There’s also a 1999 version. I caught it on TV once. In some ways its better than the ‘82 or 2014 versions since it realistically depicts the depression era 1930s as a very gritty and bleak time. For example, in the 1982 and 2014 versions, the kids look like they’re actually having fun while singing “Hard Knock Life” and dance around doing gymnastics and horseplay. Doesn’t seem like a “hard knock life” to me. In the 1999 version, they’re doing grueling work and the scene actually fits the lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UIiT6ry6zQ
I also liked the winter setting of the 1999 version. But its also Disney-fied and had some stupid PC crap about Daddy Warbucks publicly dating a black girl and nobody batting an eyelash — which obviously wouldn’t have happened in the 1930s.
Of course, all 3 movie adaptations promote the same leftist viewpoint. Incredibly some liberals were angry that the 2014 version (set in “modern day”) DIDN’T GO FAR ENOUGH in promoting liberal tripe, even though they promote it from the very first scene.
The Miss Hannigan character (played by Carol Burnett in ‘82, Kathy Bates in ‘99, and Cameron Diaz in 2014) was invented for the musical. In the comics, Annie gets sent back to the orphanage several times, and its run by Miss Asthma and then Miss Treat (obvious pun on the word ‘mistreat’). Agree Burnett did a good job playing a nasty alcoholic who had reached the end of her rope though.
I do love the idea of giving lefties a taste of their own medicine by adapting some screechy left-wing diatribe into a happy-go-lucky musical singing the praises of conservative government. The other great idea you had was some politician who goes around publicly swearing up and down that he’s “personally pro-abortion” and has no qualms about women aborting as much as they want, but votes 100% pro-life on EVERY bill anyway because it’s not right for him to “force his views on others” I’d love to see liberal gnash their teeth at that one!
I actually forgot about the ‘99 version until you brought it up. I do remember seeing it when it ran on ABC (through the fog of my dreadful health of the time). Victor Garber was serviceable as Warbucks (although the actor is gay, he can play acceptably straight). I don’t much recall the girl that played Annie.
Kathy Bates, although a good actress, didn’t come close to Burnett’s tour-de-force (although Bates’s Hannigan got the comeuppance that Burnett’s should’ve in the ‘82 film — she should not have been at the mansion celebrating with everyone else at the end).
The colorblind casting was disconcerting, although was done obviously to showcase the singing talents of Audra McDonald. If you get the chance to see arguably Miss McDonald’s best and most heartbreaking role, watch her tackle Billie Holliday in her waning days in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.” Absolute jaw-dropping performance for which she received an Emmy nomination.