A 2006 American CGI animated film directed by Christopher Reeve (yep, the Superman guy), Daniel St. Pierre, and Colin Brady and starring the voices of Jake T. Austin, Rob Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, William H. Macy, Brian Dennehy, Raven-Symoné, Mandy Patinkin, and Forest Whitaker among others.
In 1932 New York City, 10-year old Yankees fan Yankee Irving is a big fan of Babe Ruth and dreams about becoming a professional baseball player himself one day, despite being lousy at being a novice. One day, during a visit at the Yankee Stadium with the help of his father working as a janitor there, he gets to see Ruth's special baseball bat. However, he is shooed away by an unknown security officer – who is actually Lefty Maginnis, a pitcher for the rival Chicago Cubs who's working for their owner Napoleon Cross to help them beat the Yankees in the upcoming World Series by stealing Babe Ruth's precious lucky bat. Lefty manages to do this, indirectly causing Yankee's father to lose his job and putting their family in danger of living out on the streets during The Great Depression. Yankee, knowing full well who was responsible for the theft, embarks on a journey to recover the bat and return it to Ruth in time for the series while dealing with Lefty and Napoleon.
Did we mention the bat and the baseball are alive in the eyes of Yankee?
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: The Chicago Cubs are depicted as complete buffoons during Yankee's attempt to score a home-run being distracted by people at the stands, crashing into each other, not paying attention to anything going on until the last minute, and being served as footstools.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Because of his bad baseball skills, the other kids dread having Yankee on their team. And make their displeasure very clear.
- Amusing Injuries: Lefty gets a lot of these, progressively making him look more and more villainous as a result.
- Anachronism Stew:
- The film is set in 1932, yet at one point Screwie references Superman (director Christopher Reeve's most iconic role), a character that wouldn't be created until 1938.
- Marti's father is a member of the Cincinnati Tigers, a team that wouldn't be founded until 1934.
- Yankee Stadium is shown with lights for night games, something that no major league ballpark had in 1932.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Darlin' and Screwie.
- Arc Words: “Keep on swingin’”, usually said in response to someone giving up.
- Artistic License – History: The movie has been sometimes cited by publications as one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever released.
- The only Historical Domain Character depicted is Babe Ruth, and the Yankees never lost any of the games during the 1932 World Series.
- Zig-zagged when Cross assumes that Ruth would be "nothing without his bat" and sends Lefty out to steal it. Ironically, the real Babe Ruth was a fairly good pitcher before he became the power hitter history knows him by. In any case, Ruth disproves that he is bad without Darlin' when he tells Yankee that it's not about the bat, but the batter.
- Ascended Fanboy: Yankee is a big fan of the New York Yankees and an even bigger fan of Babe Ruth. He not only bats for them, but Babe even decided to have him bat for them.
- Bannister Slide: Yankee does this on the fire escape- only to end up unable to stop, nearly going flying off the edge and only being saved by grabbing a ladder.
- Black-and-White Morality: Being a children's story, the Yankees are good and the Cubs are bad, or so Yankee himself sees from his POV.
- Bland-Name Product: One billboard shows a baseball player sponsoring “Rocket Cola”.
- Brand X: The boxcar on the train Yankee rides has “American Railway” stamped on it.
- Broken Glass Penalty: Discussed; when Screwie tries and fails to get out of Yankee’s room through the window, he laments that he’s the only baseball unable to break a window. [[spoiler:In the climax, he succeeds in shattering the window of the room Yankee is trapped in.
- Bully Hunter: Marti makes her entrance by assisting Yankee against a couple of bullies from her home.
- Calling Your Shots: Babe Ruth is shown famously doing this in game three of of the 1932 World Series in a newsreel clip near the beginning of the film.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody wants to believe Yankee's story that an unchecked security guard – who was actually part of the rival team – stole Babe Ruth's bat. This kick-starts Yankee's adventure to retrieve and return the bat to Ruth to save his family from living in the streets.
- Comical Nap Drool: A sleeping Yankee drools on Screwie, much to the latter's chagrin and disgust.Screwie: Hey, kid! Wake up! You’re turning me into a spitball!
- Crisis Makes Perfect:
- After failing to break a window early in the movie, Screwie is able to break the window of the room Yankee is trapped in that overlooks the baseball game.
- In the climax, Yankee is finally able to properly hit a ball—in the World Series, on what would’ve otherwise been his third strike.
- Deadpan Snarker: Screwie is full of this.
- Double Entendre: On the subject of Yankee meeting Marti, who's the daughter of Lonnie Brewster.Darlin: Ooh, he can pitch me anytime.
- Double Take: Lefty does one when he sees Yankee with his case.
- Ending Theme: The credits are long enough to get four of these- “Keep on Swingin’”, “The Best Day of My Life”, a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, and “Dream Like New York”.
- Escape Between the Legs: Yankee tries for this to get past Lefty in a narrow train car, and ends up bowling him over.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A Fatal Flaw Napoleon particularly has.
- He constantly expresses his envy over Babe's success as a baseball star, since he sees it as a threat to his own sense of success. This is why he resorted to thievery and sabotage.
- He laughs at Yankee's attempt to win for the New York Yankees, since he thinks that the young boy doesn't have what it takes to play baseball (which has been his life-long dream).
- He's angered that Yankee succeeds in winning for the NYY, as that means his career as the Chicago Cubs' manager has gone down the drain.
- Evil Is Hammy: What'd you expect from Robin Williams voicing Napoleon? Quiet?
- Fat and Skinny:
- Yankee's sentient companions: Screwie the baseball (Fat) and Darlin' the baseball bat (Skinny).
- The antagonists are Napoleon (Fat) and Lefty (Skinny).
- Fat Bastard: Napoleon Cross, an overweight Bad Boss to the Chicago Cubs who wants to sabotage Babe Ruth's career.
- Firing Day: Yankee’s father ends up being fired after Darlin’ disappears and signs start pointing to Yankee as the one who took her; Yankee is heartbroken and decides to do anything to get the bat, and his dad’s job, back.
- Gassy Gastronomy: Mentioned in a joke by Screwie (after Yankee’s mom, who can’t hear the baseball talk, sarcastically responds by saying that she hears the meatloaf talking):Screwie: Food can’t talk! Except for beans… they can make themselves heard.
- Glass Smack and Slide: When Lefty tries to jump between trains after Yankee, he ends up slamming into the window of a passenger car and sliding down, only keeping himself from falling off by grabbing a handle.
- Go to Your Room!: Yankee’s father shouts this at him after his antics get him fired; Yankee is heartbroken and decides that he’s going to fix his father’s life by finding the missing bat.
- The Great Depression: A surprisingly optimistic portrayal of this era. As Christopher Reeve himself put it, "Just because it's the depression doesn't mean it has to be depressing."
- Green-Eyed Monster: Napoleon Cross is insanely jealous of Babe's victories to the point where he considers hiring one of his players to steal his lucky bat.
- Handcar Pursuit: Lefty at one point uses a handcar to chase Yankee while he runs along the train tracks… only to end up having to frantically reverse to avoid an Offscreen Crash. He shows up in a later scene still riding the now-very-banged-up handcar.
- Hobos: Yankee encounters a friendly pack of these on his travels; they deny being bums, and admit that they’re just regular people who fell down on their luck.
- I Call Her "Vera": Ruth calls his bat Darlin'. Yankee names the ball he found Screwie.
- Imagine Spot: While up at the plate in the sandlot game, Irving imagines himself playing for the New York Yankees in a big stadium. The spot only ends when he misses the pitch.
- I Miss Mom: Midway during his trip, Yankee starts to greatly miss his family and considers how awful things will get if he doesn't succeed.
- Invisible to Normals: For unexplained reasons, Irving is the only one who can hear Screwie and Darlin’ talk and see their faces.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Screwie proves that he has a heart and manages to cheer up Yankee right during Babe Ruth's big game as they're trapped in the room overlooking the field.
- Earlier, when Yankee breaks down crying from homesickness, he calls out Darlin' for putting a ten-year-old in this situation and not even saying "thank you."
- Kick the Dog: Did Cross have to taunt Yankee by saying his parents were probably looking for a new kid?
- Lame Rhyme Dodge: When Lefty telephones Cross, he accidentally calls him a jerk outloud, and when Cross asks what he said he claims he was whining about how the phone barely works.
- Lean and Mean: Lefty Maginnis, who is Napoleon's much slimmer partner-in-crime.
- Location Song: “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)”, which plays when Yankee finally reaches Chicago.
- Loser Protagonist: Yankee starts the film as an ordinary neighborhood boy who loves to play in baseball games but can’t seem to actually hit anything, and is Picked Last and generally mocked.
- Low Clearance: A scene where Lefty climbs atop a train has him taking various awkward poses to dodge various oncoming signs- and doing a midair split to avoid a flock of birds.
- Made of Iron: Lefty. He gets hit by a train at one point, and yet the worst injury he suffers in the whole film is a black eye.
- Mama Bear: Marti's mother, who is quick to notice the man chasing Yankee is not his dad and tries to get him out of her house with a broom.
- Meaningful Name: Yankee is a big fan of the New York Yankees.
- Mistaken for Childish Fantasy: When Irving finds Screwie, he tries to show his mother the talking baseball; unfortunately, only he can hear Screwie.Mom: Omigosh, a talking baseball. Well, I think I hear the meatloaf talking. It’s saying ‘Yankee, time for dinner!’.
- The Napoleon: Fittingly, Napoleon Cross.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: When Yankee pitches Screwie to break the window of the room they’re trapped in, Screwie moves towards it in slow motion, while dramatic music plays… and then bounces off. The second time Yankee pitches him he goes through.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Lefty is seen doing this in Chicago. Oddly, he cut out a slit wide enough for both his eyes despite one being swollen shut at this point.
- Offscreen Crash: Lefty, on a handcar, is hit by a train just offscreen at one point. Somehow, this barely even slows him down.
- Opposing Sports Team: Downplayed; mostly the Cubs are just baseball players, but their manager has a crooked scheme to steal Babe Ruth’s bat and their pitcher, Lefty, cheats like crazy and even throws “boogerballs”.
- Ow, My Body Part!: Parodied when Screwie, an anthropomorphic baseball, starts falling down a metal staircase."My head! My butt! My head! My butt!"
- Percussive Maintenance: While making a call to Cross on a terrible payphone, Lefty tries hitting the body of the phone with the receiver to get it to work better; this ends up destroying the phone.
- Picked Last: Irving is always picked last for teams in the neighborhood kids’ sandlot games.
- Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged. Yankee and Marti socialize with no social stigma, but her father is clearly shown playing for a Negro League team.
- P.O.V. Shot: The movie begins with a shot that seems to be from the perspective of a baseball, implied to be Screwienote .
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Yankee does these to convince Screwie to help him find Babe Ruth’s bat.
- Pun:
- At one point, Darlin suggests that some hoboes might be pirates.
Yankee: In Pennsylvania?
Darlin’: Pittsburgh pirates.- Later in the movie, Darlin’ suggests they get a different ball instead of grumpy, sarcastic Screwie.
Darlin’: …like a tennis ball. They’re all warm and fuzzy. - Rays from Heaven: These shine on Yankee when Babe Ruth wonders who they can have to bat for the Cubs. Sure enough, he gets picked.
- Reactive Continuous Scream: Initiated by Darlin', thinking she's being stolen by Yankee, who in turn screams back at the sight that Darlin' is also alive. Screwie on the other hand, lets out a sarcastic "aaahhh!"
- The Runaway: Yankee travels all the way to Chicago to return Ruth's bat, until his parents realize he's not with them and have to find him. Also coupled with the fact that the kid is being assailed by a grown man during said trip on top of dealing with the hardship of traveling.
- A Sinister Clue: The movie’s main active antagonistic force (although technically he isn’t the true main villain; that would be Cross) is Cubs pitcher Lefty McGuiness, who true to his nickname is left-handed.
- Slo-Mo Big Air:
- Screwie gets one after Yankee hits him; despite looking like he’ll be a home run, it turns out that he was hit up too high and not far enough, and he falls back down into the field.
- Yankee gets his own when he jumps over Lefty to land on the home plate.
- Spanner in the Works: Napoleon Cross’s plan to steal Darlin’ would’ve gone off without a hitch if Yankee’s father hadn’t let him into the Cubs’ locker room to look at that bat.
- The Stakeout: Yankee plans one at New York Central Station to find Lefty; after locating him, he ends up sneaking on to a train to Chicago after him.
- Stupid Evil: Lefty honestly thought it would be that easy to kidnap Yankee by passing himself off as his father, but didn’t take into account that Yankee himself will immediately expose him as not his real father. No surprise here that Marti’s mother hits him with a broom and threatens to call the cops on him before he runs away.
- Third Time's the Charm: In the climax of the movie, Yankee, batting for the Cubs, gets two strikes before scoring a home run.
- Tickertape Parade: The movie ends with one of these celebrating Yankee; one shot shows Lefty and Cross in prison uniforms being forced to sweep up the tape.
- Title Character: The "hero" part in the movie's title refers to Yankee.
- Title Drop:Yankee: You heard those guys- Babe’s their hero. Babe’s everyone’s hero. And I can’t let them down. And I can’t let my dad down.
- Toilet Humor: The morning after his first night with Yankee, Screwie has the misfortune of rolling under the covers right when the kid farts."How long have you been takin' trombone lessons? "
- Took a Level in Badass: The intro shows Yankee as a terrible baseball player. Going through the adventures he went through and meeting people who helped him improve his form, allowed him to get a home run against Lefty.
- Took a Level In Idealism: Going on the adventure with Yankee and Darlin' helps Screwie become less of the cynic he was at the start.
- Train Escape: While already on a train, Yankee manages to escape from Lefty by jumping to an open boxcar in a different train.
- Travel Montage: One, set to “The Best”, shows both Yankee travelling towards Chicago and his parents searching for him.
- Victory Dance: One Funny Background Event has Napoleon Cross doing one to a radio broadcast about how the Cubs are doing poorly.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Yankee’s father admits this after finding out that Yankee ran away (actually he left to find Darlin’).
- Would Hurt a Child: Lefty is unnecessarily rough with both Yankee and Marti.
- You Can Talk?: When Yankee finds Screwie:Yankee: Are you talking?
Screwie: I am. One smart fella, he felt smart, two smart fellas, they felt smart, three smart fellas, they all felt smart!