Striking Out Swinging

everyones_heroOver the past few years, there have been a slew of computer animation companies that have tried to make big bucks off the success of movies like “Shrek,” “Toy Story” and “The Incredibles.” Most often than not, these films, while displaying beautiful animation, fail to produce the solid stories that the successful movies in the genre are known for.

Such is the unfortunate case with “Everyone’s Hero.”

While its lighthearted attempt to educate the younger generation about old school baseball doesn’t fail miserably, there aren’t enough memorable moments to hook either the children watching it or their older siblings or parents that get stuck paying their way into the theater.

Centering on the life of a young Bronx-Bomber fan named Yankee Irving in the mid 1920’s, played by Jake T. Austin [Ant Bully], “Everyone’s Hero” is a tale of imagination and baseball history.

Joining Irving is his talking baseball named Screwie, played by Rob Reiner [All in the Family, the Majestic] who together, must bring Darlin’, Babe Ruth’s talking baseball bat, played by Whoopi Goldberg [Girl Interrupted, Rat Race], back to the Yankee slugger in time for the last game of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs.

While the story is helped along by the comic relief of Reiner, there aren’t enough witty comments from him to keep adults awake during the film.

Despite the fact that the movie is rated G, more often than not, viewers will be confused as to what age group directors Christopher Reeve, Colin Brady and Dan St. Pierre were actually marketing this film towards. Children will find the slapstick comedy throughout the film entertaining for a while, but will find it forgettable by the film’s end.

In the end, the baseball nostalgia emanating from all corners of this film is obviously a treat for older viewers, but younger movie-goers looking for something along the lines of “Finding Nemo” will be sadly disappointed.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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