Everyone's Hero — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Plot

In 1932 New York City during the Great Depression, Yankee Irving is a 10-year-old baseball fan who is picked on by the other kids for his poor athletic skills. On that day, he finds a talking baseball and he names him Screwie. Yankee's father, Stanley, works as a custodian at Yankee Stadium. While the two are on the premises, a thief disguised as a security guard steals Babe Ruth's "lucky" bat, Darlin'. Stanley is falsely accused of the crime and is temporarily fired until Darlin' can be found. After being wrongly blamed for the crime and being sent to his room by his father, Yankee learns that the real thief is Chicago Cubs pitcher Lefty Maginnis. Lefty works for the Cubs' general manager Napoleon Cross, who desires to see the Cubs defeat the New York Yankees during the World Series.

Determined to reclaim the bat and save his family from being evicted, Yankee goes to the train station and takes it from Lefty but fails to get off the train before it takes them to another stop. Darlin' has the ability to talk and urges Yankee to take her back to Babe Ruth in Chicago, where the next World Series game will be played. During the trip, Lefty attempts to steal the bat from Yankee during a chase. Yankee decides to return Darlin' to Babe Ruth, clearing his father's name and saving his job. Meanwhile, his parents start searching for Yankee after discovering that he left home. Yankee meets others who help him in his quest, such as hobos Andy, Louis, and Jack; a girl named Marti Brewster and her father; a Negro league pitcher named Lonnie Brewster, who helps him drive to Chicago and teaches Yankee to set his feet right while batting; and Babe Ruth himself. Lefty steals Darlin' and gives her to Cross, who kidnaps Yankee. During the game, Cross traps Yankee inside the office and reveals his plans to him.

When Yankee escapes the office, he evades several security guards and returns Darlin' to Babe. Cross tries to talk Babe out of accepting the victory, saying that Yankee is too young to be a counting player. Despite this, Babe gives Yankee a confidence boost by telling him that "it's not the bat, it's the batter". Yankee hits Screwie after two strikes. While numerous Cubs players try to tag Yankee out, he dodges and trips them. Lefty makes his last attempt to tag him out, but Yankee outsmarts him by jumping over him and landing on home plate, scoring a run. This restores the morale of the Yankees, who score seven more runs to take the lead and win the World Series. Stanley apologizes to Yankee for being too hard on him and congratulates him for being the best player.

The revelation of Darlin's theft leads to the arrest of Cross, who says that Yankee was a fan who cheated. When his involvement as an accomplice and a cheater is also revealed, Lefty is kicked off the team and arrested. Stanley's name is cleared, and he is reinstated as the stadium's custodian. Yankee, his parents, and his new baseball friends, Screwie and Darlin', celebrate the Yankees' World Series win in a victory parade where he becomes an honorary player, while Cross works as the Babe Ruth bobblehead's vendor and Lefty works as a street cleaner as part of their work release. Yankee happily plays catch with Screwie and the hobos' Boxer dog.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of 67 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Everyone's Hero is such a predictable and bland tale that it'll appeal mostly to little kids; others seeking something in Pixar's league are looking in the wrong ballpark." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on a scale of A+ to F.

Jack Matthews of the New York Daily News wrote, "Whoever wanders into the theater should leave a winner."

LA Weekly called the themes "fairly pro forma" and cited the film's "antique Rockwellian look" as "its greatest pleasure".

Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly rated it "B−", and wrote, "Everyone's Hero re-creates Depression-era America with surprisingly agreeable anachronistic panache", although he criticized the character designs.

The Austin Chronicle primarily criticized Everyone's Hero for focusing too much on sentimentality over entertaining moments.

Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club opined that the film "ranges from improbable to nonsensical to just plain dull. [...] The lame banter, the one-note characters, the predictable clumsy stabs at emotional uplift, or the booger jokes [don't help]."

Screwie and Darlin' were bashed in a review by The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter, panning their inability to "move or express emotion".

Slant Magazine's Ed Gonzalez disliked the lack of reasoning for anthropomorphic baseball gear for being "random". The anachronisms, such as its out-of-time slang, pop-song-dominated soundtrack, and use of an African-American-voiced talking bat, were also panned, with Gonzalez calling the Great Depression setting "nonexistent".

The story did have its supporters. Variety reviewer Joe Leydon honored Everyone's Hero as a "modestly engaging mix of broad comedy and nostalgic fable", picaresque plot and the inclusion of a Negro league player. However, in addition to disliking its gross humor, he questioned the low-key portrayal of segregation that occurred in the 1930s era in which the film is set. He also suggested that the film would have a hard time selling to children: "The toon's target demo — i.e., toddlers and grade-schoolers — are too young to know about the Reeves, and pic could be a hard sell to youngsters who aren't baseball fanatics and recognize Babe Ruth only as the name of a candy bar."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer Manny Lewis concluded, "The film certainly will appeal to kids; with its beating-the-odds theme and its dramatic finale involving a crucial at-bat in the World Series, it is reminiscent of a boyhood daydream."

Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore concluded, "The kids will laugh and there's enough heart in Everyone's Hero to bring it over the plate -- barely."

MaryAnn Johanson at MTV News similarly spotlighted the "sweet gentleness" and "can-do-it-iveness" that made its otherwise typical children's film plot stand out.

Time Out London applauded the characters, especially Screwie, which recouped for its "lacking" amount of tension.

The visuals garnered a mixed response, Robinson calling the animation "bland" and "generic", and Leydon "herky-jerky". Lewis found Screwie and Darlin's visual gags "stale" but praised those of Lefty, reasoning that "his flailing limbs giving him a clumsy grace far more entertaining to watch than either the ball or the bat". Hunter acclaimed the animation as "quite advanced, bringing emotional subtleties, vivid eye dilations and expressions and complex movements to exceptional life", while Moore opined that "the animated people look plastic, but the backdrops are pretty, and the slapstick bits are a 'stitch'".

The voice acting was also praised.

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