Dear Mr. Watterson, a documentary film about Bill Watterson and his legendary comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, is an investigation into the heart and soul of six-year-old Calvin and his best friend–a sometimes stuffed, sometimes “animated” tiger named Hobbes.
The documentary investigates the impact that Watterson’s timeless comic has had on so many readers old and new. Not only will the documentary refresh– or strike anew– your dormant love of Calvin and Hobbes, but it will also challenge our cultural struggle with the saturation of copyrights, media, and marketing and its effect on our more soulful and thoughtful experiences with texts. Ask yourself, does owning every marketed product for your favorite cartoon or comic book character or series really make the stories better? Does the ubiquitous nature of mass marketing really stir your soul like the experience of quietly, privately “owning” a text for yourself?
All thoughtful and investigative questions aside, the documentary is on Netflix. Check it out. Yukon Ho!!!