RIP Michael Jackson

I'm sure you've all seen by now the stories about the sudden death of 80s pop icon Michael Jackson. While I'm sure much will be written about Jackson (both good---his music, impact on the music industry, etc.---and bad---his descent into weirdness and eccentricity in the 90s, etc.), I guess I can try going for a semi-unique take and focus on the more positive side of his life. In this case, writing about some of his various animated incarnations.

The first one would be the early 1970s Rankin-Bass-animated recursively-named "Jackson 5ive" animated series, which included young-Michael and his brothers:



This show debuted on ABC in 1971 and ran until 1973. It featured adventures of the singing group from Gary, Indiana as they got into hijinks similar to those the Monkees or Josie and the Pussycats might've gotten into. Like the 60s Beatles cartoon, this series featured the group's actual songs during the show, but didn't use the original Jacksons as voices. Animation voiceover veteran Paul Frees (Boris Badenov from "Rocky and Bullwinkle", various voices in Rankin-Bass holiday specials) did Berry Gordy's animated self, while a Donald Fullilove (who played Goldie Wilson in "Back to the Future") did young Michael's voice. Oddly enough, Diana Ross herself managed to do her own voice for the show...

In 1971, the Jackson Five cartoon ran against:
NBC: "The New Pink Panther Show". A staple of NBC through the 70s, this show featured the various theatrical Pink Panther shorts, along with other DePatie-Freleng shorts like "The Ant and the Aardvark."

CBS: "Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!". One-season Hanna-Barbera series about, erm, three bears (the leader of the group having a giant Afro) trying to pull scams in or break out of a zoo and avoiding the crank of a zookeeper, often while riding around on an invisible motorcycle. Yep, you read correctly.

In 1972, the show went up against:
CBS: "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." The Filmation animated stand-alone series starring Sabrina.

NBC: "The Jetsons." Reruns of the original 60s series.

Another major Michael Jackson animated incarnation that comes to mind is his Simpsons voicework in the 90s, including the episode where Homer meets "Michael Jackson" (at a mental institution). Jackson also wrote the songs "Do the Bartman" and "Happy Birthday, Lisa" for the series.

The 1988 Michael Jackson movie "Moonwalker" featured a segment animated by Will Vinton (the Claymation animator).

As I wrote in an earlier post, the Flintstones' 80s spinoff "The Flintstone Kids" made use of Michael Jackson, appearing there as Neolithic singer "Michael Jackstone." Michael later appears in normal Flintstones continuity as a statue in the 1993 TV-movie "Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby", where his sister "Janet Jackstone" is also mentioned.

Guessing there's probably more examples than this (and less-than-flattering ones from the late 90s and 2000s, reflecting Jackson's life since then), but these will do for starters.