Everyone's Hero
Direted by: Christopher Reeve, Dan St. Pierre, Colin Brady
Starring: Voices of William H. Macy, Rob Reiner
Rated: G
The only fuzzy feeling that the animated film Everyone's Hero inspires is an overwhelming desire to hit something with a baseball bat. Hero has none of the charm of The Incredibles or Cars, and none of Finding Nemo's wit. The only person who gets to do any hitting in the film is Yankee Irving, the ten-year-old die-hard New York Yankees fan who is Hero's hero.
When Yankee inadvertently discovers that the "biggest cheater in baseball" - Lefty McGinnis, pitcher for the Chicago Cubs - stole Babe Ruth's lucky (talking) bat Darlin', Yankee embarks on a journey to get Darlin' back to his hero before the Yanks lose the series to the Cubs. With the help of a friendly talking baseball, Yankee learns that no matter how close he comes to failure, if he just keeps swinging, he'll make it after all.
And yet, despite the fact that syrup practically oozes from the screen, Hero really is a crowd-pleaser, the crowd, of course, being largely under eight. Kids will roar with laughter at the exaggerated slapstick humor and booger jokes, and shout, "Run, Yankee!" at all the right suspenseful places. When Yankee saves the day, his munchkin prot‚g‚s should burst into adoring applause. Everyone's Hero is Citizen Kane if you still haven't mastered fractions, but for the post-pubescent, the movie is a swing and a miss.
