Our Friend, Martin
| Our Friend, Martin | |
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VHS cover
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| Directed by | Rob Smiley Vincenzo Trippetti |
| Produced by | Andy Boron Andy Heyward Phillip Jones Robby London Michael Maliani Judith Reilly Janice Sonski |
| Written by | Dawn Comer (story) Chris Simmons (story) Sib Ventress Deborah Pratt |
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Production
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| Distributed by | CBS/Fox Video |
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Release date
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Running time
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61 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Our Friend, Martin is a 1999 direct-to-video animated children's educational film about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Two friends travel through time, meeting Dr. King at several points during his life. It featured an all-star voice cast and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour). It was also the final release under the CBS/Fox Video name.
Miles (Robert Ri'chard) is a wisecracking African American boy who is an avid fan of sports, particularly baseball icon Hank Aaron, but is failing at school. His teacher Miss Clark (Susan Sarandon) threatens Miles that she will make him repeat 6th grade should his grades not improve. He and his class, including his friends, two Caucasian boys Randy (Lucas Black) and former bully Kyle (Zachary Leigh) and a Latino girl Maria (Jessica Garcia), visit a museum, dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr.. Randy and Miles explore Martin's bedroom, and are caught by the museum's curator Mrs. Peck (Whoopi Goldberg), who winds up an old watch. The boys hold Martin's baseball glove and the two are transported back to 1941 and encounter a 12-year-old Martin (Theodore Borders) playing with his friends, Sam and Skip Dale (Adam Wylie), until their mother (Ashley Judd) arrives and reprimands her sons for integrating with the "coloreds". Martin explains to Miles and Randy that Mrs. Dale's hatred of black people stems from the fact she regards them as "different", but violence would only worsen things.
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