Tomboy & The Champ

Great ,uplifting story of a farm family . Wonderful acting.Grandma and Grandpa will enjoy seeing the old movie stars of their time.Cattlemen and livestock exhibitors will love seeing the old showrings and show styles they have only heard about .Really nice to see a girl as the main character in a livestock movie.Several really good moral lessons explored.Kids of all ages who love animals will really enjoy this story.If you lead a 4-H , FFA or Junior Cattlemen's group or your child belongs to one, this is a great movie for them.It portrays the dedication and family support needed to be a junior exhibitor well.Suitable for all ages.

Saw this movie at the Winona Drive-In when I was maybe 10 years old. I pretended I was Tommy Jo every minute I was outside on our farm. Was fun to watch it with my 19 year old career 4-Her. After watching it this time, guess maybe that movie was responsible for getting my parents motivated to start Winona Wranglers 4-H Club a few years later in 1970-1971. And here I am, still 4-Hing!

Amazing actually I was excited to see it for sale as I was 9 years old and was in that movie and am now 66 years old so my kids will have it when I'm gone from this world:)

First of all, be advised: The DVD pictured ("VCI Vault Classics"), which is the same as I bought from an Amazon Marketplace vendor, is a DVD-R. I'm seeing more of that these days, unfortunately.Now, about the film itself. This low-budget, independent production was shot mostly in and around Katy, Texas, and has the low-key charm and color of that sort of film. The filmmakers were trying for something in the Disney vein (the story is reminiscent of "So Dear to My Heart", and the title sounds as though it were modeled, perhaps unconsciously, on "Lady and the Tramp", which it does not resemble), but a misjudged story and script effectively quash that attempt. Some story highlights: A tomboy wins a calf (Champ) and begins grooming it for a championship; she lies in a mud puddle all night with him and comes down with polio the same day as a result; she goes from being bed-ridden to ship-shape in what appears to be just a few days; she enters Champ in a Kansas livestock exposition, Champ loses, she weeps bitterly, and Rex Allen sings her a song informing her that animals cry, too; she enters Champ in a Chicago show and gets the sniffles (which is pneumonia), and when she finds out that Champ, who wins the ribbon because the preacher sings a song in front of the judges, will be sold at auction for the beef, she goes into a coma and is hospitalized; to save her life, her family brings the animal into her hospital room; she wakes up immediately, looks at him joyously, and, during a series of cuts back and forth between her face and Champ's, you can see (if you look hard) that the filmmakers kept adding glycerin to the hair below Champ's eyes: He's crying, too! Let me tell you . . . that ending is a jaw-dropper.

I saw this film as a young teenager and never ever forgot it. It was great to see it again some 50 years later. A little cheesy by todays high tech standards but still great fun.

I have never met another person in my nearly half century of life who saw this movie in the theaters when it first came out. I was a child of five sitting on the front row and the star who plays the press agent in the movie came out on stage afterwards and asked me to dance with him in front of the packed house at the wonderful, old Metropolitan Theater in downtown Houston. "Tomboy and the Champ" is the story about a little girl who overcomes obstacles to raise a champion angus and features a cameo by the cowboy singer/star Rex Allen. The movie itself is pretty simple and silly at times with somewhat weak acting and dippy interjected songs, but nowhere will you get a better feel for life in the 1950's in Texas. You will see many Houston landmarks which have either been outgrown or torn down (just like the Metropolitan where I viewed this film). The story line includes a bout with the outdated disease polio. Sickly sweet, but definitely a walk down memory lane for retro buffs and any "child" who had the opportunity to experience the Fat Stock Show and climb on the rails at the old Houston Coliseum to shake hands with a rodeo star.

I saw this movie in San Francisco when I was about 12 and the story stuck with me all these years. Even though I was mistaken in my memory thinking that Roy Rogers was the singing cowboy, it still was a good story. It exemplifies the love of a person and an animal and solidifies the reason for family. It is a story of courage and challenges. Even though in today's world it might be considered a bit sappy or corny, it is a touching story of personalities, old habits and traditions, and beliefs. I am happy to see it on DVD because it is a lighthearted, G rated movie that I would like to share with my students, especially because it is outdated in costume, vehicles, electronics, and the like. They take so much of what they have for granted, I would like to show them a different lifestyle.

Believe it or not, I also saw this film in its theatrical release when I was 9, at The Fox (a palatial theatre) in Stockton, CA. It was a companion feature for The Parent Trap. Anyway, I thought it was pretty touching at the time, but have to admit that upon viewing it again as an adult it is pretty corny. If you're the nostalgia type, the opening sequence of a small town parade in the 1950's alone makes it worth it.