My Dog Skip (2000)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Jay Russell (Director) Audio Commentary-Frankie Muniz (Act) & Mathilde de Cagny (Trainer) Deleted Scenes-with Director commentary Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	91:36
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Sided	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jay Russell
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Frankie Muniz Diane Lane Luke Wilson Kevin Bacon
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	William Ross

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Danish Finnish Norwegian English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Czech Portuguese Romanian Bulgarian Hebrew Croatian Turkish Greek	Smoking	Yes, including cigar smoking
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, there are multiple references to Coca-Cola
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Set in Yazoo, Mississippi around the time of World War II, this film is quintessentially American and features scenes that look like they have been lifted out of a painting by Norman Rockwell, adventures and escapades that could have been written by Mark Twain and an emotional and sentimental musical score (by William Ross) with shades of Aaron Copeland.

    Willie Morris (Frankie Muniz) is a shy, slightly-built boy who is short for his age. He is just the sort of boy you expect to be the natural target of a school bully - studious, not good at sports, sensitive and caring. And indeed he does get bullied by no less than three kids - Big Boy (Bradley Coryell), Henjie (Daylan Honeycutt) and Spit (Cody Linley) - who I've decided to nickname "Fatty", "Dopey" and "Dirty." His only real friend and hero is the much older Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson), the much-admired baseball player who gets enlisted and is shipped to the war zone.

    On his ninth birthday, Willie receives a puppy as a birthday present from his mother (Diane Lane) - despite the protestations of his father (Kevin Bacon) who thinks Willie is far too young to be able to take care of the dog. The rest of the film is about Willie's relationship with the dog (who he calls Skip). Skip not only provides the companionship that Willie needs but helps Willie win the respect of the three bullies, the friendship of Rivers Applewhite (Caitlin Wachs) - the "prettiest girl in class" - and ultimately transition from boyhood into manhood with pride and dignity. In between are interwoven more serious themes such as the realities of war and racial segregation.

    Throughout the film, we get to hear voice-over narration (Harry Connick, Jr.) from a much older Willie reminiscing about his childhood.

    What I really liked about this film is that it deals with the more serious issues in a very understated way and never over-preaches, which is most unusual for an American film. For example, instead of making a big deal about racism in the South, the film simply shows Willie making friends with a black boy, then Skip wandering through both the white and black sections of the town so that we can see the difference in lifestyle and affluence, two lines at the cinema segregated by race, and finally at the end we see Willie and his friends watching a baseball game featuring black player Waldo Grace (Jerome Jerald). That's it - no lectures on why racism is bad, finger pointing or holier-than-thou attitudes. Instead we are gently reminded that even though people may be differentiated by race and economic status - at the end of the day there are more similarities than differences.

    My Dog Skip is loosely based on a bestselling autobiographical book of the same name published by William Weaks Morris in 1995. The real Willie Morris was born in 1934 in Jackson, Mississippi, but when he was six months old his parents moved to Yazoo City. After studying at institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin and Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar no less), he became in 1967 the youngest ever editor-in-chief at Harpers (the oldest magazine in the United States). He returned to Mississippi in 1980 as a writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi.

    He wrote more than a dozen books including two autobiographies and is particularly well-known for the books and articles in which he compares his experiences and his long and complex southern heritage to America's own history. A sense of history, place and family are significant themes in much of his writing.

    Willie Morris was consulted during the filming of this movie, but died in 2 August 1999, following a heart attack in Jackson, Mississippi. He managed to see the completed film a week after it was finished but prior to its theatrical release.

Video

    This is a very unusual DVD in that it is a dual sided single-layer disc (DVD-10) featuring a complete copy of the film plus all extras on each side. The only difference between the sides is that they feature different foreign language audio tracks and subtitles.

    Contrary to the packaging which states that there are 6 subtitle tracks, there are actually no less than 16 subtitles (spread across both sides). I turned on the "English for the Hearing Impaired" subtitle track and can attest to its completeness and accuracy.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    I am just as pleased with the quality of the audio track as I am with the video transfer. As this is not an action-oriented film, don't expect any explosions or rumbling bass effects. Instead we get good clear dialogue, a lush musical score and lots of ambient sound effects across the surround speakers (birds twittering, rain falling, etc.)

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Listing - Cast & Crew

Audio Commentary - Jay Russell (Director)

Audio Commentary - Frankie Muniz (Actor) & Mathilde de Cagny (Dog Trainer)

    Interesting, the role of Skip is played by two Jack Russell terriers - Enzo and Moose (Moose also plays the dog in Frazier). I was interested to learn that Enzo and Moose have a pretty stormy and competitive relationship with each other!

    They only talk for just under 32 minutes so the rest of the commentary track is basically the film soundtrack.

Deleted Scenes-with Director commentary (4:13)

1. Winston Groom's line

Winston Groom is the author of the book Forrest Gump, and plays a cameo role as Mr. Goodloe. Interestingly enough his dog is called Forrest Gump. This scene restores a one-liner joke made by Winston regarding Skip.
2. Dog Peeing

This involves Skip stopping in the middle of a walk to pee.
3. Jeep to Dink's

This features two Army officers visiting Dink's parents in a Jeep, causing Willie to fear that something has happened to Dink.
4. Will Prays

This features Willie reciting the Lord's Prayer (in record speed!) plus an additional prayer for Dink, who is missing in action.

Theatrical Trailer (1:34)

• Cast and crew biographies, including a biography of “My Dog Skip” novel author Willie Morris
• Pan and Scan version of the film

• Foreign language audio tracks and subtitles

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall