My Dog Skip

Another year, another twelve months of movies, the first real family film of the year chimes in. My Dog Skip is one of those heart-string tugging coming of age films that pass though the theaters from time to time, regardless of the summer or Christmas movie-going seasons. Written by Willie Morris, the memoir-cum-feature film tells the story of a boy growing up near the beginning of World War II and his coming to terms with dealing with girls, bullies, and life's highs and lows. The score, provided by William Ross, is infused with light Americana similar to some of the better works by Randy Newman, Alan Silvestri and James Newton Howard. In fact, the trailer is temp-tracked with some of Howard's score to Dave.

One could mistake the take musically by Ross to be a simple formula derived from many of the live action Disney kid-friendly films. However, Ross does have a knack for melody which makes the entire score a real charm and interesting to listen to. Ross has had his take on many family-fare types of films and has honed scoring specifically for this type of story down a fine art. The "Main Title" is a great little cue to start out any film, and I'm sure all the home-movie folks will use their iMacs to under score their own little films, it's generic but cute. The score isn't entirely uplifting, although most of it is gentle and fun, there are parts such as "Greenwood Cemetery" that are darker and more brooding. It does kind of run the gambit emotionally, mirroring the life portrayed by Frankie Munitz (Malcom In The Middle) in the Willie Morris role.

If you like Alan Silvestri's Forest Gump and The Parent Trap, Newman's Avalon, and of course, James Newton Howard's Dave, you'll definitely enjoy this release (the cover photo is cute too). I'm happy to have added it to my own collection, and it would be nice to see William Ross step out from his popular orchestrator role to take on more composing projects. He definitely has the talent and skill to do so as demonstrated here.