Angels In The Outfield is finally on Disney+ and I HAVE to talk about this 90s baseball movie
Remember Angel in the outfieldThe Sports film for children from the 90s where a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt prays for the California Angels to win the American League championship so he can be reunited with his father? After years of strange absence from the best movies on Disney+the 1994 baseball movie is finally available on the popular streaming service, presumably in honor of its 30th anniversary. But I digress…
When I realized that I had to go back and look at one of the best baseball movies from my childhood, I decided to visit it again and see how it stood after all these years. Let me tell you how my recent repetition of First Leagueit was an experience. Wait a minute: a good experience or a bad experience? Well, come with me as I take the field and share some thoughts that came to me after watching that wild baseball movie from the 90s.
Roger’s inspiration for the team (and the entire stadium) in the last game is still epic and incredibly moving
Although it is kind of cheesy, I am willing to drop all cynicism and accept that Roger Bomman (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) will kill the entire team and Angels Stadium in the last game of Angel in the outfield is one of the the greatest moments in a baseball movie The sight of More than 30,000 fans wave like angels (or birds) to boost the morale of a pitcher who is past his prime is a miracle even after all these years.
It’s the film’s “Disney moment,” and an emotional one at that. I mean, everyone except the vengeful and jealous sportscaster Ranch Wilder (Jay O. Sanders) is in on the action, even the drunken bleacher creature who got a home run hit in the mouth earlier in the film.
As a child I always found the first changing room scene wild, even more so today
I saw Angel in the outfield in a movie theater and I had one of those old white Disney VHS clamshell tapes that I watched until the tape was all warped. The scene that I always looked forward to as a kid was the dressing room scene after George Knox (Danny Glover) loses his mind after yet another defeat that should have been a victory. I have to tell you, I loved watching that scene again.
The way Glover channels Roger Murtaugh from Deadly weapon Verbal attacking the lovable losers on his team is pretty intense, and I’m surprised Coach Knox didn’t have a heart attack or something. The guy just yells fire and brimstone at everyone. The catering table being knocked over and a salami tube rolling on the floor is great, Neal McDonough’s stupid Whitt Bass is great, and Tony Danza just hanging out in the hot tub smoking a space heater is just great.
The fact that Al tells Roger in passing that Mel has six months to live is something
I completely forgot about the conversation before the deciding game where Al (Christopher Lloyd) tells Roger that Mel will soon be going to the “angels” in the afterlife because he has six months to live. He sugarcoats the whole situation by basically implying that Mel will be well taken care of, but it’s just crazy how calm he is about the whole situation. What if Mel had a wife, kids, friends, or a new hot tub where he could sit all day and smoke more cigarettes?
I know this is a kids’ movie with the message “don’t smoke in the hot tub or you’ll get sick and die even if you look cool as hell,” but the whole reveal just comes out of the blue. For the first two-thirds of the movie, it’s implied that Mel had some arm problems that could end his career, not terminal lung cancer. But even so, it leads to this crazy, uplifting moment a few minutes later.
Taylor Negron’s physical comedy, especially during the nacho scene, is top notch
The late great Taylor Negron is one of the unsung heroes of this film, and his character, David Montagne, is at the center of some of the funniest and most chaotic slapstick moments in the entire film. The Angels team assistant is tasked with looking after Roger and JP (Milton Davis) at all games, which in most cases results in his suit being worn in various great food scenes from movies.
This is especially true of the hilarious nacho scene where Negron sits down on a full tray of chips and cheese. In the scene, David’s suit is already covered in stains from an earlier mustard incident and subsequent soda spill, but afterward, he’s pretty much ruined. The look on his face when he realizes he’s sitting on nachos is honestly one of the best in the film.
I think there are more Oscar winners per capita here than in any other children’s film of the 90s
There are a lot of great kids movies from the 90s, but I don’t think any have as many Oscar winners as this one. It’s crazy!
First, there are the young talents Adrien Brody and Matthew McConaughey, who later won Oscars for The pianist And Dallas Buyers Clubafter they starred as two young baseball players. I know neither of them had taken home an award at the time of the film’s release, but it’s like bragging to your kids that you saw Albert Pujols or Mike Trout play in the minor leagues before they made the team.
Ben Johnson, who played Angels owner Hank Murphy, and Brenda Fricker, who played Roger and JP’s foster mother Maggie Nelson, won their Oscars before moving to the cast. Johnson won his for his legendary performance in The last performance, while Fricker took hers home after stealing the show in My left foot. Talk about serious talent.
I love that Disney bought the California Angels a few years after the film was released
A few years later Angel in the outfield Disney became a minority owner of the California Angels after buying a stake from original owner and country music icon Gene Autry (I’m not convinced Ben Johnson’s character isn’t based on him). According to ESPNAfter Autry’s death in 1998, the company bought the rest of the team for $147 million.
After a name change to the Anaheim Angels (which changed twice more in the following years), a World Series win and some ups and downs, Disney sold the team to current owner Arte Moreno for $180 million in 2005. The team is now worth $2.7 billion, per Forbes.
Now that Angel in the outfield can finally start with a Disney+ subscription and you no longer have to search for a DVD in the library, it might be a good idea to rewatch this 1994 sports comedy.
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