The 2000s Movie Project: 'My Dog Skip' The Shocking Secrets of a Gentle Family Dog Movie

How can I get people to read a critical review of a 2000 family drama about a dog? I’ve written about unpopular topics before, but I cannot imagine one as unpopular, forgettable and easy to ignore as My Dog Skip. This 2000 release starring a young Frankie Muniz, Kevin Bacon as his dad, and Luke Wilson as his local sports hero, has been completely lost to time. If anyone remembers My Dog Skip or if the film has a legacy it’s probably the focus on the dog and a toilet in the ad campaign.

So, how can I turn this critical analysis into clickbait? I could do one of those cast of movie 'where they are now,' shock pieces where I mention what the actors of My Dog Skip are doing these days, maybe include then and now photos? I could talk about why Hollywood won’t cast the cast of My Dog Skip anymore? Hey, we haven’t seen Frankie Muniz in a while and didn’t we cancel Luke Wilson? Or was it Kevin Bacon? Perhaps I could roll all of those elements into one and create super-clickbait!

And in the midst of that, I will include an actual movie review. It will be like rolling a pill in a piece of bologna to trick a dog into taking its medicine. Yes, you would be the dog in that scenario dear reader, but don’t take it personally, I’m not calling YOU a dog, I’m talking to those other readers of this article.

My Dog Skip stars Frankie Muniz as Willie Morris, a scrawny pre-teen whose only friend appears to be the locally famous High School jock next door, Dink Jenkins (Luke Wilson, 29 years old at the time of the movie but playing 18). Unfortunately, it’s 1942 and Dink has been drafted to go to war. This will leave Willie with no friends so his mom, Ellen, played by a desperately under-utilized Diane Lane, decides that it is time for Willie to have a dog.

This choice of pet flies in the face of the wishes of Frankie’s stern father, Jack (Kevin Bacon), who doesn’t feel that Frankie is emotionally equipped for pet ownership. Jack goes so far as to take Willie’s dog away immediately after he receives it, during Willie’s birthday party. Ellen refuses to stand for such a thing so she demands the dog back and Willie is reunited with his new friend, Skip.

Skip is just what Willie needed to turn his young life around. Soon, Skip has helped Willie befriend the local bullies and helped him make friends with the prettiest girl in middle school, the uniquely named Rivers Applewhite (Caitlin Wachs). However, when his hero Dink returns from the war and is no longer the local hero he was on the athletic fields, Willie is thrown for a loop and only Skip can get him through.

My Dog Skip qualifies for a snarky insult I developed in my time as a podcaster: Gentle and Pleasant. Gentle and pleasant is a term I coined as a shorthand for dull, respectable dramas too well made to be bad but too snoozy to qualify for a full recommendation. My Dog Skip is corny, slow and even in 2000 qualified as antiquated. The film is downright ancient in its sensibilities 20 year later.

To call My Dog Skip quaint would perhaps present the film as more exciting than it truly is. Old fashioned almost seems too undersell the picturesque, too perfect, All-American values of My Dog Skip. Even 20 years ago My Dog Skip must have appeared more edge free than your average marble. Sleepy, is an understatement, and yet it’s also kind of hard to hate. Based on the first person novel by real life reporter turned Harper’s editor Willie Morris, there is an undeniable sweetness at the heart of My Dog Skip.

Director Jay Russell has a strong handle on just the kind of family friendly material he’s making here. That he manages to keep My Dog Skip from tipping over into cloying, manipulative and pandering trash is impressive. The trick is making the movie respectable without giving into the instinct for cheap sentimentality. My Dog Skip may be smoother than a neutered pups hindquarters but it is not a movie that digs for cheese ball sentimentality.

My Dog Skip is not exactly a movie that sticks to the ribs. It’s most certainly a trifling bit of family friendly puffery. That said, there is nothing terribly wrong with that. The cast is uniformly on point with Diane Lane standing out for stealing scenes even as her role is shockingly, piteously, tsmall for her immense talent and presence. I also enjoyed the haunted quality of both Luke Wilson and Kevin Bacon who share a unique moment as a pair of veterans whose time in the military has altered them to their core.

Both Wilson and Bacon communicate the horrors of war in simple gestures with Wilson’s freshly minted emotional scars messily on the surface and Bacon’s older scars hidden behind a stoic veneer years in the making. Their war experiences are relatively small parts of My Dog Skip but they are so well communicated by each actor that they resonate and give the movie the semblance of self-seriousness needed to keep it from tipping into schmaltz.

Will I remember My Dog Skip much after I finish this review? Probably not, but that’s more of a reflection of the fact that it’s only an OK movie and this series, The 2000’s Movie Project, has a current run of 180 movies for me to cover. The rest of the year 2000 would have to be pretty terrible for something as weightless and edge-less as My Dog Skip to make a lasting impression. While I watched it though, I didn’t hate it. It’s gentle and pleasant... in a good way.