Meet the Raisins!

In a world populated by anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables, four Raisins from California on how they were ordinary dried grapes would soon become famous singing stars.

A hilarious and creative Clay animated mockumentary from Will Vinton Studios! i love how they use the popular commercial characters of the time known as the 80's and turned the characters into a funny hour long TV Special. The Clay Animation is well done including the soundtrack using songs of the 50's and 60's including early 70's including "Cool Jerk".

I highly recommend watching this overlooked cult fave!

Meet The Raisins is a TV special I remember having on VHS as a kid. It is done in the style of a mockumentary that tells the story of the California Raisins (A.C., Beebop, Stretch, and Red) and the ups and downs they experienced on their rise to stardom.

As this is done in the style of a documentary, the special includes interviews with the band as well as their manager, Rudy, among other characters. Also, there are clips involved involving wacky characters (some whose names are parodies of famous celebrities back in the day) and the Raisins singing some of their songs, as well as commercial breaks, as they show some fake commercials (as well as one real commercial for the long-defunct California Raisin Advisory Board featuring the California Raisins). But the best part of the special is the song list, as the Raisins sing songs that are largely from the Motown-era, like Tutti Fruity, Cool Jerk, and even their signature song, I've Heard It From The Grapevine. This is a great TV special.

Have you met the California Raisins? There's a good chance you haven't. That's because it never was a theatrically released movie, yet the VHS copy has gained a strong following by multiple generations around the world. This musical documentary only has a running time close to a half an hour but its energy, wit and passion for music are all in the right setting. The premise of this film is to introduce the audience to a vocal group called the California Raisins and tell their history of how they came to be.

To begin with, apparently no one has updated this website or others because Karreem was not the only voice actor in this film. David Scully, David Downing and Ted Rolsum are just a few to mention. These are the voice actors of the Raisins themselves. Surprising as it is, not too many of these voice actors went onto play bigger and better roles. The only one able to be found is David Scully, who provided the voice for Sergeant Johnson in Halo. Good luck trying to find the rest. All in all, these actors do great jobs at not only being their character, but singing as them as well. The musical numbers, which should be the main reason why one should watch this film, is mesmerizing catchy. It will literally make you jump up and begin to dance.

Along with the superb voices, the entire story itself contains various references to pop culture and normal living which gives it a creative edge with its sub-material. Remember the era of the "British Invasion" of music? That's in here, with a character named "Lick Broccoli", who some people would think is supposed to resemble Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones. Since every character in this film is some sort of home grown food, each will have their own specific trait that makes them stand out from the other. Even the dialog has puns galore with vegetable/fruit related terms. It's that clever.

Topping things off is the fact that this entire short movie was done totally by stop motion animation (claymation). One would think Art Clokey, the claymation creator himself, would have been involved with this project. But he wasn't. It still baffles me to this day how anyone has the patience to shoot a still image over 100 times just to get one scene right. Such skill. And even without Clokey, director and producer Will Vinton was able to produce a very satisfying piece of entertainment.

If you haven't met the California Raisins yet, you should see them as soon as possible. The story and music is saturated with family oriented material that it is impossible for one not to enjoy it.

Just like Spinal Tap before them, The California Raisins receive a retrospective documentary and live interview of their musical rise to fame, including snippets of their hit songs. Among some of their influences in the industry are Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, and Gladys Knight with hit songs like 'Signed, Sealed and Delivered', 'Cool Jerk', and 'Sh-Boom'. The four band members include brothers A. C. and Beebop Arborman, their cousin Red Raisin and friend Stamford Thompson.

I enjoyed the way the documentary is setup like a VH1 retro, and the interview seemed to flow as if there was no script (even though there obviously was one written for the film). Great writing skills. And kudos to the people who came up with the original idea to make the commercials for the California raisins on which this special was based. Pure genius. It's definitely an advertising campaign that will be remembered. It's already been close to 40 years and the Raisins are still well known.

They popularized the saying "heard it through the grapevine" from lyrics they sang in advertising, and it was like time warping back to the late 1980s when I watched this special and some commercials again recently. The nostalgia factor was off the charts awesome, and it was fun to share the Raisins with my own son and a new generation, even if it did seem strange to him to see singing and dancing raisins.

There is no movie like Meet the Raisins. It's funny and delightful. It premise is quite simple; a mockumentary on a famous music group. But, I think it's one of the funniest ones I've ever seen. The claymation world is really amazing and it stands up beautifully to today's standards. In fact, it's quite amazing just how great it looks. Will Vinton was a true visionary. More importantly the jokes are fresh and the plot is fun. But, what impresses me the most is that the musical numbers are amazing and rival original versions of the songs sang. Don't miss this.I can't believe a proper definitive release of this hasn't happened. This film has some of the greatest animation ever done.