This is an excellent movie, especially for those who enjoy listening to The Vienna Boys Choir. There is nothing better, as far as I am concerned, than listening to the soprano voices of a Boy's Choir. I myself, was once a choir boy, and enjoyed the many years that I sang in three different boys choirs. To this day, I still sing in a choir.
Back to my report on this movie. This Disney movie utilizes the world renowned Vienna Boy's Choir, as the bases for its plot. The movie itself, is not a best seller, but the singing throughout the movie is beautiful. I find myself rewinding the film and playing the songs over and over. The star of the movie is a young boy Tony Fiala, played by Vincent Winter, who wants to become a member of the choir. When his parents finally agree, he goes, but is put on probation. One of the Choirmasters feels that Tony is blessed with an exceptional voice. This does not go over very well with one of the senior boys, Peter Schaefer, played by Sean Scully. I don't want to spoil this movie for you, so you will have to see it to see how this all works out.
In another comment, which you can read on this site, it was mentioned that, and I quote: " there's a scene wherein several of the boys are required to dress as girls for a public performance!" In reading this statement, I feel that there are some overtones, that are not being said out loud. If the person who wrote this, (comment on the movie), had ever gone to a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir, he would've probably seen the boys (himself) dress up as girls. In each of the shows I saw, the boys had to dress as girls, so as to perform the small musical that they put on. It was always and accepted part of the performance, and we, the audience, never thought anything different. To me, I don't think it ever harmed any of those boys. In fact,I myself on one occasion, on a Halloween night in the fifties, got dressed up as the mayor of our city. I won first prize in our school function for my effort. I always thought that was so cool. Today, people are not as relaxed about these sort of situations, which is too bad.
This movie is an excellent movie that the whole family can watch. If you are able to get a copy, do so. They are hard to find. I was able to obtain a copy of it on "e-bay" and paid dearly for it. I have not regretted it one bit. I have also written to Disney to see whether they have any intention of making it into a DVD in the near future. The reply was not favourable at this time, but maybe in the future. I sure hope so. There are a lot of movies out there today that are not half as good as this film is, and they are already on DVD. So, I'm praying for a turnaround at the Disney Studios.
