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"California Raisins" Commercials

Date of call (March 1989) confirmed in “Associated Press” (July 29, 1989) (archived) (“Will Vinton… said the idea of Jackson doing a raisin commercial came up during a telephone conversation he had with the singer in March”); Date of release (July 29, 1989) confirmed in “Associated Press” (July 29, 1989) (archived) (“set to debut today [July 29, 1989] in 5,700 movie theaters across the country

Kipp Lennon, singer for “California Raisins” commercial, “Moonwalk Talks” interview (March 1, 2018)

[Transcription not yet available]

Will Vinton, director and clay animator, “Associated Press” (July 29, 1989) (archived)

Will Vinton, the Portland, Ore.-based creator of Claymation, said the idea of Jackson doing a raisin commercial came up during a telephone conversation he had with the singer in March. Vinton directed Jackson in the live action Claymation "Speed Demon" segment of Jackson's "Moonwalker" music video. During the filming, he gave Jackson a set of the plastic raisin figures. "In one conversation, the subject of raisins came up, and I told him we were looking for new ideas," Vinton said. "Michael has made it clear that he was fond of the whole raisin phenomenon, It was a case of one thing leading to another." Vinton contacted Robert Phinney, director of domestic marketing for the Rulsin Board, at the end of March with the idea of Jackson starring in the ads. Because a star like Jackson would normally be beyond the means of the grower-owned Raisin Board, Phinney first thought Vinton was playing an April Fool's Joke on him, Vinton said he and Jackson "started jamming" to come up with the storyline for the commercials, The two devised the idea of a "larger than life" rock concert featuring Michael Raisin and a backup group. It turns out the concert is all a dream by a claymation Michael Jackson, who is seen at the end of the commercial lying on the couch.

...Pop megastar Michael Jackson is starring in the next crop of California Raisin ads, which are set to debut today in 5,700 movie theaters across the country. Both a "Michael Raisin" complete with silver glove and a Claymation likeness of Jackson appear in the ads, which feature the rhythm-and-blues wailer singing "Bad" and "Heard it Through the Grapevine." The ads, filmed to look like a rock video, chronicle a spectacular rock concert by Michael Raisin and the California Raisins and include Jackson-style dancing by his raisin double. The California Raisin Advisory Board is spending a record amount on the campaign: $11 million, "about 16 percent more than it spent on last year's ads that featured singer Ray Charles. There are three Jackson spots, all similar: a 67-second film version for the movie theaters, a Jackson 60-second TV commercial and a 30-second TV commercial. The television spots begin airing in mid-September. Jackson, who is a fan of the Claymation raisins, is said to have done the ads for free.

“Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” (July 2, 2009) (archived)

"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.

...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."

Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

I know it was Michael - I knew the voice. He didn’t call often, though we had done work together on ‘Captain EO’, which I think Michael liked. He was clearly interested in the California Raisins by the questions he was asking.

...Will Vinton said the sound-a-like had been suggested to him by Michael’s management:

“I can’t remember his name. I cast him at the suggestion of Michael’s people who had used him before to knock off Michael’s singing. He wasn’t as good as Michael and, in the end at the final mix, MJ did a little improvising at my suggestion that I think made the performance much better.”

Webster colcord, clay animator, Gary Crocker interview, from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

“The Studio was pretty excited to get this project in. Michael approached Will Vinton, wanting to do the commercial. Like many people, I was a huge Michael Jackson fan at the time and was very eager to work on “Speed Demon". I recall several months after wrapping that up being in a meeting in the conference room at the studio and Will coming in saying, “I just got off the phone with Michael Jackson. He wants to be a California Raisin!” So we were all very excited and Will started to assemble the team for the commercial. I had been working in the commercial unit for a while and had reached a fairly consistent quality level animation-wise, so I was assigned a couple of shots of the background raisins.”

Will Vinton went to Neverland to record footage of Michael dancing to help the animators.

Webster Colcord said:

“While Tony Merrithew was working really hard on the first shot of Michael Raisin - doing many takes - Will travelled down to L.A. to get some reference footage of M.J.’s dance moves. I don’t have that tape, but it was shot late at night in a recording studio where Michael was working at the time. So with Will operating the video camera, Michael did one of his signature moves in the doorway of the mixing booth and his hat hit the wall - it was very unspectacular, which made it really interesting. You’re not used to seeing Michael without the glitter and glamour, at least at that time.”

...“One of the two shots had Michael Raisin in the foreground and two “thug-like” dancers in the back. The other had two Raisin dancers rising up out of the ground to grimace at the camera.” When he finished an early take, the footage was sent to Michael Jackson to see if it was going in the right direction. “After seeing the first take, Michael actually sent a: 30 videotape of himself acting out their expressions. It’s pretty interesting; you can see a piece of Disney furniture (a water dispenser or something) in the background. He taped it himself and I think it was his handwriting on the 8mm videocassette labelled “Raison Attitude".”

Carol Ashley, clay animator, Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

It was Carol Ashley who eventually designed Michael’s figure, even though she was told not to. It got her a rebuke from her boss, but when he saw her work he told her it had saved her from being fired. Mark Gustafson, and Gary Bialke were originally assigned to the ‘Michael Raisin’. But the feedback coming back was that Michael wasn’t happy with the design. Carol Ashley said:

“What I did was a little careless and risky....I went ahead and started sculpting the Michael character after being told not to. I saw what was being put out, (character designs) and heard the comments coming back from Michael. They were making him look very chiselled, angular, and exaggerating features he was not really appreciating. I felt like I knew what he was after, and went ahead and did it.”

David Altschul was impressed enough to ask Ashley to do two more Michael Raisin designs. She told Gary Crocker:

“Over the next week or so, I was asked to sculpt two more versions and the three designs were shipped to Michael’s ranch. He chose the original one I did. The heads came back, and we pulled a mold off of the face and that replaced the existing face on the Michael Raisin character. So, that’s how Michael was designed.

I looked at a lot of photos of him. I did a few sketches. The sketches were more realistic, not caricatures, to get a feel. When I started working with the clay, I softened the edges down and went for a more refined look. After scaling up the eyes and putting outliner around them, which was something we only did on female characters, I got the idea to make his hair huge. I think what stopped me from making it any bigger was that the three pounds I had already piled on top of the head was stressing the aluminium armature at the neck point. Anymore and it would have snapped!”

Vince Backeburg, clay animator, Gary Crocker interview, from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

I designed a female Raisin I named “Latoya” after his sister. He accepted the design. Photos of the designs were sent to him. And a memo or call came back from his people on what he gave the okay to. But later on, as the production moved forward, they pared down the number of backup characters so it was cut. A lot of designs are made during any production and only a few will be approved.

The “Latoya” Raisin originally had pink track shoes that were changed to the other singers’ shoes. Now that I’m looking at those pictures, I think the eyelashes were these little plastic ones I picked up at a craft store. They were used for dolls.

Tony Merrithew, clay animator, Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Merrithew was given the job of working the opening sequence of Michael’s dancing which included his crotch thrusting movement. He spent over a week trying to perfect Michael’s dance moves. Tony said:

“I built a special rig for supporting the Michael Raisin puppet so that it could thrust its crotch upward and also spin 360 degrees. It took about a week of experimenting to perfect the crotch-rig and about six weeks to do an entire commercial from start to finish.”

However, Michael asked for one or two changes when he saw the first version as Tony recalled:

“Michael called the studio in reacting to the animated shot where Michael grabs his crotch. He said, “I want more exaggeration!” I did the shot over again this time with more exaggeration. We sent the shot to Michael again for approval and Will Vinton said this time Michael let out his trademark scream “Yes!!! That’s the way I want the shot!”

...“There was a Michael Jackson look-alike who did some voice work for us for a fake behind-the-scenes interview with “Michael Raisin". I don’t remember his name. Also, it should be noted that Michael couldn’t actually sing in the Raisin commercial because of his Pepsi contract. So, he regularly employed a sound-alike. It was very weird to see the reference footage of a white guy with a moustache singing exactly like Michael. But Michael did sneak one “woo hoo” in there during the sound mix.”

Tony Merrithew recalled his version to Gary Crocker.

“When we shot the MJ commercial, we used this kids voice for Michael. As I remember, it was the son of one of the Lennon sisters. It was really weird to see this young white kid on the 16mm reference film singing and sounding just like Michael Jackson. The kid was about 20 years old back in 1987 and he could really sing well.”

Larry Bafia, clay animator, Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Tony Merrithew had to do a very difficult dance scene with a moving camera. The animation took several days to complete. I also remember enjoying the videotapes that Michael would send so we could study the dance moves he wanted in the animation.