Michael Jackson Estate Forces Removal of Plant-Eating Zombie

[z0nbie]

I remember when PvZ first came out and I saw the character ; I thought to myself " Wow ... an MJ parody that isn't making fun of him". If there was "little children" zombies following him or doing his bidding , etc I could see the removal ... but this is what it is ... a homage to MJ ... does no harm ... they should leave it be :/

 

[MrPop]

What a shame. I loved those zombies. If I have the version without the change at least it will stay that way.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

I move that we remove Vincent Price's voice from the Thriller video in respect!

 

[p3t3r]

this should be covered in the parody freedom of speech thing right? besides the thriller zombies are some of the most veiwed zombies ever an i would think they deserve a place. but oh well

 

[KeyMaster45]

Well I'm glad I managed to pick up PvZ over the weekend and finish it before they took this zombie out. I thought it was a great way for remembering his glory days as a singer. (if slight creepy homage considering he did die after this game was released) I really hope the family reconsiders it, but I fully respect their position on it considering I doubt I'd really want to see a zombie resembling a loved one be bludgeoned by cabbage and corn lobbing plants.

 

[Irridium]

Quick question: Did Michael actually ever say he didn't like himself being parodied in PvZ?

Did he ever try to get it removed, or ever contact Popcap to have it removed?

If not, then I don't really see why its such a big problem to leave it in.
Hell, from what I've heard about him, he loved parody's of him. I remember Weird Al Yankovich saying how enthusiastic Michael was about what Al did. Even going so far as to letting him use the same stage of "I'm bad" for Al's "I'm fat".

So from this we can deduce Michael liked parody, and most likely didn't mind his parody in PvZ. In which case the Estate should respect Jackson's thoughts on the matter and let it be.

 

[Jared]

That sucks so much...why did the estate have to get so...prissy about it ><

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Clearly the Jackson Estate has no sense of humour.

 

[Cliff_m85]

What's the problem? Oh yeah, if there were to be an undead MJ there'd have to be undead children too. I can see how the estate got offended.

 

[crudus]

This is both hella and lame. I am disappoint, Jackson Estate. VERY DISAPPOINT.

I am in complete agreement with regards to this clearly pointless move. Killjoys.

What did they want to do? Keep Michael Jackson's dignity after he died? I don't know if they were listening to the news in the last five years, but I think that is gone. Although after he died it does seem like people just focus on the pre-1995 Michael.

Quick question: Did Michael actually ever say he didn't like himself being parodied in PvZ?

Did he ever try to get it removed, or ever contact Popcap to have it removed?

Gods are too busy to deal with mortal flash games.

If not, then I don't really see why its such a big problem to leave it in.
Hell, from what I've heard about him, he loved parody's of him. I remember Weird Al Yankovich saying how enthusiastic Michael was about what Al did. Even going so far as to letting him use the same stage of "I'm bad" for Al's "I'm fat".

So from this we can deduce Michael liked parody, and most likely didn't mind his parody in PvZ. In which case the Estate should respect Jackson's thoughts on the matter and let it be.

Only once has Michael requested for a parody to not be done. "Black or White"s message was too important he says. That didn't stop Al from doing in in live shows. But yes, Jackson did love Weird Al and his parodies.

 

[Dan Shive]

Popcap would likely win in court, but not before a lot of time and money was spent.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Popcap would likely win in court, but not before a lot of time and money was spent.

And PopCap is, despite appearances, a very, very small company. My guess is the Estate wanted some money to use MJ's likeness, and PopCap couldn't afford to pay up (or simply didn't want to, for which I don't blame them a bit).

 

[TimeLord]

Stupid society protecting everything with threatening small companies who are doing nothing wrong except making us ordinary peoples lives a little bit more enjoyable.

*Resists the urge to write big red swear words all over this post*

 

[The Random One]

Maybe after getting contacted PopCap decided it was better to just respect the family's wishes and remove it, without any talk of lawsuits and settlements. Remember when that used to happen, when you did something because you thought it was right rather than because you'd be sued to oblivion if you didn't?

Not that the MJ estate doesn't carry a threat of lawsuit every time they sneeze, but that might not have been relevant.

Americans, I tell ye.

 

[Billygoat]

It could've easily went unnoticed by the Jackson Estate for this long but they are a bit weird about Thriller. Michael was actually given disapproval by his church, Jehovah Witnesses, for the Thriller video for apparently promoting the occult. So it could be that the church is still holding somewhat of a grudge over the whole thing.

 

[DaxStrife]

They'll just replace it with a John Travolta/Saturday Night Fever zombie, and then he'll get mad, and the cycle will continue.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

I wonder if MJ's estate asked them to remove it out of respect (ya know, MJ now being dead and all, the image of him coming back as a zombie seems somewhat distasteful) or out of trademark/copyright/likeness BS. If the former, I'd say it's a stretch (after all, it's meant as a reference to Thriller, not to the fact that he's dead), but it's nice that PopCap is respecting their wishes. If it's just about money, then IP protection really has gone too far.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I remember when PvZ first came out and I saw the character ; I thought to myself " Wow ... an MJ parody that isn't making fun of him". If there was "little children" zombies following him or doing his bidding , etc I could see the removal ... but this is what it is ... a homage to MJ ... does no harm ... they should leave it be :/

Yeah. It was nice for a change to have him appear in something where it fits perfectly and references something good he did. The first time one of the dancing zombies appeared while I was playing is probably one of the most memorable things that's happened in it, because it's so perfectly fitting. Next thing you know they're going to make them remove the dancing zombies doing Thriller in the credits of Typing of the Dead.