Contains one extremely minor spoiler.
Well, I've never seen "Rookie of the Year", and I didn't watch this with any kids. Would kids like it? I think you probably better see it yourself first, and then you'll know, based on your kids.
It's a nice enough movie. I liked Li'l Bow Wow as Calvin, really liked Morris Chestnut as Reynolds. Jonathan Lipnicki was fine for what he had to do. Brenda Song was also good, though she got little to do. Crispin Glover might have been good, but his role was so terrible it was hard to tell. Eugene Levy had no role, so he was unfortunately wasted. Robert Forster seemed very nice as the Coach, too bad we didn't see more of him. Music was used very well, and overall, the movie was certainly watchable.
The problem is that the movie is really about nothing... not family, not teamwork, not "magic" and certainly not basketball. It's not even about being a "child star". It's not "for" kids, or "for" adults.
For instance, the ultimate "father figure" has unspecified problems with his own father. Children of an age to enjoy this movie without reservation will not relate to treating one's father as "dead to me". Children who are so unfortunate as to relate to such a situation will certainly not be satisfied by the (unspecified) "feel-good" resolution to the unspecified problem. So what's the point?
Teamwork? The orphans display more teamwork than the professional team players, since the professionals are not actually portrayed as a team in any way, the only members are Calvin and his mentor, and one other member Calvin is friendly with. Calvin's membership in the community of orphans is clearly more important than his membership in the community of basketball players, so no one is going to get any tips here on how to be part of a team by watching Calvin's behaviour in these two very different situations.
Morality? Ummmm, no... even leaving out Cripsin Glover as the rather alarmingly ruthless "guardian", Calvin himself never has a moment's hesitation about using these magic shoes to mislead everyone. OK, not that anyone (especially a kid) wouldn't do this, but he's 13. Not a single moment of self-doubt? Not a single moment of "Is this right?" No sleepless nights full of fear because it would all be over instantly "if they found out..."? No.
Things in heaven and earth greater than our comprehension? No again...the shoes are magic, they just show up, they just break at the right time (that's the spoiler, but trust me, you knew it would happen). Why they're magic, why Calvin and not Murph or Ox, why anything is not going to be asked or answered, so we can skip this movie being about magic.
So I guess we could ultimately call this a "The Kooky Story Of How I Met My True (Love, Family, Destiny, whatever-- you know the drill)" movie, since that's about the only thing that ties this together at all. As far as such movies go, no one will be surprised to hear that there's better ones, even for kids. But this one is a perfectly adequate way to pass an hour or two, and it is nice to see a "father figure" who paints geometry examples on the exterior walls of the house, so there you go.
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