Our Friend, Martin

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.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) As expected from a good number of things made by DIC, the animation is cheaply done.
 * 2) * 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 alongside this movie were animated by the same overseas company (Hang Yang Production).
 * 3) * Additionally, some of the stock footage used in the film is edited to superimpose Miles and Randy into it.
 * 4) Some questionable voice choices. Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice actor for his twelve year old self sounds way older than a twelve year old.
 * 5) * Actually, pretty much all of the characters both look and sound way too old for 6th-graders.
 * 6) The movie has a rather strange premise. A class trip takes Miles, a student who is failing school, 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.
 * 7) *While time traveling back, Miles also tries to bring a younger Martin Luther King to the past. Which unintentionally undos all of Martin's actions he did while he was a adult. Miles could have instead taken a photo with a camera while in the present time to show Martin of what the present time looked like.
 * 8) Some mediocre and unlikable characters.  For example, Kyle is your everyday generic school bully character.
 * 9) *Wild Man Willis (The Bus Driver) 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.
 * 10) *Mr. Harris (Who only appears in the alternative timeline scene only; only mentioned once in the beginning) is extremely rude towards Miles and a younger Martin Luther King and kicks them out of the school.
 * 11) *Mrs. Dale (The woman from the past) is rude and racist towards Miles and Martin Luther King just because her kids were playing with baseball with them. (It does make sense though, since black segregation was around during that time.)
 * 12) Some moments in the movie, don't really fit the G rating. Such as Kyle's dad smoking in the car, Martin Luther King getting shot (thankfully off-screen), and some racial profiling.
 * 13) Some voice acting is a bit mediocre.
 * 14) One of the scenes, where Maria Ramirez speaks Spanish and doesn't understand English when the timeline is screwed up, there is no subtitles for the English viewers to understand what she is saying.
 * 15) Although the movie does talk about the Civil Rights Movement, a far amount of stuff from it is still left out such as the Brown v. Board of Education, and the Albany Movement.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Amazing soundtrack.
 * 2) Good voice acting from some voice actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg.
 * 3) Despite some of being left out, the movie does a good job of teaching about MLK's life and the Civil Rights Movement.
 * 4) 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.
 * 5) Most of the characters are likable.
 * 6) * Miles Woodman is a likable protagonist, as he is a determined underachiever who becomes curious about Dr. King's past in order to be pass his History class to go to the 7th grade.
 * 7) * Martin 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.

Movie
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