VIFF Review: Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe

Coombs with Casey and Finnegan by the treehouse

The Vancouver International Film Festival has kicked off and I saw the Vancouver premiere of the documentary, Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe.

Inside the Vancouver Playhouse, practically every seat was taken as everyone in the audience was ready to walk down memory lane.

Rogers (left) was a visionary

Mr. Dressup was a part of children's lives for almost 30 years, encouraging them to play, make crafts, sing songs, dress up into various characters and most of all, be kind to others. He hung out with two puppet characters, Casey and Finnegan. No one could figure out if Casey was a boy or a girl, and a culture critic points out that Casey was probably the first non-binary character ever on television! Finnegan was a dog that only whispered to Casey.

That's the Mr. Dressup that I knew, I had no idea of the origins or what happened after I grew up, and this documentary traces the whole career of the man behind Mr. Dressup, Ernie Coombs.

He was originally from Maine, and knew Fred Rogers, who was passionate about changing children's television into something more educational as well as entertaining. Rogers was lured up north to Canada to work at the children's TV department of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and he got Coombs to come along with him.

Rogers created the pre-cursor to Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood and it was very successful in Canada, and Coombs helped out as a puppeteer and one of the human characters on the show. 

However, after his contract ended after a few years, Rogers moved back to the US. Who would replace him? Coombs, with his own show, first called Butternut Square. 

Coombs created the character Mr. Dressup

After a while it was suddenly cancelled, but the show's producer managed to get part of a studio and they created Mr. Dressup. He had what he called the Tickle Trunk, where he stored all his costumes to dress up in, showed children how to draw (from his experience of painting background sets), made crafts with toilet paper rolls, and hung out with Casey and Finnegan who were in a tree house (which still stands in the CBC Toronto foyer). 

At first the show was very scripted, but Coombs had trouble following it, and so they began ad-libbing most of it, but with clear concepts decided beforehand. It was rehearsed twice before taping live. He got on tremendously well with the puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, who incidentally was from Ballarat, Australia. 

Decades later, Lawrence decided she'd had enough and retired -- CBC even dared to claim that Casey and Finnegan were the property of the broadcaster, but she had created them herself and so Lawerence, Casey and Finnegan left the show.

Coombs continued and the show had more learning opportunities with various rotating characters (and puppeteers).

Coombs with puppeteer Lawrence at the CBC

The documentary also delves into Coombs' personal life, his wife Marlene (Lynn) who he met on the TV set, and his adult children talk about their father and what he was like at home (no different). They also talk about the tragedy of losing their mother in a car accident, and later how Coombs died after a massive stroke around 9/11.

I had completely forgotten or not known that Coombs had died a week after that horrific day. Losing Coombs was also sad, as he had influenced so many children who are now adults. 

Pop culture historians note in the beginning, the CBC was the leader in children's television, pouring in so many resources into it and drawing in some half a million kids watching everyday. What happened? Sesame Street (only a temporary drop in numbers), but also the Conservatives won the federal election and began cutting the CBC budget. We can blame former prime minister Brian Mulroney for that!

So Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe is a nostalgic remembrance of Coombs, a comprehensive look at his career, and his contribution to Canada and children's television, and how he influenced millions of children across the country. Even in his later years he easily drew a crowd on college campuses and in pubs!

What a lovely tribute and many in audience were weeping by the end.

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe

Directed by Robert McCallum

90 minutes

2023