-->? Back in the old days when baseball was segregated, a Yankee groundskeeper’s young son, named Yankee Irving, undertakes to recover Babe Ruth’s stolen bat, aided only by a talking baseball called Screwie. It’s animated. The voices include Rob Reiner as Screwie, Whoopi Goldberg as the bat, Brian Dennehy as the Babe, and Robin Williams as the villainous owner of the Chicago Cubs. Chris Reeve gets a posthumous co-directing credit, and the late Dana Reeve is a featured voice. There’s some mild humor, like the way the scout who steals the bat keeps getting hit on the head.
+ Not surprising for
a big-budget cartoon, old New York and the railroads that carry Yankee away are
expertly rendered. Nobody ever says the words “Negro Leagues,” but at least the
inclusion of a player for the Cincinnati Tigers might spark kids to ask about
this interesting chapter of American history. The emphasis on rail travel helps
evoke the era.
- Just because it’s a
kids’ film is no excuse for an ending as schmaltzy as the one here. Yes, yes,
if you keep trying you can do anything, it says. Okay, but no, you can’t. Not
really. For example, the Tigers ballplayer who helps out Yankee won’t get to
play in the same league as the Babe for another 15 years. And even if it’s a
kids’ movie, I still think it’d have been nice to include some period-style
music and avoid dialogue about giving kids a “time-out.” Personally speaking, I
also had trouble with the idea that I was supposed to be rooting for the
Yankees.
= **1/2 For kids
under 10 or so, this G-rated movie should be fairly diverting, perhaps slightly
above Saturday-morning cartoon level, but more like a solid single than a home
run. A more authentic story might have added more adult interest, but escapist
fantasy with a heavy dose of positive-thinking preachiness is the whole ball
game here.
