"The Champ" has had significant cultural effect. A number of motion pictures in the 1930s, some of them also starring Wallace Beery, repeated the basic story about a man surrendering to drink and redeemed by the love of his long-suffering son. Film critic Judith Crist has argued that almost any film pairing an adult actor alongside a child actor must be compared to "The Champ" in terms of the chemistry between the actors and the effectiveness of the film. The film had an immediate effect on world cinema as well. "The Champ" is considered one source film which inspired Yasujirō Ozu's classic Japanese film, "Passing Fancy" ("Dekigokoro", 1933). The film was, in part, the inspiration for the father and son in the Berenstain Bears books.