I thought the 1982 version was pretty horrid and way overblown. In the "Hard-Knock Life" number, yeah all the acrobatics was impressive, but why were there so many orphans and where did they go after that number? And how could there be no real "Tomorrow" number? I don't think having Annie, Daddy Warbucks, FDR, and Eleanor Roosevelt sing it for comic relief was really what the song was intended for.
The worst part was Aileen Quinn...I mean Annie is smart, but she's not obnoxious. I thought Alicia Morton was much better as she got Annie's charm and humor but also didn't forget that she was still a little girl.
Burnett as Miss Hannigan really ANNOYED me and it took me a while to get over Albert Finney's portrayal of Daddy Warbucks and Ann Reiking's doormat version of Grace.
Plus, Rooster trying to KILL Annie? WTF? What a horrible way to end the movie.
"[Gore] was widely perceived as arrogant. If you know something, you're not smart. You're a smarty-pants. It's annoying. People get annoyed with your knowledge. It goes back to high school, to not doing your homework ... 'There's something I should know, I don't know why I should know it but someone knows it and I don't. So I'm going to have to make fun of him now.'"
-Sarah Vowell, The Partly-Cloudy Patriot