Review of Annie

Annie (1982)
7/10
Annie Film Review
14 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Based on a comic strip original written by Harold Gray.  Annie Soon became a sensation that turned into a Broadway musical. It was a huge hit  so Thomas Meehan had the idea to write a book on the musical and received the tony award for the Best Book of a Musical in 1977.  The play ran on Broadway for nearly six years opening in 1977.Annie was set in 1933 during the Great Depression. The Leading cast included Aileen Quinn as Annie, Albert Finney as "Daddy" Oliver Warbucks, Ann Reinking as Grace Farrell, Warbucks' assistant. Miss Hannigan, Played by Carol Burnett and her brother Rooster Hannigan, Tim Curry. Bernadette Peters  Played by Lily St. Regis, and Geoffrey Holder as Punjab. This movie is  considered  an adventure comedy because of Annie's search for her parents and the encounters that she faces throughout the movie.   

Annie  is an eleven year old orphan during the 1930's. She is very adventurous and tries to escape many times from her orphanage, where she lives with the other orphan girls.Their caretaker Miss Hannigan, is very mean and treats the girls badly. One day while the girls are cleaning the house Annie hides in the laundry basket and is taken outside to The laundryman who take the sheets and dry cleans them. While Annie is out in the world she see a dog that some boys are picking so she goes and helps. While a  Policeman is watching her for a distance she is caught and brought back to the orphanage. Soon after Grace Farrell Warbucks assistance comes to the orphanage to take an orphan to stay with his for a week and she chooses Annie. Annie and Mr. Warbucks get along very well. Until Warbucks wants to adopt her and she shows him the locket and note her parents wrote to her saying that they would come back to get her. Warbucks decides that he will help her find her parents and reward the parents 50,000 dollars for coming and taking Annie home. But the people who show up and seem to be her parents turn everything upside down and and things take a crazy twist. (spoiler alert)  

The costumes in the movie are good at telling the differences between social classes in the 1930's. The clothes of the poor at the time were dirty, old and ripped in some places. When you see Grace Farrell she is dressed very nice as she comes out of the car in front of the orphanage, and you are able to see the differences between how rich people dressed and how poor people were dressed.This shows you  how hard it was during the great depression.  For lower class people who had little or no money. The movie's costume designer does a good job creating images of the hardships that these people went through during the movie. You really feel connected to the movie through the characters clothes.

The set design was very well done. It was very elaborate and had many details to show the life  of the characters. You were able to tell a lot about the kids from the orphanage,  where everything was very dirty and old. It wasn't kept in good conditions because they didn't that the time or money. You were able to tell that they did not have enough money and were very poor. Then you have Mr. Warbucks home. It was very big, beautiful, everything was new and kept very clean and tidy. The clothes were new and expensive and kept very well. you could tell that a lot of work was put into the set design so that the audience could get the full effect  of the movie. It helped them  feel the character's pain, happiness, sorrow and anger.

My overall opinion of the film was good. I thought the quality of the film was well made. The singing and dancing was well rehearsed and you could tell they put a  lot of time into the choreography and practice. The acting was believable; when the characters faced a problem in the movie you felt it also. I recommend that people who have not seen the movie should see it because it is a classic movie that will make you laugh and cry.
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