”ANNIE is big, colorful... with high-spirited performances.” - Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES

ANNIE, the story of America’s favorite orphan, finally makes the leap from DVD to Blu-ray! Based on the smash hit Broadway musical, it’s the story of a plucky, red-haired girl who dreams of a life outside her dingy orphanage. Annie (newcomer Aileen Quinn in a Golden Globe-nominated performance) plans several escapades, but is always foiled by the gin-soaked ruler of the orphanage, Miss Hannigan (played to hilarious perfection by Carol Burnett in a Golden Globe-nominated performance). One day Annie is chosen to live for one week with the famous billionaire, ”Daddy” Warbucks (Oscar nominee Albert Finney). Because of Annie’s special charm, the week turns into many and she and Daddy Warbucks are sharing spectacular times in the New York City of the 1930s. Meanwhile, Miss Hannigan and her zany, villainous colleagues are plotting to kidnap Annie. Will they succeed? All the terrific songs are here, too, including ”It’s a Hard-Knock Life”, ”Maybe”, ”Easy Street” and ”Tomorrow”. Sing along to the unforgettable songs and experience this beloved musical like never before!


SONG INDEX:

• Main Title (Tomorrow)
• Maybe
• It’s a Hard-Knock Life
• Dumb Dog
• Sandy
• I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here
• Little Girls
• Maybe (Orphan reprise)
• Let’s Go to the Movies
• We Got Annie
• Sign
• You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile
• Tomorrow (White House version)
• Easy Street
• Maybe (reprise)
• Finale: I Don’t Need Anything But You / We Got Annie / Tomorrow


TRIVIA:

• Steve Martin was offered the role of Rooster. However, he turned it down when he heard he would be working alongside Bernadette Peters. They were breaking up at the time and Martin felt it would be too painful to work with her for several months.

• Aileen Quinn’s red curly wig was so itchy that the producers gave her a special comb for scratching her head.

• Drew Barrymore auditioned for the title role of Annie.

• In the play, Grace Farrell brought the adoption papers to the orphanage. After the film script had Oliver Warbucks do it, Carol Burnett and Albert Finney lobbied to have the songwriters write a song for them to sing together so as to flesh out the only meeting between Warbucks and Hannigan. Their duet, ”Sign,” was written in two days and turned out to be a major highlight of the film.

• Kristen Chenoweth auditioned for Annie, but was turned down because of her thick Southern accent. However, she later went on to play Lilly St Regis in Disney’s TV remake in November 1999.

• Supervising editor Margaret Booth was also the original editor of CAMILLE, the movie that Annie, Grace and Warbucks see in the ”Let’s Go to the Movies” sequence.

• Auditions for the title role spanned two years, 22 cities, 8,000 interviews and 70 actresses. Nine young actresses made it to the second round.

• Daddy Warbucks’ mansion was built in 1929 by Hubert Parson, the president of F.W. Woolworth. He called it Shadow Lawn. It is now Woodrow Wilson Hall, owned by Monmouth University in West Long Beach, NJ.

• Despite being the 10th biggest grossing film of 1982, and being regarded today as a film classic, the film didn’t make a profit due to its exorbitant production costs.

• The songs ”Dumb Dog,” ”Sandy,” ”Let’s Go to the Movies,” ”We Got Annie,” and ”Sign” were written expressly for the film adaptation, although several portions of ”We Got Annie” had been written for the song ”Annie” in the Broadway version. The songs from the original play that were dropped were ”NYC”, ”We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover”, ”You Won’t Be an Orphan for Long” ”Annie” and ”A New Deal for Christmas”. The last four songs are not in either the film or TV adaptations.

• Bette Midler was offered the role of Miss Hannigan, but she declined. The part ultimately went to comedic icon Carol Burnett.

• In the comic strip, Oliver Warbucks made his fortune through the sale of weapons and ammunition during the Great War (WWI), hence the name ”war bucks”. He was originally a guest character, but he was so popular that Harold Gray brought him back as a regular.

• The film took over two years to produce, had a budget over $35 million and utilized over 1,900 personnel.

• When Miss Hannigan says, ”Wrap it up, I’m listening to Helen Trent,” she is referring to THE ROMANCE OF HELEN TRENT, a radio soap opera about a middle-aged woman seeking romance. It ran 27 years, from 1933 to 1960.

• Tim Curry said he based his performance of Rooster on a stagehand he knew while performing a play in New York City.

• Legendary film director John Huston’s first musical.

• ANNIE opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theater (now the Neil Simon Theater) on April 8, 1977 and closed on January 2, 1983 after 2,377 performances (it’s currently tied with the 1998 revival of CABARET as the 26th longest running show in Broadway history). The original cast included Reid Shelton as Oliver Warbucks, Dorothy Loudon as Miss Hannigan and Andrea McArdle as Annie. It was nominated for ten 1977 Tony Awards and won seven including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Actress in a Musical for Loudon. As of July 2019, ANNIE has been revived on Broadway twice (at the Martin Beck Theatre from March 26, 1997 to October 19, 1997 with 239 performances and at the Palace Theatre from November 8, 2012 to January 5, 2014 with 487 performances). The 1997 production received one 1997 Tony nomination as Best Revival of a Musical (which it lost to CHICAGO) as well as the 2012 production also receiving one 2013 Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Musical (which it lost to PIPPIN).

• Amanda Peterson auditioned for the title role and made the top seven, but she was ultimately offered a smaller role. In the ”Dumb Dog” reprise, she sings ”Rover, when you think it over.”

• The stage version of ANNIE takes place at Christmas. The film changed it to the 4th of July as it was shot during the summer, and getting fake snow to cover the grounds of the New York mansion was far too expensive.

• The film takes place in 1933 -- the year that Carol Burnett was born.

• Jack Nicholson signed on to play Oliver Warbucks, but dropped out after the original producer left.

• Legendary actors of Hollywood’s iconic “golden era” mentioned in the song “Let’s Go to the Movies” are as follows:

- Chico (Marx)
- Groucho (Marx)
- (Charlie) Chaplin
- (Harold) Loyd
- Shirley Temple
- Jackie Cooper

At the time of her death on February 10, 2014, Shirley Temple was the last surviving film star mentioned in the song.

• The top three candidates for the title role were Aileen Quinn, Robin Ignico, who played Duffy, and Angela Lee Sloan, who was told she looked too much like Quinn to play a lead orphan, but was offered a smaller role. In the ”Hard-Knock Life” sequence, Lee is a sleeping orphan.

• One deleted scene, in which Annie confronts Miss Hannigan in her room, appeared in promotional lobby cards for the film and on the back of the case for the original home video release.

• The film premiered on Friday, May 17, 1982 at Radio City Music Hall, where the ”Let’s Go to the Movies” sequence was filmed. The nationwide release was one month later on Friday, June 18, 1982.

• The film was released on VHS, Betamax and CED Videodisc on November 5, 1982 by RCA / Columbia Pictures Home Video. It was re-issued in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1994 and 1997 (in a “Broadway Tribute Edition” to coincide with the original play’s Broadway 20th anniversary revival that year). There were two widescreen LaserDisc editions released, one in 1989 and another in 1994. The film had its first digital widescreen release (DVD) on December 12, 2000. A “Special Anniversary Edition” DVD was released on January 12, 2004 (four days before producer Ray Stark’s death). Despite the fact that the first DVD release was in the widescreen format, the second edition was in pan-and-screen (but with DTS sound). The film later had its first high definition release (Blu-Ray) on October 2, 2012, in celebration of the film’s 30th anniversary and the 35th anniversary of the Broadway version set for a revival in November 2012.

• The film had its television debut on Saturday, January 21, 1984 on HBO and its network debut on Monday, February 24, 1986 on NBC. Unfortunately, for the practical reasons of fitting the film into a standard, 2-hour time slot, NBC had to delete 32 minutes from the film.

• A made-for-TV movie version was broadcast on ABC on Sunday, November 7, 1999, starring Kathy Bates (Miss Hannigan), Victor Garber (Daddy Warbucks), Audra McDonald (Grace), Alan Cumming (Rooster), Kristin Chenoweth (Lily) and newcomer Alicia Morton (Annie). The “NYC” number also featured a special appearance by Andrea McArdle, star of the original Broadway production.

• While in the bathroom, Pepper (Rosanne Sorrentino) reads the actual May 1933 issue of the film magazine ”Photoplay” featuring Clara Bow on the front cover.

• A contemporary remake of the 1982 film was released (again by Columbia Pictures) on Friday, December 19, 2014. Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis was cast in the title role. The supporting cast included Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Warbucks), Cameron Diaz (Miss Hannigan), and Rose Byrne (Grace).

• ANNIE LIVE!, a musical television special, aired on NBC on Thursday, December 2, 2021. It was a performance of the 1977 Broadway version, although two numbers written for the 1982 feature film (“Sign” and “We Got Annie”) were added to this version. The production starred Harry Connick, Jr (Warbucks), Taraji P Henson (Hannigan) and newcomer Celina Smith as Annie. The special received 5.34 million viewers during its airing.



SHOOTING SCHEDULE: 29 April 1981 - 4 September 1981

RELEASE DATES:
- 17 May 1982 (New York, NY - world premiere)
- 19 May 1982 (Los Angeles, CA)
- 21 May 1982 (limited release)
- 18 June 1982

1982

PG

9317731093661

Movie

2.35:1

128

United States

2012-10-02

MPEG-4 AVC

1080p

2.20:1

N/A

1

1

Snap Case

~$7.27

2024-07-06

2018-02-07 21:13:07