I agree with your ACL assessment (and you make some of the same points I made in my original response below-- but you made them better!).
I somewhat disagree with your take on ANNIE's film version. The John Huston version, in my opinion, is grotesque and overblown. Burnett-- a truly great talent-- is doing tv sketch work as a frenetic Hannigan...and that bizarre ending on the bridge, and all the stuff with Punjab, and that circus of a party at Warbucks house-- oh forget it. I know they bent over backwards to 'open up' the film with 'adventure elements' from the comics but it was poorly done (the stuntman pretending to be Annie climbing the bridge is one of the many eye-rolling moments that takes you out of the film) and it really doesn't belong in this story.
I much preferred Rob Marshall's tv-movie version, with Victor Garber and Kathy Bates. It was more true to the original musical and better sung, danced and performed. I don't love the show, but it certainly deserved better than that studio film version. And it's not just the show creators who loathe it-- read the reviews from the time: some of the funniest, most scathing reviews I have ever read. |
