If there’s one thing that solidified Michael Jackson‘s place in the pantheon of rock and pop music, it was his groundbreaking, genre-defying 1983 long-form music video ‘Thriller’ which paid tribute to classic horror movies and featured horror icon Vincent Price in a guest monologue. Ever since ‘Thiller’ has been a Halloween party mix must-have and now the artist is making another impression on the holiday. ‘Michael Jackson’s Halloween’ is a new animated special that will premier next Friday on CBS.
Of course, Jackson passed away suddenly in 2009, but his music is immortal and will serve as the soundtrack to this special. Here’s the synopsis:
Millennials Vincent (Lucas Till) and Victoria (Kiersey Clemons) meet “accidentally” on Halloween night and find themselves, along with Ichabod the dog, at a mysterious hotel located at 777 Jackson Street called This Place Hotel. Once inside, Vincent and Victoria are sent on an unexpected, magical adventure of personal discovery, culminating in a spectacular dance finale featuring an animated Michael Jackson.
Vincent is no doubt named after Price, while Victoria may borrow her name from The Jackson’s 1984 Victory Tour. ‘This Place Hotel’ was a 1980 single by Jackson and his brother.
The special features an all-star vocal cast (many of whom have been stars of CBS series)– Christine Baranski, Alan Cumming, George Eads, Brad Garrett, Lucy Liu and Jim Parsons.
Parsons voices the dancing pumpkin-headed man, while Lui voices the witch glimpsed in the clip (possibly named ‘Dirty Diana’?). Cumming provides the voice of the spider general, while Garrett is the talking chimp, who may or may not be named Bubbles.
A companion album was released last month and while every song from it may not be in the special, ‘Michael Jackson – Scream’ of course includes ‘Thriller’ and ‘This Place Hotel’ plus other hits like ‘Scream’ (a duet with sister Janet) and ‘Leave Me Alone’. Released as promotional singles are ‘Blood on the Dance Floor X Dangerous (The White Panda Mash-Up)’ and ‘Thriller (The Steve Aoki Midnight Hour Remix)’.
‘Michael Jackson’s Halloween’ premiers on October 27th at 8 pm EST and will make you scream… although whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen.
