Little Orphan Annie: Difference between revisions
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'''''Little Orphan Annie''''' is a comic strip created by Harold Gray in 1924. The original version ran through 1974 (with everything after Gray's death in 1968 done by other authors); Leonard Starr resurrected it in 1979, when the Broadway play took off. It finally wound up in June 2010.
In the strip, plucky redheaded orphan Annie is taken in by self-made millionaire "Daddy" Warbucks, the world's richest bald person. Since there's only so many ways of doing "Thieves try to steal the Warbucks millions" and "Kidnappers try to steal Annie so they can get their hands on the Warbucks millions", Annie would often be separated from her protector for months at a time, living on the streets again and bringing sunshine into the lives of struggling small-businessmen, honest laborers, and little old ladies with evil bank-managers.
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In 1972, Martin Charnin bought the rights to the comic strip. With Thomas Meehan and Charles Strouse, he created the Broadway musical ''Annie'' in 1977. For more about it and its spin-offs (including the 1982 film), see ''[[Annie]]''.
In 1995, ''Annie: A Royal Adventure'', a [[Made for TV Movie]] starring Ashley Johnson, aired on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]].
Despite the enduring popularity of the musical and movies, the strip itself declined in popularity after the Leonard Starr era, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100516033530/http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/13/2010-05-13_little_orphan_gonnie_from_the_daily_news.html ended its 86-year run] in [http://www.gocomics.com/annie/2010/06/13 June of 2010], [[No Ending|in the middle]] of [[Aborted Arc|a story arc that saw Annie kidnapped in Guatemala]] and [[Downer Ending|presumed dead by Warbucks]]. After Warbucks made a few cameos in [[Dick Tracy (comic strip)|''Dick Tracy'']] on his own search for Annie, [[Crossover|a lengthy crossover arc in 2014]] saw Tracy's agency [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|team up with Warbucks to rescue Annie]], thus concluding the storyline and comic in October of 2014.
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{{tropelist|The comic strip includes examples of:}}
* [[Action Girl]]: Annie can fight as well as any boy. April 7, 1936, she decks the toughest kid in school with one punch.
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: The daily radio drama ''Orphaned Belinda'', as shown in the ''Dick Tracy'' crossover arc. Also veers somewhat into [[homage]] territory.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Played straight in the ''[[Dick Tracy (comic strip)|Dick Tracy]]''
* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Mr. Busard.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: In late February, 1936, a robber seeing Annie walking along the road makes her get into his car. The reason he gives is that he wants to give her a ride, but it's really in order to use her as protection if the police sees him; they wouldn't shoot at him if there's a risk of killing an innocent girl. He's impressed by the way she won't accept the stolen money he tries to give her, and says that he "could have been that way once, maybe... But it's too late now..." In the end, he tells her to leave him even though he knows that it will vastly increase the risk that the police kills him.
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* [[Art Evolution]]: The reason why Annie no longer sports an afro.
** Averted in the ''Dick Tracy'' crossover arc, where Annie [[It Makes Sense in Context|is reverted back to her 1940s style and wardrobe]].
* [[Artifact Title]]: She was an orphan at first, but she got adoptive parents quite soon
* [[Author Tract]]: The strips are infamous for being a platform where Harold Gray expresses his libertarian Republican views. This was eventually downplayed in later adaptations and the post-Gray strips, however.
* [[Badass Grandpa]]: {{spoiler|Jack Boot}} might not look like a fighter, but he can take out a hired killer that's armed with a knife. Using his bare hands. When he's attacked from behind.
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* [[Conveniently an Orphan]]: Amazingly enough, subverted. She gets adopted fairly quickly. Sure, she might have no idea where her biological parents are, but she's no more an orphan than any other adopted child. And considering that her "Daddy" Warbucks looking for her is a recurring theme, this trope is definitely subverted hard.
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: ''Not'' Warbucks, but many of the villains. Mr. Slugg is a good example.
* [[Crossover]]: An official resolution to the 2010 [[Cliff Hanger]] [[Downer Ending]] of the strip's original run was written by the creative team of the ''[[Dick Tracy (comic strip)|Dick Tracy]]'' comic strip starting in 2013. After several extended cameos, in June 2014 Warbucks approached Tracy and asked for his help in rescuing Annie, which was accomplished in October 2014. Annie and her supporting cast made several more appearances in ''Dick Tracy'' over the years, with the most recent (as of this writing) being a 2019 arc in which Warbucks confirmed that he has formally adopted Annie as his daughter.
* [[Deserted Island]]: Annie and Spike Marlin are stuck on one for a number of weeks.
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Pretty much every story line ends with a sudden negative twist that prevents Annie from settling down to live happily ever after, and sets up the next arc: an old stand-by is that Annie is reunited with Warbucks after being kidnapped, but Warbucks loses all his money in the process. The next arc would then deal with him getting his fortune back. One of Harold Gray's mandates to his successors was that no storyline should ever end happily.
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