Skippy (1931)
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Skippy Movie Review
Skippy is a 1931 children’s film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Jackie Cooper. It’s a flawed, but pretty solid early Best Picture nominee.
First and foremost, this is one of the hardest Best Picture nominees to find to watch and thus I could not find it properly. I ended up watching a botched, pretty bad quality version of it where some footage was missing at some points in the film as well as some audio near the end. That’s why I could not judge this film properly in its entirety, but I will judge it by what I managed to see.
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It follows a young, reckless and very spirited boy who disobeys his parents and befriends a boy from Shantytown. He befriends a dog and when an evil dog catcher catches him, it is up to him to get him back with the help of his reluctant father. That’s the plot here which is solid and especially memorable for its time, but familiar for today’s audiences.
I liked how the film ended on such a wonderful, highly emotional note. I also found its adventurous elements great. The dog part of course is wonderful as I am a dog person so such a storyline is in my valley. But the parts in the Shantytown are somewhat annoying and I particularly found some of the kids’ behavior and dialogue irritating.
Skippy was nominated for four Academy Awards so let’s see if it deserved those. The Adaptation one is not particularly deserved, though the film is solidly adapted and it’s a particularly interesting example of an early comic strip adaptation.
That also makes it one of the most peculiar Best Picture nominees as it is not only a comic strip adaptation, but also very much a typical children’s flick of which the Academy is usually not fond of. Although I am glad that they honored a family flick for once, there were so many better ones over the years that deserved a nomination much more.
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Skippy is solidly shot for what I could manage to see, but definitely not well acted. Jackie Cooper is one of the youngest Best Actor nominees ever at the age of just nine and although he is solid for a child actor, he is otherwise far from great. But others are much worse so he ended up being the standout. As for Norman Taurog’s direction, it is okay, but certainly not worthy of an Oscar win.
Skippy is a solid, frequently endearing and memorable early children’s flick which is one of the most peculiar Best Picture nominees ever having in mind that it’s a family flick based on a comic strip. It’s a fine, but familiarly plotted, not well acted movie which has a good first and third act, but the second one is somewhat annoying in dialogue and plot points.
