EVERYONE'S HERO — ** — Animated feature starring the voices of Rob Reiner, William H. Macy, Whoopi Goldberg and others; rated G (violence, vulgarity).
Among other notable missteps, the animated feature "Everyone's Hero" tries to convince us that arrogant perennial winners the New York Yankees are good guys, while lovable losers the Chicago Cubs are bad guys. Say what?
Of course, the film is set during the Depression, when the most famous New York baseball team was perhaps less pompous and smug than it is now. (For one thing, the team wasn't owned by George Steinbrenner back then.) But the film does contain an alarming number of crudities for a G-rated kids movie.
Still, it's hard to come down too hard on a kids picture that has its heart in the right place, especially since it was one of the final projects for the late Christopher Reeve, who co-directed.
This comedy is about a baseball fanatic with the rather unlikely name of Yankee Irving (voiced by Jake T. Austin). Yankee's custodial father, Stanley (Mandy Patinkin), allows the boy into the Yankee ball team's locker room. Unfortunately, that's when Cubs pitcher Lefty Maginnis (William H. Macy) also sneaks in to steal Darlin', the legendary bat of Yankee slugger Babe Ruth (Brian Dennehy).
Predictably, the boy's dad gets the blame and is fired. So it's up to the youngster to recover the stolen bat — with the help of Screwie (Rob Reiner), a talking baseball he finds abandoned in a sandlot.
The plot, courtesy of television writers Robert Kurtz and Jeff Hand, seems horribly padded, and there's too much vulgar humor — including a couple of flatulence gags.
But it does have a surprisingly good voice cast. Along with Macy, Reiner, Dennehy and Patinkin, there's Whoopi Goldberg (as the voice of the bat) and an uncredited Robin Williams (not unexpectedly over the top as a greedy franchise owner).
All of them clearly did this project as a favor to the much-beloved Reeve. (His late wife, Dana, also produced the film and provided one of the voices.)
"Everyone's Hero" is rated G, though it does feature some violent content (mostly slapstick and athletic violence), as well as some crude humor about various secretions and excretions. Running time: 88 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com