My Dog Skip (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My Dog Skip
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jay Russell
Produced by	John Lee Hancock
Written by	Willie Morris Gail Gilchriest
Starring	Frankie Muniz Diane Lane Luke Wilson Kevin Bacon Bradley Coryell Daylan Honeycutt Cody Linley Caitlin Wachs
Music by	William Ross
Cinematography	James L. Carter
Editing by	Harvey Rosenstock Gary Winter
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 3, 2000
Running time	95 min
Country	United States
Language	English German
Gross revenue	$34,134,641
IMDb profile

Ratings
United States:	PG

My Dog Skip is a 2000 movie, directed by Jay Russell. It is based on the book My Dog Skip by Willie Morris. The movie was released January 14, 2000.

The movie recounts a few anecdotes about 9-year-old Willie growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The son of a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and a domineering housewife, Willie is the daily victim of three school bullies. Then one day a dog (bought by his mother over his dad's objections) comes into his life, and everything changes. The dog is Willie's entry into a world of new friendships.

Tagline: Every family needs an optimist.

1 Box-office
2 Plot summary
3 Cast
4 External links

[edit] Box-office

With a total budget of $6 million and a US boxoffice return of over $34 million, "My Dog Skip" was considered a sleeper hit, coming in at number 4 of Variety's "dollar for dollar" most profitable films of the year 2000. The movie remained in Variety's Top Ten video sales charts for five months after its video release.

"My Dog Skip" won the Broadcast Film Critics Award for "Best Family Film" for the year 2000, Silver Medal Giffoni Film Festival Award, Best Cast Young Star Awards, Silver Angel Award winner, ArkTrust Genises Award and the Christopher Award for Best Family Film.

[edit] Plot summary

Willie Morris as an adult is looking back on his childhood in the early 1940s and how it was coloured by his dog, Skip. In the beginning, Willie (Frankie Muniz) is a lonely child with a gruff, proud father (Kevin Bacon) and a charismatic, talkative mother (Diane Lane), but he is an only child and small for his age with few friends. His one companion is a young man who lives next door, Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson), who is the local sports hero in Mississippi. However, when Dink is drafted to go to war, Willie's mother decides to buy him a dog, against his father's wishes, in order that he should have some company.

Willie and Skip become firm friends very quickly. However, Willie is still bullied at school by Big Boy Wilkinson, Henjie Henick and Spit McGee, until Dink sends him a German helmet and belt from the front line. The other boys demand he plays ball in order to win back his belongings. Skip leaps in to help him. That same day, the three boys force Willie to spend the night in a graveyard, where they claim a witch is buried. If he stays there, he gets to join their gang and also keep the ball Dink Jenkins signed for them, and if not, he has to give them his German helmet. Willie stays there for a number of hours, until he hears two moonshiners who are loading crates into a crypt and decides to leave. Skip, however, jumps on them until one of them threatens to hit him with a spade. Willie is forced to spend the night at the graveyard, because they tell him not to move and so is accepted into the group.

The narrator then goes on to explain various changes in his life. Skip, having always been a friendly dog, is known by everyone in the town, including African Americans, significant because Mississippi was still segregated at the time. Skip leads Willie through the best parts of his life; his boyhood days. Thanks to Skip, Willie now has three friends, and a girlfriend, Rivers.

Skip is there for him when Dink gets home, shell-shocked and a drunkard, having deserted the army and when Willie witnesses a deer being shot. However, when Willie’s first ball game comes along, Skip and Willie have their first falling out.

Dink promised to come along but does not bother. Since the war he has found competitions don't matter to him anymore, and Willie is so upset by this that his game is ruined. Skip, wanting to cheer him up, runs onto the field and sits wagging his tail, refusing to leave. Becoming frustrated, Willie hits him across the muzzle and he runs away.

After the game, Willie is unable to find his dog. Unbeknownst to him, Skip had returned to the crypt, and been accidentally shut in the grave where moonshine alcohol was being stored. Dink, however, after explaining that he had been scared by having to kill in the war, tells Willie nothing is ever lost for good and goes out to help him find Skip. When they get there, Junior is about to strike him with a spade and as Willie runs to save him, there is a thump and a whimper. Dink manages to eject the moonlighters but it is uncertain as to whether Skip will survive.

As the family and friends gather in solemnity in the vet’s waiting room, Willie weeps over his dog’s vet bed, telling him everything he ever should have done; that he will never have a friend like him again. Skip awakens, licking his hands and face.

The film concludes with Willie explaining his friendship with Skip, that he had been an only child and Skip an only dog. When Willie leaves to go to Oxford University in England, Skip remains with Willie’s parents, sleeping in Willie’s old room, and finally dies, being buried under the elm tree. The closing line adds, "That was not totally true. He was buried in my heart".