Watched: July 5, 2019

Kegger Rating: 4 Stars

MM Rating: 3 stars

Kegger’s Review:

I remember watching Mister Rogers a little.  Mostly, I remember the opening and closing songs, and the Kingdom of Make Believe.  Oh, and the stoplight, too. 

When I heard this documentary was coming out, I was really interested – I dig that kind of thing, I think.  Don’t get me wrong, I half expected this to be some kind of dramatic expose of how Mr. Rogers wasn’t who we thought he was.  I hoped that wouldn’t be true, but you know how these kinds of things go. 

No drama!  Just a really good story about how he felt his calling was to help children.  Help them to understand the world around them, and how to handle their feelings.  I probably should have paid more attention to that part when I was a kid.  🙂

The way they told his story was interesting – cutting to interviews and comments from the people around him, as well as his family, and clips of his own interviews and shows.  Those clips were what threw me back to when I’d watch.  (“It’s such a great feeling, to know you’re alive.”)

They also chose a cool way to represent some of his internal struggles, bringing his main puppet, Daniel, to live via animation.  Those clips made me smile. 

Maybe I just wanted a simple, good hearted story.  Maybe I’m happy with having the wool pulled over my eyes, and this documentary isn’t the whole truth.  Maybe there’s drama somewhere in the life and times of Mr. Rogers. 

Maybe all of that’s true. 

Regardless, what I saw through this movie was a gentle soul who did his best to take care of all of the children, and by extension, the adults they would become. 

MM’s Review:

This is hard to review because I don’t look at movies and documentaries the same way.  A documentary should be informative, and it should also be entertaining.  So that’s how I should be reviewing this, and not based on any kind of excitement or humor or emotion.  Right?  Well, we’ll see.

I definitely feel like I came away with a good understanding of Fred Rogers.  Maybe not as much of an understanding as a healthy respect.

I never cared for Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood.  When it came on, I’d get pissed and turn off the TV, because it was interrupting my cartoon block.  For the record, I felt the same way about Reading Rainbow.  I felt that Mr Rogers was a fake.  A panderer who told my child-self things that simply weren’t true.  Plenty of people didn’t love me for who I was, and the real world wasn’t as simple and happy as he made it out to be. 

I went into the movie with this perception, and it’s possible that it colored my initial impression.  In the first third, his family talked about not being able to show sadness at home, which made me think he really was just a weirdo.

As bullheaded as I can be, it’s hard to keep that perception through the whole movie.

The filmmakers do a good job of interviewing the right people at the right time, of showing clips to back up the story, and of keeping things moving.  I prefer to have different sides of the story for something like this, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a different side of the story.  He really seemed to be a decent person who just wanted to do right by kids.

I didn’t feel bored, and without knowing what the real truth is, the presented story was clear. So I guess that makes it a good documentary, right?  Probably?  But this is definitely not the movie for pizza and booze night.