Skipper Learns a Lesson

A little girl moves into a new home with her dog -- her family too, I would guess, but they're never seen. When local children come around, she goes off to play with them, but her dog doesn't go. When the childrens' dogs come around, the dog won't play with them, because they look funny.

It's a fable in the vein of Aesop, if not quite as charming. Also, as is common with a lot of educational films made for children, the narrator reads his script of simple words in a tone that implies his audience is not just young, but stupid. I suggest that any audience sophisticated enough to understand the metaphor for racism is going to be offended by the tone.

Made in the 1950s, this short by Sid Davis is both corny and quite progressive for the era it was made in. Skipper is a dog who won't play with other dogs in the neighborhood because they look different than he does, and in fact he chases them away from the front porch he hangs out on. After getting paint spilled on himself in the garage (a sequence that we don't actually see but is funny to listen to), Skipper finds out the other dogs won't help him now, and after a bunch of kids give him a bath he learns the error of his ways.

A pretty goofy film in its dialogue and action, this was apparently made as a classroom film and sometimes can be found on compilation tapes of movies of this kind. While the production values may seem funny at times, this film is actually quite a rarity in that it handles the topic of racism and prejudice in an era (the 1950s) when such subjects were not often discussed in schools. A corny film to watch, but teaches an important lesson to the viewer (as well as to Skipper!).