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13 Aug 2011

Michael, Raisin Awareness

California Raisin, GIFs Pictures, Michael Jackson, Micheal Jackson Fan Videos 6 Comments

In 1989 Michael Jackson became a California Raisin.

Guess who the Strawberry in the audience is supposed be?  :smile:  :heart:  We all know who loves strawberries!

Now this is Michael explaining to Will Vinton, Claymation and California Raisins creator, his vision for the video. Michael was a hands-on artist; a self-proclaimed perfectionist He knew exactly what he wanted and he wanted his music, his material and anything involving himself to reflect HIS vision:

However,  Michael doesn’t sing in the commercial!  The song was sung by Kipp Lennon, because Michael was under contract at the time.  And Yes, you guessed it, Will worked as director and producer with Michael on Speed Demon!

Here is Will talking to Margaret Schrum about how it all came together:

Michael Jackson as a California Raisin

In cleaning out some folders, I came across a brochure about the 25th anniversary of the California Dancing Raisins. This struck a chord.

Twenty-five years ago, when these TV commercial raisins were beginning to get down, Michael Jackson was, too.

Both of them were pretty hot, the late Mr. Jackson, for all the reasons you well know, and the raisins for the special effects used to create them, the likes of which had not been seen much in the late 1980s. They sing a twist on the Motown hit, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

As it turns out, Mr. Jackson liked the raisins quite a bit, too.

“Michael called up and I’m sitting there, having small talk with Michael on the phone,” says Will Vinton, Claymation and California Raisins creator. “And I’m going, ‘What is this about? Why am I having this conversation?’ I realized he was talking about the California Raisins.

“I said, ‘Michael, we should make you a raisin!’ I realized he was heading that way, anyway. And as soon as I said it, he said, ‘Yeah!‘ “

And so he was. Mr. Jackson said he would do the spot without charge, as long as he was involved in the creative end of it and choreography, says Mr. Vinton. The Academy Award-winning artist, director and animated film producer lives in Portland, Ore., where he runs his company, Freewill Entertainment Inc.

Mr. Vinton had previously worked with Mr. Jackson doing effects on his “Captain EO” three-dimensional movie shown at Disney parks. He also worked on Mr. Jackson’s “Moonwalker” movie (a 1988 compilation of videos and films that included “Speed Demon,” which was directed by Mr. Vinton and used Claymation, the process he patented.)

The California Raisin project, though, “was a dream for me,” says Mr. Vinton, whose work has brought in many other awards, including several Emmys.

He worked with Mr. Jackson at Neverland, the singer’s ranch in California that at the time was under construction. He says he “was just the sweetest person in the world. A really amazing, gentle soul” who was “misunderstood in many ways.”

He was uber idealistic, “probably because he wasn’t patterned in the same way most of us were,” getting some leavening kicked into us in school and being out in the world.

Despite his idealism, Mr. Jackson would do “anything for the show, for the project to make it cooler, hipper, hotter” and so was eager to tap into the popularity of the Raisins commercials, which also had featured Ray Charles.

They worked to create a bit that captured Mr. Jackson’s “Bad” image (the commercial was done a year or so after the 1987 release of that album).

The hardest part was getting “a good likeness and caricature for Michael that he was happy with,” says Mr. Vinton, who ended up with a figure that was “slightly more effeminate looking” with heavy eye makeup.

And, of course, a sequined glove, tape around his fingers, a jheri curl and a low-slung studded belt.

In the film, Michael Raisin tosses off a fedora that’s covering his eyes and starts to sing about being a sun-raised California raisin, to a “Bad” era beat — several “woos!” in this. A strawberry in the audience screams “Michael!” and then passes out.

The commercial, which aired only in theaters, ends with a Claymation Mr. Jackson waking up, looking around, seeing a bowl of fruit and saying, “Wow. Must’ve been something I ate.”

See it on youtube, where the Ray Charles version also is playing.

As for Mr. Jackson’s passing last week, Mr. Vinton was as shocked as the rest of us. Read more about him at willvinton.net.

The California Raisins are no longer animated, but do represent the product in print ads, as a mascot and as the World’s Largest California Dancing Raisin, created by students at California State University, Fresno.
You have to think Mr. Jackson would appreciate the fun.

© Copyright Margi Shrum, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Freewill Entertainment Inc.

6 Responses to “Michael, Raisin Awareness”

  1. pithundermj says:

    I remember the raisin commercials. I was so excited when they came on. :w00t: It’s so wonderful to see how his creative thoughts were incorporated into the commercials. Honestly, I never really ‘looked’ at the other raisins, since I only ever had eyes for Michael. I used to think they were his brothers, but wondered why they didn’t look like them.

  2. pithundermj says:

    Oh, and, you got me on the strawberry. :unsure:

  3. SenoraSabine says:

    Sabah loves Strawberry icecream :smile: :wink:

  4. pithundermj says:

    :writing: :blush:

  5. Michelle says:

    This is so cute

  6. deborahgreene says:

    He is so damn cute (hurt it.,hurt it) i love it

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