Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Disney Song #33: Angels in the Outfield


To Listen: Click Here

The Facts:
  • Composer: Randy Edelman
  • Year: 1994
  • Key: C Major

Heard In: 
Angels in the Outfield

Background / Personal Connection:
Randy Edelman alert!  Randy Edelman alert!  If you've read some of my MacGyver posts over the years, you know how fond I am of Mr. Edelman's music.  He composed just 16 MacGyver episodes out of 139 yet was responsible for 10 of my 13 favorite musical tracks from the series (including the iconic theme song).  He finally makes an appearance on my Disney countdown -- at some point later I'll do a separate tribute post on Edelman and reveal my all-time favorite works of his and decide where he ranks on the list of all-time composers (hint - it's pretty high).  In the meantime, listen to the theme song from the link above and take a little trip with me to Goosebump City.

Although I've always been a baseball fan, somehow I had never seen this movie before.  I decided to borrow the DVD from the local library (maybe someday I'll join Netflix like everyone else) and give it a watch.  There are lots of recognizable faces in this one including Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Neal McDonough, Dermot Mulroney, a young Matthew McConaughey, a really young Adrien Brody, and a really really young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character.

All in all I enjoyed it and would recommend it.  Some of the baseball scenes are a little cheesy (like the outfielders being able to jump and float 10 feet in the air to catch a fly ball), but then again who am I to critique the work of angels?  And the ending where Tony Danza gets the final out is great and even had my wife (who was in the room looking on) get a bit teary.  And of course, the incredible theme song plays throughout, and there's even an awesome rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game at the end credits which sounds like pure Edelman.

2 comments:

  1. So I sense that you liked the music better than the film. If you were to rank the film on a scale of 1-10 not accounting for the music, where would you rank it? I remember the ads for this movie back in the mid-90s but I never felt compelled to check it out as by then I was too old for its core audience. I'm more inclined to check it out knowing Edelman did the score.

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    1. I'd give it a 6 in that overall it was favorable. It felt a bit dated and slapsticky at times, but it was still a feel-good movie and I liked the characters. And your mention of the core audience is a good point in that it seems like something that would be ideal for the 8-10 year old age range.

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