Twelve

This film is nicely done as it invites the audience to come along on Kyle's ride to baseball expertise. Young baseball fans and Little League lovers will be impressed by the efforts Kyle makes as he improves all aspects of his well-rounded game. This is a family movie in the sense that Ted proves to be a supportive, encouraging, and decent father who gives his kids his very best, helping them improve their baseball skills but also their life skills, especially when it comes to picking themselves up and dusting themselves off after setbacks.

Twelve takes such pains to demonstrate what doing the right thing looks like that it seems odd when Ted cheats a little to make Kyle eligible for another team. They don't live in Brighton, so Ted rents a small apartment to allow Kyle to qualify. That feels like as much of a cheat as the Oakwood coach's giving a spot to a business associate's kid instead of to the deserving Kyle. If this were another, less cheery movie, that fact might come back to haunt and disqualify both the Brighton team and Kyle from playing. But the cheat is never mentioned again.