Any “Calvin and Hobbes” fan will enjoy watching Schroeder’s film, which is more a love letter to the strip and its publicity-shy creator than anything else. “Dear Mr. Watterson” is a work of charming reportorial energy, in which Schroeder (who wrote, directed and edited the movie) interviews many prominent fans and friends of Watterson – including “Bloom County” cartoonist Berkeley Breathed and actor Seth Green – and handles original “Calvin and Hobbes” artwork now in a comics archive at Ohio State. Schroeder’s passion for the material comes through clearly, and he correctly identifies a note of ruefulness – a sort of American-Zen reflection on the ephemeral and transient nature of all experience – that runs through Calvin and Hobbes’ adventures even at their most joyful. Watterson’s haunting and ambiguous final strip from 1995 – with its largely empty concluding panel – is one of the great pop-culture sendoffs, up to and including the last episode of “The Sopranos.”
I was able to see an advance of this documentary a few months ago. Very much worthy your time and money if you can get to a theater where it’s being screened. (Los Angeles, New York, Santa Fe, Toronto, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Portland, Spokane, Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio.
For those of us not near those cities, you can download the documentary from iTunes OR through BitTorrent. If you go through BitTorrent, you can also get the official documentary trailer, bonus footage, and an exclusive coupon for 20%.