DVD Produced And Written By Orthodox Jews Hits Stores,Elliot Resnick, <i>Jewish Press Staff Reporter</i>

"It's unusual that three shomer Shabbos [Sabbath observer] people make a major motion picture distributed by 20th Century Fox," said writer Rob Kurtz in an interview with The Jewish Press. But Kurtz, together with executive producer Steve Brown and executive producer/former CEO of IDT Entertainment Moshe Berger have done just that.

A subsidiary of the telecommunications company headed and founded by Howard Jonas, IDT Entertainment (which is now called Starz Entertainment Group after being sold to Liberty Media) produced "Everyone's Hero," the company's first and only major animated feature film. The DVD hit stores last week.

"We wanted to make a film that we could be proud of and bring our kids to," said Brown.

Directed by the late Christopher Reeve, "Everyone's Hero" tells the story of a young boy, Yankee Irving, who helps the New York Yankees win the 1932 World Series - and saves his father's janitorial job at Yankee stadium in the process - by finding Babe Ruth's stolen bat. A talking ball named Screwie (voiced by Rob Reiner) and Ruth's talking bat, Darlin' (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg), help Irving on his quest.

Work on the film first began four years ago when Howard Jonas approached Kurtz - who has written for the Cosby show and Grace Under Fire - with a possible movie plot based on a bedtime story he used to read to his kids. Upon Kurtz's positive response, Jonas approached Christopher Reeve, who immediately took a liking to the story and agreed to direct it.

Yankee Irving in "Everyone's Hero."

Reeve died before the movie's completion. His wife, Dana, however, who (along with their son, Will) had a voice role in the movie, knew that the film was dear to her husband's heart and helped ensure that the movie developed as her husband envisioned it. (She, too, died before the movie's completion.)

"He was an amazing human being who wanted to make the world a better place," Brown recalls, adding that, "after 15 minutes of speaking to Reeve, not only did he not see himself as handicapped, but I didn't see him as handicapped either."

Asked how Reeve reacted to working with an Orthodox Jew, Kurtz said that Reeve "didn't see a shomer Shabbos guy; he saw a really good writer." Recalling his time with Reeve as "one of the most wonderful experiences of my life," Kurtz said, "As far as I'm concerned, the real Superman was in the wheelchair, not in the cape."

The movie received mixed reviews in the media. While The Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe labeled it "a likable, good-natured family show" and a movie that "entertains youthful audiences in a gentle, almost old-fashioned way," respectively, The New York Times calls it an "uninspired tale."

But Brown responds that "our target audience wasn't a 50-year-old film critic . . . This is a movie that is entertaining, magical, and contains a message . . . It's about a kid who overcomes obstacles and never gives up."

Liberty Media bought IDT Entertainment in May for $186 million, 17.2 million shares of IDT stocks it owned, and other components. But IDT Entertainment, together with Christopher and Dana Reeve, continue to live through "Everyone's Hero."

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DVD Produced And Written By Orthodox Jews Hits Stores , Elliot Resnick, <i>Jewish Press Staff Reporter</i>