Other Media Review

Annie (2014)

I loved the trailer for the Annie remake, and I was poised to love the movie itself, but I found myself with a huge case of what TV Tropes calls “They Changed It, Now It Sucks.”

I loved Quvenzhané Wallis.  I think she should be in everything from now on, as long as it doesn’t interfere with her physical and emotional health.  If there is a film with a role for a child, cast her.  If the film has no roles for children, film her walking down the street in the background.  She makes everything she touches better.

But I hated the pacing of the film, how many weird complications they threw in (seriously, I could not give a bleep about Jamie Foxx’s poll points) and the fact that beloved numbers were tossed to the wayside and replaced with syrupy, totally forgetful pop.

I liked some of the music updates at the beginning.  Early on, there’s a lot of exploring New York and it’s sounds are woven into the music.  Also the foster kids do a lot of percussion with objects (brooms, etc) and a lot of hand-clapping which is a very ten-year-old girl kind of thing.  Later songs were forgettable and the dancing was done with more enthusiasm than skill.

The first Annie featured seasoned broadway performers at the top of their game.  This movie features good, enthusiastic movie stars who want to be in a musical.  You know who is a seasoned singer?  Tracie Thoms, who plays one of the con artists in Annie.  You know how much she sings in Annie?  NOT A NOTE.  I had to go home and watch Rent just to recover.  If you are in a similar boat, the clip below is for you. Tracie Thoms is the one with the kickass solo.  She could have knocked the Miss Hannigan part out of the park.

 

 

I must point out that during Annie, Stacks takes Annie to see a movie called MoonQuest Lake.  I would totally go see MoonQuest Lake.  It is clearly a passionate romance, full of the most nuanced, subtle acting, original camera work, and detailed world-building.  It was, hands down, the high point of Annie.  I laughed my head off.  Behold, the trailer:

 

The truth is that Annie was not made for me, per se.  It was made for girls between the ages of six and thirteen, and as it happens, I have hired an eleven-year-old girl consultant, who would like to be known as “Cupcake”.  Turns out that Cupcake and I are not in full agreement here. 

Me:  

So Cupcake, I was not crazy about the remake although there were parts I liked.  I liked the old Annie movie better, because I thought it was better written and the singing and dancing was better and the songs were better.  Although I loved Quvenzhané Wallis.  Were you disappointed by this version? 

Cupcake:

NO!  This new move was WAY better!  The songs were better, the singing was better, even the puppy was better!  I think the original was too old fashioned and the mansion was not that good.  Also there was not enough humor in it. The new one was funny, and modern.  Also there was a picture of a dog and a fawn in a meadow in the mansion, and the dog was licking the fawn.  It was so cute and you just can’t top it. 

Me:

What about the plot?  Can you describe it?  And did you like all the stuff with the political advisor trying to boost Stacks’ campaign?  Because I didn’t really see why Stacks should be mayor, or why the other guy should be mayor, so I didn’t care about the plot or the Stacks’ decision at the end. 

Cupcake:

Yes. The plot was that Stacks wanted to be mayor and Annie was going to help his campaign by hanging out with him but then his friend decided to give her fake parents  and then dump her because he thought that would help Stacks’ campaign (the part where he would find Annie’s parents, not the part where they dump her somewhere).  So Stacks had to save her!

Me:

I thought the romance between Stacks and Grace was ok – not great, but OK.  I like Rose Byrne a lot.  What about you?

Cupcake:

I liked the romance because they joked about it.

Me:

I would give the movie a C+.  What grade would you give it and why?

Cupcake:

A++.  It’s very  good and moving.  It’s also funny and cute.  Did I mention the fawn?  Too cute!

RHG:

Well, Cupcake, I gotta say I agree with you more than your mom (please insert wails of betrayal here).  You gotta understand, I LOVED Annie when I was a Wee RHG.  I LOVED IT.  It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater, the Broadway soundtrack was one of our road trip staples, and my mom even made me orphan rags so I could swan about the house feeling put-upon (not the red dress, I hated the red dress).  And I was super excited by the remake, because I know how much I loved this story, and making it for kids of today, especially little girls of color?

I prefer the ‘82 movie.  I liked this a lot, though.  I loved how the overture was woven into the ambient sounds of the city, I liked Foxx and Byrne a LOT, but this move was Quvenzhané’s and no one elses.  She was AWESOME and how she knows how to close off her face when Annie is trying her damndest to not betray feelings is incredible.

I had two main problems – one is Miss Hannigan.  Miss Hannigan is not to be redeemed.  Miss Hannigan is to be defeated.  And it’s supposed to be the other girls at the orphanage – sorry, foster home- who run to Daddy War-Stacks and tell him Annie is in trouble, that agency is super important.  Also Cameron Diaz was TERRIBLE.  I mean, no one is going to live up to Carol Channing, but there’s a point where you’re not chewing on scenery, you’re just flinging yourself around the set hoping no one will notice you have no idea what you’re doing.

The other problem is that the climax is SUPER low stakes.  In the 1982 movie, the stakes are that ANNIE IS GOING TO GET KILLED.  The part where she climbs up the railroad bridge and gets rescued by Punjab?  That was the best goddamn part.  The stakes in the remake?  She’ll end up in the system again, but come on, Stacks would have found her eventually.  KIDS CAN HANDLE HIGH STAKES.  They really can.  I think it’s the adults who don’t want to think about it.

Mostly I was “meh” with the song changes- “Little Girls” was a hot mess, but that’s partly because Diaz couldn’t sing if Simon Cowell was holding her puppy hostage.  “Easy Street” was boring, the new songs were okay (I liked the New York one, even if the “anyone can make it if they just try hard enough!” message pisses me off), but I really loved “Hard Knock Life.”  Although I guess making something shine like the top of the Chrysler Building isn’t a thing anymore? 

On the whole, I’m giving this a solid B+.  I hope there are girls who love this as much as I loved the 1982.

So to average the three opinions, we’ll list this as a “B.”


Annie is in theatres now, and you can find tickets and showtimes at Fandango and Moviefone.

 

Add Your Comment →

  1. Lynn says:

    Okay, wait, wait, wait. Can we back up to the part where you said Tracie Thoms doesn’t sing A NOTE?? That would be the one thing that would take me into a theater to see this and…

    What were they thinking?

  2. LG says:

    I have a confession to make: I’ve never seen the 1982 Annie. I wonder if, lacking that background, I’d like the newer Annie more. The trailer looks cute, although Cameron Diaz makes me grit my teeth. What percentage of the movie would you say she’s in? How easy would it be to ignore her presence?

  3. Lammie says:

    Tiny correction: Carol Burnett was Miss Hannigan in the 1982 version. In no galaxy or universe would Cameron Diaz be better than Carol Burnett at anything!

  4. UlrikeDG says:

    What Lammie said!!!

  5. I’ve never seen the 1982 version, but I really liked the 1999 made for t.v. movie with Victor Garber. I wonder how I’d feel about this one.

  6. Anony Miss says:

    Also chiming in that it’s Carol Burnett, not Carol Channing (although the thought of the latter as Miss Hannigan is DURN funny!)

  7. sarita says:

    Ditto on being down to see MoonQuest Lake. Glowy tears make everything meaningful.

  8. Amanda says:

    I think my problem with this remake would be the same as the problems I had with the Carrie Underwood Sound of Music remake. Its all about the casting. There are so many great names from the theater world that could knock these roles out of the park but instead they want to use well known movie stars. I would love to see someone like Kristin Chenoweth as Miss Hannigan role.

  9. Rose Lerner says:

    I really loved this movie! I agree that the singing was all over the place (not so much bad as the vocal styles not MATCHING each other or melded well), Miss Hannigan’s redemption arc made me a little uncomfortable, and I would have liked more choreography. But everyone was so charming, I shipped Jamie Foxx/Rose Byrne hard, Quvenzhane Wallis is a tiny acting goddess, and I did actually enjoy the plotline of Mr. Stacks running for mayor. (I love a good corrupt political drama.)

    However, I disliked the original movie and barely remember it from when I watched it in middle school, so I wasn’t comparing it to anything which I’m sure is part of it.

    I’m also not sure the more-enthusiasm-than-skill dancing was the actors’ fault. I think it might have been a directorial choice, because it kind of seemed in certain scenes like Jamie Foxx might know how to actually dance and they told him not to. However I have no hard evidence of this other than that the overall aesthetic appeared to be “real people having fun” rather than “trained dancers doing choreography”. Which I guess I understand as a choice even if it’s not my own preference. (Can’t we combine them, like in “Footloose” or “Dirty Dancing”?? Get Kenny Ortega in here!)

    I do really wish that people would just make musicals nowadays, with full songs and occasional large choreographed numbers. Instead it feels like directors pull back from committing wholeheartedly to the musical aesthetic, like in the recent Les Miserables where at least half the songs were talked/sung and no one except for Anne Hathaway really SOARED. Yet the majority of those people were trained singers. It’s as if directors are EMBARRASSED to be making a musical. In “Annie” people were constantly making awkward jokes like “Is he singing at me right now?” Um, yes, it’s a musical. Own it.

  10. Michael says:

    I’m 46 never really seen any of the other movies Annie nor did I care to see them. I think this movie was perfect my wife & I really enjoyed this movie. Why are we comparing movies, times has changed kids these days don’t care or even know of a depression. Get over it & lets continue to make progress, I would agree to say Cameron was the weakest link. Most of the songs for me fit the mordern day movies “Annie” just my view

  11. Caroline says:

    OMG–Kristin Chenoweth as Ms Hannigan would be EPIC.

  12. chacha1 says:

    Hmm, I like Jamie Foxx, I like Cameron Diaz, I’ve never seen the staged musical or the 1982 film version, and I don’t see modern movie musicals for the great songs. So I think I might like this. 🙂

    Frankly I was just THRILLED when I saw the first marketing material. It was like, holy shit, there are people of color in this story finally.

  13. Mina Khan says:

    I loved it and thought it was actually better than the original…for certain, the Daddy Warbucks character changed for the better with much more character development. And yes, loved the new Annie!

  14. Susu.ro says:

    “Annie” is a modern day retelling of the acclaimed Broadway Musical and 1982 musical film based on the show, which was based on the 1924 Comic Strip “Little Orphan Annie” which in the original show and movie, takes part during the Great Depression, telling the story of Orphan Annie – a pre-teenage hoping for a return of her parents, who disappeared after they left her on the steps of of an orphanage as a baby. In this version, which again takes place in the modern day, it is revealed in the early part of the film that Annie, played by Quvenzhané Wallis (Academy Award Nominee for the “Beasts of Southern Wild”) was left as a baby at a restaurant by her parents, and is now a foster kid, under the care of Miss Hannigan, played by Cameron Diaz. The Billionaire character “Daddy Warbucks” of the classic story, has been replaced by the character of “Will Stacks”, played by Jamie Foxx (Academy Award winner for “Ray”), who is also a Billionaire from his cell phone business, and is running for Mayor of New York City. So – leading up to this film, the predicted expectations were of gloom and doom, presumably I think because this version does not take place in the original time line, and because some people’s now negative views (not mine) towards Actor/Rapper Will Smith, who co-produced the film with among others, his wife, Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, and Rapper and Business Mogel Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, whose sampled one of the Musical’s more populars songs “It’s a Hard Knocked Life” in his hit song “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”. So what did I think – While I admit – the movie does became a mess to a great deal, it is not a total mess, and could have been a lot worse. A lot of songs that many of us love are there and performed well by the cast, some with variations, some of which are understandably, and some which may have probably weren’t necessary. There are some new songs as well, including the very touching “Who am I?” – sung by Diaz, Foxx and Wallis’s characters in the later part of the film. Some of the modern day jokes, just some of the humor in general works well, and some falls flat. Kids should like this version of “Annie” just fine. Adults – I think most who are fans of the original are going to be annoyed by it. I myself am I fan of the Broadway show and 1982 Movie. While I obviously didn’t love this version myself, again, While it does become a mess to a great deal,it’s not a complete one. My rating is for the music, and some of the humor – 2 ½ out of 4 Stars (The ½ star is for the previously mentioned new song “Who am I?”).

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