I can't blame the '82 filmmakers for that, they were just adapting the plot of the 1977 Broadway musical directly, as have all subsequent versions of "Annie" who go with the 70s musical as their 'source material' instead of Harold Gray's original writing.
The Broadway musical pretty much conveys the exact OPPOSITE message that Gray intended, as it depicts grouchy old fashioned anti-big government capitalist Daddy Warbucks being "enlightened" by Annie and coming around to realize how wonderful FDR's New Deal is for America. In fact, the broadway musical is far worse than any film adaptation in this respect, as it include a sarcastic "We'd like to thank you, Mr. Hoover" musical number that repeats the myth that free-market capitalism is responsible for Hoovervilles and the great depression. It has also has the finale "New Deal for Christmas" number celebrating how FDR's wonderful government programs are gonna help all the widdle poor orphans feed their families on Christmas day, blah blah blah. I don't think either song made it into the movie adaptations.
By his own admission, the guy who turned Annie into a broadway musical didn't like any of the storylines from the comics, so he decided to write his own original story and only keep the characters of Annie, Daddy Warbucks and Sandy the dog. Gray would be spinning in his grave if he saw any of it. Imagine how liberals would react if some conservative adapted the preachy left-wing comic strip Doonesbury into a cheesy musical where Garry Trudeau's characters celebrate the Trump administration.
By 2014, it was so far removed from the original comics that they made Annie a black girl in present-day America and had Jamie Foxx as "Will Stacks" (which is supposedly "based on" Daddy Warbucks), so if any franchise ever needed a complete reboot to erase the bad direction its been veering off for decades, its this one. Someone hire Kelsey Grammer to play Daddy Warbucks in an independent film.
It speaks volumes that the silly 1982 movie is actually the LEAST offensive of the "modern" versions of the story. It might also be the only one where "Little Orphan Annie" actually looks like Gray depicted her (a curly haired 10 year old redhead)
No, they didn’t have those 2 political numbers in the ‘82 film (remarkable they didn’t, if only to use them to poke at President Reagan). I remember well at the time I went to see the film a few times at the theater and played the album many, many times (I was 8). Although it was mainly because I had a terrible crush on Aileen Quinn (minus her costume and awful red wig, she was an adorable brunette in reality).
In hindsight, the best part of the film were the scenes with Carol Burnett and Tim Curry. I thought Burnett should’ve received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Curry’s musical number, “Easy Street”, should’ve also gotten him a similar nomination.
I couldn’t work myself up to see the infamous 2014 version. I could tell how offensive it would be (too bad they passed up the opportunity to do “We’d like to thank you, Mr. Obammy”).
As for the notion of “Doonesbury” as a Conservative movie musical, that’s a marvelous idea. Hopefully we could do that before Garry Turdough kicks off.