‘Annie’s’ Hard-Knock Life in Grand Disney Style

A new TV movie version of “Annie”? You might ask, “Why?” The 1982 feature film wasn’t a critical success--although in retrospect, not all the shots it took are entirely deserved--but it’s had a long shelf life as a popular family video. And stage productions of the 1973 Martin Charnin-Charles Strouse-ThomasMeehan musical keep on coming, too, year in, year out.

So why another movie about a perennially sunny cartoon orphan and her dog?

With a multimillion-dollar budget, Tony- and Academy Award-winning stars and dynamic new orchestrations and choreography, why not?

Its script is pared down considerably (Sandy and President Roosevelt get short shrift; Punjab is absent altogether); its ebullience is flattened a tad to diminish cartoonishness. Still, this new and lavish “Annie,” airing Sunday on “The Wonderful World of Disney,” makes a case for reinvention.

Following in the footsteps of Disney’s glossy 1997 TV spectacular, “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” starring Brandy and Whitney Houston--and from the same producers--it’s the rich, textured look of this “Annie,” the lush instrumentals and director Rob Marshall’s big, Broadway-style choreography that stand out. That, and the legit theater cast.

Lending their exceptional vocal talents and stage expertise are four-time Tony Award nominee Victor Garber as Daddy Warbucks; lovely three-time Tony winner Audra McDonald as Warbucks’ personal assistant Grace; and Alan Cumming, who took the Tony for the decadent emcee in “Cabaret” and who’s sublime as Miss Hannigan’s oily, bad-news brother Rooster.

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Another Tony winner, Kristin Chenoweth (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”), plays the greatly reduced role of Rooster’s chippie, Lily St. Regis. But non-musical Oscar winner Kathy Bates, who steals Lily’s thunder, comes close to stealing the show as heartless orphanage mistress Miss Hannigan. Bates is clearly having lots of fun in the role and she’s as much fun to watch--although not for her menace. She’s all bark and no bite, even cuddly, with a hint of a “just kidding” twinkle lurking beneath the surface.

And what about “Annie” herself? Appealing newcomer Alicia Morton, more grown up than past Annies, with a quiet poise and a sweet voice, is just right.

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* “Annie” airs on “The Wonderful World of Disney” at 7 p.m. Sunday on ABC. The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).