Our Friend, Martin
Tags: alternate reality

Plot synopsis:
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.
The boys then travel 3 years in time and meet a teenage Martin (Jaleel White) on a segregated train. He explains to them that blacks and whites are unable to integrate and must use separate bathrooms, restaurants, and waiting rooms. They later have dinner with Martin's family and while he goes to do shut in rounds with his father (James Earl Jones), the boys travel forward 11 years and meet Martin (LeVar Burton), who by now is in his 20's and works as a minister at the church. He is holding a meeting about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, set off after Rosa Parks, a black seamstress refused to give up her seat on a bus and was put in prison for it. As a result, no black adults or children will ride the buses. Just then, Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), Martin's friend, alerts him his house has been bombed. He races home, but fortunately his wife Coretta Scott King and newborn daughter Yolanda escape unharmed.
Turner announces that in retaliation, they will attack the perpetrators with bricks, guns, Molotov cocktails and knives, but Martin stops him, reminding the crowd of Gandhi peacefully standing his ground to exile the British colonies from India and of Jesus teaching love for his enemies. Miles and Randy then travel to the Birmingham riot of 1963 and witness firemen and police officers squirt black protesters with hoses and set German Shepherds on them. The boys are later transported back to the museum and join their class back at school. The following day, Miles and Randy tell Miss Clark about the events prior to Martin's work and later the class watch a VHS tape of Martin's work. After the class leaves, Maria and Kyle decide to investigate for themselves how Miles and Randy got the information. When the boys arrive at the museum, Mrs. Peck lets them stay but warns them that when one messes with the past, this can affect the present.
Maria and Kyle follow the two boys in and catch them in Martin's bedroom. The four children are then transported to the March on Washington Movement and meets Martin who is in his 30's (Dexter Scott King) and a young Miss Clark, who at this time is a member of the movement and not yet married. When they return, Miles discovers that Martin was murdered. The children travel back to 1941 and bring the 12-year-old Martin back to the present. When they return, only Miles and Martin return together and the present is different. They discover that the museum is now just a burned down house. They also find out Randy and Kyle are also racists and no longer friends with Miles or know him. His middle school is segregated and named after Robert E. Lee, Miss Clark is treated poorly by the principal and Maria works as a maid and can't speak English. He and his mother (Angela Bassett) live in poverty as she now works as a cleaning lady. The next day Miles can't understand what is going on but Martin figures out because he left his own time, it created an alternate timeline where his civil rights work never happened. Miles realizes the error of his ways and must sacrifice his plans to rescue Martin. Miles bids a tearful farewell, but realizes he still has Martin's watch and begs for him to come out of his house. Martin returns to his time, where he is shot and killed at his hotel. This results in the present reverting to normal and Miles is reunited with Randy, Maria, and Kyle. Mrs. Peck knows about Miles time traveling and tells him that while they can't change the past as long as they remember Martin and what he stood for he will always be with them. He receives an A+ on his history test, allowing him to progress to 7th grade. He and his friends then vow to continue Martin's work. At the end of the film, Mrs. Peck closes the door to Martin's bedroom as the credits roll.

Review: Great movie!.
I just showed this movie to my 5th Grade classes as part of a series of Social Studies lessons on Martin Luther King, Jr.
We had just finished reading a book in which many of MLK's accomplishments and honors were explained, so the movie really helped tie it all together for them.
They were absolutely entranced by it!
(I had to stop 45 minutes into it so we could go to gym class and they were so upset- they almost didn't want to go!) The combination of animation and real footage was very well done.
The students also enjoyed the hip music and famous voices..
A little bit of history.
I adore the movie "Our Friend Martin".
It talks about the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
(which I think is done extremely well in this movie).
It shows a video of when MLK gave his "I have a dream speech".
It reviews other parts of Martins life, when he was killed, and when his house burned down etc.
I enjoyed watching the cartoon version of this.
All of the characters in the movie are cool- Martin Luther King Jr., Miles (who loves baseball), Randy (Miles best friend) Maria (smart kid) and Kyle (bully).
Miles, Randy, Maria, and Kyle take an adventure through time to meet Martin Luther King Junior and learn about him and that's when the story is told about Martin Luther King Jr. Another thing that I liked about the movie is that Kyle turned from a bully to a nice kid (probably because he was around Martin Luther King a little bit).
If you are racist DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.
Other than that I recommend this movie to everyone.
It is a great story!!.
Elementary School Video.
I think that this video should be used to show elementary school students.
The reason why I say that is because it teaches about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. by making a cartoon out of it (that way it would seem less brutal for youngsters when telling about the horrors that African Americans faced).
Our Friend, Martin does show some actual scenes taken but it is mainly a cartoon video.
I think this video was successful at talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and why he has made a huge difference today.
For example, when Miles and Mr. King travel through time to the year 1998, and since Martin has been taken out of the past and into the future, he wasn't there to fight in the past (it erased everything that Martin did in the past).
When Miles and Martin arrive in 1998 African Americans were going through the same turmoil as they did before Martin Luther King Jr. could fight for them.
This is when you know that Martin Luther King Jr. had a great affect on the relationships of blacks and whites today.
I like the movie because like I said it teaches, in a less brutal way, about the horrors faced by African Americans before Martin Luther King Jr. could fight for them.
I rate this video ten out of ten and recommend it to everyone..
Martin, You Led A Wonderful Life--In Your Original Time Period!.
This may be a "cartoon," but it gets me reaching for the tissue just as much as It's A Wonderful Life does!!!
There's a sort of Bedford Falls feel to this mini-movie--especially, when you've seen it before--where you're seeing Miles (a twelve year old boy who would rather be playing baseball than studying) waking up in his "loaded" room.His business-owner mother tells him that there won't be any baseball practice until he does his homework--which doesn't set well with him.She reminds him to take his permission slip in for the field trip, and he mumbles something about going to "that dumb museum." And so his day begins--first with running from Kyle, the local bully.
Of course, Miles gets away from him when he hops on the bus going to school, and the bus driver won't let Kyle get on, meaning that he'll be showing up for class late, because his disagreeable dad has to drive him there.In class, Miles is happy to see his very best friend, Randy and is even more glad when Randy becomes part of his team for reporting on the field trip.Other members of the team will be Kyle and Maria (a gifted young lady who has gotten into this class by being skipped a couple of grades--and who thinks that she's gotten stuck with three immature boys).Mrs. Clark, their teacher, takes Miles aside and warns him that he's going to have to repeat a grade if he doesn't bring his grades up--starting with a report on the day's field trip, which is going to a museum about some guy who lived in "prehistoric times" who did some nice things "back then" but didn't have much relevancy in his own life (or so he thinks).That man, as it turns out, is Martin Luther King, and the museum is the home in which he grew up.
Because he sees a ball and bat in there, along with a picture of Martin playing baseball, Miles begins to develop a little interest in him.
He and Randy decide to explore the room (which has been roped off), but are caught by the museum director.But she's nice about it and tells them to go ahead and look around, saying that there's something magic about the room, and that she always likes to wind up this old watch in there for some reason.In short, Miles and Randy go back in time and get to know Martin in different stages of his life--starting back when he was their age.Eventually, Kyle and Maria will be sharing part of that journey with them.I won't spoil this for you except to say that it will remind you of It's A Wonderful Life.Things about his life that Miles took for granted suddenly become very precious to him, and he realizes how important Martin Luther King, Jr. was way back before he was born in shaping his present day world.Also, that it's important for him to carry on his dream.Even Kyle, the former bully, changes for the better by the end of the movie, and Maria (who also owes a lot to Dr. King for where she is today) becomes more tolerant of those "immature" boys.At only a little over an hour long, it isn't too time consuming--and, if you're like me, you'll want to see it again and again!.
Stereotypes.
I'm not gonna spoil this movie because I want this to be what you expect from the movie.
The movie is kind of ehh.
It would avoid the problem if the characters weren't stereotypical 90s kids.
Every character is just a rehashed "cool" kid from every 90s show..
HOW IS THIS A EDUCATIONAL FILM?!
An insult towards History!.
"Our Friend, Martian" is a film that is according to my research, is quite shown is a-lot of Elementary Schools, now me, I never seen this when I was in Elementary, but I do still have a nostalgic memory of seeing this film's trailer in one of the previews of Dr. Doodle with Eddie Murphy (On the film's VHS tape), and from the trailer, it looks interesting, but unfortunately I never got around seeing this, until just this pass weekend, it was just so happened to the weekend of MLK's birthday.
I got to admit, this movie was not at all a great movie.
Now I know I shouldn't done this review on MLK day, but of-course I didn't, but that still would not stop me from reviewing this cheese fest.Basically the story is that a African-American Middle Schooler named Miles, is failing his History Class, and his teacher, Ms. Clark, wants him to try to keep his grade up or else he will have to repeat a grade because of her class, so to do that, Miles and his classmates, especially his Caucasian friend Randy and a bully named Kyle, and a sassy but yet intelligent Hispanic girl named Maria, went on a trip to the childhood home of Martin Luther King in their city of Atlanta, where Miles, Randy, Kyle, and Maria were allowed inside of King's bedroom by the owner of the Museum (Who is voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) where then they both time-travel through-out King's life to explored it and learned how he became famous for what he done with African-Americans, as-well the struggles he went through which lead to him doing what so.
Sounds like a good film, but unfortunately the downfall is how this is all shown.Firstly I want to talked about the Characters, now Miles kinda comes-up like a idiot in this movie, which is no wonder why he is failing a class, in one notorious part of the movie is when the kids decide to bring young Martin into their present, but when they do so, only Miles is back along with Martin.
Randy, Kyle, and Maria are all there too, but completely different, now Randy and Kyle are two typical Racists who don't even know Miles because he's black and Maria is like a typical poor Hispanic Citizen who doesn't know how to speak English or even understand it.
This is all because they created a Alternate Timeline in which King's Civil Rights movements never happens, and that there still the racial rules going on in the South such as Whites and Blacks have to go to separate schools that Blacks have to walk, and plus other stuff like the water fountain rule, and etc.
now I don't really like this alternate timeline at all, mainly because is that there certain things that have nothing to do with Martin Luther King, like there child labor, what?
How in the world Child Labor have anything to do with Martin Luther King, that was something that was taken care of in the 1910s, hey before King was even born or when the racial laws were happening in the south, and back to the whole fact of Maria not able to speak English and is treated poorly because of her Ethnicity all because of Martin Luther King work never happens, when did King ever do something to the Hispanics, yeah it is proven he wants to have everyone of different color joining into one, but that pretty much because how the African-Americans were being treated in the South, not the Hispanics, that more of Cesar Chavez's job, like didn't he even exists in this timeline either, I don't think so, it only Martin that wasn't around, and the same goes with other civil rights' leaders like where Malcolm X, would he or anyone else in general would've done anything about this instead of Martin, it literally makes zero sense, and this is why I considered this film a-bit of an insult towards history because there just screw it all up with having stuff in this alternate timeline that really ain't anything Martin Luther King would do about it, but instead someone else like Cesar Chavez or Malcolm X, but instead they just to forget about them, and want to be more focusing on Martin here which technically they're just insulting History, along with Child Labor.
Another thing, Sexism often occurs because of Martin being gone, yes probably other issue to do with Sociology beside Racism is occuring because of Martin's absent, I guess other issues such as Homophobia still occurs, that might mean Harvey Milk is absent for no good reason.
Now sorry I was complaining about how just terrible they did with the Alternate reality, I probably want to go back talking about how ignorant Miles is with this, he literally does not know what going on, like he doesn't realizes right away he and his friends along with Martin created an Alternate Timeline, how more stupid you can even get, that just makes this character more unlikable and just forgettable.
Randy, seems like a joke as he's like a skateboarder with a southern Accent, which kinda confuses me because he only white character who is from the South that talks like that, not Kyle nor Ms. Clark, now Kyle is another character who is basically just a weak character, especially a bully character, it just seems like he really a innocent kid who is often get disrespect by the others, which doesn't makes him looks more of a bully, and when he's racist in the alternate timeline, he seems kinda less racist to be honest.
Now Maria, I literally can't get started with this ungrateful brat.
I literally hates this character, how her smartness is portrayed is ruined by she treats Miles, Randy, and especially Kyle.
In this film, sorta shows us there's going to be bad happening to her, but unfortunately we didn't got that, if you even count the pointless "Can't speak English" scene.So over-all this movie is just a big slob of a mess, just offend the knowledges of anyone who knows about History.
I still don't get how there Elementary schools that shows this film, which like 50% wrong about History and the Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s, and I can only imagined how anyone who sees this movie as a kid in Elementary School, and literally thoughts this is what Martin Luther King, prepared to be wrong later in life.
There some positive stuff I can say like the story I kinda like, and the whole feel of the 90s I thought that was good too, and it was a-bit interesting going through King's life, except for the Civil Rights March, where they met a young Ms. Clark, which doesn't makes sense, because that was the 60s and this is mainly set in 1999, so how a woman in her 40s and would've been in her 20s back then, like just Calculate it.
So that basically it, if you want to see a Martin Luther King movie, I guess this is it, but if you're a history person, I would say you stay away from this..
Pretty dumb..
I can't even count how many years in a row we had to watch this movie at school.
The story is kinda dumb.
The characters are stupid and unlikable.
Its boring.
The animation is ok I guess.
I don't know how accurate this movie is to history but based on the other reviews I don't think that it is.
I wouldn't really recommend watching this movie.