{"id":10761,"date":"2010-02-27T13:54:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-27T20:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=10761"},"modified":"2020-11-24T11:48:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T18:48:36","slug":"skippy-1931","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=10761","title":{"rendered":"Skippy (1931)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Gee, it&#8217;s elegant over here: alleys and dumps and goats and wood&#8230;&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster-213x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"213\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-54423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster-213x300.png 213w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster-91x128.png 91w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster-192x270.png 192w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Skippy-Poster.png 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe son (Jackie Cooper) of a doctor (Willard Robertson) helps his new friend Sooky (Robert Coogan) earn enough money to release his pet dog from the pound.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Childhood<\/li>\n<li>Comics and Comic Strips<\/li>\n<li>Friendship<\/li>\n<li>Pets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBased on the enormously popular <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skippy_%28comic_strip%29\">comic strip by Percy Crosby<\/a>, this amiable, surprisingly wistful tale of cross-class friendship feels at times like an extended episode of T.V.&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Little_Rascals\">&#8220;The Little Rascals&#8221;<\/a> &#8212; complete with self-possessed youngsters &#8220;putting on a show&#8221; to earn money &#8212; but ultimately provides more of an emotional punch. Jackie Cooper is excellent as the mischievous, devious, but kind-hearted Skippy, showing clear evidence of his child star talents. Robert Coogan is less of a natural actor (he&#8217;s clearly reading his lines and aware of the camera) but nonetheless manages to radiate just the right energy as drawling Sooky, the kid from the &#8220;wrong side of the tracks&#8221;. In Skippy and Sooky&#8217;s world, life most certainly isn&#8217;t &#8220;fair&#8221;, and kids must work hard to overcome the countless obstacles placed in their way by adults &#8212; such as when Sooky&#8217;s beloved dog Penny is cruelly hauled away by a mean-spirited dog-catcher, and the boys are told they have just three days to earn enough money to prevent her from being killed. The film&#8217;s denouement (given away by nearly every review &#8212; be forewarned) is surprisingly disturbing, adding unexpected pathos to the story as a whole. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> Norman Taurog won an Oscar as Best Director of the year, Cooper was nominated as Best Actor of the year, and the screenplay (by Joseph Mankiewicz and Sam Mintz) was nominated as best Adaptation. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jackie Cooper as Skippy<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/skippy-coogan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/skippy-coogan.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10765\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as an Oscar-winning tale of childhood friendship. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=1784#oscar\">Oscar Winner or Nominee<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0022397\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/movie\/review?_r=1&#038;res=9803EEDD143BE433A25757C0A9629C946094D6CF\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Gee, it&#8217;s elegant over here: alleys and dumps and goats and wood&#8230;&#8221; Synopsis: The son (Jackie Cooper) of a doctor (Willard Robertson) helps his new friend Sooky (Robert Coogan) earn enough money to release his pet dog from the pound. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Childhood Comics and Comic Strips Friendship Pets Review: Based on the enormously popular comic strip by Percy Crosby, this amiable, surprisingly wistful tale of cross-class friendship feels at times like an extended episode of T.V.&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=10761\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54424,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10761\/revisions\/54424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}