Maniac Magee is a television film made for the Nickelodeon network, based on the novel of the same name by Jerry Spinelli. The story follows twelve-year-old Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee, an orphaned runaway with many extraordinary and athletic talents, who arrives in a town divided with racial conflict. Developed as early as 1999, the film was filmed in 2001 and broadcast on Nickelodeon on February 23, 2003.
The teleplay was a finalist for a Humanitas Award in the Children's Live Action program category in 2003, though the award was ultimately won by A Ring of Endless Light.
Plot
In the present, an adult female character (played by Jada Pinkett Smith) arrives at a public park in Two Mills, Pennsylvania where she goes to watch some kids jumping rope together at a park. She serves as the narrator of the movie and goes to tell the story of Maniac Magee who changed the town of Two Mills forever.
Two decades earlier, the parents of twelve-year-old Jeffrey Lionel Magee (Michael Angarano) are killed by a drunk driver. To avoid being put in an orphanage, Jeffrey runs out of town and across the country, developing supernatural-like qualities to run at a very fast speed. After nearly a year of running, he arrives in the town of Two Mills, where racial tensions are extremely strong. Hector Street, the main street located in the middle of the town, divides Two Mills by race: blacks on East End, whites on West End.
Jeffrey is confused by the racial biases and first crosses over on the East End where the black people stare at him. He is amazed by a giant ball of twine located outside of a pizza place called "Cobble's Corner" owned by an elderly black man, Mr. Cobble (Garrett Morris). Mr. Cobble comes out and tells Jeffrey to go back "to his own side". Jeffrey does so and comes across a kid's baseball game where he comes across a white teenager, Big John McNab (Adam Hendershott), a pitcher known for striking out many kids with his fast throw. His younger brothers, Russell and Piper (Brandon de Paul and Isaiah Griffin), cheer him on from behind the gate. Jeffrey skips a line of kids waiting to bat to take on Big John and manages to strike the ball so fast it disintegrates in the air. After being humiliated further, Big John tells his friends to go after Jeffrey proclaiming him as a "maniac". Jeffrey makes a run for it back across the East End urged by the white boys not to come back over.
On the East End, Jeffrey runs by a school and meets with a girl his age named Amanda Beale (Kyla Pratt), who is surprised to see him given his skin color. Realizing she has a suitcase full of books, Jeffrey urges her to let him borrow one and promises to bring it back to her. Jeffrey goes to read the book under a tree and catches the eye of Mars Bar Thompson (Orlando Brown) and his friend Bump Gilliam (Shan Elliot). Mars goes to pick a fight with Jeffrey and rips a page out of Amanda's book. Amanda comes over and scolds Mars and sends him away. Amanda takes Jeffrey over to her house so he can fix her book where Jeffrey meets her mother Martha (Rolonda Watts) who assumes he isn't from the town. When Amanda asks if he can stay for dinner, her mother refuses until her younger children, twins Hester and Lester, beg her otherwise. After dinner, Mr. Beale (Richard Lawson) goes to drive Jeffrey home only to discover along the way he doesn't have one. He takes Jeffrey back and talks to Martha, who persuades him to let Jeffrey stay for a while.
Jeffrey is treated with absolute kindness by the Beales. Martha buys him new clothes. Hester and Lester promote Jeffrey's ability to untie knots to the other children in the neighborhood who come by to see him over by Amanda's tent. Jeffrey has another encounter with Mars Bar during a football game and stuns Mars when eating off of his already-eaten chocolate bar. Back on Hector Street, a man collapses in front of Cobble's Corner. As Jeffrey tries to lift him up, the man and Mr. Cobble scolds him to go back over to his own side. When he and Amanda return home, they find Martha scrubbing off profanity that was written on the house that reads: "FISH BELLY GO HOME" that horrifies Jeffrey. Amanda worries he will leave. To help him gain the community's respect, she suggests he unties Mr. Cobble's huge knot which no one has been able to do. The next day, Mr. Cobble lets Jeffrey perform the task of untying the knot ball which he does successfully and amazes the Easties. The story gets around, angering Mars Bar in which he and his friends trash Amanda's tent and destroy her favorite book. Jeffrey is heartbroken and feels his presence on the East End is making things worse. He leaves a note for the family and decides to run away.