If you watched TV in the late 1980s, you probably remember the California Raisins. They were little clay raisins that danced along to the Motown hit “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” They first showed up in a 1986 ad and ended up on lunchboxes, T-shirts and even video games.
Those raisins came from a studio in Portland, Oregon, run by an Oscar-winning animator named Will Vinton. He’s the man who gave us the word “Claymation.”
Michael Jackson already knew his work. Will’s studio had helped with the effects for “Captain EO,” Michael’s 3D space movie at the Disney parks. So when Michael made “Moonwalker,” his 1988 movie, Will’s team helped bring one of his songs to life. The song was “Speed Demon,” from his album “Bad.”
The song itself reportedly has a funny backstory. Michael’s producer, Quincy Jones, said Michael wrote it after getting a traffic ticket that made him late for the studio. Quincy told him to write about how he felt, and he did.
The video was shot in March 1988 on a movie studio lot in Burbank, California. It starts with Michael just trying to slip away quietly. That doesn’t last long. A group of tourists spots him, and suddenly everybody wants an autograph.
So Michael grabs a costume from one of the movie sets and hides inside it. The costume is a big rabbit named Spike.
Before long, he’s teasing the crowd into chasing him. Fans, reporters and even a few gunslingers from a Western being filmed nearby come running. Michael takes off on a bike, and the bike turns into a motorcycle. Along the way he changes into Sylvester Stallone, Tina Turner and Pee-wee Herman, trying to shake them off.
Then he finally finds a quiet spot out in the desert, and he takes the rabbit suit off.
That’s when the fun really starts. Here’s the whole thing.
Michael’s rabbit chase from “Moonwalker”
Did you see it coming? The empty rabbit suit comes to life on its own and challenges Michael to a dance-off, right there in the middle of nowhere. The two of them go move for move until a traffic cop walks up and points to a “No Dancing” sign. Spike has vanished, so Michael can’t explain. The cop writes him a ticket anyway and then asks for Michael’s “autograph” on it.
If the story about the song is true, that’s a pretty good joke. A ticket helped start “Speed Demon,” and a ticket ends the video.
“Moonwalker” played in theaters in Europe, Australia and South America in late 1988. Here in the US, fans first got it on home video in January 1989.
Michael clearly liked working with Will. He later turned up in a California Raisins ad as his very own clay raisin, with a white glove and a fedora. He reportedly did it for free and asked to work only with Will’s team.