Almost Angels (1962)

Don't exactly LOVE this poster, but it has a cute picture of Peter in the back and the other poster had a random kid with a random black eye.

See, I told you he has a black eye. What the heck?

I usually wait until I have watched a movie at least twice until I review it, but this movie was just so, I shudder to use the word, precious, (getting strong Gollum vibes here, but it was precious) that I had to post something about it right away! On Allison's Well, a very nifty blog I just found, Allison had a list of of ten Disney movies that time forgot, but shouldn't have. I'm not sure if that's a quote-on-quote quote, but close enough. On that list I found this wonderful little movie. And there you have the backstory. Now on to the review →→→

Tony Fiala can sing. He knows it, his mother knows it, and his father knows it, but his father doesn't want him to sing. He wants him to follow a useful career path, like following in his footsteps and learning how to operate a train. But Tony cannot be kept away from his dream of singing. Without the father's knowledge, Mrs. Fiala sets Tony up to audition for the Vienna Boys' Choir. With only two places left in the choir and eight boys auditioning, Tony manages to nail it. He is now a Vienna Boy.... Although he already was a Vienna boy, he is now a Vienna boy in a Choir.

Vincent Winter as Tony at the audition.

Although Mr. Fiala doesn't like it, he consents to let Tony stay on one condition: That he improve and retain his skills in arithmetic. The teachers at Vienna Boys Choir school assure Mr. Fiala that his son will receive regular schooling as well as his singing lessons. So with many a shout of joy, Tony is officially allowed to stay. Tony's a really sweet kid, and since he has a wonderful voice, he is quickly placed as the soloist. The previous soloist is getting a little too old for the really high notes, so it makes sense for him to be replaced. But do you think he takes it so graciously? Uh, no. The previous soloist (Peter's the name) doesn't take to poor little Tony at all. He tries a WIDE variety of tricks to get him in trouble. Like starting a huge pillow fight in the dorm and taking Tony's radio that was given to him as a gift and playing it loudly, which is forbidden. Or locking him in a room at the hospital so he won't be in time to sing his solo to the children there (in fact, this particular gag actually endangered Tony's life). And he's also just generally not very nice to Tony, but Tony doesn't really seem to notice. He kind of looks with awe upon Peter, as Peter is very knowledgeable in the way of music. He even composes his own music.

Sean Scully as Peter.

As the movie progresses we see not only a delightful, heartwarming, and often times funny, story of friendship and the love of music, but we are also allowed a glimpse of what life is like for a Vienna Choir Boy, at least what it was like in 1962. Will Peter and Tony become friends, or will Peter remain perpetually jealous of the adorable little boy who stole his spot of glory? Will Tony be allowed to stay with the Vienna Boys Choir, or will his father pull him out before he even has a chance to go on tour to such places as India, China, and Australia? If those questions don't sound alluring to you, don't worry, you'll still like this movie. I don't want to spoil the whole film for you, so I'm just gonna show you some pictures instead. SPOILER ALERT: My favorite character is Peter. He's such a good little actor and his eyes are just so expressive! And he doesn't remain a jerk forever, just so ya know. The music teacher's also pretty legit. And now for the pictures:

When you have a boys choir somebody's gotta make the sacrifice.

If you watch the movie you'll see why both these kids look so depressed.

There's a bucket-load of good pictures on almostangels.org that I couldn't put on here because of copyright reasons, but you can hop on over to that website and see them. Or even better, maybe watch the movie, eh?