Would love to know how people reacted to the 1999 Disney Annie when it originally aired

[FilmandTheatreFan]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 6:22pm

i recently have been studying film and for some reason i feel the 1999 Annie really stil holds up to this day.  i was born in 2003 and recently just discovered it on Disney+ here in the UK.  i wonder what you guys who remember 1999 what the hype was like.   i do wish network television was still big 

[joevitus]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 6:33pm

Very well received and was directly responsible for Rob Marshall getting the film of Chicago. It was considered the necessary corrective to the horrible 1982  movie. 

However, this is the specific production I blame for starting the tradition of not putting Annie into the Little Orphan Annie dress with the frizzy hair in the final scene. This was the first time I am aware of that the show didn't end visually as the origin of the comic strip. Frustrated me then, frustrates me now.

[FilmandTheatreFan]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 6:40pm

i love how it feels like a stage show.   the late Director of Photography Ralf D Bode really does well on the film.  he also did 1997 Cinderella.  there are moments where i think both films look similar.  probably why 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 6:41pm

I liked it more than the original movie. The cast is pretty great. Then and now it still feels like Annie Jr. It was the beginning of Rob Marshall making movies of musicals with half the score missing. The most egregious of those being Nine.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 8:58pm

^ I like it more than the original movie as well. It does have its glitches. One example is the parent disguise. Having been exposed to Annie Jr first I prefer when Rooster and Lily do the Mudges and Miss Hannigan gets arrested for helping them. And as for Rob Marshall, luckily I skipped Nine, Into The Woods and The Little Mermaid. But I loved his direction for Chicago and Mary Poppins Returns.

[pmensky]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 9:27pm

I don’t remember how it was received, because there was no social media. I remember thinking Audra was wonderful and really being disappointed in Kathy Bates. I never saw Annie on stage, so my only frame of reference for Miss Hannigan was Carol Burnett’s interpretation which is iconic.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 9:44pm

As others said, it was pretty well received, as was the 1997 Cinderella. As with that movie, however, there were some subsequent grumbles by racists on places like IMBD or Musicals.net (anyone remember those old forums?) about Audra McDonald’s Grace marrying Warbucks in the 1930s, but thankfully most people did not agree with those complaints. 
 

I loved the arrangement of “Tomorrow.” It has a touching, mournful quality that is lacking in the original orchestration. It really pays off when Audra moves into her reprise of the song when trying to comfort Annie with the “Maybe” reprise (which Annie sings in the stage version; I think it works better with Grace singing it). 
 

Kathy Bates did as good a job as she could given that Disney had them sanitize Ms. Hannigan (they couldn’t have her be a drunk or openly abusive to the orphans, as in both the stage version and the 1982 version). Alan Cumming is a delight as Rooster. Kristen Chenowith is mostly wasted as Lily but does the best with what she’s given. I liked that they brought back Andrea McArcardle for Star-to-Be. I only thought Victor Garber was boring as Warbucks, but it’s mostly a thankless role. 

Updated On: 11/27/23 at 09:44 PM

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 9:45pm

It was well received for sure. I remember watching it live and really enjoying it. It wasn't as much of an event as something like the Brandy Cinderella though. By that time, Wonderful World of Disney had done several movie musicals so it wasn't like this massive event.

[BwayLB]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 9:47pm

^ I think you mean Chenoweth as Lily. It’s Audra McDonald who played Grace

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 9:51pm

^You’re right. Don’t know why I mixed those two character names up, lol. I edited my post. 

[BwayLB]

Posted: 11/27/23 at 10:29pm

Mr. Wormwood said: "It was well received for sure. I remember watching it live and really enjoying it. It wasn't as much of an event as something like the Brandy Cinderella though. By that time, Wonderful World of Disney had done several movie musicals so it wasn't like this massive event."

Once Upon A Mattress was the least enjoyable of those occasions. And I basically grew up with Brandy as Cinderella.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 8:38am

My mom loved Annie the show, and album. So, I remember watching this with her as a kid, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't grow up with the original movie, and when I saw it, I was confused by the whole chase on the bridge. This movie is great. It lacks Carol Burnett, or Dorothy Loudon, but Kathy Bates is still solid. The change of Hannigan as Annie's mother, you would think would trigger Annie to recognize her right away. But, suspend disbelieve, I guess.

I will say that when I go older, and listened to the album I was confused by the songs they cut 'New Deal for Christmas", and "Annie". I kept thinking I was pleased they were cut. Along with 'Herbert Hoover'. Yikes!

This is where I felt in love with Audra McDonald. So warm, so lovely. The high point of the whole film, as someone else pointed out, is Audra's Maybe (Reprise)/Tomorrow (Reprise). I love it. 

Victor Garber is one of my favourite actors, and he is fine in this (he the only actor to appear in all 3 of the "original" Disney tv musicals (Cinderella, Annie, and The Music Man). But, Warbucks is a thankless role. 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 8:49am

People liked it fine. It wasn't widely lauded or anything, but this was early days of internet. 

TV things were still just- on tv. 

I think I remember people feeling like "Why?" when the movie already existed. But it definitely is for the most part better and tighter than the 80s movie.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 8:53am

There definitely was no hype. Like someone said "Cinderella" had hype cause it was the return of the Wonderful World of Disney to ABC. That's what made the hype so people tuned in along with Whitney Houston.

Annie was just part of their Sunday night line up. And like I said I think people were like "The movie is not even 20 years old why do we need this?" more so.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 8:58am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "People liked it fine. It wasn't widely lauded or anything, but this was early days of internet.

TV things were still just- on tv.

I think I remember people feeling like "Why?" when the movie already existed. But it definitely is for the most part better and tighter than the 80s movie."

I'm probably in the minority but I didn't like it. I grew up watching the original movie on repeat, so that is the only version of Annie I knew. I feel like the new movie is so 'Disney-fied' it looses any sense of reality. The 1982 film has a lot of 'grit' that makes the Great Depression setting work in a way that the 1999 version does not. They also really expanded the main characters so I feel like we get to know them really well; the scenes between Ann Reinking and Albert Finney are wonderful. 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 9:46am

I think maybe the real truth is the 80's movie is bloated, the tv movie feels truncated.

But the TV movie delights in its quick paced frothiness.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 1:30pm

I'm trying to remember if there were any qualms about the multi-racial casting, but this was pre-internet. Considering how well it was received, any commentary in that regard at the time was lost. Can't say we'd get the same respect if it came out now.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 11/28/23 at 2:16pm

everythingtaboo said: "I'm trying to remember if there were any qualms about the multi-racial casting, but this was pre-internet. Considering how well it was received, any commentary in that regard at the time was lost. Can't say we'd get the same respect if it came out now."

Not exactly the same, but I feel like people had very little issue with the recent 'Annie-Live' casting a black actress as Annie. Then again, I might be in a social media 'echo chamber' with only open minded/ liberal folks.

[joevitus]

Posted: 11/29/23 at 1:24pm

everythingtaboo said: "I'm trying to remember if there were any qualms about the multi-racial casting, but this was pre-internet. Considering how well it was received, any commentary in that regard at the time was lost. Can't say we'd get the same respect if it came out now."

There was no reason to have a problem with Audra McDonald as Grace. This was not "pre-internet" (what a bizarre assumption). No comments about it at all.