Our Friend, Martin
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Dexter King who played MLK (January 30, 1961 - January 22, 2024 at 62 from prostate cancer), Ed Asner who played Mr. Harris (November 15, 1929 - August 29, 2021 at 91 from natural causes), Yolanda King who played Christine King (November 17, 1955 - May 15, 2007 at 51 from cardiac arrest), Joe Lala who played Reporter #2/Demonstrator #2 (November 3, 1947 - March 18, 2014 at 66 from complications of lung cancer), John Wesley who played the Unnamed Man/Demonstrator #3 (August 3, 1947 - September 7, 2019 at 72 from complications of multiple myeloma), and even James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 - September 9, 2024). May all those voice actors rest in peace. |
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Our Friend, Martin is a direct-to-DVD animated children's educational film about Martin Luther King, Jr. It was produced by DIC Entertainment and published by 20th Century Fox, and it was released on January 12, 1999.
Plot
Miles Woodman, an African American boy who is a fan of Hank Aaron and attends Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, is performing academically poorly. His teacher Mrs. Clark tells him he could repeat 6th grade should his grades not improve. Miles and his class visit Martin's childhood house, which has now become a museum dedicated to him. He and his white best friend Randy Smith explore Martin's bedroom but are caught by the museum's curator Mrs. Peck, who winds up an old watch.
The boys hold Martin's baseball glove and are transported back to 1941, encountering a 12-year-old Martin playing with his two white friends Sam and Skip Dale until their mother arrives and reprimands her sons for integrating with "coloreds". Martin explains to Miles and Randy that her hatred of black people is that she regards them as "different", but violence would only worsen things. The boys travel three years forward in 1944 and meet a 15-year-old Martin on a segregated train, who explains that blacks and whites are unable to integrate and must be kept separate at all times. They later have dinner with Martin's family. While he goes to do rounds with his father, the boys look in his room and travel 12 years forward in 1956 and meet Martin in his 20s working as a minister at a church. He is holding a meeting about the Montgomery bus boycott set off after Rosa Parks was imprisoned for refusing to give up her seat on a bus; now, black people are refusing to ride buses. Martin is alerted that his house has been bombed; he races home where his wife and newborn daughter have escaped unharmed. His friend Turner announces they'll attack the perpetrators with weapons in retaliation, but Martin stops him, reminding the crowd of Mahatma Gandhi peacefully standing his ground to exile the British colonies from India and of Jesus teaching love for his enemies. Miles and Randy travel to the Birmingham riot of 1963, witnessing firemen and police officers spraying black protesters with firehoses and releasing German Shepherds on them on the order of Bull Connor before arresting them.
The boys are transported back to the museum and rejoin their class at school the next day. They tell Miss Clark about the events before Martin's work before the class watches a videotape of Martin's work. After school, the boys' classmates, Latina girl Maria Ramirez and another white boy Kyle Langon, decide to investigate for themselves how Miles and Randy got the information. When the boys arrive at the museum, Mrs. Peck lets them stay but warns them that when one messes with the past, this can affect the present. Maria and Kyle follow and catch them in Martin's bedroom. The four are transported to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and meet Martin in his 30s along with a young Mrs. Clark. When they return, they discover Martin was assassinated. To save him, they travel back to 1941 and bring 12-year-old Martin to the present; however, only Miles and Martin return together, and the present is now different: the museum is burnt down; Randy and Kyle are racists and no longer friends with Miles or even know him; Miles' school bus driver, Mr. Willis, is also now racist and refuses to allow black students to ride the bus, their school is segregated and instead named after Robert E. Lee (Jefferson Davis' military advisor in the American Civil War, which ended slavery); the principal, Mr. Harris, is also racist and mistreats Mrs. Clark, Maria works as a maid who cannot speak English; and Miles' and his mother now live in poverty.
The next day, Martin surmises that because he left his own time, it created an alternate timeline where his civil rights work never happened. Realizing he must go back to his own time, Martin bids Miles farewell despite the latter's attempted warnings of his assassination. Martin gives Miles his watch before returning to his time, where he is shot dead at the motel and the timeline returns to normal. Miles reunites with Randy, Maria, and Kyle. Mrs. Peck knows about his time traveling and tells him that while they cannot change the past, they can change the future for the better. Miles receives an A on his history project, allowing him to progress to 7th grade. He and his friends then vow to continue Martin's work.
Bad Qualities
- As expected from a good number of things made by DIC, the animation is cheaply done.
- In fact, the animation style used in this movie looks like it was ripped off from fellow-DIC series Mummies Alive!, due to the fact many episodes of it were animated by the same overseas company that animated this movie (Hang Yang Production).
- Additionally, some of the stock footage used in the film is edited to superimpose Miles and Randy into it.
- Some of the voice acting is a bit mediocre.
- Some questionable voice choices such as Theodore Borders as Martin Luther King Jr. in his 12-year-old self sounds way older than an actual 12-year-old.
- Actually, pretty much all of the characters both look and sound way too old for 6th graders.
- The movie has a rather strange premise. A class trip takes Miles, a student who is failing history class, and his best friend Randy to Martin Luther King Jr.'s childhood home, and they are able to travel back in time to various points of MLK's life by making contact with personal belongings of his.
- Miles also tries to bring a younger MLK with him to the present, which unintentionally undoes all of MLK's work that he did as an adult.
- Some mediocre and unlikable characters.
- Kyle is your everyday generic school bully character.
- Wild Man Willis is a dangerous bus driver, who doesn't stay on the road, resulting in damaged property, and he could have killed people by driving on the sidewalk. In the alternative universe when Miles brings a younger MLK to the present, while Willis this time drives safely without putting people in danger, because of MLK's work being undone, Willis hates Miles and Martin and kicks them off the bus, because of the segregation still being present.
- Mr. Harris, who only appears in the alternate timeline and is briefly mentioned once at the beginning, is extremely rude towards Miles and a younger MLK, kicking them out of the school while screaming racial slurs at them.
- Mrs. Dale, the woman from the past, is rude and racist towards Miles and MLK just because her kids were playing with baseball with them. It does make sense though since black segregation was around during that time.
- Some moments in the movie don't really fit the G rating, such as Kyle's dad smoking in the car, Martin Luther King's assassination which thankfully happens off-screen, and the depiction of racial segregation.
- One of the scenes, where Maria Ramirez speaks Spanish and doesn't understand English when the timeline is screwed up, has no subtitles for the English viewers to understand what she is saying.
- Although the movie does talk about the Civil Rights Movement, a fair amount of stuff from it is still left out, such as the "Brown v. Board of Education" case and Albany Movement.
Good Qualities
- Amazing soundtrack.
- Good voice acting from some voice actors, such as Samuel L. Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg.
- Despite some of it being left out, the movie does a good job of teaching about MLK's life and the Civil Rights Movement.
- The plot premise may be strange, but the idea of going back in time to witness the life of an important historical figure is very interesting.
- The scene where MLK accepts his fate and goes back in time to the motel where James Earl Ray will assassinate him, despite Miles begging him not to, is incredibly sad.
- The 34-year-old MLK being voiced by his actual son, Dexter King, is a nice touch.
- Most of the characters are likable.
- Miles Woodman is a likable protagonist as he is a determined underachiever who becomes curious about MLK's past in order to pass his history class and go on to the 7th grade.
- MLK is a very likable character, which isn't surprising at all.
Reception
The movie currently has a 6.7/10 rating on IMDB and a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It was nominated for an Emmy award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program.