Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017) Reviews

• I don't get it.

  jonathan_k802017-10-28

  I was puzzled when I first saw the trailer for this special. What does Michael Jackson have to do with Halloween, outside of the "Thriller" video, which was actually about horror movies rather than about the holiday? The characters looked cute, so I thought I would give it a try. What I saw was 42 minutes of something that played out like a movie based on a video game. The two protagonists, Vincent and Victoria, make their way through a series of challenging areas... a pumpkin patch, a haunted house, a cliff, for example. They encounter strange anthropomorphic characters along the way, some are helpful, some are villains. All this time they are fleeing from an evil magical woman named Conformity, who, like her name suggests, hates individuality and freedom of expression. She is a manifestation of the main characters' real-life job experiences; they both work for unappreciative employers who view them as mere cogs in a machine. What about Michael Jackson? Many hints are dropped throughout the special: a concealed figure with a gloved hand, a chimpanzee chauffeur named "Bubbles" (remember M.J.'s pet chimp?), a Michael Jackson- shaped icon that leads Vincent and Victoria to the next level in their journey. This leads up to an actual encounter with Michael that lasts maybe a couple of minutes. I'm still trying to figure out the rationale behind creating a Halloween special which revolves around a celebrity who died in 2009. Does he return from the dead every October 31? Has he become a zombie, a reference to the "Thriller" music video? So many unanswerable questions. I didn't hate this special. There was a vague "don't give up on your dreams" message to it, which has been overdone. But I think the concept would have had more potential as a video game, with its villains and challenging levels. I highly doubt I would view this a second time, if it is ever rebroadcast.

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• Difficult to follow special with little engaging things

  pinkarray2017-10-27

  The title, to me, seems pretty misleading. They're calling this "Michael Jackson's Halloween Special". While they do have a lot of references to Michael Jackson throughout this, Michael Jackson is not the main character. It's kind of like how the title, "The Legend of Zelda" confused people even me because the protagonist in the franchise is not Zelda but rather Link. Therefore, they could've called this "The Michael Jackson Clues Halloween Special" or "The Case of Michael Jackson Halloween Special". The story was unclear, it didn't seem to tell me exactly what the kids' quest was. Was it a quest for them to grow? Was it a quest for them to find a way to break the spell? It just seems all over the place. The characters are pretty annoying and contrived. The two protagonists' names both start with a V and I don't like it when main characters or a bunch of characters have names that start with the same first letter because then I get the characters mixed up. All of the jokes fall flat and didn't get anything but a little chuckle from me. The only redeeming quality about this sub-par cartoon is probably the little bit of action somewhere in the last 10 minutes of it. If Michael Jackson was still alive, he'd probably be pretty disappointed in this. I don't care if it's for kids. I don't even think kids over the age of 9 would be interested in it anyway. It's too silly for older kids. Younger kids might get a kick out of it.

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• Very Good show and I love the end

  as-192532017-10-28

  I watched the show and was impressed with how the music was integrated into the video. It was clear the plot was about conformity and how doing what you believe is alright in order to change things. The animation was very good. The animated dancing pumpkin's performance of MJ's dangerous song was excellent. Some of the scenes reminded me of the plot in Captain EO. The animated Michael performing Thriller was super. At the end, the message from Michael was Believe In Yourself.

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• entertaining for kids, no point for adults

  nicolasgaraycochea2017-10-29

  If this was a tribute to Michael Jackson, then it failed. Sure it had his music and it had him in it, but the writing was terrible and the integration of the music was forced. It didn't seem to have much of a moral to the story other than to dance. This is an entertaining movie for kids from about 4 to 6 possibly, any older and they might catch on that this show was pointless and sad. So much for honoring the King of Pop.

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• Cheap, Lousy, Predictable and Boring, and that's just the first 10 minutes.

  azevrec2017-10-27

  I don't think Michael Jackson would've approved this. Actually, I'm pretty sure MJ would've been offended by it. Cheap animation, an extremely generic story with shoe-in characters and a terrible use of Michael Jackson music and references end up presenting one of the worst animated TV specials of all time. Stay away from it.

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