My Dog Skip: Special Edition

This warm, funny and very moving 1940s-set coming-of-ager stars Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz as the perpetually out-of-step eight-year-old Willie Morris, whose outcast status magically changes when, for his ninth birthday, his parents (Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane) buy him a terrier puppy. This well mastered special edition, which includes two audio commentaries and deleted scenes, is excellent family fare, as uplifting as it is entertaining. Recommended. (S. C. Sickles)