Watchcat Reviews: Mister Rogers Documentary

We are working on a web comic as a way to generating a consistent story. This will also allow us to see if we actually have a story and characters that people would like to see as an animated series down the road. We hope to gain more viewers by putting out this format content sooner.

Until then, please enjoy Greg's Watchcat Review of the recent documentary, “Won’t you Be My Neighbor”

In today’s climate -- so divisive, so dangerous and so unsure of what the future holds -- “Won’t you Be My Neighbor” is the perfect medicine. The documentary is less a bio pic of Fred Rogers' life and more about the message of love and acceptance that he tirelessly tried to communicate through "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." His philosophy about what it means to be a good neighbor and a decent human being inspired and empowered both children and adults.

 

I grew up watching "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," "Sesame Street," "The Electric Company" and sometimes "Zoom" on the PBS station in Chicago. I remember enjoying the opening with him singing “Would You Be my Neighbor.” When he put on his cardigan and sneakers it made me feel like he was going to spend time with me. In the documentary, he says that when he looked into the camera, he imagined talking to one person. No one in particular, just one individual. How powerful! That explains why it felt like he was talking directly to me.

To be honest, I don’t remember any of the individual episodes. But I do remember always going back to them. And maybe that was his secret. He never treated children as kids. He treated them as young adults and he always told it to you straight. This incredible documentary revealed how he incorporated so much adult messaging into a kids' show and honestly discussed such weighty topics as divorce and death.

As an ordained minister, Fred Rogers always displayed Christian values but it never felt like he was preaching. However, he truly believed in the scripture that called for us to “love thy neighbor." He wanted to teach by example and his message was simple: Everyone, no matter who they may be, are capable of loving and being loved. And what better message to relay to children as they grow and interact with others. I think that was the key in creating the sensation that we know and love.

Another way this show became so popular was that, from the beginning, he understood the power of television. While other kids shows were showing children and adults getting pies in the face, water buckets over their head, simply to raise a new generation of consumers, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was preparing children for life and the consequences that come with it. In the documentary, it shows how he knew that with the right delivery, a crucial message such as the power of love could reach millions and millions of people. Thanks to his knowledge, his show easily became one of the most popular amongst children and parents alike.

I think the reason he was able to communicate so well with children was because he was just a big kid himself. Unlike most grownups, he never lost his inner child as an adult and kids were able to see that.

Maybe part of the reason he was that way was the fact that when he was a kid, was a sickly and overweight. Because of his weight, he would get bullied and called “Fat Freddy.” So he knew what it felt like to be different and how it felt to be an outcast. And yet he was never cynical.

I used to wonder, was he really like that all the time? Was this soft spoken man, the same man in real life than he was on the show? According to the film, the answer is yes. Never having any skeletons in his closet, no scandals, he was truly a good man that cared about people, how refreshing. One of his son’s recalls, it wasn’t easy living with “The Second Coming!” What you see is really what you get when it comes to Fred Rogers. But he wasn’t perfect.

The same son talked about how he communicated his true feelings through his puppets, particularly Daniel the Tiger. Though Mr. Rogers voiced all the puppets on the show, Daniel voiced Fred’s most inner thoughts, fears and insecurities. There’s a wonderful and poignant duet in the film with Daniel, who feels like he was a mistake and Lady Aberlin (Betty Aberlin), who reminds Daniel that he is not a mistake and that he is unique and special. I wonder if Fred felt that way. I wonder how many children have felt that way. I know I have.

And after the show ended, and the 911 tragedy struck, he was persuaded to come back on the air to comfort a country that was grieving. This wasn’t the first time he had to comfort us. He actually had a frank discussion on the show about the assassination of Robert F Kennedy.

We really did look to him as our moral compass.

He passed away in 2003.

Through all the good that he had done and success he’d had, his image still took lots of hits.

Tons of parodies, like Johnny Carson Martin Short, from SCTV and the most famous one, Eddie Murphy’s “Mr. Robberson’s neighborhood,” (A clips here) went after him relentlessly. Though some of it was actually funny to him, some he could not laugh off.

I couldn’t think it was possible to vilified someone as good as Mr. Rogers, but Fox News tried.

They claimed that his message that “children are special” somehow created a whole generation of entitled people. Children shouldn’t be told that they’re special without actually proving it. How absurd.

In the film, there was a protest during his funeral by people who believed this and hated him for it. The saddest part, some of them even brought their children along with them. There’s nothing like spading a little hate in a child’s life.

 

I wonder what he would think of America today. Seeing pictures of children in cages, being separated from their parents at the border. Police shootings, racial divide in this country. There’s an episode where King Friday XIII of Make-Believe Land wanted to build a walls around his Kingdom to keep undesirables out, and the rest of the neighborhood had to convince him that there was no need to. We now have an administration that is actually trying to build walls. Around the same time of that episode, he had one of his characters Officer Clemmons, who is black, sit with him and soak his feet in the same kiddie pool.

In the 60s. He broke so many rules.

I had the good fortune to meet the filmmaker Morgan Neville who won an Oscar for his documentary

“Twenty Feet From Stardom”, a film about the lives of the unsung heroes behind the most legendary R&B bands: the back up singers (Can’t wait to see that film.)

With this incredible and inspiring movie, he might be on his way to winning yet another Oscar.

I only have one regret for the film. I wish they could’ve interviewed Betty Aberlin, who played “Lady Aberlin” in the show. She was in a lot of my favorite scenes and I think that her insight on Fred and the show would have been fascinating. However, Morgan Neville really captured a rare behind-the-scenes of one of the most famous children show in American history. Neville got tons of insight through interviews with the people closest to Fred, including his wife, Joanne, his two sons, and most of the cast and crew of his TV show. And somehow he managed all of this in 1 hour and 34 minutes.

It’s truly one of the best films of the year. I think everybody should watch this movie at least once in their lifetime. There will never be anyone like Fred Rogers again, which is why we must cherish the memories and the messages that he left behind for us. For me it is “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” is really an invitation of inclusion and acceptance of all people. No matter what your race, creed and sexuality are, each one of us are special and can co-exist as neighbors. I only wish that the leaders of this country could adopt that philosophy!

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