Annie
This One Will Fully Dress YOU With a Smile
This successful 1920's comic strip turned 1970's broadway musical turned 1980's Hollywood movie is about the little orphan Annie with optimistic charm. She's a spunky read headed orphan living at Miss Hannigan's (Carol Burnett) orphanage. She's determined to find her real parents but when the billionaire 'Daddy Warbucks' (Albert Finney) offers to be her family she must decide which dream to follow.
I admit that I had never seen this movie until a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure why I missed it but I was thrilled to watch this great performance with my kids. A cast that can sing, dance AND act is almost too good to be true these days! Aileen Quinn gives an impossibly sweet and tough flavor to Annie and her voice is 'Tomorrow' worthy. Carol Burnett is absolutely classic as Miss Hannigan and had me chuckling every time she was on screen. Albert Finney was a surprise, I didn't realize he played Mr. Warbucks, I kept seeing him as the big fish in Big Fish but still thought he was great along with Ann Reinking. My kids watched this slightly longer than usual movie with rapt attention and loved seeing the orphans doing their flips in that number 'It's the Hard Knock Life'.
Motherly Advice: I wish I had tried this one with my sex filters on high to see if the scene with musical number 'Sign' in it is filtered. This is the one scene in the movie that I would not have minded my kids missing, although I know they had no idea what was going on. Mr. Warbucks goes to get the lonely Miss Hannigan to sign the papers so he can adopt Annie. She tries (in her 20's style underwear and pantyhose) to seduce him but he wont have any of it. As an adult it was very obvious what was going on and although the kids were oblivious, I could've done without it. So if you decide to watch this one with the family, be sure to just skip right over it. Miss Hannigan also very briefly tries to seduce the laundry guy.The only other things you'll want to be aware of is the costuming. As there are some dance numbers in this and this does have a bit of the '20's feel to it, the women wear pantyhose and garters under their dresses and anytime there are high kicks and such we see them. I didn't think this was too bad since they're dancing and it's not in a sexual nature at all. There is also one scene where Ann Reinking and Annie are getting ready to go to the movies and Reinking is singing in her nightdress as she gets dressed for their outing. The 'Movies' number features women in strapless outfits and lots of legs.
Danielle' - ClearPlay Pig Dropping
Rated PG; 127 min; Directed by John Huston