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Scott Stinson: Michael Jackson & Bubbles: The Untold Story gives the chimp his due
Courtesy Animal Planet
Michael Jackson was still living at home when he adopted Bubbles the chimp in 1986, but sister La Toya says the pop star still had to "beg" his mother to allow it.
Scott Stinson, National Post · Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
A new Michael Jackson documentary airing this weekend is not about his music, or his family. It’s not about his strange private life, or the criminal and civil allegations that dogged him for his last 15 years.
It’s about a monkey.
“At the height of Michael Jackson’s popularity,” the narrator intones in the best Behind the Music style, “a chimpanzee named Bubbles was one his closest and most trusted companions.”
Then, after a wee bit of backstory, the kicker: “For 20 years, Bubbles’ fate remained a mystery. Until now.”
Suspense! Intrigue! Monkeys! Thus explains the curious appeal of Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story.
Upon Michael’s death last year, his sister La Toya assumed the crown of Weirdest Living Jackson, so it’s not surprising that she is the only family member to have taken part in such an odd project. And there she is off the top, explaining her brother’s keen interest in non-humans. He felt so close to his many animals, she explained. “His attitude was ‘These are my friends, not you,’ ” she said.
It’s a little unsettling to look at La Toya, since she looks almost exactly like Michael did at one point in his life -- back when his face had been totally reformed by plastic surgery, but before his nose disappeared completely -- but at least she provides a bit of insight into the Michael-Bubbles story. The chimp’s former trainer is seen in archival footage, but he didn’t take part in the film, and the “experts” who analyze the man-monkey relationship are two psychologists, neither of whom ever met Jackson. Thus, we get speculative diagnoses such as “Michael would have seen himself as exotic, and he would have wanted more exotic pets to be with him” and “what Michael might have really wanted was a friend who would love him unconditionally.”
Or maybe he was just really weird, and there’s no point trying to psychoanalyze a dead person whom you never met.
Jackson adopted Bubbles in 1986, when he was still riding the success of Thriller and yet was still living at home. He was 28 years old and the most popular entertainer in the world, but La Toya says he had to “beg” Mom to let him get a monkey.
Mom was no fool. Jackson and the chimp became inseparable, and he apparently approached various doctors about installing vocal cords in the primate.
“Michael always wanted to know, ‘How can I make him speak?’ ” La Toya explained.
What’s most notable about the footage from those years is that Bubbles was always dressed in Osh Kosh overalls and a matching shirt. Other than the inescapable fact that he was a monkey, he was very much treated as the perfect little boy. It’s a bit creepy, given all that transpired later in Jackson’s life.
Bubbles accompanied Jackson on the worldwide tour for Bad, but as the narrator intoned, “Life in the spotlight was taking its toll.” Apparently “chimpanzees are not ideal travelling companions.” No kidding. Also, they get big fast, so by the time he was past four years old, Bubbles had become something of a menace. Once Jackson moved into his Neverland estate in 1988, poor Bubbles was relegated to the status of occasional visitor.
By the time Jackson had an actual child in 1995, the chimp was completely out of the picture.
As Mark Lester, a friend of Jackson’s and the godfather to his children, put it, bluntly, “Now Michael had something that was not a monkey.” Indeed.
So what happened to Bubbles? At the risk of giving everything away, let’s just say that he lives in a large cage these days. He no longer fits into overalls, being 26 years old and over 200 pounds.
The last part of the documentary is set up as a reunion between Bubbles and La Toya, and it does not disappoint.
The chimp’s present handler says matter-of-factly that “We have not shown Bubbles pictures or video of Michael Jackson,” presumably because the memories of those jet-setting days when he snuggled under the covers with the King of Pop would be too difficult to bear.
When La Toya arrives, the handler tells her that sometimes when Bubbles meets new people he will get a mouthful of water and spit it at them. It’s his thing, she says.
La Toya is hesitant. “Is it very forceful?,” she asks, possibly worried that she will be swept away by Bubbles’ watery blast.
Tragically, though, Bubbles does not spit on La Toya. He mostly seems indifferent, though La Toya is convinced he remembers her. After the reunion, La Toya tells the trainer that she wants to say a couple words to Bubbles alone. In this case, “alone” means “with this documentary film crew recording everything.”
So La Toya has her quiet moment with the monkey, telling him she misses him and that she loves him, and then of course she starts to sob.
Bubbles scratches himself, turns around and wanders away.
Monkey 1, La Toya 0.
--Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story, airs this Sunday, August 29 (Michael’s birthday!) at 9ET/10PT on Animal Planet.
here is link:http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/Sc...s+Untold+Story+gives+chimp/3442716/story.html
Michael Jackson was still living at home when he adopted Bubbles the chimp in 1986, but sister La Toya says the pop star still had to "beg" his mother to allow it.
Scott Stinson, National Post · Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
A new Michael Jackson documentary airing this weekend is not about his music, or his family. It’s not about his strange private life, or the criminal and civil allegations that dogged him for his last 15 years.
It’s about a monkey.
“At the height of Michael Jackson’s popularity,” the narrator intones in the best Behind the Music style, “a chimpanzee named Bubbles was one his closest and most trusted companions.”
Then, after a wee bit of backstory, the kicker: “For 20 years, Bubbles’ fate remained a mystery. Until now.”
Suspense! Intrigue! Monkeys! Thus explains the curious appeal of Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story.
Upon Michael’s death last year, his sister La Toya assumed the crown of Weirdest Living Jackson, so it’s not surprising that she is the only family member to have taken part in such an odd project. And there she is off the top, explaining her brother’s keen interest in non-humans. He felt so close to his many animals, she explained. “His attitude was ‘These are my friends, not you,’ ” she said.
It’s a little unsettling to look at La Toya, since she looks almost exactly like Michael did at one point in his life -- back when his face had been totally reformed by plastic surgery, but before his nose disappeared completely -- but at least she provides a bit of insight into the Michael-Bubbles story. The chimp’s former trainer is seen in archival footage, but he didn’t take part in the film, and the “experts” who analyze the man-monkey relationship are two psychologists, neither of whom ever met Jackson. Thus, we get speculative diagnoses such as “Michael would have seen himself as exotic, and he would have wanted more exotic pets to be with him” and “what Michael might have really wanted was a friend who would love him unconditionally.”
Or maybe he was just really weird, and there’s no point trying to psychoanalyze a dead person whom you never met.
Jackson adopted Bubbles in 1986, when he was still riding the success of Thriller and yet was still living at home. He was 28 years old and the most popular entertainer in the world, but La Toya says he had to “beg” Mom to let him get a monkey.
Mom was no fool. Jackson and the chimp became inseparable, and he apparently approached various doctors about installing vocal cords in the primate.
“Michael always wanted to know, ‘How can I make him speak?’ ” La Toya explained.
What’s most notable about the footage from those years is that Bubbles was always dressed in Osh Kosh overalls and a matching shirt. Other than the inescapable fact that he was a monkey, he was very much treated as the perfect little boy. It’s a bit creepy, given all that transpired later in Jackson’s life.
Bubbles accompanied Jackson on the worldwide tour for Bad, but as the narrator intoned, “Life in the spotlight was taking its toll.” Apparently “chimpanzees are not ideal travelling companions.” No kidding. Also, they get big fast, so by the time he was past four years old, Bubbles had become something of a menace. Once Jackson moved into his Neverland estate in 1988, poor Bubbles was relegated to the status of occasional visitor.
By the time Jackson had an actual child in 1995, the chimp was completely out of the picture.
As Mark Lester, a friend of Jackson’s and the godfather to his children, put it, bluntly, “Now Michael had something that was not a monkey.” Indeed.
So what happened to Bubbles? At the risk of giving everything away, let’s just say that he lives in a large cage these days. He no longer fits into overalls, being 26 years old and over 200 pounds.
The last part of the documentary is set up as a reunion between Bubbles and La Toya, and it does not disappoint.
The chimp’s present handler says matter-of-factly that “We have not shown Bubbles pictures or video of Michael Jackson,” presumably because the memories of those jet-setting days when he snuggled under the covers with the King of Pop would be too difficult to bear.
When La Toya arrives, the handler tells her that sometimes when Bubbles meets new people he will get a mouthful of water and spit it at them. It’s his thing, she says.
La Toya is hesitant. “Is it very forceful?,” she asks, possibly worried that she will be swept away by Bubbles’ watery blast.
Tragically, though, Bubbles does not spit on La Toya. He mostly seems indifferent, though La Toya is convinced he remembers her. After the reunion, La Toya tells the trainer that she wants to say a couple words to Bubbles alone. In this case, “alone” means “with this documentary film crew recording everything.”
So La Toya has her quiet moment with the monkey, telling him she misses him and that she loves him, and then of course she starts to sob.
Bubbles scratches himself, turns around and wanders away.
Monkey 1, La Toya 0.
--Michael Jackson and Bubbles: The Untold Story, airs this Sunday, August 29 (Michael’s birthday!) at 9ET/10PT on Animal Planet.
here is link:http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/Sc...s+Untold+Story+gives+chimp/3442716/story.html
yeah i read that part also too i didn't know going to be that bad to read it :yes: 