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Little Orphan Annie is a 1992 British-American animated musical comedy-drama film adapted from the comic strip by Harold Gray. The film took the elements form both the comic and its stage version Annie, while the plot elements were brought over to the 1999 film of Annie. It produced by Paramount Feature Animation and Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio as their first collaborative project. It was the second and last Amblimation film to use cel animation after An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

The film was released in the United States on October 16, 1992 by Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures, and was a critical and commercial success, earning over $197.5 million against its $54 million budget.

Plot[]

In 1933 (during the Great Depression), 11-year-old orphan Annie was left on her own at an all girls' orphanage when she was an infant. The only two things that she received from her family was half a heart-shaped locket with a key hole, and a note from her parents saying that they'd come back for her. The orphanage is run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan, who starves the orphans, forces them to do slave labor, and she even makes them suffer. In the middle of the night, after getting tired of waiting for her parents, Annie tries to escape to find them, but is caught by Miss Hannigan in the process. When Miss Hannigan gets distracted, Annie hides in the dirty laundry bin and she finally succeeds in running away. While out on her own, Annie befriends a dog, whom she names Sandy. But a policeman catches her and returns her back to the orphanage. When billionaire Oliver Warbucks decides to take in an orphan for Christmas, his secretary, Grace Farrell, chooses Annie. She is brought to his wealthy estate and bathes in a grand life.

Although at first uncomfortable with Annie, Warbucks is soon charmed by her. He desperately wants to adopt Annie, but Annie still wants to find her real parents, so she announces on the radio a $50,000 reward for anybody who can prove they're her biological parents. The orphans accidentally tell Miss Hannigan, making her ex-con brother Rooster and his dimwitted girlfriend Lily St. Regis cooking up a scheme to get the reward by posing as Ralph and Shirley Mudge (Annie's "so called" parents).

Lily is left with the orphans after Miss Hannigan and Rooster leave, but Lily accidentally tells the secret. The orphans make her tell them what is going on, and she realizes that Rooster could leave her hanging as he has done before in the past. She and the orphans come to Warbucks' mansion where Lily demands her part in the cut while the orphans quote "WE LOVE YOU MISS HANNIGAN" as Miss Hannigan tries to run by Lily. While fleeing from the orphans, Miss Hannigan and Rooster are intercepted upon the arrival of President Franklin D. Roosevelt along with his Secret Service. The President reads the papers that identifies Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily while also mentioning the aliases of the latter two. Rooster and Lily are both arrested by the Secret Service as Rooster tells Lily that she loused up. Miss Hannigan tries to convince Annie to vouch for her to avoid being arrested, but Annie says she would and states that Miss Hannigan taught her to "never tell a lie". This causes Miss Hannigan to lose her sanity and she is carted off to a lunatic asylum with Rooster and Lily also being escorted out of the mansion to jail.

President Roosevelt then presents the evidence to Annie that her real parents are actually David and Margaret Bennett, but sadly they both had died several years earlier which explains why they never returned for her. Although Annie is saddened that her real parents are dead, she is cheered up when Warbucks officially takes her in as one of his own. The President ensures a happy ending for all as he promises that each of the orphans will be adopted by a stable and happy family. Warbucks and Grace become engaged, and Annie lives happily with her new parents.

Cast[]

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Additional voices[]

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Production[]

Development[]

In 1982, George Burke and Lana Ponce got attention of the Broadway stage, Annie, as well as the comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, and the 1982 film of the same name. After the success of Don Bluth's An American Tail and during the production of The Land Before Time, Steven Spielberg, George Burke and Lana Ponce had begin a partnership to produce a few films, including Little Orphan Annie.

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Casting[]

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Animation[]

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Music[]

Main article: Little Orphan Annie/Soundtrack

Release[]

Little Orphan Annie was originally slated for release in November 25, 1992 to competed with Walt Disney Pictures' Aladdin. However, after the box office failure of Amblimation's first film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Paramount changed the film's release from November 1992 to October 1992 in avoid competition with Aladdin, as well as Viacom Animation's The Children of California.

Home media[]

Little Orphan Annie was released on VHS and LaserDisc on April 14, 1993. On April 9, 2002, the film was re-released on VHS and DVD as part of the Paramount Animation Collection.

On March 4, 2021, Little Orphan Annie, along with Meredith's Journey, Natalia's Story and other Paramount Animation films, was available on Paramount+.

Reception[]

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Video games[]

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Transcripts[]

Main[]

To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers[]

To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.

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