Opal Buloni (Anna Sophia Robb) moved with her preacher father (Jeff Daniels) to the small town of Naomi, Florida. Her mom had left them. He sends her to the local Winn Dixie grocery store where a dog is going wild. Opal pretends to the owner naming the dog Winn-Dixie. The dog is so rambunctious that her father calls the pound. She convinces him to keep the dog and gets a job working at the pet shop with Otis (Dave Matthews). She befriends blind hermit Gloria Dump (Cicely Tyson) with a tree and librarian Miss Franny Block (Eva Marie Saint) with a tall tale of an encounter with a bear.
Anna Sophia Robb is a terrific child actress. She has great charisma and has very good range. She's great as a tomboy as well as with the other girls. This is a movie about lost and regret. I love all of the characters and they are played by solid actors. Maybe Otis could be played by somebody more menacing but Dave Matthews does get the damaged part of the character. It's a nice story of people struggling to move on from their past and it's got a nice cast.
Anna Sophia Robb is a terrific child actress. She has great charisma and has very good range. She's great as a tomboy as well as with the other girls. This is a movie about lost and regret. I love all of the characters and they are played by solid actors. Maybe Otis could be played by somebody more menacing but Dave Matthews does get the damaged part of the character. It's a nice story of people struggling to move on from their past and it's got a nice cast.