History Film / MyDogSkip

* DeathByNewberyMedal: [[spoiler: The book ends with Willie going off to college while Skipper stays with his parents. As the years go on, he passes away peacefully and Willie returns home afterwards, still thinking about his dog]].
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Not right away: it takes winning a game of touch football to get the trio of schoolyard bullies to warm up to Willie, but they still tease him throughout the rest of the movie, though it becomes less frequent, to the point he is genuinely one them. They even say their goodbyes to him when he leaves for college.
* EmbarrassingNickname: The bullies give Willie a couple in the beginning - "Sissy" (for his preference of staying indoors and reading) and "Titty Baby" (supposedly for being a [[MommasBoy momma's boy]]).

%%* ShellShockedVeteran : [[spoiler:Dink Jenkins]]

* BigBrotherMentor: How Willie sees his next door neighbor, Dink Jenkins.

* ComicTrio: The schoolyard bullies: Big Boy (Moe), Spit (Larry), Henjie (Curly)

* DysfunctionalFamily:
** Averted with the Morris family, but given the time period of the film, the Morris family was considered unusual, since Willie was an only child.
** Likewise, his parents are perceived with reversed roles, with Willie's mother being handy around the house, and his father taking care of the house and cooking the meals and such.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Two of the schoolyard bullies, known only as "Big Boy" and "Spit".

* GangOfBullies: Big Boy, Spit, and Henjie.
* GrumpyOldMan: Willie's father is more a middle-aged version of this. Then again, he was a war veteran who lost his leg, so what do you expect?
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** The bullies by the end of the movie.
** Dink as well, considering the horrors of war drive him into becoming an alcoholic, and the town starts gossiping about him being a turncoat and a coward.
* LocalHangout: The movie theater.
* LoveAtFirstSight: When Willie first meets Rivers Applewhite, who is already established as the prettiest girl in town.

* MenCantKeepHouse: Subverted with Willie's father, since he pretty much does keep the house.
* MommasBoy: Willie
* NostalgicNarrator: The adult Willie Morris, voiced by Harry Connick, Jr.

* ShellShockedVeteran : [[spoiler:Dink Jenkins]]

* [[SweetHomeAlabama Sweet Home Mississippi]]
* ToiletDrinkingDogGag: One scene features Skip drinking from the toilet, [[SignatureScene a scene prominently featured in advertisements]].

* NiceHat: Dink gives Willie his childhood baseball cap as a birthday present.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

'''Helen''': So you want to shelter him from life. For how long?

* AnArmAndALeg: Willie's father lost his leg as a result of a wartime injury.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** During the show-and-tell scene at school, one boy reads a passage from the Bible, making the other kids laugh - [[ItMakesSenseInContext "So they saddled the ass, and mounted it"]].
** When Skip goes through mock Basic Training, he attacks a dummy made to look like Hitler, by biting the dummmy in the groin.
** How Skip is unqualified for Army life: "his left testicle hasn't descended."

* ABoyAndHisX: 90 minutes about a boy's relationship with his dog.

* DeathByNewberyMedal

* DysfunctionalFamily: Averted with the Morris family, but given the time period of the film, the Morris family was considered unusual, since Willie was an only child.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During the show-and-tell scene at school, one boy reads a passage from the Bible, making the other kids laugh - [[ItMakesSenseInContext "So they saddled the ass, and mounted it"]].

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: The bullies by the end of the movie.

* ShoutOut: The film was pretty much an amalgam of two of Willie Morris' books: ''My Dog Skip'' and ''My Cat Spit [=McGhee=]''.