MR. DRESSUP: THE MAGIC OF MAKE BELIEVE (Blu-ray Review)
I’m not crying, you’re crying. Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe traces the life and career of Ernie Coombs, an American-born artist from Maine who would go on to become one of Canada’s most beloved cultural figures. Coombs worked in Pittsburgh early on as a puppeteer alongside his close friend and mentor Fred Rogers. When Rogers returned to the United States, he personally recommended Coombs to the CBC, setting the stage for a career that would define generations of Canadian childhoods.
Film ★★★★☆
Director Robert McCallum celebrates the people and moments that made Mr. Dressup a cultural cornerstone. Celebrities such as Michael J. Fox, Eric McCormack, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Graham Greene describe the show as a steady presence during their most early years, while others like Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch from the masterpiece Kids in the Hall speak to its lasting creative influence.
There is a long-overdue recognition of puppeteer Judith Lawrence, whose work bringing Casey and Finnegan to life formed the emotional core of the series.
The documentary shows Lawrence returning to perform with the puppets and a complete recreation of the set. I have never seen the show, but I understand how decades of people were drawn to the show. There is a lot of warmth that radiates from the clips and interviews. Mr. Dressup wasn’t simply a throwaway program.
Of course, it’s not all happy moments. There are tragic events that occurred. I won’t spoil them here but it did make me cry. The magic of the show is fragile and Coombs truly relied on his audience’s love to endure personal heartbreak.
The film closes with contributors addressing Coombs directly. Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe is a celebration of compassion. It goes to show that the values Coombs held with him still matter, perhaps now more than ever.
Video ★★★☆☆
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Clarity/Detail: For what this is, being a documentary, it looks pretty good. Things downgrade a tad with clips due to their age, but it looks all right. Consequently, detail is light. There’s a lot of vintage clips of varying video qualities, but nothing is distractingly bad.
Depth: Pretty flat image with some little instances of good depth during a moment where we go behind the scenes of the reconstructed set.
Black Levels: Blacks are very rich and some minor crushing is present.
Color Reproduction: Colors are bold, especially when it comes to the sets and puppets.
Flesh Tones: Lifelike and consistent. Some solid detail is present.
Noise/Artifacts: Overall, pretty clean.
Audio ★★★☆☆
Audio Format(s): English 5.1; English 2.0
Subtitles: English
Dynamics: Kind of curious why there is a 5.1 since it’s pretty much just interviews with very minimal audio from moments that would require 5.1. The 2.0 track would have been more than sufficient for this. That being said, it does what it needs to do and everything sounds clear and solid.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: N/A
Surround Sound Presentation: There isn’t anything of note. It’s pretty front loaded.
Dialogue Reproduction: Front heavy and audible.
Extras ★★★☆☆
There are quite a bit of extra interview tidbits. Nothing really stood out, as the bulk of the fascinating material is in the feature itself.
Summary ★★★★☆
I found this documentary to be deeply moving. It’s heartwarming to witness such a profound positive impact the show had on so many people. I was unfamiliar with Mr. Dressup, so it was a nice experience to be introduced through this documentary.
