Annie (1999)

A young orphan girl (Alicia Morton) in an orphanage run by a mean spirited harridan (Kathy Bates) gets a break when she spends Christmas with a billionaire (Victor Garber). Meanwhile, the harridan concocts a plan to profit from the billionaire's generosity. Based on the hit Broadway musical and choreographed and directed by Rob Marshall (CHICAGO). Done for Disney television, this is the second film version of ANNIE. In addition to the 1982 film, it was remade as a feature film in 2014 and again for TV in 2021. This is the best of the filmed ANNIE incarnations. It's not overproduced, it's not made more musically "contemporary", it adheres closely to the original stage production except for having Bates trying to pass herself off as Annie's mother. In the play, it's her brother's girlfriend (played here by Kristen Chenoweth) who does the passing. Surely Annie (Morton) would have seen through Bates' disguise while she never met Chenoweth's character. With Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming, Dennis Howard and Andrea McArdle (who played Annie in the original stage production).