Kid-Sight: Annie Movie Review

Parent note: This is a kid friendly review written in simpler language to help explain the movie to children. The purpose is to give a general idea of the movie to help children predict what is happening in the ‘big picture’ of the story. This review also provides some hints about the sensory and storyline content of the movie, as well as some helpful hints for older viewers.
Annie – 2014

Storyline:
Annie is a story of an orphan who is looking for her parents. In the beginning of the movie, she lives with her foster mother, Miss Hannigan. Miss Hannigan is not a very nice person and only keeps the girls to get paid to keep them. Will Stacks is a rich man who is running for the office of mayor. When he saves Annie’s from being run over by a car, his helpers come up with an idea to make Will more popular. They think if Will brings Annie to his house and takes care of her for a little while, people in the town will like him better.

Will didn’t plan to like Annie, but he starts to like her because she is brave, kind, funny, and creative. One of Will’s helpers, Grace, likes Annie too, but there is another helper, Guy, who only wants to be rich and famous. He makes a plan to get more money by working with Miss Hannigan to ‘pretend’ to find Annie’s parents.

The story has a happy ending with Annie finding new parents who will love her and take care of her.

ALSO SEE: Sensory Sensitive Summer Movies for more details.

Sensory Tips:
The movie is filled with music. Most of the music has a more ‘pop rock’ sound. The action in the movie is considered ‘low’ without lots of quick moving scenes, flashing lights, or sudden volume changes.

Storyline Complexity:
The story has a mild-moderately complex storyline. The main storyline is about Annie finding someone to love her and about Will Stacks learning how to love. Other storylines that make it a little more complex is Miss Hannigan and Guy’s trickery, Will’s business pursuits, and Grace’s feelings for Will.

Hints for Older kids:

1. Miss Hannigan uses her face and voice to express her emotions very well. Sometimes she ‘pretends’ to be nice, but her actions show us that she really isn’t nice. See if you notice some of the ways she ‘pretends’ to be nice to the men she meets.
2. Will Stacks doesn’t always act nice to Annie or his helpers. He is very focused on his job and business. Will begins to care for Annie by spending time with her when no one else is looking. He also is proud of her when she sings in front of all of his guests at the party. How can you tell he is beginning to care about her? What does he do at the party to show he is proud?

Kid-Sight: Annie Movie Review
Pepper Basham, MS, CCC-SLP