Movie |
Mississippi River | Dog
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Best Ensemble in a Feature Film | 2001 | Frankie
Free to Fly Section Best Actor | 2000 | Frankie
Free to Fly Section | 2000 | Jay
Best Performance in a Feature Film Supporting Young Actress | 2001 | Caitlin
Feature Film | 2001
Youth in Film | 2000 | Frankie
Best Young ActorPerformance in a Motion Picture Drama | 2000 | Frankie
Budget 6,000,000 USD
Box Office Collection 35,547,761 USD
Six Jack Russell terriers, including Moose and his son Enzo, played Skip.
Moose, the dog who plays Skip, is best known for playing Eddie on Frasier (1993). He died of natural causes in June 2006.
There are two separate scenes where it looks as though Skip is being hit. First by Willy with his hand and another time by Junior Smalls who lifts a shovel to hit the dog. , a stuffed dog stood in for our canine star. Afterwards, the real dog was put on his mark by the trainer and the rest of the scene was filmed. After the shovel incident we find Skip lying on the table at the vet's office. He has a cover over him and lies breathing heavily with his eyes closed, as he is given verbal cues by his trainer. When he awakens he is told to open his eyes and lick Will's face and he happily obliges.
One of Willie's friends in the movie is named Spit McGee. This was also the name of one of Willie's cats as an adult, and his life is featured in the book "My Cat Spit McGee".
Director Jay Russell wanted a smooth haired fox terrier to play Skip, the same breed as the original Skip, but he wasn't able to find trained ones. Early in pre-production, he used a dog with no acting experience for a shoot of second unit type footage and quickly found difficulty in doing even basic things, like keeping the dog in the frame. He concluded they needed dogs trained in acting, so similar looking Jack Russell terriers were used (at 07:00 in the director's commentary).
"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 recieved 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."
"Narrator: Like all dogs, Skip was colorblind. He made friends easily with people of all races and origins. The town was segregated back then, but as we know, dogs are a whole lot smarter than people."
