Although we had a family dog, an old cocker spaniel, my personal dog came via Cub Scouts. My mother worked in the downtown Tacoma office. She came home one Friday and announced we were going to visit a friend’s house on Saturday morning and look at their litter of puppies. The friend was a fellow worker for the Boy Scouts. Saturday we drove to a farm and I looked at the puppies. I chose one based on his color and the look in his eye. I think the mom looked more like a police dog, but Pal looked more like Lassie. Pal whimpered most of the way home, until I held him. I never bonded with the cocker, Cindy, and later when I had a Shetland Pony, we never bonded, but Pal . . . we roamed the hills and woods that overlooked Nalley Valley. He was my buddy from first grade through fourth and then we moved to Lakewood, where he was only able to play in the back yard. We moved to Ponder’s Corner when I was in the seventh grade and someone poisoned him while I was at school. My mother was more broken up than I was. Pal and I hadn’t been a team since we moved away from the hills and woods on South Ferry Street. I felt bad about his loss, but the bond had long been broken. I felt guilty and hugged my mother and let her believe that Pal and I had been best friends forever. I never told her anything different. I didn’t want to hurt her . . . and Pal at the same time.
My Dog Skip is a story of a boy and his dog, too, a fantastic story of growing up in Mississippi. Perhaps, it’s just about growing up . . . something that many of us just never do.
Storyline
A shy boy named Willie is unable to make friends in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1942, until his parents give him a puppy for his ninth birthday. The puppy, which he names Skip, becomes well known and loved throughout the community and enriches Willie’s life as he grows into manhood.—Stephen Hughes
Here is the official trailer about My Dog Skip – imdb.com/video/vi3480142105
Jay Russell was the director. Beside My dog Skip, he is known for Tuck Everlasting, and The Water Horse.
The writers were Willie Morris (book) and Gail Gilchriest (screenplay).
“Willie Morris was a versatile writer of both fiction and nonfiction, who often drew upon his experiences in the South to reflect on the controversial issues of his time. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, but raised in Yazoo City, about an hour’s drive north, Willie Morris was born into a family of storytellers. After graduating from high school as class valedictorian, he attended the University of Texas in Austin. During his senior year, Morris became editor of the Daily Texan, the school’s newspaper, and soon drew the wrath of the University’s Board of Regents for his biting attacks against racism, censorship, and the highly influential petroleum industry. Upon his graduation, Morris became a Rhodes Scholar, studying history at Oxford University.” He would touch the lives of Arthur Miller, Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, and John Grisham among other writers on the up.
I think the magic of the story is that Willie learns about being a man, not just an adult, but a man.
Quotes
Narrator: Old Skip was 11, and feeble with arthritis, but he never lost that old devilish look in his eye. He made my room his own. Came across an old photo of him not long ago. His little face, with the long snout sniffing at something in the air. His tail was straight out, pointing. Eyes were flashing in some momentary excitement. He always loved to be rubbed on the back of his neck. And when I did it, he’d yawn and he’d stretch, reach out to me with his paws, as if he was trying to embrace me. I received a transatlantic call one day. “Skip died,” Daddy said. He and my mama wrapped him in my baseball jacket. “They buried him out under our elm tree,” they said. That wasn’t totally true. For he really lay buried in my heart.
User reviews – 154
FEATURED REVIEW
Adorable Tale of Loyalty and Friendship
In 1942, in Yazoo, Mississippi, the lonely and outcast boy Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz) is the only son of the harsh war veteran Jack Morris (Kevin Bacon), who lost his leg in Spain, and the housewife and lovely mother Ellen Morris (Diane Lane). Willie Is bullied by three schoolmates and his only friend is his older neighbor Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson), who is a baseball player and idol of the town. When Dink goes to Europe fight in World War II, Willie is alone again. However, on his ninth birthday, Ellen gives a dog to her son despite the protest of Jack. Willie gives the name of Skipper “Skip” that becomes his best friend. Skip helps Willie to have friends and to get close to the girl Rivers Applewhite (Caitlin Wachs), for whom he has a crush, changing his life for better.
“My Dog Skip” is an adorable tale of loyalty and friendship based on a true story. It is beautiful to see the world through the eyes of a child while he is growing up. Enzo the Dog is so cute and steals the show. “My Dog Skip” is a wonderful film for the whole family and I only regret that it took me fifteen years to see this movie. My vote is seven.
I think the storyline completes the film when Dink shares his reasoning that others have it all wrong that he is a coward. He says, “It ain’t the dying that’s scary, boy. It’s the killing.” That simple statement reveals the history of man in that one line. Killing is easier than dying.
