Napoleon Cross is the main antagonist of the 2006 animated film Everyone's Hero.
He is the owner and the general manager of the Chicago Cubs baseball team who plans on making them finally win so that he would sabotage famed baseball player Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees baseball team from the 1932 World Series, to earn the recognition he so deserves to himself.
He was portrayed by the late Robin Williams.
Biography
In the movie that is set in the 1930's, Napoleon Cross is first seen watching with his henchman, Chicago Cubs player Lefty Maginnis, a documentary about the legendary baseball player Babe Ruth from the New York Yankees (in which he has a small part on it), as he greatly envies the latter's immense success in the world of baseball. Ambitious about his desire to earn the same amount of recognition from the 1932 World Series, Cross assumes that Babe's baseball bat, named Darlin, was causing the Cubs their relentless losses, and plans on keeping her away from the renowned baseball player by ordering Lefty to steal it, as he threatens his own henchman about removing him from the Cubs if he fails.
After Darlin was eventually stolen by Lefty, who was taking her with him to Chicago via the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, Yankee Irving (the film's protagonist) successfully infiltrates Cross' plan initially by retrieving her from the infamous baseball player in order for his father to be rehired to the Yankee Stadium again, since the latter and his own son were indirectly involved in the theft of the bat. As Yankee eventually stepped down from the train by a nearby train stop, Lefty also arrived, as well, and entered that same train shop to inform Cross, who was carelessly playing the merchandise about Babe Ruth, regarding the bat he stole. Cross then informs Lefty about the "compensation" the latter would get after the bat is eventually given to the former.
Although Yankee took Darlin from Lefty, Cross' plan is succeeding when it was reported that Babe Ruth is losing for his team by getting subsequent strikes from his failed swings as the batter since Darlin is not with him, causing the New York Yankees to be overtaken by the Chicago Cubs during the game, which upsets Yankee himself. Though, with the help of a couple of homeless men, this didn't hinder him from returning to New York City to return the bat to the Yankee Stadium, but he later decides to actually go to Chicago since Babe Ruth was currently at that city for Yankee to return Darlin to him.
Unfortunately for the young boy, Lefty retook Darlin and succeeds in giving her to Cross while in the henchman's car, thus continuing the succession of the latter's plans on sabotaging Ruth and making the Cubs earn their win against the Yankees. Yankee himself tried to retrieve the bat again by fighting it from Cross, but he is abruptly pulled inside the vehicle instead, capturing him in the process and sending him back to New York to the Yankee Stadium by the scheming Cubs duo. While inside a Yankee Stadium room, Cross taunts Yankee about Babe's huge losses during the game, as the boy failed to return Darlin to the baseball player. Cross then leaves Yankee inside the room with the door locked so that he himself would watch the Yankees, especially team member Babe Ruth, eventually lose to the Cubs.
Once Yankee escapes the room (which is noticed by Cross) with the help of Screwie the baseball, and finally returns Darlin to Babe, Cross then shows up and deliberately interrupts the moment, demanding to the umpire that the game must end immediately because the Yankees are about to lose to the Cubs anyway, but Babe already knows the truth about the loss of Darlin from him. However, Cross tries to hide it by saying that what Babe said is "absurd", and insists that the Yankees must forfeit since he states that it's a penalty for baseball players to make false claims to someone regarding baseball itself, so the umpire makes a deal to the team by having them choose a batter for them, or they actually forfeit the game.
As the baseball team eventually picked Yankee as their batter through Babe's decision, Cross was shocked, but also mocked the team for picking a young boy who has little baseball experience, while also making fun of the boy himself. Nonetheless, although Yankee was initially nervous about trying to swing on the first two tries, Cross was then proven wrong when Yankee, because his parents where there to motivate him, actually swang Darlin and hit Screwie with much confidence, and makes a run around the field bases while trying to avoid being stopped by the Cubs with Screwie, which also makes Cross feel greatly nervous about the Cubs losing. As Yankee eventually reached the final base by avoiding Lefty, who was holding Screwie, the New York Yankees finally beat the Chicago Cubs, which causes Cross to have a meltdown, since his chances of getting massive recognition sunk. He is eventually arrested, along with his partner-in-crime Lefty, for the organized theft of Babe's bat Darlin. As a presumably additional punishment, he is forced to carry a box of Babe Ruth bobblehead dolls to sell, which he is not satisfied.
Trivia
- Robin Williams, who is Napoleon Cross' portrayer, requests to be uncredited in the film. He wanted it to honor one of the film's directors, the late actor Christopher Reeve, who was his long-time friend.
- Despite being the main antagonist, Napoleon Cross had a very limited amount of screentime while his right-hand man Lefty had more screentime and did most of the action.
- His design is similar to Kingpin from the Marvel Comics.
- He is the second animated character from 20th Century Fox to be voiced by the late Robin Williams, the first being Batty Koda from FernGully: The Last Rainforest, although Batty is a hero rather than a villain.
