the others in order to try again to find her folks) and hides as he takes the dirty laundry out. It is during roll call (in which each orphan has to respond usually, "I love you, Miss Hannigan.") that Miss Hannigan finds out that she is not there anymore, and how so. She runs out to try and stop her.

Cast

 * Alicia Morton as Annie Bennett-Warbucks, the protagonist of the film. She is biologically the daughter of David and Margaret Bennett. This was Morton's first film role ever. She also played Annie in a school play when she was 6, approximately five years prior to the film.
 * Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan, the main antagonist of the film. She is the caretaker of the orphanage. She loves her job, but hates children.
 * Victor Garber as Oliver Warbucks, the deuteragonist of the film. He is the billionaire.
 * Audrea McDonald as Grace Farrell, Warbucks' personal secretary. McDonald was the first African-American actress to play that part.
 * Alan Cumming as Rooster Hannigan, one of the secondary antagonists of the film. He is Miss Hannigan's brother.
 * Kristin Chenoweth as Lily St. Regis, another secondary antagonist of the film. She is Rooster's girlfriend, named after a hotel.
 * Ernie Sabella as Mr. Bundles, the laundry man who inadvertently rolls Annie out with the dirty laundry (unaware that she was hiding in it).
 * Chester and Chip as Sandy, the tritagonist. He is a stray dog that befriends Annie

Spoofs and Parodies
In The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy is shown dressing up like Annie.



Trivia

 * Punjab doesn't appear in this film adaption.
 * Some of the songs that appeared in the original Broadway production but didn't appear in the 1982 Columbia film appeared here.
 * Andrea McArdle, who was the Star-to-Be in this film, played Annie in the original Broadway production.
 * In the Broadway production and the Columbia film adaption, Miss Hannigan is a more sympathetic villain and changes in the end of the latter, while Rooster becomes the true antagonist. Instead of changing here, Miss Hannigan is sent to a psychiatric hospital, however, Rooster and Lily are still arrested.
 * This is the first (and by far, only) adaption to have Grace Farrell portrayed by an African-American actress; she was white in all previous ones.
 * "NYC", which had been in the original Broadway production, took over for "Let's Go to the Movies", which hadn't, but rather, appeared in the Columbia film version.
 * Normally, Annie's hair is a curly strawberry blonde. In this version, it is auburn and wavy, however, at one point, when she is wearing a fancy red dress, it is made curly.
 * Kathy Bates (Miss Hannigan) and Victor Garber (Oliver Warbucks) both appeared in the 1997 disaster film Titanic as historical characters Molly Brown and Thomas Andrews, respectively.
 * Audra McDonald and Kristen Chenoweth were both Tony Award Winners for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a musical, for their respective roles in Carousel in 1994 and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1999.
 * Marissa Rago (Pepper) and Erin Adams (Tessie) spoke in a recent interview in 2013 on The Tiara Talk Show about their fun experiences working on the film.