Everyone's Hero

It's strange how people are reacting to this movie. I'm not sure what they're expecting. This is simply a fine, fun movie for the 4 to 10 year old set. I brought a group of kids with me that were in that age group and they all loved it. They were cheering at the end. As a parent I also found it quite enjoyable. It's no "Shrek" I suppose, but few movies are. This is just a fine animated film with a good plot, a good moral, and no bad language. Some reviewers are upset because some things don't make sense - like whether there could be lights on Wrigley field, or whether "Seabiscut" was around at the time this movie was supposed to take place? Please. Who cares? Certainly the kids don't. What more could you want in a fun animated flick for children? Take your kids to see it and enjoy.

Everyone's Hero is charming kiddie fare. I didn't hate it but the story sorta screamed straight to video. However, for a film about a talking bat and baseball, I think I was a little more entertained then I expected to be.I like others thought the premise was a little ridiculous, but it gives the feeling of a Saturday morning cartoon where inanimate objects talk for no reason. Fair enough. The premise was still box office poison. Still, the film has some characters that aren't gratingly annoying, and of course the exaggerated one dimensional villains that you would expect. Aside from the lukewarm story, I was a little disturbed by some of the sequences involving young yankee irving in situations that are quite dangerous, aside from the realistic overall film. There is a looney tunes-esquire train segment where characters are jumping from train to train at full speed, and the end where yankee seems to acquire superpowers. Also, the very idea that he travels across half the country and it's kind of downplayed, it just doesn't mix well with the "you can do anything" theme of the film. It suggests to young children that they can literally do anything. It just doesn't seem like the best message to convey. Other than that, it's cute and not terribly original. The animation reveals obviously that this film wasn't done on an 100 million dollar budget, I think what they came out with matches the tone of the film. I'd recommend it to anyone with young children who enjoy baseball or for anyone who needs just a fun little film to pop in the DVD player to distract the kids for a little while.

With a co-directing credit for Christopher Reeve (yes that Christopher Reeve), a great subject matter (not the biggest baseball fan but it's fun to see film and television revolving around it every now and again and a voice cast that includes Whoopi Goldberg, William H. Macy, Mandy Patinkin and Forrest Whittaker, 'Everyone's Hero' promised a lot.

Unfortunately, this promise is not fully lived up. 'Everyone's Hero' is not awful, it is a little bit better than has been said but the criticisms against it are to me not hard to agree with, and has elements that make it worth a one-time watch, but not enough to be worth fully getting on base for. It could have been much better, the cast deserved better and while there are things that Reeve has done that were worthy of him and worth remembering him for (like his iconic portrayal of Superman) his posthumous co-directing credit for 'Everyone's Hero' is not one of them sadly.

'Everyone's Hero' is watchable, despite major short-comings. It is a very well intentioned film, not giving up in the face of adversity (an everyday struggle to overcome) is not a new idea but is a very easy to relate with one for particularly anybody who has been there like me. The positive messaging is not always subtle to put it lightly, but they were very much appreciated and are important values for anybody regardless of gender and age and regardless of how many times they have been dealt with in media.

Some of 'Everyone's Hero' is funny and touching in equal measure, the baseball setting is beautifully realised and fun to watch. There are some interesting ideas and some colourfully portrayed characters, especially the relatable lead characters and a truly enjoyably vile villain. The animation is bright and colourful with some nice attention to detail, the soundtrack is dynamic and uplifting and the voice acting is enthusiastic and fitting, especially the barn-storming turn of Macy who truly relishes the film's juiciest character. The target audience is clear and the film does its best to attract a wider audience, including those not big on animation but are die-hard fans of baseball.

For all its good things and good intentions, 'Everyone's Hero' to me was heavily flawed. The story does tend too often to be too formulaic and lacking in spark to stop blandness from creeping in, it too is rather too pat and nice for any conflict to be convincing and there are elements that are under-explored or not made clear enough, coming over as strange instead. The twist agreed is too ridiculous to be taken seriously, one of the most unbelievable twists personally seen in a film seen recently.

Despite some moments, there are too many cheap and predictable gags that one can see coming from miles away. Complete with references that really don't hold up well, and would go over the heads of even much older audiences who lived during the period the film is set or close to it. Even they are likely to be unfamiliar with who and what some of the jokes are referencing or find them too mean-spirited to be clever and funny (that Eleanor Roosevelt joke was a good example).

Although the clear target audience and attempts at wide audience appeal are to be applauded, it's almost as if the film tried too hard to cater to fans of old-time baseball that are the most likely to completely get the portrayal of the sport at that time and some of the jokes and even they may question the strange choices the film makes and the lack of accuracy. While most of the animation is good, some of the character designs are crude, stiff and lack focus and generally it's all very striking and competent but not always imaginative.

On the whole, watchable and laudable for its good intentions but uneven lacklustre. 5/10 Bethany Cox

"I lost Interest at the talking baseball."? "It wasn't realistic"? If you went to an animated KID's movie expecting "Citezen Kane" You're loony.

I liked this movie, it was quite fun. Not everybody likes every film, but some of the reasoning here escapes me. Babe Ruth stuff was cool, the nod to the negro leagues was neat. The characters were interesting. I watched it on pay-per-view with about 7 kids who stayed up late to watch it, everyone had a good time. It seems that some people go to the movies mad at the world, and it's the film's fault they have a bad time.

OK, I know it was a kid's movie, but couldn't they have picked another team to be the villains of the movie? LOL, OK, but other than that I watched Everyone's Hero last night, wasn't too sure what it was about before I watched it, and I checked out the rating on IMDb, 5.4 isn't that good for an animated film that usually gets 6.0 or above. But I can understand why, Everyone's Hero didn't really blow me away or got me excited. I'm not basing this on the fact that I'm a Cubs fan, just the story was alright, it's perfect for a kid's movie, it's just a good clean cut story, but for adults, it doesn't really give anything for them to enjoy it with their kids. But while this movie was probably aimed for the kids, it seemed like the writer was maybe expecting like another Shrek or The Incredables, where the whole family could enjoy it, but it ended up being just a kid's flick.

Yankee Irving is a young boy who isn't that good at baseball, but he has big dreams to play as a New York Yankee. It's 1932, his hero is Babe Ruth, and Babe Ruth has a lucky bat, Darlin', but Darlin' is taken by the Cub's pitcher, Lefty, to win the World Series. Yankee's dad is fired from Yankee Stadium, he's the janitor, so it was his job to make sure that everything was secure. Yankee finds a ball that can talk to only him; together they go to look for the bat, they find it, but want to take it to Chicago to give it to Babe Ruth himself. But Yankee has to make sure to keep it away from Lefty and the Cubs manager.

Everyone's Hero isn't a bad movie by any means, it's just a kid's movie, I guess I was expecting more. Not to mention the Cubs bashing was hurtful, sorry, I'm from Chicago, if you're a Cubs fan, you can definitely relate on this subject, you must be faithful to them, LOL. OK, back to the movie, the movie is cute and has a charming story, but it wasn't anything that stood out for me. I could understand the 5.4 rating, I'm sorry to the writers and cast, but Everyone's Hero is just a kid's movie, nothing more.

5/10