Everyone’s Hero brings together two heroic stories: Babe Ruth and Christopher Reeve. All images © 2006 IDT Ent. Inc. All rights reserved.

Once upon time in New York City during the Great Depression, a poor tailor made a baseball uniform for his son and took him to Yankee Stadium for his birthday. When the boy made an amazing catch in the stands, the Yankees invited him to take part in the game. The next day at school, no one believed the boy’s story — until the Yankees arrived with presents for everyone.

Once upon a time in Hollywood during the 1970s, a young actor became an overnight star by portraying Earth’s greatest superhero. When a tragic accident left him paralyzed, he displayed such grace and courage that everyone who met him realized he was a true superhero. For the rest of his days, the actor lived his life to the fullest, facing challenge after challenge with an indomitable spirit that was an inspiration to the entire world.

The first story, about a child named Yankee Irving is make-believe; the second, about an actor named Christopher Reeve is true. The two stories became one when Reeve signed on to direct an animated feature that would come to be known as Everyone’s Hero.

Yankee Irving’s adventure began as a father’s bedtime story to his children. The father in this case was Howard Jonas, the founder of telecommunications giant IDT and its animation-focused subsidiary IDT Ent.. When it came time for IDTE (recently acquired from IDT by Liberty Media Corp.) to produce its first feature, Yankee Irving’s story was, if not The Natural, a natural.

This project began as a bedtime story by IDT founder Howard Jonas’ father. Co-writer Robert Kurtz’ 100-page treatment hooked first-time animation director Christopher Reeve right away.

“Howard told me the story, and I was intrigued,” says Robert Kurtz, the film’s co-scripter. “I loved the little boy being the hero, the father and son story and the time period. I told him, let me think about it.” Kurtz, an experienced TV writer/producer with a background in family-focused series like The Cosby Show, Grace Under Fire, Boy Meets World and the WB animated series Baby Blues, had recently joined IDTE’s creative development department. “This was my first animated film, but I knew enough to know the boy needed a journey, he needed a problem. If you have a father-son story I wanted something to go wrong with the bond between them that leads to the journey.

“My uncle Al Brodax [yes, that Al Brodax] once wrote short story about a little boy who goes to England to bring the queen a fish. I always loved that story when I was a kid. I liked the idea of a little boy traveling across America to bring a special gift to his hero. In my script the father was a tailor working on Lou Gehrig’s uniform who would lose his job unless his son got the uniform to Gehrig in time.”

In terms of a finished screenplay, Yankee Irving’s story had barely reached first base. Lou Gehrig and his uniform fell by the wayside, replaced by Babe Ruth and a one-of-a-kind bat that shares credit with the Babe for his slugging success. In the finished film, Yankee has to retrieve the stolen bat and return it to Babe Ruth in Chicago in time for the Yankees to win the 1932 World Series.

“My first treatment was over 100 pages long,” Kurtz continues. “Howard read it, and being Howard found a way to get it to Christopher Reeve. He loved Chris and thought of him as the last great American hero.

“Chris read it and loved it. It’s a story about a kid who won’t quit, who keeps swinging.”

It’s tempting to assume that Reeve’s directing credit is more a sentimental gesture than an actual measure of his work on the film; other than a few TV movies, Reeve had little directing experience and none in animation. However, everyone contacted for this article agreed that Reeve’s participation in the film was genuine and his title in the credits honestly earned.

“Chris knew he hadn’t worked on an animated film before, so he was open to suggestions and advice,” recalls Ron Tippe, one of the movie’s producers. “He had no problem making decisions. A director is a director — animation is just a process, it doesn’t take away from the fact you’re making a movie. The fact that it was animated was secondary to Chris. The movie was about ‘how do I tell a great story with great characters, and make sure the comedy organic to the story and its characters?’“

According to Tippe (who produced 2D and CGI animation for Space Jam), Reeve directed via the film’s storyboards, making sure each panel captured the script’s emotion and story progression, as well as providing input on character design and art direction. “He wasn’t alive to follow through, but he helped us set the tone for the picture.”