Annie stole my heart

I've always been a sucker for stories about orphaned girls - the Secret Garden, Heidi, A Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, Thursday's Child... and so I thought I'd love Annie, which I did. The first time I watched this on video, I was in tears in the opening scene, as Aileen Quinn's lovely clear voice sings "Maybe". Well, that's me, a rather sentimental fool at heart.

I predict that any sentimental fools you know, plus most girls under the age of 11, will love this movie too. It has pretty much everything you could ask for - a Cinderella type plot with magnificently played baddies and a plucky heroine, with a millionaire, lots of singable songs, the president of the United States, and a dog.

For those of you who don't know the plot - it follows the life of the eponymous Annie, who was left in an orphanage run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan by her parents when she was only a baby. At ten years old, she manages to win the heart of Grace Farrell, the secretary to billionaire Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, and is invited to spend a week in the Warbucks mansion. Despite Warbucks' insistence that he wanted a boy, the two quickly learn to love each other... but when Warbucks asks Annie if he can adopt her, she firmly replies that she has her own parents waiting somewhere for her. Warbucks then undertakes to find Annie's parents, only for a horrifying number of frauds to step forward. There's also a lot of songs. And lots of orphans, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a dog.

Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan deserves a mention - her performance as the drunken proprietress of the orphanage is legendary, especially the song "Little girls". Her futile attempts to seduce the billionaire Oliver Warbucks are also hilarious to watch. Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters as her partners in crime just complete the picture - even the poor cynical parent suffering through this movie with excited little ones would have to crack a smile at their villainous antics.

The overwhelming cuteness of this movie can't be ignored - the scene in which the orphan girls re-enact "Never fully dressed without a smile" from the radio is infectiously cheerful. Even the Oliver-like atmosphere of the orphanage is not dealt too heavily, with Miss Hannigan's rule of iron seeming darkly humorous rather than genuinely cruel - probably because we know, thanks to her drunkenness, that the orphans are more than capable of fighting back.

It's a thoroughly enjoyable romp, with lots of likeable and humorous characters. Aileen Quinn herself is wonderful as Annie, and Albert Finney is both hilarious and tender as Daddy Warbucks. Definitely a good one to watch with the kids.