Meet the Raisins!

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.

I love this Documentary film!!!! I remember watching it when it first aired in the Fall of 1988.

It even spinned-off a mildly-popular, short-live cartoon show called: "The California Raisins [1989-90]," which continued the adventures of "Stretch, Red, A.C., and the bassist.

The Documentary "Meet the Raisins" also spun-off a Sequel of sorts, titled: RAISINS SOLD-OUT: The California Raisins II [1990]."

The sequel honestly wasn't as good as the original ....sequels hardly always are .... but it does share some goods parts here and there.

Meet the Raisins!, a half-hour television special that showed in 1988 is quite possibly one of the most creative mockumentaries ever made. Produced in association with Atlantic Records, Meet the Raisins takes some of the greatest musical hits of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and makes them out to have been originally written and recorded by a band of raisins. Aside from this bizarre concept, the show features many creative characters such as Frederico Rasberrini, the Italian film director, and Rudy Beggarman, the band's stuttering agent. Hosting the show is a British carrot by the name of Cecil Thyme. The show goes on to spoof numerous films and songs and ends with one of the best musical numbers I can think of. It's worth checking out, if you can find someone who was smart enough to tape it, since you cannot buy it on video anywhere. Hint to Will Vinton, perhaps if there is a special Claymation Collected works DVD made, many other people will get to see this rare treat. 10/10

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!

The songs and the "history" of the "California Raisins" are shown in this half-hour video....and it is very funny and entertaining. The California Raisins are claymation characters that it made it big with commercials on television.

This "documentary" is the "story" of the animated group - some fake history of these likable raisin characters. The "history" shows how the group was formed and played '60s and '70s R&B songs, then becoming famous, as mentioned with a few television commercials in the 1980s.

What's great about this are two things: the music and the humor. It takes a number of viewings to catch most of the funny visuals and hear all the puns in this short tape. It's presented more as a regular TV program would be, with commercials interrupting it, news bulletins, promotions, etc. It's very clever material.

I remember all these old rock 'n roll classics, and they sound even better with these "guys" doing it! This is good stuff, and I wish they could put it out, with all the other TV commercials, too, on DVD.