Michael movie poster, taken from IMBD

The Adventurer here. Alright, so among the 41 articles that the Treasure-Sharer has written for this site, three were reviews of movies: F1 The Movie, Freakier Friday, and, more recently, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey; and, so far, I've reviewed board shorts, a blue shirt, and a Jim Rickards book. Because the Treasurer-Sharer has mentioned to me a few times that she finds writing movie reviews to be quite time-consuming, and that she's not quite sure if she wants to do them anymore, or at least for a while, I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring and give writing a movie review a go, to challenge myself, and hopefully make our site known for our movie reviews and ratings one day. ;) So here goes my very first movie review on this site -- a Michael Jackson movie review on the new movie Michael 2026, which is a biopic of Michael Jackson, that came out a few months ago. This particular film was directed by Antoine Fuqua, and the script was written by John Logan. Juliano Valdi portrays young Michael Jackson, and Jaafar Jackson (Jermaine Jackson's son/Michael Jackson's nephew) portrays adult Michael Jackson.

See above for an image of a Michael movie 2026 official poster, and below for more Michael 2026 movie posters, taken from the Michael movie IMBD page.

Michael movie poster Michael biopic poster Michael movie poster official

To get a taste of what the 2026 Michael movie is about, you can also watch a Michael movie trailer on the Michael movie IMBD page, which has a lot of Michael film trailers.

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you haven't seen the biopic Michael yet, and you're the type who doesn't want any of the scenes spoiled, then you should probably go watch the movie first, before reading this Michael Jackson 2026 movie review, as it is a Michael movie spoiler review.

I mention things that I wanted to see in the new MJ movie 2026 that weren't included, so if you're someone who is a Michael Jackson fan who doesn't know that much, and is just focused on the music, and wants to know all the pieces that probably should have been in the MJ biopic movie, but that weren't in the movie, or the stuff that wasn't portrayed correctly, then my Michael Jackson biopic review will shed light on that.

If you want to catch yourself up on the 2026 MJ movie before reading this Michael Jackson biopic film review, you can buy the Michael DVD on Amazon, through our affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0762xSP1MICHAEL

You can also rent or buy the ability to watch the Michael movie on Amazon Prime, through our link: https://amzn.to/46Rhoix

As an Amazon associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases made through our links.

**WARNING**

This Michael 2026 movie review is pretty long and comprehensive, so you'll probably be here for while, if you choose to read it in one go, as I use a lot of examples, and quote a lot of sites and articles -- to illustrate my points, why I have said what I have said, and why it was a disservice to have left the things that I have identified out of the MJ 2026 film -- so that you can understand Michael more. If you're someone who just wants a minute-long Tik-Tok Michael Jackson movie review rating, I'm not your guy, but if you want a deep dive, that turns over every stone, then that's what I do, and what you'll find in this biopic of Michael Jackson review.

The Treasure-Sharer has taken a look at some of the 2026 Michael movie reviews that are already out, and has found that most Michael biopic reviews by professional film critics focus on delivering a criticism of the Michael movie, and give mostly bad Michael movie ratings and reviews, while most Michael movie fan reviews focus on what they like about the movie, even while recognizing its flaws, and mostly give good to glowing Michael reviews. You can see some summaries of Michael movie ratings and reviews on the reddit thread 'Michael' -- Review Thread, as well as read some of the comments by Michael Jackson fans there, to get an idea of the various perspectives regarding the 2026 film Michael.

I hope to bring you a balanced MJ movie review, to help you better understand what the 2026 Michael Jackson biopic movie actually delivers, and what it fails to cover and bring to the table, so that you can decide for yourself whether the biopic MJ movie is worth watching, and better understand Michael and the aspects of his life that the movie failed to address, which I have tried to give a fuller examination into than other 2026 Michael Jackson movie reviews.

Although I am a Michael Jackson supporter, this Michael review is not an MJ review about Michael himself, but about the 2026 movie Michael, and what went into the movie -- i.e. the producers, the agendas (re. the people behind the biopic MJ movie, and their motivations), the slants (the narratives that the MJ movie 2026 is portraying, and how they're presented in the movie), etc. I also touch on the quality of the cinematography, the acting, the recreations of the music videos, the costumes, how closely Jaafar captured the essence of who Michael was, and what should have been in the Michael Jackson biopic, among other things.

I go over things that are historically accurate. The reason I go into a deep dive is to tell you how the story should have gone.

So, if you want to get a better understanding of Michael Jackson's life story while reading my critique of the Michael movie, read on for my Michael movie review, which, unlike other MJ movie reviews, goes in depth into what was left out of the Michael movie.

You can't understand the new MJ movie 2026 without understanding the bias inherent in the Michael movie production team, so we'll start off this biopic Michael film review by going over some of the most notable Michael Jackson movie producers and executive producers.

Michael Movie Producers

The roster of Michael 2026 producers had two notable names to mention, starting with Michael Jackson's long-time lawyer and co-executor of Michael Jackson's estate, John Branca; and the other co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, John McClain, both of whom were also involved in the production of other Michael Jackson movies, such as Michael Jackson Live at Wembley July 16, 1988, Bad 25, and This Is It. Sadly, John McClain recently passed away, on May 26, 2026.

If you're interested in viewing Michael Jackson Live At Wembley July 16, 1988, you can buy the DVD on Amazon, through our affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0aHa6EFa

You can also rent or buy the ability to watch Michael Jackson Live At Wembley July 16, 1988 on Amazon Prime, through our affiliate link: https://link.amazon/A0hq0Q8Zk

As an Amazon associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases made through our links.

John Branca Michael Film Bias

John Branca's role as a producer could explain why Branca appears in so many Michael film scenes, and is shown in a very positive light, and it's hard to say if Branca's role might have influenced the accuracy of the other scenes featured in the biopic Michael movie.

The Michael Jackson and John Branca relationship is unclear. In the MJ film 2026, Branca is perceived as buddy-buddy with Michael, but we can't be sure if that was actually how it was in real life, or was shown that way because Branca wanted to present himself in that way.

The Treasure-Sharer stumbled upon a fan's take on John Branca as a Michael movie producer, that brings up a lot of the issues that I had with Branca, and breaks down his potential Michael movie bias, and Michael film agenda, saying, "John Branca is literally one of the producers of this film. The same man MJ fired, distrusted, and allegedly wrote a note about saying 'don't trust John Branca.' Now he's producing the definitive movie about his life. Make it make sense... Miles Teller, one of the biggest names in the cast, is playing Branca himself. So the man producing this movie also cast a Hollywood star to play a flattering version of himself in it. And in the film, Branca is basically portrayed as MJ's savior[,] who fires Joe Jackson and gives Michael the freedom to make Thriller. Of course he is."

See the reddit forum that the Treasure-Sharer referenced the fan's take from: The MJ biopic drops this month and I genuinely couldn't care less, and it's all because of John Branca

There is a lot of contention about John Branca, and whether Michael even wanted anything to do with Branca after he first cut ties with him, let alone named him as an executor of his will. You can read the article John Branca: the greedy backstabber! for more on this, and we'll probably touch more on this in part 2 of our Michael the movie review, when we release it.

Paris Jackson John Branca Dispute

As the article Michael Jackson's estate battle: A timeline of the feud between star's daughter Paris and executors said, "Paris [slammed] Branca for casting Miles Teller to play him in the biopic Michael." The Paris Jackson dispute with John Branca Michael movie casting and focus showed her disagreement with Branca's Michael movie bias and Michael Jackson film agenda. The article stated that, "In a legal filing viewed by The Independent, Paris claimed that Branca's law firm received more than $10 million from the estate in 2021, more than double what any member of the Jackson family [was] paid that year from the family allowance," and also "questioned Branca's role as an executive producer on the biopic Michael, and the decision to cast A-list actor Miles Teller as Branca in the film," with the filing reading, "It appears that [Mr.] Branca used his position as an Executive Producer, a role he has never before performed in connection with any dramatic feature film, to cast the sole A-list actor in the production, Miles Teller, to play himself in the upcoming feature production Michael."

The filing went on to state that Branca "chose to use (or at least risk) Estate assets to fund rather than license the rights to a studio or production company," and said, "Undoubtedly, [Mr.] Branca considers his story to be central to the Michael Jackson story. Nonetheless, it is unclear how this peculiar and presumably costly casting decision will result in commensurate box office receipts."

Paris also had other issues with the Jackson Estate, with the article Paris Jackson Questions Payouts Made by Father Michael Jackson's Estate, Is 'Concerned' over 'Premium Payments' showing that Paris, as a beneficiary of her late father's estate, also objected to actions by the Michael Jackson estate in the past, and objected to a request for court approval of, and was "concerned" with, the estate executors' alleged "practice of granting so-called 'premium payments' for unrecorded attorney time, much less paying one-hundred percent of any such extraordinary amounts" -- further calling into question how well the Jackson estate represented Michael Jackson's interests.

On May 13, 2026, a Los Angeles judge ruled in favor of Paris Jackson, with over $625,000 in bonuses paid by Branca and McClain to third-party law firms in 2018 ordered to be returned to the estate in the ruling, which called for transparency in the way that the Jackson family's money was spent, with a spokesperson for Paris saying, "After years of delay, the Jackson family will finally get the transparency and accountability measures Paris has fought for. The Jackson Estate is supposed to be a prudent, fiscally responsible entity that supports the Jackson family -- not a slush fund to help John Branca live out his Hollywood mogul fantasies."

Considering the issues that Paris's legal filings brought up, one has to wonder about John Branca's intentions in choosing to fund the biopic Michael Jackson 2026 movie (rather than license the rights), how much control he had over what was in the 2026 MJ movie, and whether his intentions behind funding and producing the MJ 2026 film were in part what Paris said -- "to help John Branca live out his Hollywood mogul fantasies" and portray his story as "central to the Michael Jackson story."

Michael 2026 Executive Producers

The Michael executive producers list also had quite a few notable names to mention, which included some of Michael's brothers: Jackie Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Marlon Jackson, and Tito Jackson. It also included one of Michael's sisters, La Toya Jackson, and Michael's son, Prince Michael Jackson. Finally, the last notable executive producer was Karen Langford, who has been friends with Michael for a long time, and serves as an archivist and senior executive for the Jackson Estate.

Because there are many of Michael Jackson's family members in the roster of Michael movie executive producers, you can expect the biopic Michael to be a safe and sanitized portrayal of Michael Jackson, and a relatively positive portrayal of the Jackson family.

According to the Bill Whitfield Michael Jackson bodyguard interview Michael Jackson's Former Bodyguard Exposes The Truth & What He Saw Behind Closed Doors, where Bill shared some "never-before-heard stories behind closed doors" and "shocking revelations that challenge everything you thought you knew" about Michael Jackson, it sounds like Michael wasn't that close with a lot of his family members -- that he was close in the sense that he loved his family, but wanted his space and some distance from his father and siblings, because he felt that a lot of people were just in it for the money, or wanted to use him or his name, or get at his assets. It feels like there are so many different agendas going on, and I'm not sure who is genuinely in it for Michael, and who is being a vulture.

Michael's former bodyguard of many years, Bill Whitfield, even described when Michael signed off on doing the "This Is It" show in London, and Michael said to him, "Bill, now you're going to see the vultures come out," and, as things progressed, Bill came to understand that Michael was talking about people who Michael hadn't heard from in years, who, because it was a big thing for Michael to put together a tour, were trying to reach Michael, and trying to outdo one another, because "everybody and anybody wanted to be part of that tour" "whether it was choreographers, managers, engineers, musicians," etc. It's unclear who in Michael's life wasn't a vulture, with Bill saying in the interview that, outside of Chris Tucker, Eddie Griffin, and Michael's mom, there was nobody around at the time of Michael's passing.

According to the article 'Michael' Team on Jackson Family's Involvement in Biopic and Choosing to Tell an "Uplifting Story of His Triumph" Amid "Complicated Opinions" Around Star, "The Jackson family, and Michael Jackson's estate, was heavily involved in the making of the film, with producer Graham King revealing that[,] in addition to frequent talks with the siblings, Michael Jackson's son[,] Prince Jackson[,] 'was on set every day' during shooting[,] and was also around during the film's development."

Perhaps Prince was there to monitor the film's production, and make sure that no one would have the chance to do anything or add in anything that he didn't approve of -- serving as regular active quality control for the Michael biopic film.

The article noted that Michael movie writer John Logan said that he didn't talk to Paris during his research, saying, "Certain people in the family weren't interested in talking[,] and that was fine; they didn't want to be represented in the movie or dramatized in the movie[;] that's totally fine."

La Toya Jackson was noted as saying, "I think it's very important that everybody in the family was involved and took part in this to make sure you get it right. A lot of times[,] people think they know the story[,] and they read about things, but when the family's involved, the family can say yay or nay."

One has to wonder what the family said yay or nay to, their motivations for doing so, and which party had a stronger say in what was put into and left out of the biopic Michael, and how it was portrayed -- the Jackson family, or the Jackson Estate?

The article also noted that "La Toya Jackson dodged a question on Paris Jackson's comments [about the biopic MJ movie]" (which we will go into, in the next section of this Michael biopic 2026 review), but said that "everybody has their opinion and their choice."

Pandering to Fantasy Fandom

As the article Paris Jackson Calls Out Colman Domingo & Denies Involvement In Michael Jackson Biopic: "I Prefer Honesty Over Sales & Monetary Gain" quotes Paris as saying, "A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad's fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they're gonna be happy with it... The thing about these biopics is -- it's Hollywood. So it's fantasy land. It's not real, but it's sold to you as real[,] and a lot of sugar coated ... the narrative is being controlled[,] and there's a lot of inaccuracy[,] and there's a lot of just full-blown lies. At the end of the day, that doesn't really fly with me. I don't really like dishonesty. I spoke up. I wasn't heard. I f*cked off. That's it. Y'all are gonna like the f*cking movie. So just go watch it. Go enjoy it. Do whatever. Leave me out of it."

Paris Jackson voiced her thoughts on the MJ film 2026 after one of the film's actors, Coleman Domingo, who plays Joe Jackson in the MJ biopic movie, tried to imply that Paris was "helpful" on the set of the movie, and Paris called out his lie, clarifying that she had 0% involvement, and explaining, "I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest/didn't sit right with me, and when they didn't address it, I moved on with my life," later adding, "I wasn't involved at all, aside from giving feedback on the first draft and then getting the feedback that [production] was not actually going to address [my] notes at all."

Paris noted that she's read stuff from people saying that she resents her father, otherwise, she would be involved with the Michael 2026 film, but said that she would rather not take part in "a movie that's filled with inaccuracies," adding, "That's not my truth. That's not where I'm coming from. I just prefer honesty over sales and monetary gain. I kind of just don't want anything to do with that. So I'm gonna f*ck off again[,] and I'm gonna keep minding my business. I suggest you do the same."

The fact that Paris's input was not taken into account at all in the MJ biopic script's creation, despite her being the daughter of Michael Jackson, and a beneficiary of the Michael Jackson Estate that was funding the film -- and despite her even stating that the biopic Michael movie was filled with inaccuracies -- calls into question the interests behind the film's creation and the filming decisions, and what inaccuracies of the Michael movie and "full-blown lies" Paris was referring to, in regard to the 2026 Michael movie script.

Paris's comments really call into question the accuracy of Michael the movie, and makes us wonder -- just how inaccurate is the Michael movie?

Michael Jackson Highlight Reel

With all the parties that had a say in the Michael Jackson biography movie 2026 representing not only Michael's interests and image, but also their own images, and their own ability to profit monetarily and in other ways from the film, the biopic Michael has ended up being a shell of what it could have been, focusing more on entertaining audiences than on anything else.

In terms of my thoughts on the 2026 Michael Jackson movie, I felt like, visually, the picture quality was good, and, musically, it was enjoyable, but it was kind of like a highlight reel of Michael Jackson's greatest hits -- which is fine. I'm sure that this works for a certain segment of Michael's "fandom," as Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris Jackson, put it, and for a wide range of people around the world, and also for those who are part of Generation Z and Generation Alpha, who might not be familiar with Michael's life story.

Usually, in other films, you see drawn-out, back-and-forth conversations that give a lot of insight into the characters and situations, while in the 2026 biopic film Michael, you don't even see that with his brothers, ever, and most of the dialogue that Michael does have is with his lawyer, and with his bodyguard. This is part of why I think that the Michael Jackson biography movie 2026 only shows TikTok-like highlights, that are too short to say much.

I personally found myself wanting a lot more than highlights of Michael Jackson's life in this Michael Jackson biopic, and I also found a lot of Michael 2026 movie inaccuracies and missing moments, some of which I will use my Michael 2026 movie review to go into.

Shortfall Hits Michael Film, Due to Clause in Jordan Chandler Allegations Against Michael Jackson

Unfortunately, the 2026 Michael Jackson movie hit a snag before it was released. From what I gather, it sounds like the Michael movie staff had finished making the movie, but after a clause was discovered in a legal settlement with one of Michael's accusers, Jordan Chandler, the Michael Jackson movie team was forced to scrap the third act of the movie, and all Michael film scenes involving the Jordan Chandler allegations, and reshoot them, because the clause barred the depiction or mention of Jordan Chandler in any movie. They had originally wanted the scenes in to show how the Jordan Chandler claims had impacted Michael's life, but, because they scrapped them, they had to come back to shoot for an additional 22 days during June 2025, and spend an additional $10 million to $15 million for the changes, thus completely throwing off the Michael biopic filming schedule and budget. The Jackson Estate footed the bill for the reshoots, since its own error and oversight had necessitated the reshoots -- which also granted the estate an equity stake in the 2026 Michael film. Just so you understand how much money was spent making the film, the original budget for the Michael biopic was $155 million.

The clause resulted in many Michael cut scenes, but I noticed a lot of other missing parts of Michael's life that weren't related to the clause, but were also not included in the Michael 2026 film biopic.

Missing Characters in Michael Movie Cast

There were a lot of notable people missing from the Michael movie cast. For example, which siblings were not in the Michael movie included Janet Jackson, Rebbie Jackson, and Randy Jackson -- and Diana Ross not in the Michael movie was also a big deal. Although I'm aware that they refused to be in the Michael biopic movie, I would have liked to have seen them all in the 2026 MJ movie, as it made the Michael movie inaccurate and weird to not feature them in it.

From what I gather, Lionel Richie didn't refuse to be in the new movie Michael 2026, but he also wasn't featured in it, as well, so that's another character that I would have liked to have seen in the Michael Jackson biopic movie. I would have also liked to have seen Paul McCartney featured in the Michael biopic.

Michael Jackson Estate Drama: Why Were Some Of Michael's Siblings Not In The Movie?

Why Was Janet Jackson Not In The Latest Michael Movie?

After doing some research into the reasons why the characters that I mentioned didn't appear in the MJ biopic movie, for those asking, "Why wasn't Janet Jackson in the Michael movie?", it sounds to me like Janet Jackson's thoughts on the Michael Jackson movie were that she didn't like the Michael movie script, and noticed the Michael movie inaccuracies early on, which is why she didn't want to be in the MJ 2026 film, and, after she watched the film, she thought that the makeup for the actors was off.

The article Janet and Paris Jackson Both Skip 'Michael' Film Premiere in Los Angeles reported that the gossip outlet Page Six claimed that Janet clashed with her family, after Jermaine privately screened the biopic MJ film for the Jackson family. An individual present at the screening apparently told the outlet in March, "She had something negative about almost every scene ... The acting, the makeup, how the actors spoke, even how they walked. It was Janet deciding against the room that this movie wasn't going to meet her approval."

The article Why Janet Jackson is completely absent from the new movie Michael said that "La Toya later rubbished the report, and told Entertainment Tonight, 'There was absolutely no problem whatsoever, none whatsoever. Please believe it.'" So it's uncertain if what Page Six reported about Janet's responses regarding the film was true, or if La Toya's comments were true.

It's also possible that Janet didn't want to be in the shadow of her brother, and wanted to have her own standalone Janet Jackson biopic movie, that showed how she had her own successful solo career that the other brothers (including Jermaine) didn't have.

According to the article Janet and Paris Jackson Both Skip 'Michael' Film Premiere in Los Angeles, Jermaine reportedly told Janet that she would "miss the wave" if she didn't get on board with the project, and allegedly said, "You are so jealous -- just get on the wave."

As the article Why Diana & Janet Skipped the Michael Biopic, said, "Janet has always been fiercely protective of her own legacy and her personal peace. She has spent decades carefully curating how her story is told, especially after dealing with the heavy scrutiny the Jackson family faces daily. Participating in a biopic -- where Hollywood writers and directors interpret your private family moments for entertainment -- can be risky. Janet simply said, 'No thank you,' and kept it moving."

The YouTube video clip "Janet Jackson Wasn't Allowed in Michael Jackson's House" -- MJ Bodyguard Says Janet Got An Attitude, from the Bill Whitfield interview, calls into question how close Michael and Janet really were, with Michael Jackson's bodyguard, Bill Whitfield, describing an experience in which Michael Jackson's family had dropped by late at night, with Michael at first refusing to let anyone in, but then reluctantly agreeing to let his brothers into his home, while not allowing anyone else in (making Janet stay outside). The only other experience that Bill Whitfield could recall that involved Janet was when Whitfield and Michael were in New York, and Michael saw a billboard of a movie that Janet was in, that had been out for several months, and had to ask Whitfield if it was Janet in the billboard, if she was in a play (not even aware that the billboard was advertising a movie), and how long the movie had been out -- surprising even Whitfield, who told the interviewer, "But I knew the movie was out for a while, so whatever relationship they had going on that he was unaware, I was surprised."

The article Michael Movie: All 6 People & Jackson Family Members Who Refused To Be Involved says, "This decision has ignited speculation of family tensions. Some have pointed out that Janet's absence from the film has seemingly influenced other relatives' reluctance to support the biopic."

Why Was Rebbie Jackson Not Mentioned In The Michael Movie?

As for Rebbie, I'm not entirely sure why she opted out of being in the Michael biopic 2026 movie.

The article Michael Movie: All 6 People & Jackson Family Members Who Refused To Be Involved says, "It is unknown why Rebbie chose not to appear at the premiere or grant the producers permission to portray her on-screen in Michael, but the growing theory is that she wants to show solidarity with Randy and Janet, given their close relationship."

Why Was Randy Jackson Not In The New Michael Movie?

For Randy Jackson, I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that his ex-girlfriend, Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza, who Randy had two kids with (Genevieve Katherine Jackson and Steven Randall "Randy Jr." Jackson), actually ended up marrying his brother, Jermaine Jackson, and had two more kids with him, one of whom ended up being Jaafar Jackson, who plays Michael in the 2026 MJ film, and the second son being Jermajesty Jackson. Based on the circumstances, I can understand Randy's position of why he wouldn't be happy with the situation, and why he wouldn't want to be featured in the Jaafar Jackson Michael Jackson biopic, with how Jaafar Jackson is the son of Randy's ex, and his brother.

The article Why Jermaine Jackson married his brother's baby mother, Genevieve Oaziaza quoted Genevieve Oaziaza as saying, "Randy didn't treat me like I was the one," adding, "I just thought that Jermaine was different, that he was more family[-]oriented." It said that Jermaine and Oaziaza secretly married in March 1995, and that Randy was stunned by the betrayal, saying, "she's a pig, and my brother is a fool," and that Jermaine stated, "He needs to get over it and leave all the petty stuff behind and act like a man," in reference to claims that Randy was not paying child support, after getting to know about his brother and ex-lover. The article said that "for years, the brothers refused to speak to one another." The article noted that, apparently, Oaziaza herself had had an affair with Randy Jackson when he was married to Eliza Shaffe, with the affair producing their daughter, Genevieve, and their son, Randy Jr., born after Randy divorced Shaffe -- and Randy and Genevieve's relationship ending in 1994, after Jermaine struck, and stole Genevieve.

Why Was Diana Ross Not In The New Michael Movie?, and Michael the Movie Diana Ross Deleted Scenes

If you're wanting to know "why was Diana not in the Michael movie?", unfortunately, Diana Ross was not represented in the 2026 Michael Jackson movie for some legal reason, which sucks, because Kat Graham, the actress who was casted to play Diana Ross, had already filmed scenes as Diana Ross, and none of them made it into the final product.

According to the article Kat Graham Filmed Diana Ross Scenes for 'Michael' -- Legal Issues Kept Them Out of the Final Cut, Graham "did not go into specific detail about the nature of the legal issues involved," but the article speculates, "The removal of the Diana Ross scenes appears to be a direct consequence of the large-scale reshoots that reshaped the film's entire third act... Given that the Diana Ross storyline reportedly played out during the later stretch of [Michael]'s career, which is the section of the film most heavily impacted by these reshoots, Graham's scenes were almost certainly casualties of the same legal restructuring."

I can't confirm whether this is the case, but perhaps Diana Ross didn't want to be in the 2026 Michael Jackson film because she was worried that it would be perceived that she had "groomed" Michael, because she was 14 years older than him -- especially now that all of the Epstein, Diddy, and Harvey Weinstein-related stuff has been spilling out.

It's also possible that Diana might not have liked how she didn't have any control over how she might be depicted in the Michael 2026 film.

We can't confirm if it is true, but the article Why Diana & Janet Skipped the Michael Biopic seems to suggest that the Michael Diana Ross deleted scenes were instigated by Diana, saying, "Diana Ross is a boss, and she will be quick to sue if you mess with her name or her image without her absolute approval. She did not want her complex, highly[-]scrutinized relationship with Michael put on display for Hollywood to dramatize. She protected her image, brought in the legal team, and shut the whole thing down before the movie even hit the premiere."

The Treasure-Sharer dug more into Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's relationship, and discovered that Diana Ross actually played a major role in Michael's life, in multiple ways. According to the article True love story: Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, Michael moved in with Diana for a year as a kid, in 1969, and lived with her for a year (along with his brothers, according to the thread Diana Ross -- MJ's 1st L.O.V.E.), until his family moved permanently from Gary, Indiana to Encino, California, in 1971.

According to the True love story: Diana Ross and Michael Jackson article, Michael called Diana "mamma" and "his girlfriend," and even described her as "his mother, his lover[,] and his friend." The article shows how Michael even had a shrine dedicated to Diana at his house, and even featured a photo of the two of them together in his HIStory album, where he gave her "special thanks," and said, "I love you, Diana."

The songs "Dirty Diana" and "Remember the Time," among others, are thought to be about his times with Diana.

The article Michael Jackson's Love for Diana Ross Continues Even in Death said that Michael even specified in his will that, if his mother Katherine Jackson (his first choice to become guardian for his three young children), died before Michael did, then he named Diana to take custody of the kids.

It also said, "[Michael] knew Ross from the time he was 9 years old, and their relationship was one of the most important in his life. He idolized Ross, and some have said [that] he even tried to emulate her."

Stacy Phillips, a family attorney not working for the Jacksons, was quoted as saying, "Raising children was the most important role Michael Jackson believed he had, and to put down that Diana Ross would replace his mom, you can't have any greater honor."

The article stated that Diana Ross had always been Michael Jackson's idol, with there even being some speculation that Michael Jackson's plastic surgeries were done to make him look like Diana.

Diana Ross was also behind Michael Jackson playing the scarecrow in The Wiz, in which Diana Ross played Dorothy.

If Diana Ross had been part of the Michael film, it would have been good to have featured her going to Michael's apartment overnight, after he invited her to his apartment, while filming The Wiz. Apparently, later on during the shoot, Diana was overheard talking to some of her girlfriends, and saying to one of them, "[W]ell, I'll tell you one thing, Michael definitely isn't gay." You can read more about it in the article: True love story: Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

Because Michael Jackson and Diana Ross's relationship was so complicated, it's possible that Diana may have feared that the Michael the movie Diana Ross depictions could harm her image, and so didn't grant her consent to use her likeness in the 2026 MJ movie, thus forcing the film to scrap any Michael movie Diana Ross scenes, in which her character was featured, and resulting in many MJ movie deleted scenes.

Some of the Michael deleted scenes that resulted may have been the reason for some Michael movie missing scenes (including Michael's teenage years, his time at Studio 54, his time filming The Wiz, and more).

Things Missing From Michael Jackson Movie

Having followed Michael for much of his career, and seen the countless times that he has been dragged through the mud by the media and paparazzi, and had them spin every situation they could to present Michael in a bad light, I fully understand why the Jacksons opted to put out the most positive Michael Jackson movie they could, and leave anything that could possibly be spun in a negative light about Michael out of the MJ biopic movie, so as not to leave the fake news media with any ammo they could use to twist Michael's story with. However, I believe that the family's bid to protect Michael also removed the chance for the audience to relate to Michael and understand him, as showing the unique troubles that Michael had while growing up would have helped humanize Michael, and allowed the audience to empathize with him.

There are so many moments that I wish that the 2026 movie Michael had included, that could have helped viewers better understand Michael and his positions on things, by demonstrating his psyche, humanity, artistry, and more. The MJ 2026 film doesn't really give the full spectrum of what Michael is all about, as, while bits are shown, it's not enough to understand Michael -- just kind of understand him. For example, the movie could have shown more of Michael Jackson's perfectionism, and his problems with his self-worth, which feed into a lot of the actions that he takes and the decisions that he makes throughout the course of his life.

With the Michael movie Joe Jackson, even though he is a static character, we still understand his position -- how his heart is in the right place, and how he obviously cares about his family, but how Michael Jackson and Joe Jackson clash because Joe has a vision for the Jackson family as a whole, while Michael has a vision for himself, that cannot be realized within the controlling confines that his dad keeps trying to make him conform to. More talented and artistic than his brothers, and more than just a performer, Michael was an artist, who had his own visions for what he wanted his sets, costumes, stages, and more to look like, who paid extra attention to those details, and wanted to be involved in all the details, unlike his siblings, who focused on their own parts, and were content to be hands-off about everything else.

While the Michael 2026 biopic film does show a small glimpse of the vision that Michael had for his music, in clips of him jotting down his ideas and Michael Jackson affirmations notes, and in his post-it notes to himself, we don't get enough of these scenes in the movie. See below for a biopic MJ movie still showing an example of Michael Post-its showing Michael Jackson affirmations, and more.

Michael movie post it notes still, showing MJ affirmations examples and more

The scenes that the 2026 Michael movie does include do not show his extra attention to detail, his own personal vision for how he wanted his concerts, performances, and short movies to look like, and his degree of involvement in every aspect.

While it was nice to see some heartwarming moments that Michael had with his mom and his animals, what was missing in Michael Jackson movie scenes included Michael's close relationships with his friends (including well-known celebrities) and girlfriends, his strong religious and spiritual beliefs, some major events in Michael Jackson's life, and other important aspects of Michael's life, that left a very incomplete picture of Michael, that I found very unsatisfying. If you want to know "what did the Michael movie leave out?", read on for the major things that I've identified.

Michael Jackson's Lost Childhood

The missing parts of Michael's chlldhood formed a big part of what the Michael 2026 biopic film left out.

It's impossible to understand Michael without delving into his childhood, and learning about the unique circumstances that he grew up under that made him adopt the viewpoints that he did, and take the actions that he did, so before going into the actual Michael 2026 movie itself, I thought that it might be a good idea to discuss some of the most important aspects of Michael Jackson's childhood and teenage years that the biopic MJ movie failed to cover.

These were integral to understanding Michael, and the things about him that were regarded as eccentric by others, but made perfect sense, when viewed in the context of the unique situations that Michael had to go through, while he was growing up.

If they had been included, they would have helped viewers better understand some of the decisions that Michael made, and the actions that he took, later on in the 2026 MJ movie.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page includes a quote from Michael, where he says, "But, if you really want to know about me, there is a song I wrote which is the most honest song I've ever written. It is the most autobiographical song I've ever written. It's call [']CHILDHOOD.[']"

So, as you can see, even Michael says that his childhood is the most important part of his life that you should pay attention to.

Another quote from Michael noted on the page says, "Our personal history begins in childhood[,] and the song 'Childhood' is a reflection of my life. It's about the pain, some of the joys, some of the dreaming, some of the mental adventures that I took because of the different lifestyle I had, in being a child performer. I was born on stage[,] and [']Childhood,['] it's my mirror. It's my story."

"Childhood" is a Michael Jackson song about being misunderstood, that wasn't covered in the Michael Jackson biography film. In the song "Childhood," Michael talks about how no one understands him, and how everyone views it as "such strange eccentricities," and "not okay" how Michael keeps trying to compensate for the childhood he'd never known, and how he keeps searching for the wonder in his youth.

He asks them, "Before you judge me, try hard to love me... Look within your heart, then ask 'Have you seen my childhood?'" and "[t]he painful youth I've had."

As the article Michael Jackson, Childhood, and the Human Need for Understanding says, "But as human[s,] we naturally never look beyond the surface, and we should use [Michael]'s life as a way to do so. Instead of examining how things happened, we should examine the why. Unfortunately, [Michael] never would get that justice within the court of public opinion. When in reality, like everyone else, he just responded to life from the experiences of childhood."

The article continues, "[Michael] throughout his adult life would always long for the childhood experiences that were obsolete. Even after acquiring the money, fame[,] and expenditures, the lack of time to enjoy being a child would haunt [Michael] to his grave. This would explain his fascination with child-like things[,] and wanting to be around children as a grown man [--] even with his fame. [Michael] wanted to recreate the innocence of childhood that the ruthless world of entertainment wouldn't permit."

Michae Jackson's lost childhood plays such an important role in driving many of his later decisions in life, and was one of the biggest parts of what was missing from Michael Jackson movie 2026 scenes.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quotes Jermaine Jackson as saying, "It wasn't a refusal to grow up[,] because if you asked him, he never felt like he was a boy in the first place. Michael was expected to be an adult when he was a kid, and he regressed into a kid when he was expected to be an adult."

I wonder if Michael had the mentality that, when he was an adult, he could finally do what he wanted to do, which was why he chose to do all the things that he didn't get to do when he was a kid, when he became an adult.

All Work and No Play

How much time Michael spent working as a child, and how little he was actually able to play, was another example of what the Michael Jackson movie left out. The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page includes quotes that demonstrate how lonely Michael was from how he never had the time to do the things that other kids got to do, due to spending all his time working.

He was quoted as saying, "There were times when I had great times with my brothers, pillow fights and things, but I was, used to always cry from loneliness."

"Well, especially now I come to realize -- and then -- I would do my schooling which was three hours with a tutor[,] and right after that[,] I would go to the recording studio and record, and I'd record for hours and hours until it's time to go to sleep."

"Well, you don't get to do things that other children get to do, having friends and slumber parties and buddies. There [was] none of that for me. I didn't have friends when I was little. My brothers were my friends."

"I remember one time we were getting ready to go to South America[,] and everything was packed up and in the car ready to go[,] and I hid[,] and I was crying[,] because I really did not want to go, I wanted to play. I did not want to go."

"I remember going to the recording studio and there was a park across the street[,] and I'd see all the children playing[,] and I would cry because it would make me sad that I would have to work instead."

Michael was quoted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey from 1993 as saying, "People wonder why I always have children around. It's because I find the thing that I never had through them. Disneyland, amusement parks, arcade games -- I adore all that stuff because when I was little, it was always work, work, work."

Michael Jackson's Lonely Childhood, and Why Michael Chose to Surround Himself With Children and Mannequins

The magnitude of Michael Jackson's loneliness was another example of what the Michael movie left out. It is touched on in a conversation between Katherine Jackson and young Michael Jackson in the 2026 MJ movie, but Michael's sentiments could have been expressed even further.

The article Michael Jackson: 'I am scared of my father' quotes from an excerpt of the book The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation (also referred to as the MJ Tapes), that, "The most formative experience in Michael's life was being forced into entertainment from approximately the age of five. Michael felt he had been robbed of not just an essential part of life[,] but the most magical part. He longed to recapture it[,] and spent his remaining days doing just that. Some argued that Michael was a case of arrested development. I disagree. Michael Jackson chose not to grow up."

Michael Jackson described to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach the time (during the "Thriller" album period) when he realized that he missed his childhood, saying, "Yes, I remember distinctly ... It's like being on a ride you can't get off[,] and you think, 'Oh my God. What did I do?' and you are committed[,] and you can't get off. It hit me before I was a teenager. I wanted so badly to play in the park across the street because the kids were playing baseball and football[,] but I had to record. I could see the park, right across the street. But I had to go in the other building and work until late at night[,] making the albums. I sat there looking at the kids[,] with tears running down my face[,] and I would say, 'I am trapped[,] and I have to do this for the rest of my life. I am under contract.' But I wanted to go over there so bad[,] it was killing me, just to make a friend to say, 'Hi.' I used to walk the streets looking for someone to talk to."

He remembered saying to people, "Will you be my friend?" and them being like, "Michael Jackson!" and he would go, "'Oh God! Are they going to be my friend because of Michael Jackson? Or because of me?' I just wanted someone to talk to. Already in this comment you could see the development of the two personalities that would forever collide in Michael's person. There was Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, an aloof superstar who had everything and needed no one. And Michael Jackson, the shy kid under the mask, who lacked even a single real friend."

Michael confirmed to the rabbi that the time when he went to the park and there were kids playing on swings was when he decided that children were the answer, as they were the only ones who treated Michael as a person. Shmuley summarizes the experience by saying, "So that's the age that it hit you, 'Oh gosh. I did lose my childhood, because these are the only people I can identify with," and MJ replies, "I suffered a lot in that way. I knew that something was wrong with me at that time. But I needed someone ... That's probably why I had the mannequins. I would say because I felt I needed people, someone, I didn't have ... I was too shy to be around real people. I didn't talk to them. It wasn't like old ladies talking to plants. But I always thought I wanted something to make me feel like I had company. I always thought, 'Why do I have these?' They are like real babies, kids, and people, and it makes me feel like I am in a room with people."

The page Michael Jackson Quotes About Children quotes Michael as saying, "I prefer children because they are honest. They don't want anything from you other than to have fun. Adults have let me down. Adults have let the world down."

Michael Jackson, AKA Peter Pan

Michael Jackson Peter Pan book still, taken from MJ 2026 film

I liked that the biography of Michael Jackson showed how much Michael Jackson loved Peter Pan, in various MJ Peter Pan scenes in the movie, as Michael always viewed himself as Peter Pan, so having that detail in was a nice touch.

Neverland page from Peter Pan book still, taken from MJ 2026 film

It might have been good if the 2026 movie Michael had included more about what Peter Pan meant to Michael, as Michael's love of Peter Pan is why he named his ranch "Neverland Ranch," and why he invited underprivileged and terminally-ill children to his ranch, with them representing the Lost Boys. I think that, from his perspective, if you're terminally ill, are you ever going to have the opportunity to have fun, or just be hooked up to IVs all the time? And of the underprivileged kids, could they afford to buy games and candy? I think that he thought of them as lost children because they didn't get to experience childhood, similar to how Michael felt like he didn't get to experience his childhood, because of how he'd had to work all the time, as a child. As well, with the kids in the ghetto, they were forced to be responsible adults from an early age, and the kids in the hospital didn't get to experience the full child experience, due to being confined to the hospital. So I think that Michael wanted to give them the chance to be kids, because they were like lost kids, who had lost their childhood too soon, having had it snatched from them, like his own childhood had been.

The Treasure-Sharer found a part of Michael Jackson's speech at the Grammy Awards, 1993, taken from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page, that confirms my thoughts on Michael's views regarding this area, where he said, "My childhood was completely taken away from me. There was no Christmas, there were no birthdays, it was not a normal childhood, nor the normal pleasures of childhood -- those were exchanged for hard work, struggle[,] and pain[,] and eventually material and professional success. But as an awful price, I cannot re-create that part of my life.

However, today, when I create my music, I feel like an instrument of nature. I wonder what delight nature must feel when we open our hearts and express our God-given talents. The sound... of approval rolls across the universe, and the whole world abounds in magic. Wonder fills our hearts, for what we have glimpsed, for an instant, the playfulness of life.

And that's why I love children and learn so much from being around them. I reali[z]e that many of our world's problems today -- from the inner city crime, to large scale wars and terrorism, and our overcrowded prisons -- are a result of the fact that children have had their childhood stolen from them. The magic, the wonder, the mystery, and the innocence of a child's heart, are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world. I really believe that."

Michael continues, "What... what we need to learn, what we need to learn from children isn't childish. Being with them connects us to the deeper wisdom of life[,] which is everpresent, and only asks to be lived. They know the solutions that lie waiting to be recogni[z]ed within our own hearts. Today, I would like to thank all the children of the world, including the sick and deprived... I am so sensitive to your pain."

In that quote, Michael was referring to how everyone has had their childhood stolen, to some degree, and how, if they hadn't had it stolen from them, overall, there would be a more beautiful world, where everyone is more imaginative, creative, wholesome, intuitive, compassionate, loving, understanding, and divine -- which they aren't now, because of how their schooling and society has beat it out of them.

The Treasure-Sharer found another quote from an interview that Michael did with Oprah in 1993, from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On Suffering, Compassion and Healing the World page, that further confirms my thoughts on how Michael saw sick kids, where he said, "Every three weeks[,] we have terminally[-]ill children that come to... [the house, from charitable organizations such as Make A Wish Foundation, Dream Street, Starlight[,] etc[.]]..., and these are sick children, children with cancer. And I entertain them. And they come here to enjoy themselves. ... It brings out the child that lives in everybody.... I love rides and things like that[,] and I share it with the children."

Michael explains, "....I love to do things for children[,] and I try to imitate Jesus. And no, I am not saying I am Jesus, I'm not saying that.... I'm trying to imitate Jesus in the fact that he said to be like children, to love children, to be as pure as children, and to make yourself as innocent[,] and to see the world through eyes of wonderment[,] and the whole magical quality of it all[,] and I love that. And we'll have like a hundred bald-headed children, they all have cancer, and they're all running around. And they are enjoying themselves[,] and it makes me cry happy tears that I was able to do this for them, you know. (It) makes me so pleased inside."

Michael continues, "... We have children that come who are fed intravenously... they are very sick, bedridden. They can't sit up and these beds, they are hospital beds, you push a button, you go up or you go down[,] and they are able to watch. We have a magic show, we show the current films, there's cartoons, anything so that they can escape to that world of magic that they don't have a chance to experience, the world I was deprived of when I was little."

Empathetic Michael Jackson

Michael was an empath, and one of the Michael Jackson movie missing parts is how deeply Michael related to, and felt the pain of, people -- especially children. The Treasure-Sharer found an article, Michael Jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy', that described how his mother remembered Michael as "'a sweet little child' who showed unusual empathy for others," and said that, "When older brother Marlon became ill, 3-year-old Michael held his hand and cried."

The Treasure-Sharer thought that even showing that scene in the Michael biopic movie would have demonstrated Michael's sensitivity to others' pain, even as a kid himself, and helped viewers understand Michael's feelings in later Michael film scenes, when he visited sick kids in the hospital.

The Treasure-Sharer found a quote from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On Suffering, Compassion and Healing the World page that said, "The first time the J-5 did a benefit at a children's hospital, Michael came home and cried all night at the memory of all those sick children lying in beds, some not even able to move their hands to clap. That is when he became actively involved in communicating with these kids. He corresponds with youngsters his own age in hospital[s] all over the country. These are not letters dictated to a secretary by a superstar, but letters written in Michael's own hand[,] during breaks in recording or rehearsing[,] or even in school."

She found another quote from the same page, taken from a Michael Jackson At Large with Geraldo Rivera TV Interview in 2005, that said, "I've traveled the world over 8 times. I do as many hospitals and orphanages as I do concerts. But, of course, it's not covered (by the press). That's not why I do it [--] for coverage. I do it because it's from my heart. And there are so many children in the city who haven't seen the mountains, who haven't been on a carousel, who haven't pet a horse or a llama, never seen them, so if I can open my gates and see that bliss, an explosion of screaming laughter from the children[,] and they run on the rides, I say 'Thank you, God.' I feel I've won God's smile of approval, because I'm doing something that brings joy and happiness to other people."

As Michael said, that wasn't covered by the press, so it would have been good for the MJ biopic movie to have highlighted and brought to the public's attention how often Michael visited sick kids, and kids in orphanages, and his reasons for doing so.

The Treasure-Sharer found another quote from Michael, taken from Michael Jackson Quotes About Children, where he said, "Being a world traveler, I'm touched and moved by everything that happens, especially to children. It gets me emotionally sick[,] and I go through a lot of pain when I see that type of pain. I can't pretend as if I don't see it. It affects me very much."

The Treasure-Sharer told me that she thought that it would have been good for the Michael film to have shown how Michael cried for the kids after his visits to the sick children, and how he regularly handwrote letters to hospitalized kids, to further demonstrate his empathy for the children, and all the ways that he tried to bring joy to their lives. She also thinks that the Michael biopic movie should have shown Michael visiting orphanages (which the MJ film 2026 didn't show), and shown some of the huge donations that he made to them -- showing how Michael cared for all lost children, including those who had lost their families.

Michael's Lost Innocence

Quite understandably, one of the things left out of Michael movie scenes was how Michael was exposed to strip clubs and sex at an inappropriately young age. It would probably have made the MJ biopic movie less family-friendly, so I understand why this wasn't included, but I think that it would have helped people better understand Michael's mindset, to have included a scene showing The Jackson 5 performing at a strip club, and Michael's responses to being exposed to the environment, and to his brothers having sex with women in the same room that he was sharing with them, and to his father having sex with women in the next room, when the Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 were on the road, performing, to demonstrate how early on Michael was exposed to the adult world, and had his innocence destroyed -- as well as the distate that Michael developed for clubs later on, as a result.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quoted a 2002 Gold magazine interview as saying, "Michael often said he grew up in an adult world," and quoted Michael as saying, "I grew up onstage. I grew up in nightclubs. When I was seven, eight years old I was in nightclubs... I saw striptease girls take off all their clothes. I saw fights break out. I saw people throw up on each other. I saw adults act like pigs. That's why[,] to this day[,] I hate clubs. I don't like going to clubs -- I did that already, I've been there. That's why I compensate now for what I didn't do then. So when you come to my house, you'll see I have rides, I have a movie theatre, I have animals. I love animals -- elephants and giraffes and lions and tigers and bears, [and] all kinds of snakes. I get to do all those wonderful things that I didn't get to do when I was little, because we didn't have those things. We didn't have Christmas. We didn't have sleepovers. We didn't have school, we had private school when we were touring. I didn't go to a state school. We tried it for two weeks[,] and it didn't work. It was very difficult."

The site "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quoted Michael as saying, in the Glenda Tapes, "I remember... when Marlon and I had to share a room with Jermaine[,] and Bill was asleep. Jermaine would have girls up there all the time[,] screwing and stuff. I always (said I'd never ??) Marlon said the same thing. I felt so guilty when we used to home[?] from the circuit and stuff before we made it, y'know we used to do the club circuits and stuff. I felt so guilty, and I just cried[,] and Joseph choked me, almost broke my arm one day. But he was proud of it. It's like, (Joseph's voice) "Oh, this is what you should do, boy." I mean, he didn't say that[,] but he was screwin' women in the other room and stuff."

Another quote in the site, from the MJ Tapes, quotes Michael as saying, "I don't like clubs now, I did all that when I was eleven, eight and going back -- nine, eight, seven, six. Fights break out, people throwing up, yelling, screaming, the police sirens. Our father never let us become a part of it[,] other than to perform and leave. But[,] sometimes[,] in having to do that[,] you would get caught up in some of the craziness. I saw it all. The lady who came on right before, when The Jacksons were little. 'And now next, the little Jackson 5', was the lady who took off all her clothes. Threw her panties into the audience[,] and the men would grab them and sniff them. I saw all this. Her name was Rose Marie[,] and she put these things on her breasts and moved them around[,] and she showed everything. So when I became sixteen, seventeen, and guys would say: 'Let's go clubbing,' I would go, 'Are you crazy?' And the guys were like, 'No, are you crazy? We can get girls, we can get liquor.' But I had done that. I did that when I was [a] baby. Now I want to be a part of the world and the life I didn't have. Take me to Disneyland, take me to where magic is."

Michael Jackson's Jehovah's Witness Upbringing

A big part of what was missing from Michael Jackson movie scenes was Michael being raised as a Jehovah's Witness, from the early age of 5, and onwards. The establishments that Michael was forced to perform at by his father, and the things that he witnessed there as a child, were in stark contrast with the teachings of the Jehovah's Witness faith that Michael's mother converted herself and her kids to.

I would have liked to have seen Michael doing his Jehovah's Witness duties, him going to Kingdom Hall (the Jehovah's Witnesses' term for their place of worship), and even how Katherine Jackson played a role in Michael being a Jehovah's Witness, interspersed with at least hints of what Michael was exposed to on the road at strip clubs with his father and brothers -- to highlight the contrast in what Michael was taught and shown as a young person.

As the article Michael Jackson's life as a Jehovah's Witness said, "Katherine Jackson... was baptised in 1963[,] when Michael was 5 years old. Michael was raised as a Jehovah's Witness[,] and was active in meeting attendance and preaching until his disassociation in 1987.

The 2026 Michael movie didn't really show any of Michael Jackson's religious beliefs, and how different Michael Jackson's childhood was because of the Jehovah's Witness practices that the Jackson family had to follow, growing up.

Given how strictly Katherine Jackson followed Jehovah's Witness parenting, and raised the Jackson kids with Jehovah's Witness upbringings, it is surprising -- and leaves out an important part of how Michael thought and operated -- that the 2026 Michael film did not include any mention of Michael's strong religious upbringing, or show any of the unique behaviors that Michael engaged in, and the traditions like Christmas that he did not partake in, that went along with it.

As the article Michael Jackson: Inside His Early Years in Gary, Indiana With His Musical Family said, "They were devout Jehovah's Witnesses[,] and felt a disconnect between them and their neighborhood... Michael would learn from an early age that his childhood was different from other kids. In his memoir, You Are Not Alone: Michael Through a Brother’s Eyes, Jermaine writes about looking out from their house at the decorated homes across the street when he was eight years old and Michael was four." [Note: we don't know the reason for the discrepancy with the date of Michael becoming a Jehovah's witness at age 5.]

Jermaine is quoted as saying, "... We observed all this from inside a house with no tree, no lights, no nothing. Our tiny house... was the only one without decoration. We felt it was the only one in Gary, Indiana, but Mother assured us that, no, there were other homes and other Jehovah's Witnesses who did not celebrate Christmas... But that knowledge did nothing to clear our confusion: we could see something that made us feel good, yet we were told it wasn't good for us."

The article Michael Jackson's life as a Jehovah's Witness said, "Michael considered himself a strict Jehovah's Witness, and didn't believe in blood transfusions, Easter, or Christmas (which he viewed as 'pagan holidays'), or in the celebration of his own birthday."

If you understood Michael Jackson's spiritual beliefs and practices, they might explain his music, and why he does things the way he does, and why he didn't have sex with the girls that he dated, and could explain some of the articles that have reported that some of the women who Michael dated said that he was asexual.

As the article said, "It is not difficult to understand the unusual enigma that Michael became[,] when considering the extremes of his upbringing. On one hand[,] he had a violent, materialistic, philandering father. On the other hand was a loving mother attempting to indoctrinate him into her equally unbalanced Watchtower belief system. To top it all off, from childhood to death[,] he experienced a level of wealth, fame[,] and recognition unequalled by almost any person to have ever lived, including the greatest leaders of previous centuries... The confliction of ideas experienced between the example of the mother and father must have caused great confusion."

The article gave the example of how, "[a]t an early age, Michael received mixed signals about sex. The message from Katherine was loud and clear; with her strong faith as a Jehovah's Witness, lust in thought or in deed was considered sinful. According to 1 Corinthians 6:9, none of the unrighteous -- 'neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor abusers of themselves with mankind' -- would inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore, physical intimacy was reserved for marriage."

The article continues, "However, from Joseph, who shunned the religion [that] Katherine had embraced, the boys received a message that came more from his actions than from his words. He [Michael] must have been conflicted: he had an overly rigid view of the world from his mother[,] and an overly promiscuous view of the world from his father."

If the MJ movie 2026 had shown how true to his faith Michael had tried to be earlier in his life, then it also would have helped the audience make sense of why those who had been in relationships with Michael were saying what they were saying, and helped them better understand him in that respect, but maybe the Michael film didn't want to open that can of worms.

The article also gave examples of how, as a Jehovah's Witness, Michael was taught that much of what he himself personally stood for, and/or was surrounded by, was wrong, and even evil -- including concepts like how ambition and the pursuit of fame is wrong, how the love of money is evil, how the idolatry of human stars is unchristian, and how most modern music is unchristian.

It is understandable then that Michael later disassociated from the Jehovah's Witness organization as an adult.

It would have been useful for the Michael biopic movie to have shown scenes of Michael at Kingdom Hall, with maybe some of the verses associated with some of the concepts that I mentioned previously being preached, and how Michael responded to them, and his struggles with doing what he wanted to do, while remaining true to the Jehovah's Witness doctrines, to give viewers an understanding of the values that Michael had impressed upon him constantly, and how hard he strived to uphold them, through his active participation in the Jehovah's Witnesses as a child, youth, and young adult.

I will talk about how Michael Jackson's Jehovah's Witness faith influenced his adult and creative decisions, and the factors that led Michael to eventually leave the Jehovah's Witnesses, later in this Michael Jackson movie review.

Michael Jackson's Singing Family

Some other things left out of Michael movie scenes was how Michael grew up with singing woven into his everyday life, the Jackson family's singing roots, and how big a part of the entire family's lives singing and music were.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quotes Michael as saying, "My first memories of my Mom are of her holding me and singing songs like 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'Cotton Fields.' She has always had a beautiful voice. I suppose I got my singing ability from my mother -- and of course, from God."

It's worth noting that Michael always acknowledges that he got his gifts from God, and usually thanks him for it -- with that usually being the first thing that he does when he wins an award.

Michael is also quoted on the page as saying, "We were a family that sang all the time. We would take the furniture out of the living room and dance. We would have a songwriting competition while we washed the dishes... while we were cleaning. Music was our destiny."

The article Michael Jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy' quotes Katherine as saying, "The family's old television set helped bring the brothers together as a singing group," describing how, "Sometimes it would break down. And sometimes they would not have money to get it repaired. And that's when the children first started singing. We would sing together, sing old country songs, folk songs."

She is quoted as saying, "We would push all the furniture back on the walls, and [the boys] would dance and set up the drums and things[,] and rehearse right there."

The article describes how, "Instead of moving to a larger house as the family grew, they used any extra money to buy musical instruments. Katherine Jackson made their performance costumes."

If the Michael biopic movie had shown scenes of some of these moments, it would have helped viewers understand Michael's observation that "[m]usic was [the Jackson siblings'] destiny," as well as how Michael had not only the talent, but the environment to develop his talents.

Michael Jackson, Born Singer and Dancer

Michael Jackson had a natural talent for singing and dancing, and, while the Michael 2026 movie showed how Michael stuck out from his brothers, what the Michael Jackson movie left out was how much of a musical genius Michael really was, and how early on Michael showed signs of his talent. The article Michael Jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy' shows how his mother thought that Michael was "born to sing and dance," and I think that it would have been good for the Michael biopic movie to have showcased how early on Michael showed a talent for, and love of, singing and dancing.

The article describes how Michael's musical talents were obvious at a very early age, with Katherine saying, "He was born that way... When all the kids were dancing around, he was in my arms, and he couldn't be still. He was dancing, too, to the music. And when he started to walk, he would still dance." She described how Michael even danced and sucked his bottle to the squeaking of her washing machine, and how "[she] knew he was going to be -- he just loved music, and he loved to dance."

The article describes how Michael was five when he joined his brothers in talent contests at local high schools, and how Katherine said, "They had got so that they won all the contests -- every time there was a contest."

The Michael biopic movie could have shown Michael's first solo performance, when he sang "Climb Every Mountain" in a kindergarten program when he was five, about which Katherine said, "I was so nervous when he walked out on the stage, because he was always shy. He started singing the song, and he sang it with such clarity and didn't miss -- not flat or anything."

Katherine described how both she and Michael's paternal grandfather, who was in the audience, cried, and "[Michael] got a standing ovation for his performance[,] and he wasn't nervous, with Katherine saying, "I think he must feel more at home on stage."

Apparently, "[o]lder brother Jermaine was [T]he Jackson 5's lead singer from the start, but their mother told her husband it should be Michael," with the article quoting Katherine as saying, I told him [that] Jermaine needed help, and I told him [that] Michael could help him... He didn't believe me, so I forced him to listen. And that's how Michael got the job."

There was one Berry Gordy Michael Jackson movie scene where Berry Gordy was listening to Michael singing Smoky Robinson's "Who's Loving You," and looked shocked at how Michael could sing it better than Smoky. See below for a still of Berry Gordy's reaction, taken from the biopic MJ movie.

Berry Gordy's expression while listerning to Michael Jackson singing Who's Loving You, taken from the MJ biopic movie

Berry, in the next scene, even tells Michael, "Let me tell you something, son. I've been doing this a long time. I've never heard a voice quite like yours. You sang that song better than Smoky himself!... You're special. You have something to say. That's rare, Michael."

The Berry Gordy "Who's Lovin' You" Michael scenes sort of demonstrated how Berry viewed Michael as a prodigy, amazed by how he could capture the emotions of the song so convincingly, even though he was too young to have experienced heartbreak himself.

The biopic Michael movie followed those scenes with one showing Berry teaching Michael about how some of the functions on some of the sound equipment worked, and him telling Michael that he could ask him "anything, any time he wants," implying that Berry probably showed Michael more later.

The Michael biopic film should have shown more scenes of Berry teaching Michael, because I think that Berry teaching Michael all those details was what gave Michael the understanding of how each instrument is supposed to sound on a track, how to make it clean, and all the little workings of sound production that made it so that later, Michael knew his songs so well that he could direct his entire band on executing the songs to his exact standards and specifications, because he knew them, and what went into them, that well. Also, I'm sure that when he worked with other producers, he probably told them such specifics too.

Michael Jackson Leadership

Michael's strong leadership qualities, even as a kid, were one of the things left out of Michael movie scenes. Michael was a natural leader, with him even directing The Jackson 5's presentation at the age of 6.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quoted La Toya Jackson as saying, "Mother used to say that from the time he was born, Michael as 'different': quick to walk and talk, and unusually well coordinated for his age. She's made it a point never to boast about any of us, but of Michael[,] my mother would allow, 'I don't want to say he's gifted, but I know there's something special about him.' Bright-eyed, with an impish smile, Michael was a scamp, an inexhaustible ball of energy. Though never bossy, he was a natural leader."

La Toya is quoted as continuing, "Even then, Michael had clear ideas about the brothers['] act and its presentation. If they were shooting promotional photos, the six-year-old posed everyone, instructing in his peep of a voice, 'Okay, Jackie, you stand here, this way. Jermaine, you'll be next to Jackie, but like this.' No detail escaped his eye. Mother used to hold up for them the stage outfits she'd sewn[:] a purple two-piece suit; black pants with white shirts[;] and the youngest of the five pointed and declared[,] 'These.' And he was always right."

La Toya's quotes demonstrate what I mentioned earlier, about Michael having his own visions for what he wanted the presentation of his performances to look like, and how he wanted to be involved in every detail -- showing how Michael already "had clear ideas about the brothers['] act and its presentation" even as a kid, and already directed his brothers and mother, even back then.

Michael Jackson's Early Poverty

The level of poverty that Michael grew up experiencing before The Jackson 5 made it big was another of the Michael Jackson movie missing parts that would have lent a lot of insight into the story of Michael Jackson and the Jackson family. Michael's humble beginnings, growing up in a very poor, ten-person family, created the hunger to escape their poor conditions, through working hard to achieve success and the American dream, and can explain why Michael Jackson's childhood was all about work, and why Joe Jackson pushed the family so hard to succeed in their careers.

The article Michael Jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy' describes "Michael Jackson's humble start as the son of a steel mill worker in a large family," where "[t]heir first home had just two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen[,] and a small utility room for the washing machine and freezer. Michael and his four older brothers slept in stacked bunk beds in one bedroom, the parents in the other, while the daughters slept in the living room."

The article describes how, "They [lived] pay day to pay day."

The extreme poverty that Michael experienced also helps explain Michael's concern for the children all over the world that had to grow up in impoverished situations, and all the money that he donated to charities, and all the things that he did to help those around him.

I think that it would have been cool if the Michael Jackson biopic movie had been filmed in the actual home that the Jackson family had grown up in, though I'm not sure if that would have been possible. Even if that wasn't possible, the MJ film 2026 could at least have shown a shot of the Jackson brothers squeezed into one room in bunk beds, and the sisters on the couches in the living room, which would have helped viewers understand the level of poverty that the Jacksons experienced before they started making it big.

Businessman Michael Jackson

Michael showing his businessman side at an early age was another example of what was missing from the Michael Jackson movie. According to the article Michael Jackson's mom remembers her 'sweet little boy', his mother said, "Young Michael saved his 'little pennies and nickels' to buy candy and cookies, but he wouldn't eat it all... He liked to play 'store man.' He would take it and put it and set up a little store, and all the kids in the neighborhood would come and buy from him, and he felt like he was the store man."

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quotes Katherine Jackson in her book, My Family, as saying, "His first goal in life must have been to own a candy store[,] because he loved to play storekeeper. After Joe began giving him and his brothers a weekly allowance, he would spend every cent of it on candy and gum. He'd come home with an armful of it, take a board and two bricks[,] and place them in the doorway to the boys' bedroom, place a cloth over the board, lay the candy on top of it, and sell it to his brothers and sisters and friends for the same price he'd paid for it."

The quote continued, "Michael was also a serious candy-eater and gum-chewer. Before he opened his 'store,' he'd save his pennies so that he could purchase bubble gum at the concession stand at the Little League ball park behind our house. One night, however, he couldn't find his penny for gum[,] and he was so upset he started crying. 'Mother, do you know what happened to my penny?' he asked. I knew the answer when I saw Marlon happily chewing away on a wad of bubble gum[,] nearby."

Perhaps Michael's experience with Marlon made him decide to take control of the candy distribution so that others wouldn't end up stealing his candy from him.

Whatever it was that started his decision to set up his own storefront, the fact that he did so showed that Michael enjoyed it, but was a fair businessman, as a kid -- not even trying to profit from his sales.

If the biopic MJ movie had shown scenes of why Michael set up his storefront as a kid, how he ran his "store," and his experiences with even his own brother stealing from him, it would have shown his proclivity to business, and his taking matters into his own hands when discovering instances in which he was being taken advantage of.

I should also note that Michael was said to have used his earnings as a child to buy candy that he would distribute to kids for free, though the Treasure-Sharer couldn't find a source to confirm this.

Michael Jackson and Joe Jackson Relationship

While the MJ biopic movie hinted at Joe Jackson's strictness with and abuse of his kids, the level of fear that Michael had for his father, the many ways that Michael would defy him, in spite of it, and Michael and Joe's strictly business-like relationship were some of the things left out of Michael movie scenes. The article Michael Jackson: Inside His Early Years in Gary, Indiana With His Musical Family said, "Joe Jackson required his children to call him 'Joseph.' A strict taskmaster, Joe enforced long and grueling rehearsals for his sons in order for them to have their songs and routines polished. It is this coopting of a childhood [that] Michael would come to lament the rest of his life."

The article said that Michael recalled: "He didn't want us to call him Daddy, and I wanted to call him Daddy so bad.' He said, 'I'm not Daddy, I'm Joseph to you.'"

The article said, "Michael was afraid of his verbally, and sometimes physically, abusive father... If one of his children stepped out of line, Joe was quick to discipline them. Michael once revealed to Oprah Winfrey that he was so afraid of his father that it would cause him to vomit[,] when he saw him."

Michael Jackson Beatings

The biopic MJ film showed a scene hinting that Michael was going to receive a beating from Joe, behind closed doors, but this was not an accurate depiction, as, in real life, Joe Jackson didn't even try to hide the fact that he beat his kids, and did so openly.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page even includes a quote from Johnny Jackson, an original Jackson 5 drummer who was not related to the Jackson family, who describes how Joe once smacked Michael so hard across the face that Michael fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud, for not doing a move the way that Joe had wanted him to, and how Joe had followed that by hollering at Michael, not caring that the drummer had been there to witness it.

It would have been more accurate for the Michael 2026 movie to have shown how severe the beatings could be, and how Joe used the beatings as punishment for his kids making mistakes during their practice time. I think that this would have also made the 2026 film Michael less family-friendly, but what it would have demonstrated may have worth it.

The article Michael Jackson: Inside His Early Years in Gary, Indiana With His Musical Family said, "Physical beatings were not uncommon," quoting Michael as saying during a 2004 TV interview, "I just remember my hearing my mother scream, 'Joe, you're gonna kill him, you're gonna kill him, stop it' ... I was so fast he couldn't catch me half the time, but when he would catch me, oh my God, it was bad. It was really bad."

The article described how Michael recalled his father sitting in a chair with a belt in his hand, watching his sons rehearse, ready to punish them for any mistakes, and how Micnael also recalled verbal abuse -- in particular, his father repeatedly telling him that he had a "fat nose."

The article Michael Jackson threw father off Thriller set and had nightmares from childhood incident quotes Michael as saying, "I am scared of my father to this day. My father walked in the room -- and God knows I am telling the truth -- I have fainted in his presence many times. I have thrown up in his presence[,] because when he comes in the room and this aura comes and my stomach starts hurting and I know I am in trouble." The article says, "The roots to all of this lay in his childhood."

The Vagabond said that the one thing that she didn't like about the 2026 Michael Jackson movie was that it showed Michael being beaten, because she doesn't like seeing violence being done to children. While I understand that, I think that leaving out the nature of Joe's beatings, and how severe and often they actually were, and their impact on Michael, was a disservice, because the things that Michael had to go through, and the traumatized state that they left him in, help show how and why Michael, contrary to allegations accusing him of child abuse, has been completely against any abuse done to children -- having experienced so much himself, and understood the consequences so well himself.

The article Michael Jackson threw father off Thriller set and had nightmares from childhood incident describes how, "When Michael was still a young boy[,] he had been told to keep his window closed at night[,] but sometimes forgot. One night, Joe climbed into his son's bedroom window wearing a terrifying fright mask[,] and screaming like a monster[,] to teach him a lesson, and Michael later confessed that he had nightmares for years afterward about being attacked and kidnapped, dragged out of his bedroom window."

The article says that, "Looking back on his own childhood, [Michael] famously said: 'I always said if I ever have kids[,] I will never behave like this way. I won't touch a hair on their heads. Because people always say the abused abuse[,] and it is not true. It is not true. I am totally the opposite.'"

Michael Jackson's Rebellious and Fighting Spirit

Despite his great fear of Joe, Michael still stood up to him, and was the only one in his family brave enough to do so.

La Toya Jackson was quoted in the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page as saying, "All children need to feel worthy and loved, but our father shattered our self-confidence and self-esteem by the time we were old enough for school. Not surprisingly, none of us ever mustered the courage (the foolhardiness?) to defend ourselves against him. Except Michael...

Spirited and supremely confident as a child, Michael was the only one of us who ever hit Joseph back. Whenever my father raised a hand in anger, everyone else stood still and braced for the blow. Michael raced off. 'When I get you,' Joseph growled, but he couldn't catch him.

Michael was so fast, he could pause to fling a shoe at Joseph, and still elude him. Michael talked back and always had to get in the last lick, even if it meant another beating. Cringing, the rest of us wondered, Why doesn't Mike quit while he's ahead? He's only making it worse for himself. Secretly, my brothers, my sisters, and I admired his fearlessness."

Michael even described in a phone conversation with Glenda how, when Michael was about seven years old, Joe had knocked him down on the floor so hard that Michael had lost his wind, while the group was rehearsing in the living room, because Michael had done something wrong, and they were supposed to perform somewhere the next day, so Michael got up, so serious and crying, and threatened Joe, saying, "Joseph, if you hit me again. I'm not performing!" and Joe was like, "[W]hat the f*ck did you say?" and Michael said, "You hit me again, Joseph... Joseph if you hit me again... I said if you hit me again[,] I am NOT performing," and his father left him alone, and didn't hit him, knowing that Michael was the star performer.

Seeing how Michael was the only one brave enough to stand up to his father, and understood the leverage that he had, even as a child, makes it understandable how he was brave enough to take on Sony later on in his life, exposing its abuse of him to the public.

So I think that it would have been worth having a Michael film scene of Michael running away and fighting back when Joe beat him, to demonstrate Michael's bravery and rebelliousness, even as a child.

Confirming what I was saying earlier, about how Joe did what he did for the family, in the article Joe Jackson on physically disciplining his kids: 'I'm glad I was tough,' Joe admitted to Piers Morgan that he did physically discipline his children, explaining, "I had to be like that way because during those times, it was hard, and you have a lot of gangs there, you know, in the area where we were living... This was Gary, Indiana, and I had to make sure that they didn't get in any type of trouble, and things of that sort," and said, "I'm glad I was tough, because look what I came out with. I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right." About Michael, he said, "You know, Michael, he was a nice guy... But he was brought up. I made sure that he respected the older people."

Joe was quoted as saying, "You had all those kids running hollering around... They're hollering, 'Dad, Dad, Dad,' you know, and it gets to be -- it sounds kind of funny to me. But I didn't care too much about what they called me, just as long as they (were) able to listen to me and what I had to tell them, you know, in order to make their lives successful. This was the main thing... They were brought up to respect people," he said, "They never joined gangs or went to jail."

As the article Joe Jackson was one of the most monstrous fathers in pop said, "Jermaine Jackson details his father's actions[,] and then justifies them. In his telling, Joe's behaviour was a way to keep the brothers in line and off the streets. As he points out, life in their corner of Gary, Indiana, was no picnic. Gang violence was endemic, but the brothers didn't have the time or the wherewithal to get involved: they were always rehearsing[,] and they were too scared of their father. Jermaine claims [that] his father honed their talents and instilled them with discipline and a will to succeed, both of which found their most extreme expression in the perfectionist, ambitious Michael. Without Joe, who knows if the world would ever have heard of Michael or the other Jacksons?"

All Business Relationship

How cold and business-focused Joe was with Michael and his other kids was another example of the things left out of Michael movie scenes. The article Michael Jackson: 'I am scared of my father' quotes Michael from an excerpt of the book The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation as saying that, "one day [Joe] said, 'If you guys ever stop singing[,] I will drop you like a hot potato.' It hurt me. You would think he would think, 'These kids have a heart and feelings.' Wouldn't he think that would hurt us? If I said something like that to Prince and Paris[,] that would hurt. You don't say something like that to children[,] and I never forgot it. It affects my relationship with him today."

Showing a Michael film scene of Joe Jackson saying that to his kids would have helped drive home the point of how cold and business-like he presented their relationship with him as being.

Michael Jackson's Discipline

The lessons and discipline that Michael's mother and father instilled in Michael were some of the important things left out of Michael movie scenes. The Michael Jackson biopic film gives a taste of how hard Joe was on his boys, but it could have also shown some of the takeaways that Michael's parents instilled in Michael as a child.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On education (why to study constantly) & how to be successful & importance of books! page quotes Michael as saying, "I attribute that [level of ambition and possibility I felt when I was a kid] to my parents[,] who always taught us to persevere and believe in yourself, have confidence, no matter what you do. Even if you're sweeping floors or painting ceilings, do it better than anybody in the world, no matter what it is that you do. Be the best at it, and have a respect for others, and be proud of yourself... and to honor; be honorable, you know."

It also quotes Michael as saying, "Our parents taught us to always be respectful and, no matter what you do, to give it everything you have. Be the best, not the second best."

The page quotes Janet Jackson, in her book, True You, as saying, "Our family was all about discipline. My parents saw discipline as the key to survival and success."

Nelson Gorge is quoted as saying, "What's important about Michael is his dedication. He's innately gifted, but also totally disciplined."

Michael Jackson's discipline, drive, determination, and dreams surpassed those of everyone in his family, and it would have been good for the Michael biopic movie to have shown Michael's attitude, direction, and focus.

Michael was quoted as saying, "In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love[,] and work hard. Work like there's no tomorrow. Train. Strive. Really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it's books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it's yours. That's what I've always tried to remember."

Michael Jackson's Love of Books and Learning, and Michael Jackson's Intelligence

While Michael was shown reading Peter Pan a few times in the Michael 2026 film, what the Michael movie left out was Michael's love of reading books in general, and the array of subjects that his reading material spanned -- that would seem unbelievable, to most. Michael Jackson used books not only to study his craft, but also many other subjects, and was well-informed in many areas.

The fact that the 2026 biopic film Michael didn't show Michael reading more was a Michael Jackson movie inaccuracy, as it failed to show how much Michael loved reading and learning, and grew up reading, and how intelligent and well-read Michael really was. Michael's insane library, in fact, was what inspired me to read more, as it made me question what I was doing not reading more -- seeing how many books Michael read and owned, and how many and what kind of subjects the books covered.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On education (why to study constantly) & how to be successful & importance of books! page quotes Michael Jackson bodyguard Javon Beard, in the book that he co-authored with Bill Whitfield, Remember the time: protecting Michael Jackson in his final days, as saying, "That's how he filled all those hours by himself: books. He'd read anything and everything he could get his hands on. History. Science. Art. There were so many trips to Barnes & Noble. It was almost a weekly thing. He would go into bookstores and drop five thousand dollars like he was buying a pack of gum. At one point, he actually bought a bookstore -- I'm talking about an entire bookstore. He paid cash for it."

The page quotes Michael as saying, "I am just curious about all things, the simplest, things. About what is in a drop of water. I wanted to read about eyelashes one time[,] and found out a whole colony of living things live in our eyelashes. To me[,] that's amazing. Everything to me is interesting, especially if you start studying the universe[,] and all that. It is just a phenomenal amount of information[,] and I am just astounded by it. It makes me feel ignorant about how much I don't know[.] The more I find out, the more ignorant I feel. I really do. I realize there is so much to learn. That's why bookstores amaze me. I can spend hours and hours grabbing books[,] and I come back with boxes of stuff. That's one of the things I love about my mother. We used to go to the bookstore and spend hours[,] and she let us get whatever we wanted. She let us have it[;] she never said no. We would read, read, read. I love that. It is just wonderful, isn't it? I am very curious about everything. There is nothing I am not interested in."

Michael explains in another quote on the page, "It was Rose [Michael's tutor] who instilled in me a love of books and literature that sustains me today. I read everything I could get my hands on. New cities meant new places to shop. We loved to shop, especially in bookstores and department stores... She taught me the wonderful world of books and reading[,] and I wouldn't be the same person[,] if it wasn't for her."

David Gest, a music producer, and Michael's lifetime friend, is quoted on the page as saying, "What a lot of people don't know about Michael is that he was always reading. He was an intelligent man. His favorite poet was Robert Burns[,] and he was obsessed with the novels of Charles Dickens... He would scour antique bookstores looking for first editions of his work... He loved Shakespeare[,] and got me into the plays too. He was also fascinated by English history, especially Henry VIII, and loved collecting costumes from that period."

Todd Gray, author of Michael Jackson Before He Was King, is quoted as saying, "He especially loved books on Hollywood glamour from the 1930s, richly illustrated children's books, and coffee-table books on photography."

Michael is even quoted as advising people to read, saying, "I love to read. I wish I could advise more people to read. There's a whole new world in books. If you can't afford to travel, you travel mentally through reading. You can see anything[,] and go any place you want to[,] in reading."

The page Michael Jackson's Library: Favorite Books quotes Jermaine Jackson, in his book, You Are Not Alone, as saying, "But it was when we first laid eyes on her library that Michael started to become the voracious reader that he was. Rose [Fine] handled each book like a precious artifact, and she was always on at us to read, read, read -- and Michael heeded this advice. Few people know that my brother was a bookish nerd, always swotting up on some random subject to better his vocabulary, knowledge, or understanding of life. 'I love reading. There is a wonderful world to be discovered in books,' he said. Michael's early reading material concerned Fred Astaire or Elvis, or child stars Shirley Temple or Sammy Davis Junior. In later years, his reading extended from Steven Spielberg to Alfred Hitchcock, President Reagan to President Roosevelt, Malcolm X to Dr[.] Martin Luther King, and Mussolini to Hitler. I doubt many people would have given him credit for the general knowledge he amassed. Except Rose [Fine.] She always taught us that we can learn from the best by following history's lessons; that it has left the footprints for us to follow. That is why Michael's autobiography, Moonwalk, starts with a quote from Thomas Edison:

'When I want to discover something, I begin by reading up everything that has been done along that line in the past -- that's what all these books in the library are for. I see what has been accomplished at great labor and expense in the past. I gather data of many thousands of experiments as a starting point, and then I make thousands more. 'The three great essentials to achieve anything [worthwhile] are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.'

That quote still stands as the truest reflection of Michael's approach to his own mastery, and they were the words he actually posted in gold letters to the cloth, coffee brown walls of his sound studio at Hayvenhurst."

I think that it would have been worth it for the biopic MJ movie to have shown a close-up of these words, exactly as Jermaine described them, in Michael's sound studio scenes, to show their importance in Michael's mindset and outlook -- and also maybe have had attention drawn to their importance, by maybe having had one of Michael Jackson's siblings or someone else ask about them, and had Michael explain them, to help viewers understand "Michael's approach to his own mastery," as Jermaine put it.

As the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On education (why to study constantly) & how to be successful & importance of books! page said, "Wesley Snipes said that he once spent three hours speaking with Michael 'about metaphysics, psychology, [and how] the black man is treated'."

Wesley Snipes was quoted as saying, "... we met many times around the world. I met him once in South Africa, and we were sitting in this spacious place. He happened to be there[,] and I happened to be there, and after we started talking[,] we chatted [for] about three hours. And he had a list of books lined up all along the floor. And I looked over and just said, 'Mike, people are sending you stuff like that?' And he said, 'no, that[']s what I read." I mean he had everything, from the autobiography from Malcolm X, to Eat To Live, (Jiddu) Krishnamurty.... I mean, like these exotic books that you would never imagine Michael was down with. And we sat there for three hours[,] man, choppin' it up about all of this, from metaphysics to psychology, about how the black man is treated ... I'm telling you, it was a trip. People don't know about Mike on the real. Mike had a consciousness that could blow your mind. And he could recite things that would blow your mind as well... like the street corner stuff, straight up."

Michael's bookworm side should have been shown in the Michael film, along with the sheer diversity of the subjects that Michael was constantly reading up on, to help viewers understand his inspirations, how much he knew, and how he was able to have such a deep understanding of so many subjects. Michael's knowledge of the world extended far beyond music, singing, dance, and performance, and the biopic Michael movie should have shown viewers that, if it wanted to help viewers really understand Michael, but didn't.

Bob Sanger, Michael's lawyer, even showed how the truth was warped about the kinds of books that Michael Jackson's library contained, when Michael's home was searched by cops. He was quoted in the page Michael Jackson's Library: Favorite Books as saying, "He loved to read. He had over 10,000 books at his house. And I know that because -- and I hate to keep referring to the case, because I don't want the case -- the case should not define him. But one of the things that we learned -- the DA went through his entire library and found, for instance, a German art book from 1930-something. And it turned out that the guy who was the artist behind the book had been prosecuted by the Nazis. Nobody knew that, but then the cops get up there and say, 'We found this book with pictures of nude people in it.' But it was art, with a lot of text. It was art. And they found some other things, a briefcase that didn't belong to him that had some Playboys in it or something. But they went through the guy's entire house, 10,000 books. And it caused us to do the same thing, and look at it."

He continues, "And there were places that he liked to sit, and you could see the books with his bookmarks in it, with notes and everything in it where he liked to sit and read. And I can tell you from talking to him that he had a very -- especially for someone who was self-taught, as it were, and had his own reading list -- he was very well-read. And I don't want to say that I'm well-read, but I've certainly read a lot, let's put it that way, and I enjoy philosophy and history and everything myself, and it was very nice to talk to him, because he was very intellectual, and he liked to talk about those things. But he didn't flaunt it, and it was very seldom that he would initiate the conversation like that, but if you got into a conversation like that with him, he was there."

The Michael biopic could have shown this side of Michael that he didn't flaunt, and helped clarify what kinds of "nude books" Michael had in his library, to showing the nature of the books that Michael was really into, to help viewers understand the kind of person that Michael really was, and set up the basis for showing how the evidence that was later presented about him owning pornography was misleading, and not accurate.

Michael Jackson Prankster Side

Michael's love of pranking people, and of making people laugh as a way to break the ice, were more things left out of Michael movie scenes. Despite how serious Michael was when it came to his craft and learning, his kiddie side came out in his love of playing pranks, even as a kid and adult. The article Michael Jackson 'played crazy pranks' on Lionel Richie while on tour featured Lionel explaining in an interview how, even at a young age, Michael and his siblings were always up to "mischief," recalling, "Actually, they were all very, very young -- and very mischievous... We kept thinking, 'Are we babysitting?'"

The article quoted Lionel Richie as saying, "They just loved to play all these crazy pranks... If you leave your shoes outside to be polished at the hotel, you wake up the next morning, they've put ice cubes... And what they didn't tell you is that by morning, it's melted, so your shoes are [wet]... Or they'd put itching powder in our afroes on the plane."

Lionel recalled that he met Michael and The Jackson 5 as the opening act for The Jackson 5's first US tour across America, saying that he had known Michael since he was "around 11" years old.

The article Michael Jackson Had a Mischievous Side That Hotel Guests Never Saw Coming said, "... behind closed doors[, Michael] could behave very differently from the carefully[-]controlled superstar the public knew. While touring, stories emerged of Michael turning hotels into his personal playground, with water balloons, food fights[,] and practical jokes catching people around him completely off guard."

It continues, "Accounts from his time on the road describe Michael throwing water balloons from hotel balconies at unsuspecting people below. Inside the suites, things could become even more chaotic[,] when playful moments reportedly grew into full food fights. It revealed a mischievous side of the King of Pop that rarely appeared during his polished performances or serious interviews."

The article said, "Michael seemed to enjoy creating situations where the people around him briefly forgot they were traveling with one of the most famous entertainers in the world. His jokes could be childish, unexpected[,] and carefully[-]planned, including practical jokes on members of his own touring circle."

It said, "That playful personality also appeared around close friends. Michael's friendship with comedian Chris Tucker produced plenty of laughter[,] and showed how comfortable [Michael] could become[,] when the pressure surrounding his fame disappeared."

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Humor page gave more insight into Michael's pranking, showing that it was not done with a malicious intent, but that Michael instead viewed it as a way to play, laugh, and have fun with people. The page quoted Michael Lee Bush, MJ's longtime designer as saying, "What most people don't know about [Michael] is that he was a joker -- a playful prankster who loved to laugh[,] and often teased those closest to him most.... I think he wanted someone he could play with. He just wanted to see, am I going to have fun with this person?... An[d] I laughed every day until he died."

The page quotes Michael Jackson in the book Honoring the Child Spirit as saying, "I think we are going to find out in this next century that there is something really magical about laughter. Whenever I feel depressed and down and out, I force myself to laugh[,] and I try to think of something funny[,] and I feel better. I think some kind of chemical reaction takes place in the soul. I really feel better[,] and I force myself to smile. I think just smiling, the muscles, it does something[,] and I feel a lot better."

Lionel Richie was quoted on the page as saying, "The funny thing about Michael was his laugh. When he began to laugh, I could not stop, and then everyone around him began to laugh and could not stop. He was a catalyst for laughter[,] and he liked to provoke bouts of laughter at the wrong time."

It would have been good for the 2026 MJ movie to have featured a scene showing the infectious effect of Michael's laughter -- perhaps after showing him playing a prank that he typically pulled -- and showing the playful atmosphere that it created.

Siedah Garrett was quoted on the page as saying, "Michael had a childlike sense-of-humor. While in the studio recording our duet 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You', he began tossing popcorn in my face[,] in an effort to make me [mess up]. Producer Quincy Jones, not seeing this, began to chastise me for flubbing the takes. Michael, on the other hand, was just CRACKING UP! Love you MJ."

Todd Gray, a photographer for Michael, was quoted as saying, "Once Michael was just surrounded by his family and friends[,] he became the playful[] trickster and jokester. Sometimes he'd call me up, disguise his voice, make up a name and ask me to do something foolish. He could mimic a variety of voices[,] and played many pranks on me."

The page features an excerpt of an interview between Michael Jackson and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, where Michael explains his silly side and pranking, saying, "One thing you don't know about me is how silly I am. [Every time] I get in these meetings and everyone is uptight[,] I laugh through the whole thing[,] and I can[']t stop giggling[,] and I have to keep apologizing[,] and my lawyer looks at me and says: 'I'm sorry. He does this sometimes.' Then they start laughing[,] and they all start laughing[,] and so it becomes fun and light-hearted, because they look too serious sometimes[,] and I like it to be a little more light-hearted. I can't help it. I really can't help it." When the rabbi asks him, "Does that break the ice when you do that? Do people feel closer, does it make tough negotiation easier? Do [they] feel that they bonded more when that happens?", Michael replies, "Yes, I think so. I think there is a commonality amongst all of us that we really are the same. Things can be really humorous[,] and we can laugh at the same [t]hing. There's this commonality in mankind. Really, we are all the same. Really." When the rabbi asks, "Laughter is the quickest way we can achieve something in common?", Michael confirms, "Everybody's funny bone is the same color, isn't it? We are all the same, really. I have seen that a lot. (.........) That's my most favourite thing in the world[,] to prank people: I love doing it, but I am afraid that some people will get mad[,] even though sometimes I don't care. But I do it all the time. I carry stink-bombs and [water] balloons. After every video, on the last day[,] the whole room stinks like rotten eggs[,] and it all turns into a big mess[,] and everybody knows what I do[,] and everybody knows that's when it[']s done. And then I walk out. I love it." Then the rabbi asks, "Do you see very serious people becoming more childlike in front of your eyes when that happens?", and Michael says, "Yes, and they talk about it and how funny it was. It is fun."

The page quotes Michael Jackson in the MJ Tapes as saying, "I think the best way to break the ice with someone you don't know is to play. You bond quicker through play than any other way. Through shaking hand[s] to usually having a conversation is not as easy as play. I think it's the best way[,] and I think breaking ice with a good [water balloon] fight[,] or running around together, riding bikes, looking at each other, laughing, smiling, it's the best way to really get to know somebody in the beginning. And they realize that you are just fun and simple[,] and your first association with them is through fun."

The Treasure-Sharer and I acknowledge that we wouldn't have been happy to have been on the receiving end of Michael's pranking, and weren't a fan of that side of him, but we understand how Michael used it as a way to connect to people, and bring laughter into their lives, and the biopic movie Michael not showing any of this side of Michael's personality was inaccurate, as it didn't show that Michael's playful side was intrinsic to him.

The Treasure-Sharer thinks that, at the very least, the MJ film 2026 should have shown Michael breaking the ice during a business meeting with some laughter, and maybe throwing some water balloons at people at a hotel, and wrapping up the making of one of his music videos with a stink bomb, and the laughter it created, to show how Michael's business meetings and hotel stays normally went, and how those affected took it in good humor, for the most part -- showing how Michael didn't do them to be mean-spirited, but to create laughter and fun for himself, and those around him.

She also thinks that Michael sometimes did those things as a way to get people who would otherwise be too awestruck or intimidated to talk or interact normally with him, or in his presence, feel more at ease.

A quote from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Humor page from Russ, about a Dangerous recording (1990-1991), shows how Michael's kidding around was in some cases probably partly for the benefit of those he pranked, with Russ relaying, "One fear of mine was that I knew there'd come a day that it would be just Michael and I in the same room[,] one on one. I'd rehearsed it in the mirror over and over, just what was I going to say to this guy??? Well that day came, and what was probably seconds, seemed like a very long time. Catering had arrived at the [s]tudio[,] and here Michael and I were[,] standing by ourselves. I was looking at the floor and said to myself, '[T]his is it, this is what I've been afraid of, I'm going to have to break the ice.' I took a big deep breath and raised my head to speak and ... wham ... I got hit with a handful of corn, I thought, '[O]h no[,] this is going to be war' ... I picked up some pickles and threw them at Michael, then he threw something else[,] and it went back and forth for a while. We were laughing so hard (I had to clean it all up later[,] of co[u]rse)[,] but for three weeks[,] we couldn't look at each other without laughing. What a great way for him to make me feel at ease. Michael really has a great sense of humor[;] he just loves seeing people do a 3 Stooges act and fumble all over themselves. I wish there were more people in the world exactly like Michael Jackson [--] he is truly one amazing human being."

Being a megastar and an empath, Michael must have been aware of how his presence left many of those he encountered feeling nervous about messing up around him, and not knowing how to act, and him lightening the mood with his unexpected playfulness helped them be themselves around him, with Michael taking the first step to showing them that they didn't need to feel and be so serious around him.

Michael Jackson Hospitality

Some major Michael movie missing scenes included ones showing the hospitality and love that were shown to Michael and his family many times, from a young age, and even as he grew older. People have a lot of misconceptions regarding Michael allowing kids to stay over at his place, and sleep over with him as an adult, which can be much better understood when his childhood is explored. The article How Come Nobody Ever Apologizes to Michael Jackson: With a Child's Heart -- which explored how Katherine Jackson and Michael shared the same gentle and hospitable traits of treating people like family (which included allowing individuals into their personal homes and spaces), in an earlier article -- covered how Michael received the same treatment himself when he was a youngster, which shaped Michael into who he was, and was why Michael himself "had no problem turning around and doing the same thing for others as an adult[,] because he was shown that very same love and care."

The article lists some key people (Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, Suzanne de Passe, Bobby Taylor, and Rose Fine), and the hospitality, care, and love that they showed Michael while he was a kid and they were adults, that Michael would emulate in his adult years.

Berry Gordy

The article described how, when The Jackson 5 signed to Motown Records, Berry Gordy made sure to take on a mentorship role with each member of the group, and how The Jackson 5 members actually lived with Berry for a period of time after they signed, with Berry moving them out from Gary, Indiana to California, where they ended up living with Berry, where they "could really work night and day on their first four songs," which all ended up going to number one.

While the Michael biopic film did show some scenes of Berry mentoring Michael, it would have shown another level to how hospitable Berry was to the Jackson family, if the MJ 2026 film had shown how Berry had let The Jackson 5 stay at his place for a period, and engaged personally with each of the members -- and this period was one of the important things left out of Michael movie sections.

Diana Ross

The article goes into how Diana Ross took on the role of introducing The Jackson 5 to the general public with their first album, and how The Jackson 5 were also reported to have lived with Ross for roughly a year, during this time period. It mentioned how Katherine Jackson, in her 1991 book, My Family, The Jacksons, confirmed this, saying that Diana and the boys became attached immediately, and Marlon was quoted as saying, "The time spent at Diana's was one of the best times of my life; we got to do whatever we wanted to do. Diana was a kid in some ways, too. We'd just tear up. Boy, we had fun! Diana, Michael, and I would go swimming all day. To encourage our interest in art, she bought paint supplies, including several easels that she set up in the living room.

But more often than not, our painting sessions would turn into big paint fights. We really did a number on her white shag carpet."

It's understandable that the time that the Jacksons spent with Diana Ross was one of the things left out of Michael movie scenes, since the film wasn't allowed to include Diana, but it would have been good for the Michael film to have shown some of the time that The Jackson 5 kids spent staying with Diana, and how she played with them and encouraged them, as another example of the hospitality that Michael experienced, and it's a shame that the MJ 2026 film was blocked from doing so. I wonder if some of these times were part of the Michael Diana Ross cut scenes.

Suzanne de Passe

The article describes how Suzanne de Passe was not the first person to discover The Jackson 5, but was the one who got the group in front of Berry Gordy. It explains that Suzanne too took on a guardianship role with the group, with Suzanne telling Variety in a 2022 introspective: "Mr. Gordy put me in charge of everything having to do with them except the actual producing and writing of the records: the show, the wardrobe, the banter, the choreography -- we did the choreography for 'I Want You Back' in my living room -- putting them in schools, finding them a house, doctors, a dentist; finding songs for them to cover because they didn't have enough hits for the early shows."

It would have been good for the Michael Jackson 2026 movie to have shown Suzanne helping with some of these tasks, and even allowing the group's choreo to be done in her living room, to show the help that she gave with their care, especially since the biopic MJ movie already highlighted Suzanne in a scene.

Bobby Taylor

According to the article, Bobby Taylor, one of the people credited with discovering The Jackson 5 (which I will go more into later in this Michael biography movie review), "remained close until [Michael]'s death, with Taylor considering himself a father-figure to [Michael]." In an interview recorded in March 2011, Taylor expanded upon his relationship with Michel in those early years[,] where he served as a mentor to the group, and Michael in particular. Taylor even states that Michael would sometimes fall asleep in his lap as a kid. In the interview, Taylor also says that he is one of the few who knew Michael very well -- even into his adulthood.

It would have been good for the biopic Michael movie to have featured Bobby Taylor, and shown scenes of him helping mentor Michael, to show some of the closeness that Michael experienced with him, and it's a shame that Bobby Taylor was one of the people who was missing in the Michael Jackson movie.

Bill Bray

I was glad that the Michael film actually featured Bill Bray, and showed scenes of Michael being introduced to Bill, and actually conversing with him, that showed how early on Bill Bray became a part of Michael's life, and their level of closeness. The article described how Bill Bray was Michael Jackson's longtime bodyguard, working for Michael from the late 1960s/early 1970s, well into the 1990s. It said that those close to both Michael and Bray have stated that the two were very close, with Michael considering Bray to be a father figure. Of Bray, Michael was quoted as stating in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk:

"Bill is very careful and immensely professional in his job, but he doesn't worry about things after the fact. He travels with me everywhere[,] and[,] occasionally[,] he's my only companion on short trips. I can't imagine life without Bill; he's warm and funny[,] and absolutely in love with life. He's a great man."

The article mentioned how Bray remained on Michael's payroll until his passing, in the mid-2000s.

The Treasure-Sharer looked more into Bill Bray, and, according to the Michael Jackson Wiki Fandom page, Bill Bray had a very close bond with Michael, and became his "second father," while first serving as a security guard for the Jacksons, and later for Michael Jackson, working as the head of security during all of Michael Jackson's world tours. According to the article, even after Bill Bray retired from working for Michael, Michael paid for Bray's medical expenses until Bray's very last days.

According to the article Who Is Bill Bray? All About Michael Jackson's Longtime Security Guard, a 1989 Rolling Stone article described Bray as Michael's "top bodyguard, as well as one of his closest confidants," and reported that Bray had taken Michael to the doctor when he was ill, advised him on his business deals, and oversaw "all safety procedures" related to Michael's life, and that "[t]hose near [Michael] sa[id] that Bray [wa]s his alter ego and surrogate father[,] and that Bray ha[d] become involved in every part of the singer's life."

The article noted how, in 2019, TMZ published a handwritten note that Michael purportedly wrote to Bray at around 1992, that had been put up for auction, that read,

"Bill,

[I]t's been a long long road we have traveled throughout the years, concert tours, meeting dignitaries, kings and queens of countries, touring around the world twice, making people happy through the gift and love of music. I'm coming of age now[,] and realize the importance of true love.

Joseph never ever had time for me; he only saw me as a way for him to make money.

And as you know, mother was a perfect mother, but I never was with her. My childhood was on stage away from mother.

What I'm trying simply trying to say is thank you for being a father.

I don't know what would have happened to me if you were not around.

I love you.

M.J."

According to the article, a Reuters report credited Michael Jackson's publicist, Raymone Bain, with making the announcement about Bray's death, that, "Michael is very, very, very saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Bray, who was a longtime friend and mentor to him[,] and very trusted adviser to him," and the report also noted that Bray and Michael "had a falling out in the mid-1990s for reasons that were never made public."

I'm glad that Bill Bray was one of the important people in Michael's life who was in the Michael film.

Rose Fine

The article How Come Nobody Ever Apologizes to Michael Jackson: With a Child's Heart ends off by describing Michael's relationship with Rose Fine, who was the Jacksons' personal tutor until they graduated high school. Rose was one of the important people in Michael's life who is not in Michael Jackson movie scenes, despite the major impact that she had on Michael, growing up.

The Treasure-Sharer thought that the excerpts from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page were more complete than some of the excerpts included in the article, and so decided to include some of those here, instead. In an excerpt from the MJ Tapes, where Michael spoke of his relationship with Fine in a 2001 taped interview with Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, Michael said that he needed Rose Fine's motherly affection, saying, "[B]oy did I need it. I was never with my mother when I was little, very seldom, and I had a wonderful mother. I see her as an angel, and I was always gone, always on tour, doing back-to-back concerts, all over America, overseas, clubs, just always gone. [Rose Fine] was with us all the way from the very first professional tour of the Jackson 5[,] until I was eighteen." He said, "After the show I would run into [Rose Fine's] room. We'd read[,] and have warm milk[,] and I needed that so badly. She would always say to me, 'The door's open', and she would leave her door open...

She called me her son. Whenever you go on the plane, you see these seven little black kids and a black father, all got big Afros, and this old white Jewish woman would be in the back. They would stop her and go, 'Who are you?' She would say, 'I'm the mother.' She would say it every time[,] and they would let her go. Sweet story. She was special. I needed her."

The excerpts showed that Michael took care of Rose until her death, with one quote from Michael about her saying, "Rose died this year (2000)[;] Janet and myself, we paid for her nurse and her hospital care, or if her television broke down or the electricity, or there was anything wrong with the house, we would cover the bills. Now her husband is sick, so I am taking care of him, and because we felt she is our mother[,] and you take care of your mother... She was more than a tutor[,] and I was so angry at myself that when she died[,] I was far, far away. I couldn't get there."

The article How Come Nobody Ever Apologizes to Michael Jackson: With a Child's Heart quotes Michael as saying, "What a sweet person. She taught me the wonderful world of books and reading[,] and I wouldn't be the same person if it wasn't for her. I owe a lot to her[,] and that's why I am dedicating the new album to her."

The article says, "As you can see, there were multiple people in [Michael]'s life as a child that took him in and treated him as a son/mentee. Berry Gordy didn't have to let the Jacksons live with him [--] neither did Diana Ross[,] for that matter[,] as there was no prior relationship, but they did. Bobby Taylor didn't have to take over the role of watching [Michael] in particular, but he chose to, despite not having much of a prior relationship either. From [Michael]'s own words[,] it appears as though both Bill Bray and Rose Fine went above and beyond their job descriptions[,] to treat him as though he were a child of theirs. Mrs. Fine's only duty was to make sure each of the Jackson children met their state learning requirements and graduated from high school. She didn't have to comfort [Michael] when he was afraid on planes[,] or let him into her room at late hours to read to him while eating milk and cookies, but she did... This is why [Michael] himself had no problem turning around and doing the same thing for others as an adult[,] because he was shown that very same love and care."

The fact that Michael went on to cover the medical bills and care of Bill Bray and Rose Fine even after the termination of their employment, dedicated albums to Rose and Diana, and even named Diana in his will as the one that he trusted to care for his kids in the event that Katherine couldn't, showed how strongly Michael valued them, and remembered what they had given him and done for him, and how he never forgot that, and paid it back to them later -- in money, recognition, and the highest esteem. Michael inviting underprivileged kids into his home, and providing them with a similar loving experience, feels like him paying forward the love and warm experiences that he had received, to others in need.

Michael Jackson Teenage Years

The jump from kid Michael to adult Michael was a bit abrupt, for me. I would have preferred to have gotten to see some Michael Jackson teenage years depicted, which form a big part of the Michael Jackson movie missing parts. It's a shame that so much of Michael Jackson's life growing up was skipped over, as it explains a lot of his later actions.

Transitioning Past the Child Star

For Michael, the transition period between his childhood and adolescent years was even harder than the average kid's, due to him being known and loved for his childhood persona, and unrecognizable as the teen that he was growing into.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page quotes Michael as saying in the MJ Tapes, "There was a time I was in an airport -- and I will never forget this as long as I live -- and there was this lady who said: 'Oh, Jackson 5. Oh my God! Where's little Michael? Where's little Michael?' I go: 'Here I am.' She went: 'Urhhhg! What happened?' They want you to stay young and little forever. You go through that awkward stage[,] and they want to keep you small."

It would have encapsulated a lot for the Michael 2026 movie to have included a scene showing that exact moment, and Michael's reactions to it, so I think that it's a shame that the 2026 MJ film didn't show something similar, or make any reference to Michael's struggles with the public not accepting his changing appearance, that came with his adolescence.

The page quotes Michael as telling Oprah that it was "[v]ery, very difficult" going through adolescence, explaining to her, "Because I think every child star suffers through this period[,] because you're not the cute and charming child that you were. You start to grow, and they [the public] want to keep you little forever."

In another quote from the page, Michael says, "It's hard growing up a celebrity child. Very few make that transition from child star to adult star. It's very difficult. I relate to Shirley Temple. I met her in San Francisco[,] and I sat at her table[,] and I cried so bad. She said, 'What's wrong Michael?' I said, 'I love you. I need to be around you more.' She goes, 'You're one of us, aren't you?' and I said 'Yes, I am.' Somebody else said, 'What do you mean?' and she said, 'Michael knows what I mean.' And I know exactly what she meant -- to have been there as a child star and to have graduated to have succeeded in making that transition to fame as an adult is very difficult. When you're a child star[,] people don't want you to grow up. They want you to stay little forever. They don't want you to work afterwards. It's very hard."

Michael Jackson Teenage Acne

Michael Jackson's development of acne was one of the big Michael Jackson movie missing parts. For Michael Jackson, bad acne he developed as a teen did a number on his self-worth, that made him very shy and depressed, and left him with a lot of scars internally. Michael Jackson had acne that messed him up so badly that he didn't even want to go out or do anything -- not wanting anyone to see it.

It makes sense to me how big a deal it was to Michael, knowing how detail-oriented he was, and how much he cared about perfection, and being and looking perfect.

The Treasure-Sharer found a quote from the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page of Michael saying, "Yes, and I had pimples so badly[,] it used to make me so shy. I used not to look at myself. I'd hide my face in the dark, I wouldn't want to look in the mirror, and my father teased me[,] and I just hated it[,] and I cried every day.

Because show business and my career were my life, the biggest personal struggle I had to face during those teenage years did not involve the recording studios or my stage performance. In those days, the biggest struggle was right there in my mirror. To a great degree, my identity as a person was tied to my identity as a celebrity."

He continues, "My appearance began to really change when I was about fourteen. I grew quite a bit in height. People who didn't know me would come into a room expecting to be introduced to cute little Michael Jackson[,] and they'd walk right past me. I would say, 'I'm Michael,' and they would look doubtful. Michael was a cute little kid: I was a gangly adolescent heading toward five feet ten inches. I was not the person they expected or even wanted to see. Adolescence is hard enough, but imagine having your own natural insecurities about the changes your body is undergoing heightened by the negative reactions of others. They seemed so surprised that I could change, that my body was undergoing the same natural change everyone's does."

He describes the experience: "It was tough. Everyone had called me cute for a long time, but along with all the other changes, my skin broke out in a terrible case of acne. I looked in the mirror one morning and it was like, "OH NO!" I seemed to have a pimple for every oil gland. And the more I was bothered by it, the worse it got. I didn't reali[z]e it then, but my diet of greasy processed food didn't help either."

I can relate to Michael's experience, because I also got pimples at a young age, and my diet was actually similar to his, and I know how frustrating it was to have to go to school, and have everyone in my class not even having had acne yet, and laughing at me for having it. In some cases, I would say that my situation was worse than his, because I believe that I got acne even earlier than he did, way before my teens.

Michael describes the change that getting pimples had on him, continuing, "I became subconsciously scarred by this experience with my skin. I got very shy[,] and became embarrassed to meet people[,] because my complexion was so bad. It really seemed that the more I looked in the mirror, the worse the pimples got. My appearance began to depress me. So I know that a case of acne can have a devastating effect on a person. The effect on me was so bad that it messed up my whole personality. I couldn't look at people when I talked to them. I'd look down, or away. I felt I didn't have anything to be proud of[,] and I didn't even want to go out. I didn't do anything."

That, I can definitely relate to, because I had the exact same thoughts that he did, when I was feeling insecure about the zits that I had as a kid and teen. I didn't like looking in the mirror, and I had a hard time looking at other people as well, because I felt like, when you have a pimple somewhere on your face that's not hidden and very prominent, because you're young and a guy, you can't put makeup on it, and are stuck just walking around with it. And I did feel depressed, and also felt like I didn't want to do anything, because I felt embarassed to just be seen, in general.

Michael was so used to being loved, and spent so long acquiring that approval, so I understand why he was so bothered by everyone treating him like he was a gremlin -- where he was supposed to be this cute little thing, but became what felt like to him like this ugly thing, where it felt like they were saying, "You're ugly -- we don't like you anymore," every time he encountered someone who doubted who he was, after seeing the awkward, adolescent version of himself, when they expected and wanted only the cute, little-kid version of himself.

For Michael, it's like, you're this cute perfect baby, and, now, you are imperfect, and, now, all of sudden, you're not loved or valued.

I can feel the pain that he must have felt, and imagine being there, and how it must have felt like a slap on the face to have had people who were supposedly his fans not accept, and even disapprove of, the gangly teenager he was growing into.

Michael was born special, and with everyone around him knowing he was special, and treating him as special, and so was used to being loved, and being fawned over, and given special attention from the start. If you didn't start out like Michael, with all of these expectations on your shoulders -- starting at the top of the hill -- you wouldn't understand how it must have felt for him to feel like he was getting worse as he grew, and not better, to have received criticism, doubt, and disdain from those around him, for his changing appearance. It's like you climbed this massive mountain, and keep losing ground, and can't control the outcome, and it keeps getting worse.

Michael was still expected to people-please, perform, and be perfect, even while he was desperately trying to show who he was as a person. He had to have thought, "I gotta maintain it."

There's this kid celebrity, who, as a teenager, is no longer loved, so he wants to figure out how to be loved again. That's why he wanted to recreate himself, and separate himself from his child self, and be even better -- which is why he did end up surpassing his younger self in every way as an adult, becoming completely separate from Michael, the child star, and lead singer of The Jackson 5, and becoming his own person, who was better in every aspect than he was before -- writing his own songs, creating his own short films, developing his own stage and concerts, and putting his newly improved persona into everything he did.

Michael couldn't understand how his brother Marlon didn't care about things like pimples the way that he did, but I get it.

As Michael described, "My brother Marlon would be covered with pimples[,] and he wouldn't care[,] but I didn't want to see anybody[,] and I didn't want anyone to see my skin in that shape. It makes you wonder about what makes us the way we are, that two brothers could be so different."

I can explain why Marlon was like that, because Michael was straight-up talent from the start, where everyone could clearly see that there was something genuinely special about Michael, so that he bore constant pressure to live up to everyone else's expectations of him. With Marlon, he was not talented at singing or dancing, and was treated like the reject of the family because of this, and thus didn't have to worry about or feel like he was being compared to what he was before in a negative manner.

As the article The "Mystery" Jackson: Marlon Jackson's Solo Quest in the '80s quoted Marlon as saying in an LA Times article, "I'm the mystery man. Nobody knows that much about me... I'm the background Jackson." As the article states, "Singing and dancing hadn't come as naturally to Marlon as a youngster as they had to his brothers. With his father, Joe, forming a group out of his sons partly as a result of being a frustrated musician himself, he didn't see in Marlon the same level of innate talent that his other sons had; in fact, Marlon was only included in The Jackson 5 at the insistence of their mother, who didn't want him excluded."

The article states, "It's also been well documented, such as in interviews with Michael, as well as Jermaine's book You Are Not Alone, that Marlon bore the brunt of Joe's rage when he didn't excel during early rehearsals. But through force of will and years of effort, Marlon eventually became known as a respectable dancer, holding his own next to Michael and Jackie's own dance moves on stage[,] and occasionally taking some turns at co-lead singing on certain Jackson 5 songs."

The article continues, "But while most of the other Jackson brothers started showing off their songwriting chops once the group left Motown in 1975, Marlon was left on the sidelines... It turns out it wasn't that he wasn't writing songs[,] but rather that the others simply didn't like them. His first real solo credits came from Betty Wright's 1983 album Wright Back at You, which he produced and wrote songs for, but the album was not a success commercially."

When you're up there like Michael, you're constantly being compared to your previous self -- giving you the urge to climb the mountain, and be even bigger and shinier than before. The standard response you're used to is praise, admiration, and adoration, so having those taken away, and replaced with mean and hurtful comments and responses, hurts so much more to you than it would to a person who is used to being yelled at, criticized, made fun of, and looked down on, as Marlon was, in the Jackson family.

With Marlon, he started out being the worst dancer and singer in the family, and I think I read somewhere that he also had trouble singing, being off-tune sometimes, so Marlon was literally at zero, and no one was considering him for the group, with Joe initially just recognizing his three older brothers. Marlon was the neglected one, who kind of got added in as a byproduct, when Michael was added to the group, so you can totally understand why Marlon didn't care about acne. He already got yelled at the most by their father, and already got criticized the most, so, of course, having imperfect skin didn't bother him, when he was already considered and treated as less than perfect to begin with.

With Marlon, everything was an upside. Michael carried him up, and he got to benefit from being famous. Marlon was forgettable and random, at first -- not being the heartthrob or cutest, or good at playing instruments, or at singing or dancing. He had to work for every achievement, so when he achieved success in the areas that he had worked so hard in, he could have them all recognized as wins, whereas, for Michael, he couldn't afford to have a misstep or imperfection in any area, and could only aim to maintain or outshine what he had already been and done.

If you're starting down at the bottom, and you get a pimple, it doesn't feel like the end of the world, because you were already dealt so many bad cards in life, and were already treated badly to begin with, while with Michael, he had been treated like the best from the start, and wasn't used to receiving disapproval from anyone, so it hit him that much harder when he started to experience it all the time, from everyone around him -- from loved ones, to strangers -- that he was now no longer what he once was, and had every change in his physical appearance scrutinized and criticized.

While Michael's talent never let up, allowing him to continue to deliver excellent musical and dance performances, the changes in his body and physical features were things that were out of his control, so I understand why he felt the need to keep his public appearances off-stage to a minimum, and would consider using plastic surgery as a means of getting back some control over some of the physical features that were possible to "correct," such as his growing nose.

As Michael said, "I still had our hits records to be proud of, and once I hit the stage, I didn't think about anything else. All that worry was gone. But once I came offstage, there was that mirror to face again."

I can understand Michael's focus on his physical appearance, and on trying to make himself look perfect, because he had once been perfect in the eyes of others, and so, of course, he would want to be viewed in the same way by them again -- wanting to shrink his growing nose, smooth out his skin, and go back to looking and sounding like the child that so many of his fans kept expecting, every time they looked for him and asked about him. That's why he took the opportunity to change his nose size, when he had to fix his nose after he accidentally broke it during a fall, and why he felt so much pressure to conform to the physical appearance standards that others subjected him to, with their hurtful responses and comments.

Thankfully, Michael was able to move past that, as the quote continued, "Eventually, things changed. I started feeling differently about my condition. I've learned to change how I think[,] and learned to feel better about myself. Most importantly, I changed my diet. That was the key."

I think that it would have been good to have shown Michael film scenes of Michael going through his growth spurt, him developing acne, people not being able to recognize him, and some of his responses to the changes that he had to go through, to show how big of an impact they had on him, and how different life felt for him, after experiencing the growing pains of adolescence.

Michael Jackson's Big Nose

It would also have been good for the Michael biopic to show how Michael had to bear his struggles alone, and how his brothers and father didn't help, but made things even worse, with their teasing about Michael's "big nose."

How Michael was teased not just by his father, but also by his brothers, about his big nose, and how often this happened, was another of the things left out of Michael movie scenes.

Michael's brother, Jermaine, was quoted on the "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Childhood page as saying, "I didn't appreciate how much [Michael] worried about the threat his acne posed to his image[,] because he never really spoke about it. We didn't really talk about that sort of thing. What 'cool' teenage boy does? We Jackson brothers were especially bound that way. We had been taught so much about pride, respect[,] and performance that we had never learned the art of easy communication. We didn't check in with each other unless it was album talk, tour madness, choreography ideas, basketball plans[,] or girls. So Michael suffered quietly as his features change[d][,] and his skin flared up with pimples[.] Indeed he locked it deep inside, except for the odd worry he expressed to Mother."

Jermaine described Michael's experience, saying, "Michael's acne was a confusion he wasn't expecting. And then there was his nose. It widened noticeably[,] and he hated it. In fact, he hated his nose so much that he found it hard to look at himself in the mirror. This wasn't just typical teenage self[-]consciousness: it became a full[-]blown inferiority complex. The more he looked at himself, the unhappier he felt. In fact, he was painfully brittle during conversations with anyone, always looking down to avoid eye contact."

He explained how Michael hid his feelings well, saying, "His comfort zone, as always, was the stage or platform of press interviews, when reporters spoke of how 'energized', 'inquisitive' and 'ebullient' he was. In performance mod[e], Michael's teenage woes were well[-]concealed behind makeup or the performance's personality he projected. Offstage, our merciless teasing only made matters worse, but teasing is what brothers do, and we all had to go through it. When my acne kicked in, they -- including Michael -- called me 'Bumpy Face' or 'Map Face' and Marlon was 'Live Lips.' I even received a second label, 'Big Head,' because my head was, apparently, too big for my body. So when Michael was called 'Big Nose' it was just part of the common initiation into manhood -- but he struggled with it. Not that we knew so until much later."

Jermaine was quoted as continuing, "Michael always recalled Joseph using the tease, and that was what hurt him most -- hearing it from an adult's lips[,] and from the man who had driven home the importance of image all our lives. 'Hey, Big Nose, come over here,' said Joseph. Michael said nothing and cringed each time."

As Jermaine mentioned, Joe "had driven home the importance of image all [their] lives," and it might have been good for the Michael biopic movie to have shown examples of that, to help viewers understand part of what drove Michael's perfectionism, and why his changing appearance affected him so much.

Michael Jackson's Insecurities

The extremeness of the insecurities that Michael developed during his teenage years was an example of what was left out of the Michael biopic movie. The article Michael Jackson, Childhood, and the Human Need for Understanding says, "His childhood could also explain his insecurities with his looks, as numerous plastic surgeries for the 'perfect' face would leave [Michael] unrecognizable from his early adult years. [Michael]'s surgical procedures were a way to cover his insecurity, as he had the luxury to fit his face to his liking. It's estimated that [Michael] would undergo 100 operations."

(Note: Michael having staggering amounts of operations for cosmetic purposes is a Michael Jackson misconception that I will clear up in later sections of this biopic Michael Jackson review, as most of Michael's surgeries were actually corrective operations to fix problems caused by his Lupus.)

The article explains, "But the root of these feelings of unsureness began in adolescence.

[Michael]'s self-consciousness began with his own perception on how he looked as [a] teenager. [Michael] thought he was ugly, and didn't like the nose appearance and skin. But Joe Jackson didn't help matter, calling his gifted son 'big nose[,]' which deepened his son's insecurity. This led to repeated surgeries on his face and nose, in which he was never satisfied. But these actions permeate from the years of whippings for missteps in rehearsals[,] and lack of love and nurture needed for [someone] of Michael's caliber.

[Michael] would deal with reclusiveness, lack of self-confidence[,] and feelings of loneliness for the remainder of his life."

The article continues, "Because of his deep regard for child-like things, eccentric behavior[,] and his plastic surgeries, Michael Jackson would become judged, ridiculed, and mocked persistently. It took until his death for the masses to remember him as one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived. However, the general population skipped over these key factors that drove [Michael]'s behavior in fear of ridicule. The signs that [Michael] was seeking the love and affection of his father, while relishing for the childhood he never had[,] were blatantly ignored."

The article shows how Michael Jackson was so misunderstood due to no one taking the time to ask, "Was Michael Jackson just misunderstood?", and looking into the Michael Jackson misconceptions that led to wrong beliefs about his reasons for engaging in the behaviors that he did -- which is why it's a shame that delving into some of the actual factors that caused them was part of what was left out of the Michael Jackson movie..

Michael Movie Inaccuracies and Missing Moments

Now that I've gone into some of the key childhood and teenage moments of Michael's life that were not included in the 2026 biopic film Michael, I will now go into my thoughts on the Michael Jackson movie, the content that was presented, and other moments in Michael's life that were left out (on top of the missing moments that I have already mentioned) that I think should have been included.

After watching the 2026 Michael Jackson movie, I actually understand Janet Jackson's reservations about the MJ biopic movie, because I did catch the Michael 2026 movie inaccuracies, the makeup issues, and the lack of continuity.

What follows are some of the inaccuracies and missing things in Michael 2026 movie moments that I have identified.

The Jackson Brothers

An example of the historical inaccuracies in the Michael movie scenes is regarding The Jackson 5 members, and how, at the very beginning, the group was more like "The Jackson 3." I'm not saying that the group was called that, as it was actually called "The Jackson Brothers," but it originally started with Joe Jackson putting Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, and Jermaine Jackson to work, and Marlon Jackson and Michael Jackson joining a bit later. That wasn't shown in the film Michael 2026.

The Jackson 5's Rise

Michael Jackson 5 performance still, taken from biopic MJ film

Another thing that took away from the Michael movie historical accuracy is how the 2026 MJ movie skipped over all the talent competitions that The Jackson 5 participated in. See above for a still of one of The Jackson 5 performances in the MJ biography film.

The movie basically showed The Jackson 5 doing a few shows at the beginning, and then their big talent competition in the movie was the one at the Regal Theatre in Chicago, in 1968.

"Never Can Say Goodbye" Dates Mistake

Inaccurate dates were some of the historical inaccuracies in Michael movie scenes. One of the Michael movie wrong depictions was that the movie had The Jackson 5 singing "Never Can Say Goodbye" at the Regal Theatre in Chicago in 1968, prior to being signed to Motown, which was impossible, because the song was recorded in June 1970, and wasn't released until March 16, 1971. See the Michael Jackson Wiki Fandom "Never Can Say Goodbye" page for the "Never Can Say Goodbye" recording and release dates.

Jackson 5 One-derfurl Records Management and Steeltown Records Management

Some of the missing things in Michael 2026 film scenes was The Jackson 5 being signed for a period of time to One-derful Records, and then to Steeltown Records, in 1968.

Suzanne De Passe Jackson 5 "Discovery"

Suzanne De Passe and Joe Jackson still, taken from MJ film 2026

Another Michael Jackson movie inaccuracy is who discovered The Jackson 5. Joe Jackson wasn't scoping out Suzanne De Passe backstage like how it was portrayed in the movie, and Suzanne didn't witness Michael performing at the Regal Theatre, or even at the Apollo, and the Jacksons weren't signed to Motown like that, either. See the still above, taken from the movie Michael 2026, of Suzanne de Passe handing Joe Jackson a business card, after watching The Jackson 5 performance.

The Jacksons' Journey to Motown

Some other historical inaccuracies in Michael included how it downplayed the roles of other people in the discovery of The Jackson 5. The Michael biopic 2026 movie kind of made Gladys Knight seem insignificant to The Jackson 5's discovery. I'll give the Michael film credit for showing Gladys Knight introducing The Jackson 5, because she discovered them, but it wasn't clearly indicated that she was responsible for discovering them, and for sending their demo tape to Berry Gordy at Motown.

The Michael biopic movie also didn't indicate that Berry Gordy rejected The Jackson 5's demo, or that Bobby Taylor from the group "Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers" became friends with the Jacksons, after they opened for Bobby at the Regal Theatre in 1968 (I don't know why they didn't show that in the MJ movie 2026), and that Bobby then set up an audition at Motown to try to get Berry Gordy to sign them, and that they were shot down again, because Berry didn't want to sign any more "kid acts" after Stevie Wonder.

(As a sidenote, I don't think that it would have been absolutely critical for the MJ 2026 film to have covered it, but, it would have been interesting to have seen Michael Jackson in the studio with Stevie Wonder, since I'm sure that they must have bumped into each other as kids, at some point. What if there was a session where the J5 and Stevie Wonder did a song together, but it wasn't released? I wouldn't know, but it would have been cool if the Michael biographical film had hinted at things like this, if they had actually happened in real life.)

Finally, Bobby Taylor got Suzanne De Passe to take a look at the Jacksons, and Suzanne De Passe then pleaded with Berry to see them and sign them, while she marketed them as being discovered by Diana Ross & the Supremes. All of these details could have added more depth to the film about Michael Jackson's life, and helped with the Michael Jackson movie 2026 accuracy.

If you want to read more about Bobby Taylor's role in discovering The Jackson 5, you can read the blog article Bobby Taylor Discovers the Jackson 5.

The Jackson 5 and American Bandstand Show

Furthermore, when The Jackson 5 performed on a TV show, there wasn't a clear indication of which particular TV show they were performing on, but because I remembered the clothing that they were wearing, I knew that the show was American Bandstand, but the movie didn't show The Jackson 5 performing on The Hollywood Palace or The Ed Sullivan Show. I'm not sure if the 2026 Michael Jackson movie intentionally left out the name of the show so that it would imply that the performance that was shown was meant to encompass all three of The Jackson 5's television show performances, or if the names of the shows just legally couldn't be mentioned in the Michael biographical movie.

The End of the First Act of the Movie

Michael movie still -- Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson doing Jackson 5 performance at carnival, taken from MJ movie 2026

Moreover, another thing that hurt the Michael Jackson movie accuracy was how it downplayed the scope of The Jackson 5's fame and reach, even in their early days. I don't really get why the Michael biopic movie ended the child period of The Jackson 5 with them performing The Jackson 5 songs at a carnival, when they were regularly entering talent shows and competitions, and performing at big venues like the Apollo Theatre in New York, and had six tours between 1970 to 1976.

I think that it would have been nice to have seen even just a short montage of them performing for Queen Elizabeth, and touring South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, the West Indies, and the Philippines. I can understand why that would have been expensive to do, and arduous, but I think that it would have been nice to have seen, because it's part of Michael Jackson's teenage years, and I think that someone who maybe doesn't know the Jacksons would have been able to see how big and famous the Jacksons already were while they were still young. If some of The Jackson 5 world tours had been included, then they would have shown that the Jacksons were huge as a group all over the world, and not just in America -- even before Michael took himself to the next level, when he went solo -- so it's a shame that they were part of what was left out of the Michael movie.

Michael Jackson's Dance Influences

Michael Jackson and Marlon Jackson practicing dancing still, taken from biopic MJ movie

While the biopic Michael film showed several clips of Michael as a kid watching dancing on TV, and, in some cases, copying dance moves, there was no clear indication of who he was copying. The scenes were likely supposed to represent how Michael got inspiration from watching and copying other famous dancers, but I would have liked to have seen a short montage of Michael getting some of his most famous dance moves from copying some of his favorite dance influences, such as Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, Fred Astaire, Elvis Presley, Bob Fosse, and Charlie Chaplin. That these important inspirational figures in Michael's life were part of who was not in Michael Jackson movie scenes was a shame, as Michael credited his dance inspirations, and likely wouldn't have left out acknowledging them, if he'd had a say in the making of the MJ biopic movie. See above for a Michael Jackson biopic film still of Michael demonstrating a dance move for his brother, Marlon, as they practice their dancing in front of the TV. What wasn't demonstrated in this scene (but which is covered in The Jacksons: An American Dream), was how much Marlon struggled to learn dance moves -- being unable to execute the moves, or taking forever to learn them, and be synchronized with the group itself.

Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones Relationship: How Quincy Jones Met Michael Jackson

Some important missing Michael movie scenes included those involving Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. One thing the Michael biopic movie could have shown was how 12-year-old Michael Jackson first met Quincy Jones at Sammy Davis Jr.'s house in Los Angeles, and the 2026 MJ film could have even shown how Quincy told Michael that he was being "too weird," during their first meeting. You can read more about their first encounter in the article Quincy Jones Admitted He Told a 12-Year-Old Michael Jackson He Was 'Weird.'

Jehovah's Witness Restrictions, and Michael Jackson Leaves Jehovah's Witnesses

What was missing in the Michael movie, and would have been an awesome Michael movie "Thriller" segment addition, was how Michael was at one point so devout a Jehovah's Witness that he even asked John Branca to destroy the "Thriller" tape before it was released, after the Jehovah's Witness church elders told Michael that they disapproved of the video (feeling that the werewolf and dancing zombies promoted demonology), and told Michael that he would be expelled from the religion if he released the video.

As the article JOHN BRANCA: "Charming, Ruthless, Asshole" explains, Branca tricked Michael into putting out the "Thriller" video anyway, by fabricating, and getting Michael to believe, the lie that the actor Bela Lugosi was able to play a demonic Dracula in spite of his strong religious convictions, by placing a disclaimer at the beginning of his Dracula movie, which was not true, but convinced Michael to release "Thriller" with a disclaimer.

See below for a still of the Thriller video disclaimer, taken from the "Thriller" music video.

Michael Jackson Thriller mv disclaimer, taken from Michael Jackson Thriller video

The fact that the "Thriller" song disclaimer, and how it came to be, due to Michael Jackson's Jehovah's Witness faith, was part of what was left out of the Michael movie is another example of how the 2026 MJ film is more about Michael's musical career than about the other aspects of his life.

Michael's Jehovah's Witness faith apparently extended to his relationships, with the article This Former Child Star Revealed The Regretful Decision She Made That Ended Her Relationship With Michael Jackson quoting Michael as telling Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in 2001 about his relationship with Tatum O'Neal, saying, "She wanted to do everything[,] and I didn't want to have sex at all, because there were a lot of values associated with being a Jehovah's Witness... When I held Tatum's hand[,] it was just magic, better than anything, kissing her, anything. There were fireworks going on. It was all I needed. But that means nothing to kids today. She grew up too fast."

Because Michael's Jehovah's Witness faith was one of the things missing from the Michael movie, his reasons for leaving were also part of what's missing from the Michael Jackson movie.

In 1987, Michael disassociated himself from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Some of the things that contributed to him withdrawing from the Jehovah's Witnesses included the following moments (which we have also included Michael's responses to, to show how Michael felt about them):

The article Michael Jackson's life as a Jehovah's Witness said, "...the Jehovah's Witnesses' elders in Woodland Hills, California, began pressuring Michael again... Michael was becoming disenchanted with the church's elders by this time, mostly because he didn't want to be told what to do. What's more[,] he couldn't reconcile his lifestyle and career with the religion's strict tenets. In truth, it's almost impossible to be a Jehovah's Witness and be an entertainer. Therefore, in the spring of 1987, Michael withdrew from the Jehovah's Witnesses."

"The disfellowshipping of La Toya contributed to Michael disassociating, as he could not accept the [elders'] right to dictate that he could no longer associate with his sister." (Jehovah's Witnesses were supposed to associate exclusively with other members.)

The article quoted La Toya as saying in her book La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family, pp.196-200, "On the Victory tour, ... [Michael] hired someone whose sole task was to locate a Kingdom Hall in each town[,] so that Michael wouldn't miss a single meeting... Michael... won those record-breaking eight honors at the 1984 Grammy Awards. The very next morning[,] one elder issued him an ultimatum that my brother must choose between music and the [Jehovah's Witness] religion... Because Michael diligently studied the Bible, he could usually cite chapter and verse supporting his contention that entertaining people was not wrong. 'I'm still living according to the [WatchTower Society's] teachings,' he pointed out, as he'd done so many times before. I still go door to door wherever I am, even if I'm on tour. I can't help it if people hang up my poster on their wall[,] or tear my picture out of a magazine. I don't ask them to idolize me. I only want them to enjoy my music.' ... many Jehovah's Witnesses used to congregate outside the Kingdom Hall hoping to catch a glimpse of Michael Jackson, knowing full well this kind of adulation was forbidden. Michael did everything humanly possible to demonstrate his dedication to Jehovah. Once[,] when an elder criticized, 'Your movements on stage suggest sex; don't do them anymore,' my brother complied without protest[,] and promptly changed the routine. He also invited an elder on tour to see for himself that he lived in harmony with all the faith's rules, canvassed door to door, and attended all the meetings. ... One day I walked into Janet's room to find Michael crying his eyes out. '[La Toya], ... I can't talk to you ever again ... The elders had a big meeting, and they told me never to speak to you because you haven't been coming to the Kingdom Hall... they said that if I don't stop talking to you, they'll kick me out of the religion.' ... Michael decided to disobey the elders' edict[,] and after that never attended any more meetings ... he subsequently severed his ties to the organization through a formal letter. What made this painful episode even more agonizing was that[,] for a long time[,] I believed Michael might be one of the Remnant, the select 144,000."

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" God, faith, spirituality, consciousness, unity page quotes Karen Faye, Michael Jackson makeup artist and long-time friend, from her blog, karenfayeblog.com/, describing the ultimatum presented to Michael by the Jehovah's Witness elders: "We were shooting SMOOTH CRIMINAL... Michael was surrounded by the alien battalion in a gully, built on stage 14.

The special weapons and ammunition team had briefed Michael on how to hold the machine gun and fire it... Michael was having fun with it, like a little boy playing army. He took a strong stance, and fired as the cameras rolled...

Michael was a little late arriving the next day... He walked in so distraught... He was silent as he sat in the makeup chair. I had to ask him please tell me. Please tell me what is wrong.

His eyes welled up with tears. 'Mother called last night. The church called her, and told her that I held and fired a gun yesterday. They ordered that I have to make [a] decision. I must leave the church, or leave the entertainment industry.' He was weeping as he uttered those words.

I was quite mortified. 'What did your mother advise you to do?'

'She felt horrible. She told me it was up to me. She said she would stand by me with whatever I decided.'

'I see, you are here today'.

'Yes'

'Mother is supporting my choice'."

Karen's continued quote describes the difficulty that Michael had with adjusting to his decision to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses: "It took a while for Michael to adjust to his choice. He continued to feel uncomfortable with his birthday, but attended fan events in his honor, and truly enjoyed them...

When I was around him during Christmas, he would hide in his own closet to secretly wrap presents. He still held a tinge of guilt. I knew it was difficult for him, but I know he loved all the decorations that NEVER came down. He could freely give his children the birthdays that he never had. I knew deep down inside [that] the [Jehovah's] Witness teachings continued to hold a sacred place inside of him. That is why I was forever torn by not saying 'Happy Birthday'. He never released me from my promise to not say it to him.'"

These are some of the contributing reasons that we found as to why Michael left the Jehovah's Witnesses, though he stayed spiritual, and true to God. I would have appreciated having some of these moments captured in Michael biopic scenes, to demonstrate how pained Michael was by his decision to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses, but how certain key moments made it impossible for him to stay, and how "the Jehovah Witness teachings continued to hold a sacred place inside of him," as Karen observed.

All the things related to the Jehovah's Witnesses influences on Michael's decisions, and how he lived his life, were critical things missing from the Michael movie.

Michael Jackson and Tatum O'Neal Relationship

Tatum O'Neal was another person who was not in Michael Jackson movie scenes. I would have wanted to have seen Michael's relationship with Tatum O'Neal, from 1977 to 1980, in the Michael biography movie, and how she turned down going to see the premiere of The Wiz with Michael, which abruptly ended their relationship.

Tatum O'Neal blames her talent agency for her decision. Apparently, according to the article This Former Child Star Revealed The Regretful Decision She Made That Ended Her Relationship With Michael Jackson, her talent agent said to her, "You can't go to a premiere with a n*****."

The article also mentions that Tatum O'Neal believes that the time that she and Michael had spent at the Playboy Mansion together -- where Michael was exposed to Hugh Hefner's menagerie of monkeys and peacocks and other exotic birds -- gave Michael the idea for his Neverland Ranch.

I can see why it would have been complicated to have included Michael Jackson and Tatum O'Neal's relationship in the Michael biopic movie, but I still think that it would have been a cool feature in the movie. A big part of what's missing from the Michael Jackson movie is Michael Jackson's girlfriends over the years. The reason I would have liked to have seen them included is that the 2026 movie Michael makes it look like Michael was loner who just hung out with his pets, and played Twister and stuff, when there is actually more to it, as he actually had friends outside of his family, and had girlfriends, but the biopic movie Michael didn't show any of that. I would actually have wanted Michael Part 1 and 2 to cover all Michael Jackson's girlfriends, to see the different dynamics that he had with each of them, and why he chose these women in particular to be his girlfriends. It's a shame that the Michael Part 1 movie missed out on covering Michael Jackson girlfriends in the 80s, and I hope that the MJ movie 2 does a better job of covering Michael Jackson's girlfriends and wives.

Michael Jackson Disguises

Another big part of what's missing from the Michael movie is how Michael Jackson wore so many different disguises to hide his identity. If Michael's relationship with Tatum O'Neal had been covered in the MJ 2026 film, then it could have shown a scene of Michael making his first public appearance with a disguise, of a bushy beard and huge afro, which he hired Rick Backer, an Oscar-winning special-effects artist, to create for him, to make him unrecognizable on his date with Tatum to a Kool and the Gang concert in 1982. The article Michael Jackson's Love for Disguise: How He Used it to Maintain Privacy and Enjoy Public Life describes how Michael Jackson used disguises quite often, to evade the eyes of his fans in public, and enjoy and experience a normal life, and how disguises initially allowed him to make public appearances, like his date with Tatum, with blissful anonymity. The article describes how Michael was so popular that his every public visit had to be planned in advance with stringent security measures, and how Michael often remained locked up in his hotel room to avoid the crowds that used to gather around just to have a mere glimpse of him. So, whenever Michael felt like going incognito, he would resort to wearing a disguise, and resorted to wearing a wide variety of disguises throughout his life. Sometimes, it used to be to save himself from fans, and other times, to get close to them without being recognized.

The article said that Michael even accepted wearing disguises on record in an interview, and confessed that he wore bat suits, glasses, buck teeth, prosthetics, makeup, etc. -- at times to be in the audience and experience what it felt like.

It says that Michael Jackson's disguises became less convincing and more bizarre with time, with him often wearing masks, scarves, and even heaps of fabric on his face.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Privacy page shows some of the reasons for Michael Jackson disguises in public, quoting Michael as saying, "I do disguises for different reasons. I like to study people -- be like the fly on the wall. Even if it's two old ladies sitting on a bench or some kids on a swing. Because I don't know what it's like to fit in an everyday life situation. One time I was in a record store, completely disguised, and these girls were pulling out my album, talking all about me. I was literally next to them. It was wonderful. I loved it. But if I go out as myself, I can't have fun. People always say, 'Why don't we just go to a party?' Soon as I step in, the party's over -- for me. It's a party for them, but they are all putting their cards on my face, saying, 'Remember me? I met you four years ago at…' and I say, 'I don't remember.' So I can't enjoy the experience. They play all my songs. I didn't come to hear my music. And everybody starts chanting 'Dance!' 'Well, I want to see you dance for a change.'"

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On Fame, Loneliness, Pain and Desire for Love page quotes Michael as replying in an online audio chat from Oct. 26, 2001, to the question, "If you could change one thing about your life, what would you change?" with the answer, "I would like to be able to go out in public and just be normal [sometimes], without people recognizing who I am, and to get a little bit of a feeling of what it's like to, you know, be of the regular norm. To see how things are done; to learn what people speak about when they're just casually talking. [']Cause soon as they see it's Michael Jackson, the conversation changes; it all becomes about me[,] and not about the situation -- the moment, that's happening at the moment. That would... I would learn a lot from that. I don't get to see that unless I disguise myself and put on a lot of things, and then they stare at me, then it's even different; it's not the same even then. So, it's a difficult thing to pull off."

Michael disguising his voice was another big part of what was missing in the Michael movie. The article says that Michael Jackson's disguises were not limited to his looks only, and that, besides wearing disguises and masks, Michael was also known for disguising voices, and that his shape-shifting voice skills were excellent, but that he was caught on record speaking in a much deeper voice several times.

The article said that Michael was said to have a masculine speaking voice that he, arguably, did not use on purpose, and it would have been interesting for the Michael film to have shown instances of this. The article said that even Russell Crowe admitted that Michael would often prank call him at hotels using different variations of voices.

The article also noted that, other than disguising voices, Michael also hired an impersonator named Navi, who worked with him for 17 years, and used to make public appearances as MJ to lure the crowd and media away, while the real MJ would sneak out without being caught.

It would have been good for the Michael biopic movie to have featured some scenes of Michael disguising himself in various ways (including his voice), including when he did his Jehovah's Witness door-to-door visitations, and to show how much Michael craved being able to do normal things, outside of the spotlight.

The Michael biography movie depicting Michael's propensity for pranks, and his decades of donning disguises, might have helped viewers understand the belief by some, and theory that Michael Jackson is still alive, and that Michael Jackson faked his death, and is still around, wearing different disguises.

The Wiz, and the Start of the Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones collaberation

The Wiz movie poster, taken from IMBD Michael movie missing scenes from his time filming The Wiz left the Michael movie incomplete. There was no mention of Michael's role in The Wiz, which was a reimagined urban African-American adaption of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. The Wiz was released in 1978, so Michael would have been 20 years old at the time, though the movie was technically being filmed when he was 19.

The reason why the Michael Jackson The Wiz movie filming was an important period was because it was the second time that Michael Jackson met Quincy Jones, and the first time that the two worked on a project together.

It was shortly after The Wiz that Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson went on to produce three albums: Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad. So you can see why it was a bit of a disservice to have not included The Wiz, and all the major events that stemmed from it, in the Michael Jackson biography film.

It was shortly after The Wiz that Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson went on to produce three albums: Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad. So you can see why it was a bit of a disservice to have not included The Wiz, and all the major events that stemmed from it, in the Michael Jackson biography film.

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Michael Jackson and Stephanie Mills Relationship

One of the people missing from the Michael movie was Stephanie Mills, Michael Jackson's ex-girlfriend. The Dorothy role that was originally supposed to go to Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the Broadway musical of The Wiz, ended up going to Diana Ross.

According to the thread Old Tea about Diana Ross's shenanigans on The Wiz, Berry Gordy was set on casting Stephanie Mills for the role, and even said that Diana Ross was too old to play the role, but Diana Ross worked her magic with Motown behind Berry Gordy's back, and got casted anyway as Dorothy, in large part by using her ability to bring Michael Jackson into the cast as the scarecrow as her leverage to allow her to play the role of Dorothy.

I think that it would have been nice to have seen when Michael Jackson dated Stephanie Mills during that period.

Michael Jackson Living in New York

Also, another critical thing that the Michael biopic film didn't show because The Wiz was part of what the Michael movie left out was the fact that Michael wasn't living at Hayvenhurst during the filming of the The Wiz -- he was actually living in New York City without his family, except for maybe his sister, La Toya Jackson, who he shared a Manhattan apartment with, and it would have been good for the MJ biopic movie to have shown these Michael movie missing scenes. This period of time was critical because of The Wiz; however, if there was any other reason why Michael was living in New York apart from filming The Wiz, then that would have been interesting for the film to have included. For example, was Michael trying to get away from Joe and his brothers, or was this the beginning of him wanting to start his independence, because he got a taste of it while filming The Wiz?

Studio 54 Michael Jackson Visits

Studio 54 Michael movie still, taken from MJ biopic movie

In New York, Michael Jackson frequented the club "Studio 54," and the things that Michael did at Studio 54 were major things the Michael movie missed. The biopic Michael film showed a short clip of him going to Studio 54 during the making of his Off the Wall album, but Michael had already been going there prior to the making of Off the Wall, with cast members from The Wiz. See above for a still of the Michael movie Studio 54 scene.

I think that it's a shame that the Michael Jackson movie Studio 54 scene of Michael pulling up to Studio 54, and a few shots of random people dancing in the club were the only Studio 54 scenes in the MJ movie 2026, as they didn't even show Michael Jackson in Studio 54, what he was doing in the Studio 54 club, and why it mattered, and an in-depth Michael biopic Studio 54 scene would have been worth it, if it had gone deeper, and shown Michael Jackson at Studio 54, and what he did and experienced there.

I'm sure that the Michael biopic had to cut out the other parts that it had of Michael Jackson in Studio 54 because of the Michael Diana Ross scenes cut, some of which probably featured the two of them at Studio 54.

I think that the time that Michael spent at Studio 54 was very important in shaping him, and the projects that he took on later in life, and I would have been a lot happier with the Michael biopic movie if it had even only included more scenes of his time there, and shown some of the things that it led to -- such as, perhaps, later collaborations with other artists that he may have met there, since the club was frequented by so many celebrities, including big-name singers and bands.

I also wonder if Michael might have met Donald Trump at Studio 54, as I know that Trump, like Michael, frequented Studio 54, and it's possible that they might have met there informally (before their official first meeting at Madison Square Garden, during Michael Jackson's concert), or, even if they didn't, perhaps Studio 54 ended up being in a conversation that came up between Michael Jackson and Donald J. Trump during the course of their friendship, as something that they had in common.

I think that Michael used his time at Studio 54 as an opportunity to network. He probably ran into a bunch of celebrities, and probably developed friendships while being there, with such stars as Debbie Allen, Steve Tyler and his band Aerosmith, and Woody Allen, who we can see featured with him in multiple Michael Jackson Studio 54 images. I wonder if it was like Michael seeing what Hollywood was like outside of the stage, seeing what the stars do when they're not on stage or performing, etc. -- and I wonder if he used this as an opportunity to observe them and the venue. He probably also used Studio 54 as an opportunity for escapism, and as place to hang out -- but not necessarily to do drugs and drink, but to relax.

The Treasure-Sharer found an interview article called "The Magic of Studio 54," featuring two people discussing Michael's experiences at Studio 54, and how they shaped him, that captures a lot of what I think that Studio 54 represented and meant to Michael. The Treasure-Sharer thought that it would be worth sharing many of the insights from the article, to help those of you who don't know anything about Studio 54 understand how big a deal it was, and how big a role Studio 54 and Michael's time in New York played in shaping Michael (since the Treasure-Sharer hadn't known anything about Studio 54 herself, prior to editing this Michael 2026 film review).

As the article stated, Studio 54 was no ordinary nightclub, and "was so famous that it defined New York night life in the late ['70s] and early ['80s]," with people coming from all over the world to join the crowds outside its doors, hoping to get in, as it provided a place "where the glamorous -- celebrities and non-celebrities alike -- could mix and mingle and dance, and live out their fantasies (which for some meant being able to openly indulge in sex and drugs)." The article lists "Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Cher, Brooke Shields, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Steven Tyler, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tatum [O'Neal]" as being some of the celebrities that Michael shared the company of at Studio 54.

The article describes how Studio 54 was "an important but largely overlooked period in Michael Jackson's artistic development."

It explains how MJ was able to innocently enjoy Studio 54 (which was notorious for sex and drugs) because Michael's childhood touring experiences -- which included sharing rooms with his older, sexually active brothers, and opening for strip shows -- had "pretty much inured him to being shocked by anything (except, of course, cruelty and hate)", making it so that he "could take what he wanted and needed from the Studio 54 experience, and leave the rest alone."

The article notes that "this is one of the few periods in [Michael's] life where we can see him relaxed and enjoying himself in a social situation," as, "[a]fter his megastardom kicked in, this type of experience was no longer available to him."

It notes that "this was the time (1977-79) when Michael was not only entering adulthood, but also transitioning from the lead singer of [T]he Jackson 5 and The Jacksons to Michael Jackson, megastar," and describes how Studio 54 helped Michael develop his vision for how he wanted to recreate himself. The article includes a note from 1979, from when Michael was 21, that Michael wrote to himself, declaring exactly how he intended to transform himself -- from the child star that he had been, to the adult megastar he would become, and declaring that he wanted to be magic, writing, "MJ will be my new name. No more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look. I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang 'ABC,' [and] 'I Want You Back.' I should be a new, incredible actor/singer/dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer. I will be better than every great actor roped into one."

In the 2026 MJ movie, Michael is shown saying something similar to John Branca, and the note makes me wonder if Michael actually said this Branca, or if the Michael film scene was a fictitious way of allowing Michael to verbalize some of what the note was saying.

The article says, "I think Studio 54 gave [Michael] permission -- and the tools -- to act out his fantasies in terms of his appearance and his art -- influencing his music videos, his creation of Neverland, and his live performances. He not only wanted to be the best -- at everything -- he wanted to be spectacular. He wanted to be magic -- and he had seen magic and fantasy worlds created before his eyes at Studio 54."

The article says, "it really doesn't seem to be the nightclub scene that [Michael] was after," quoting what Michael says in a Michael Jackson Studio 54 interview with Jane Pauley, "I've been to a lot of discotheques[,] and I don't like them... I like the atmosphere at Studio 54." And when Jane Pauley questions him about why Studio 54 seems different, Michael says, "I don't know -- the feeling, the excitement, the props coming down, the balcony. It's just exciting, honestly," with the article stating, "So it does seem to be that feeling of magic and fantasy that he was after."

The article describes how Studio 54 created that sense of "magic," with the club owners Rubell and Schrager hiring Broadway set designers to create moveable sets, and spending "up to $20,000 a night to transform the cavernous space of Studio 54 into different fantasy worlds." The article says that "[t]he lavish set-like decorations invited guests to dress up in costumes[,] and become part of the show."

The article describes how "Michael saw how much people -- even celebrities -- seemed to hunger and long for escape -- how they came night after night to escape into the magical world [that] Rubell and Shrager created. He saw how people -- through costumes and make up -- could create incredible illusions... Adding all this to his experience doing The Wiz, with its own elaborate sets... Studio 54 opened his eyes not only to the techniques of creating fantasy, but to how much people craved it."

The interviewer describes how the theatricality and magic that Michael focuses on in the Jane Pauley interview, and his description of how he experiences Studio 54, reminded her so much of what Michael said, 30 years later, at the conclusion of the This Is It movie, when he tells the young singers and dancers that the show is a great adventure, saying, "we just want to give them experiences, escapism, take them to places they've never been before, show them talent like they've never seen before."

With Michael, each song is an experience, if you go to a concert. This Is It showed his vision, and understanding how much Studio 54 put into regularly transforming its space in such fantastical ways helps one understand what probably helped inspire some of that vision.

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The article also notes how Manhattan of the '70s was crumbling and crime ridden, and "[n]o matter where Michael Jackson looked, people rich and poor, white and black[,] were looking for magic, for escape[,] and finding it in music and dance -- often his -- and how he saw the power of music and dance -- especially the power it had to provide not only an escape, but an ecstatic experience.

The article describes how Michael also saw the desperation in this need for escape, which often degenerated into sex and drugs (and sometimes violence), and was coming to see music and dance as an alternative and safer means of escape -- an alternative to indiscriminate sex and drugs and street violence.

The article says, "As a member of [T]he Jackson 5 and [T]he Jacksons, he knew his music could make people happy, bring joy to their lives. But I think as he matured and became more and more aware of the terrible problems in the world, he also wanted to be an agent of change -- and his experience at Studio 54 and in ['70s] NYC not only deepened this desire, but provided him with both the psychological insights and the technical know-how to achieve his goals."

The article describes Studio 54 as "kind of like a huge circus tent of human desire, in many different forms -- from sex and drugs[,] to escapism and magic" -- and "a young Michael Jackson wandering around in there, observing what humans desire most, how it expresses itself, and what the implications and consequences are of indulging those desires" -- remaining detached, "soaking it all up, taking it all in, absorbing it, to be transformed into his own unique creations by his astonishing and awesome artistic vision."

The Treasurer-Sharer found a comment in the Magic of Studio 54 article that she thinks captures a lot of what we think Studio 54 did for Michael, that says, "I see his time at Studio 54 as his education. Here he was[,] surrounded by the biggest names in entertainment [--] entertainment veterans, who, in a relaxed atmosphere[,] were sharing their stories and their thoughts. And all he had to do was to be smart enough to listen and learn[,] and know what had value for him. And, at the end of the day, he figured he could outperform them all. I think it helped him get an accurate read of his own talent and his own genius [--] I think it gave him even more confidence in his own abilities."

The comment continues, "As to his innocence, I think it arose from wisdom, rather than ignorance. It was a deliberate innocence, a choice to be innocent[;] he consciously chose not to be sucked into the world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. I think he had seen too much in his brief life to be seduced by that stuff. Also, I think MJ got high on his art, on creating and making music. Who needs drugs when that kind of high is available?"

Given how much time Michael spent at Studio 54 for a period of his life, and the huge impact that Studio 54 may have had on Michael's artistic development and other aspects of his life, it's a real shame that not more scenes from there were included in the Michael Jackson biography movie.

I really feel that Studio 54 was a big deal, and really should have been part of the Michael biography film, but sadly ended up being part of Michael film deleted scenes, due to its inclusion of Diana Ross appearances.

If Studio 54 was what inspired Michael's desire for and focus on escapism, then that should have been shown. It feels like Michael was trying to bring Studio 54 to the world, but like he was trying to do that through his music.

Studio 54 shaped Michael's albums after Off the Wall, and maybe even Off the Wall, too. By leaving it out, the biopic movie Michael did a huge disservice to Michael's story, because, if it hadn't been part of the Michael movie deleted scenes, we would have understood Michael's mindset a bit more: why he cared about magic, escapism, and taking his audiences on a trip at his concerts, and, also, why he liked dressing up -- he probably got that from Studio 54 too, from seeing all the "guests [dressing] up in costumes and becom[ing] part of the show" at Studio 54.

As I mentioned, the 2026 Michael film didn't go more into who Michael was, and if it had added Studio 54 in, and had gone deeper into it, by showing some of the things about his time there that we have gone over, then that would have added some of the elements that I would have wanted to have seen included in the Michael biopic movie.

A photo posted in the thread *Deleted scene* Studio 54 photos (Shared by @spam__jam on instagram) shows what the thread creator believes to be a photo from the cut Studio 54 scenes. If it is, then it shows that Studio 54 Michael Jackson movie scenes were definitely cut from the Michael 2026 movie, that took place at the inside of Studio 54. See below for the photo, taken from the reddit thread, where redditors hope that a director's cut will include cut scenes from Michael movie shots, like this one:

Studio 54 Michael Jackson movie potentially deleted photo, taken from reddit thread

Michael Jackson and Bubbles the Monkey

Michael Jackson's Bubbles the Monkey still, from taken from MJ 2026 film The Treasurer-Sharer really liked the Michael movie meeting Bubbles scenes. The use of AI with Bubbles (Michael Jackson's monkey) was interesting, although I would have liked to have seen how Michael and Bubbles first met, instead of the Michael film just having a scene where Bubbles is delivered to Hayvenhurst.

You could tell that Bubbles was AI-generated, but I didn't mind it too much.

Also, Bubbles was adopted a bit earlier in the MJ 2026 film than he was in real life, but I'm guessing that they added that in that way so that the audience would be more accepting of Michael Jackson's eccentricities.

The biopic Michael seemed to take the angle of showing how Michael got his animals to fill the hole of human interaction, when it should have also shown Michael's other reasons for adopting all the animals that he did, in Michael missing movie scenes showing him choosing the animals that he adopted, and why and how.

The Treasure-Sharer found the page Michael Jackson: More Than A Musician, which says, "In the Bible, it says God gives us charge over the creatures on land, sea, and air[:] Animals. God says to take care of these animals with respect and care, letting no harm come to them. Michael Jackson loved lots of animals[,] and took those words to heart, as he said it did bring him closer to the creator. Michael starting his pet collection while still living at his family home in [H]avenhurst, with mice, snakes, birds, llamas, ti[g]ers, and[,] of course[,] dogs and cats ([which] he had many of)[,] and continued his [mission] when he moved out[,] and into his ranch[,] in Santa [Y]nez[,] [California]."

The biopic Michael movie failed to show how the llamas, tigers, deer, giraffes, etc. that Michael housed, fed, and took care of were mostly ones that he had rescued. The article says that many of them had been abandoned, with some having been set to be slaughtered, and thought of as useless, that were often older, put to pasture, showbiz animals -- some from closed-down zoos, and some being ex-trained circus animals.

It would have been better if the biopic Michael movie Part 1 had shown Michael visiting the animal research facility where he rescued Bubbles from, and some of the other places where he got his animals from, such as circuses, with some reference being made as to how the animals were already old and unwanted, etc., to demonstrate that Michael wasn't simply choosing animals because they were cute or exotic, but because he wanted to save them from being cast off, killed, etc.

As well, the Michael biopic could have shown how, although Michael had help with the animals, "he still read and researched on his own, to make sure his pack was given the best care," and how Michael was well-versed in the origins, care, and needs of these exotic creatures, and did everything he could to keep them fed, safe, and fit, and make them comfortable, as the article described.

According to the Michael Jackson movie teaser article Michael Jackson movie biopic Part 2 release date teased by studio "producer Graham King reportedly told Lionsgate that Michael Part 2 would focus on [Michael]'s albums Dangerous (1991), Invincible (2001), the construction of the Neverland Ranch[,] and 'his love of animals,'" and I hope that more of what I mentioned about Michael rescuing the animals, and his studying to make sure that each of his animals were well-cared for, are covered in the Michael Part 2 movie, as they were important things the Michael movie missed.

Michael Jackson's Nose Surgeries

Michael Jackson after nose job still, taken from MJ 2026 film

There were some important things the Michael movie missed, regarding what was the reason for Michael Jackson's first nose job, and the Michael Jackson plastic surgery progression that followed, including the events that led up to Michael Jackson's first plastic surgery.

When Michael finally went to have surgery for his nose, you could see that the Michael Jackson nose surgery movie scene was set up well after Joe Jackson called Michael "big nose" earlier in the Michael 2026 film. If more had been shown about Michael starting to care about his nose's appearance after Joe Jackson had called him that, and about the events that led up to him getting his nose surgery, it would have helped viewers empathize with Michael's decision to get nose surgery.

The article The star, the face, the fire quoted Michael's biographer, Randy Taraborrelli, as explaining, "[Michael Jackson had the] first nose job as a result of falling on stage and breaking his nose when he was about 19... And so it wasn't for, you know, a vanity purpose. It was a medical procedure."

The article Michael Jackson's Former Bodyguard Reveals The Real Reason Behind The Singer's Nose Surgery revealed more details about the injury, with Matt Fiddes, Michael Jackson's ex-bodyguard, who had worked with Michael for more than a decade, appearing on an episode of The Steven Sulley Study podcast to insist that it wasn't the teasing that Michael experienced about his nose that actually prompted him to undergo a rhinoplasty routine, but, rather, a horrific injury he suffered at the age of 21, as a result of his training routine, with Matt describing, "He used to get teased by his family a lot over the size of his nose -- being called big nose and all of this stuff... He used to say his dad used to be the main one -- 'you didn't get that from me, you got that from your mom, you didn't get that from my side of the family' -- it hurt him a lot." But, Matt explained that the teasing alone wasn't enough to force Michael to make a change, with Matt continuing, "Michael used to dance about three hours a day on average. At one stage[,] he was doing 50 spins in a row -- it was unbelievable. He fell over and broke his nose[,] and he saw it as the perfect opportunity while he was under anesthetic to just get a smaller nose."

I think that people who like to make fun of MJ for his nose surgeries would be more understanding if they knew this Michael Jackson nose surgery reason, and it was a Michael Jackson movie inaccuracy to have not given this as the main reason for Michael Jackson's first plastic surgery -- with the biopic MJ movie actually not even including it as a reason at all. The Michael movie nose surgery scenes contained so many Michael movie inaccuracies. The way the Michael movie plastic surgery scene played out made it seem like Michael came into the operation with a perfectly normal, uninjured nose, and wanted the nose surgery because he thought that his nose was too big, that he needed to have a symmetrical face for photos, and because he had to be perfect. While those were all probably contributing factors as to why Michael wanted to change his nose size, because the Michael Jackson movie nose job scene made it sound like Michael got the nose surgery for purely cosmetic reasons, rather than out of medical necessity, it doesn't at all dispel the myth of Michael's obsession with his nose leading to him becoming addicted to getting nose surgeries. It wasn't all just a matter of Michael wanting and deciding to get a nose job -- he actually needed to get his first nose surgery, and the MJ biopic movie should have made that clear. The incorrect Michael movie nose surgery scenes were then followed up with likely inaccurate Michael Jackson after nose surgery scenes, of Michael sneaking back into his home late at night, and being caught by his dad, who questions him, and Michael telling him that he did it for his sinuses -- making it look like Michael went behind everyone's backs to have the nose surgery done, and like it was something that he was ashamed of doing.

The Treasure-Sharer doesn't understand why the MJ 2026 film couldn't have just shown Michael's accident, while also showing Michael explaining his reasons for deciding to make his nose smaller at the same time, as the film could have shown both, and she thinks that the MJ 2026 movie did a disservice to Michael to not have shown the full story behind Michael Jackson's nose surgery.

I can see why Michael's unhappiness with his nose was not a subject that the biopic MJ movie dwelled on, since other people could spin it in a way where they might make fun of Michael, rather than looking at it from an understanding point of view. So I can see why the biopic Michael Jackson movie 2026 glazed over it, but, because I've had my own struggles that I've gone through, Michael biopic scenes like that would have helped me resonate and empathize more with Michael.

I've also heard rumors that Michael admired Diana Ross's nose, so, if that was true, then I think that the MJ plastic surgery scene would have been more interesting if that detail had been included, as, perhaps, Michael even modeled the shape of his nose on Diana's, perhaps viewing Diana as having "the perfect nose shape." This would have further demonstrated Michael's perfectionism, as well as his struggles with his self-worth and appearance.

A lot of people make fun of Michael Jackson's nose surgeries, not understanding his reasoning behind them, but I think that it becomes more understandable when they see how Michael had to grow up with even his dad and brothers constantly criticizing him for his nose's size, and continually drawing attention to it, eventually leading Michael to feel that his nose needed "fixing," and finally doing something about it, when the opportunity arose for him to do so. I think that not showing Michael's accident, and how his brothers also teased him about his nose and acne, on top of his dad's teasing, were thus big Michael 2026 movie inaccuracies.

I will go into how the Lupus that Michael Jackson developed a few years after his nose surgery affected his nose surgeries, later in this Michael biopic film review.

Jermaine Jackson stays at Motown; and Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson Feud

The Michael movie missing showing The Jackson 5 family feud is significant, as this covered a major shift in The Jacksons' and Michael Jackson's story. I think that it would have been interesting to have seen a bit of the drama that had transpired between Jermaine Jackson and the family, when the rest of the family apart from him split from Motown, and how they were legally not allowed to use "The Jackson 5" name anymore after they left Motown, because Motown owned the name "The Jackson 5," so that they now had to go by the name "The Jacksons." You only see one scene that quickly addresses this, where Joe is telling the family that he's arranging a tour and a live album, and one of the brothers asks how they're going to tour without Jermaine, and Joe says, "Your brother made his choice when we left Motown and he stayed. Let him live with it. The point is, we need to capitalize on Michael's album."

I wanted to see more of Jermaine getting married to Berry Gordy's daughter, Hazel Gordy; Jermaine continuing to make songs at Motown; how Jermaine felt about his whole family touring without him; and how the family felt about Jermaine. The fact that the biopic MJ movie didn't cover the Jermaine Jackson family feud between Jermaine and the Jackson family that followed makes one wonder how much influence Jermaine had over the decision to leave this out of the movie.

The Jackson 5's Move to Epic Records

The article Retrospective: The Jacksons' CBS/Epic Records Run says, "You can't talk about The Jacksons' CBS/Epic era without addressing the biggest elephant in the room with the split from Motown: the absence of Jermaine... When the group left Motown in 1975, it wasn't a clean, unified move. Jermaine Jackson stayed behind, largely due to his ties to Motown founder Berry Gordy (he was married to Hazel Gordy, Berry's daughter, at the time). That decision forced the group to reinvent itself overnight... Motown owned the "Jackson 5" name, so the brothers became The Jacksons, and younger brother Randy Jackson stepped in. This wasn't just a lineup change [--] it was a creative rebirth. For the first time, the group would fight for control of their music, their sound, and their identity. With CBS firmly on their side, they set out to grow their legacy," and "were finally allowed to actually play instruments and contribute creatively [--] something Motown rarely permitted."

As the article The Real Reason the Jackson 5 Left Motown explained, when the Jackson 5 left the label in 1975, "it wasn't about bad blood. It was about ownership -- and a long-overdue leap toward freedom." It describes how, "In their early years, [T]he Jackson 5 were carefully molded by the Motown system. They had songwriters, choreographers, vocal coaches -- the full machine. And it worked. But as the brothers grew older, especially Michael, they started craving more control over their sound and direction... They wanted to write. They wanted to produce. But that wasn't the Motown model."

The article continues, "Ironically, leaving Motown gave them the space to grow. It was during their Epic years that Michael began writing and producing, setting the stage for his breakout solo albums Off the Wall and Thriller -- both with Quincy Jones... Motown made them stars. But leaving Motown made them artists... And even though it was a bold move, it paid off. The Jacksons continued to sell out tours, score hits, and evolve musically. They took the lessons Motown taught them -- and then broke the mold."

The article's author ends off by saying, "Sometimes you gotta leave the house to become a man. And that's exactly what Michael did."

I think that it would have been good for the biopic MJ film to have shown the Jacksons starting to taking creative control and reinvent themselves, after their split from Motown.

Jermaine Jackson and Michael Jackson Relationship

I understand that some people might want to know why the Michael biopic would spend time talking about Jermaine, when it's a movie about Michael Jackson's life, but it's because there was a feud between Michael and Jermaine, and the Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson beef would have had to have impacted a lot of things in Michael's life.

As a redditor said in a comment in the thread Jermaine Jackson, "... Jermaine has Main Character Syndrome (or to use the old nomenclature, [is a] a narcissist), and has been[,] in the past, very vocal about being jealous of MJ, because he thinks [that] he should have been the rich, famous, popular one, not MJ. Jermaine is on a high right now because one of his sons is playing MJ in a movie, and this is a way to grab attention for himself. He mentions the J5 era instead of just MJ when asked about MJ[,] because it's part of his Main Character Syndrome.

As another commenter in the thread said, "Jermaine was definitely jealous [of] Michael[,] because Michael had everything Jermaine could ever dream of... I now believe that Jermaine was jealous and was probably ["]punching the air" lol because he missed out on the opportunity to become even more famous. He probably realized he made a mistake by staying with Motown[,] and[,] seeing his brothers[,] especially Michael[,] become such a huge star, really threw him off. [B]ut I'm thinking, it's his fault for staying[.] idk 🤷‍♀️[.] [T]hey definitely had some [sibling] rivalry going on[,] because Jermaine wrote a [diss track] about Michael..."

Jermaine Jackson Michael Jackson Diss Track

It would have been interesting to have seen the real reason behind Jermaine Jackson's Michael Jackson diss tracks (both the original and edited versions), because some of the producers who were supposed to work with Jermaine (Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds) went behind his back to work with Michael, which may have been part of why the original diss track was made in the first place.

The Treasure-Sharer looked into it, and found a discrepancy in the versions of stories told by one of the producers involved (L.A. Reid), and Jermaine Jackson.

Why did Jermaine Jackson and Michael Jackson beef?: L.A. Reid's version of the story

The article L.A. Reid Explains How He Got Caught In Michael & Jermaine Jackson's Very Heated Feud describes how L.A. Reid released a memoir titled Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next, where, in it, he explained how he and his production partner, Babyface, "got caught up in a longstanding battle between Jermaine and Michael Jackson that many of us never [knew] about."

According to the article, L.A. Reid said that while he and Babyface were producing an album for Jermaine Jackson (who was signed to their record label, LaFace Records, at that time), they'd suddenly received a call from Michael, asking them if they would be interested in meeting with him to discuss working together on some new music. L.A. and Babyface agreed, but decided not to tell Jermaine until after they saw where the conversation with MJ would lead to, and, after the three of them met up, L.A. and Babyface decided to begin working with Michael, three weeks later.

The article said that Jermaine found out about L.A. and Babyface's plans to work with his brother, and, according to L.A. Reid, Jermaine immediately demanded to be released from their label. Because L.A. and Babyface didn't want Jermaine to leave, but also didn't want to NOT work with Michael Jackson -- the greatest entertainer of all time -- they were in a pickle, and went back to MJ and told him that his brother was pissed. Then L.A. said that Michael gave them the most cold-hearted response ever, saying, "He'll get over it," and when L.A. said, "That's not really the problem... The problem was that he wants off the label now," Michael asked, "Did he sign a contract?" and L.A. replied, "Yes," and Michael said, "Then he'll have to live with it[,] because those are the rules," and walked out.

The article says that L.A. said that things got really messy when Jermaine told him and Babyface, "I want to make a song about my brother. I want to talk about how he's treated me through the years, like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers. He doesn't care about his family or anybody but himself."

It says that L.A. and 'Face were surprised that the two brothers were about beef on the radio, but that they still allowed Jermaine's creative expression flow, no matter how much they disagreed with his diss record request -- and produced the track, "Word to the Badd!," which was aired on radio stations nationwide.

The article said that Michael was pissed off with all three of the men, and so called up L.A. and told him that, as the head of the label, he had to stop it and kill it.

L.A. said that MJ and Jermaine met up at their Mom's house to talk it out, but that, two days later, Jermaine called L.A. and said that the song was gonna stay on the radio, and MJ called and said, "You've gotta put a stop to this." Then, according to L.A., "The record disappeared off the air, as if it had never been there in the first place. I don't know what Michael did. I don't know if Michael did anything, but it went away in a flash."

Why did Jermaine Jackson and Michael Jackson beef?: Jermaine Jackson's versions of the story

There was not one, but two different versions for the origins of the Jermaine Jackson diss song to Michael Jackson, according to Jermaine Jackson.

As Jermaine tells it, L.A. and Babyface left his team to work with Michael instead.

According to the article 'Face Time: Jermaine Jackson, "Word to the Badd!!", Jermaine Jackson said in his book, You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother’s Eyes (2011), that he hired L.A. and Babyface (or, more than likely, Clive Davis did, as the head of LaFace's parent company, Arista) to work on his new album, and moved down to Atlanta to prep, when suddenly L.A. and 'Face became unavailable, and he soon found out that they were secretly working with his brother Michael on the album that would eventually become Dangerous. According to Jermaine's book, "After the sessions with MJ proved to be unfruitful, L.A. and 'Face headed back to Atlanta, pissed, and the frustration on both sides came out in the lyrics of "Word to the Badd!!"

The article says, "In You Are Not Alone[,] Jermaine essentially says that the other songwriters put words in his mouth, and that he doesn't know who leaked the original, venting-about-Michael version, but it was rerecorded with new lyrics for You Said (with both versions appearing on international editions of the album)."

The article mentions finding a Los Angeles Times article from November 7, 1991, by Chuck Philips, that tells a different version of the story, in which Jermaine says that "Word to the Badd!!" was written out of frustration because Michael didn't return any of his calls for eight months, with Jermaine saying, "I understand he's a very busy person, but after you repeatedly try to contact your own brother and he doesn't call you back, you begin to wonder if he hasn't just completely lost touch with reality," and added, "The song was never supposed to come out in public. But now that it has, I am [here] to say that, yes, I wrote it[,] and I stand by it." The article says that Jermaine denied leaking "Word to the Badd!!" to the radio, as did everyone at LaFace and Arista, but said that the song "deals with much more than any plastic surgery or any facial changes or this and that... The bottom line here is that this song was written as a private message to help get my brother to heal our relationship."

The people discussing the issue ask, "[H]ow is a song recorded in a professional studio with Babyface and L.A. Reid considered 'a private message'?" with one saying, "Jermaine is a f*cking head case. I feel like he's always thought that he should've been Michael," and another saying, "I'd forgotten that he named one of his sons [']Jermajesty['] after Michael named his first son Prince. As for Jackson being a 'head case,' his last name has officially been spelled 'Jacksun' since February, for 'artistic reasons.' Draw your own conclusions, people."

Since Jermaine gave two contradictory stories of how his Michael Jackson diss track originated, why, and who wrote it, I am inclined to believe L.A. Reid's version of what happened more than Jermaine's. It feels more like Jermaine was making up stories to cover his tracks, after his attempt to push his brother down with his diss track failed.

I don't know what the full context of the situation with the producers was, which is why I would have wanted to have seen that included in the Michael 2026 film biopic. If you look at the way that the Michael biopic movie was presented, it's possible that Jermaine had a hand in influencing its direction, so that it would put the focus on his son Jaafar's performances, while barely touching on the drama with Jermaine.

Another reason I think that this should have been touched on is that I think that it also partly shaped how Michael is. If you think about the fact that the family leaves Motown, and Jermaine stays behind -- Michael thought that it was weird not seeing his brother in the group, and it upset him.

The article Feud: A Tale of Two Jacksons includes a quote from Michael, where he says, "I clearly remember the first show we did without him, because it was so painful for me. Since my earliest days on the stage -- and even in our rehearsals in our Gary living room -- Jermaine stood at my left with his bass. I depended on being next to Jermaine."

It would have been nice to have seen how Michael felt about his brother throwing him under the bus, and his responses to Jermaine no longer being with the group, depicted in the Michael biopic movie.

It feels like Jermaine wanted to prove his family and Michael wrong for leaving Motown, but then didn't really prove anything, and then I think that this hurt Michael in a different way, since Michael was trying to make the best art that he could make -- really exceptional art -- rather than trying to compete with Jermaine, and I think that it hurt him to see Jermaine competing with him, and I also think that Michael was confused about what the diss track was about. I feel like Michael's primary focus in the beginning was on his art, and on becoming the bestselling artist ever -- not on competing with his brother -- but it felt like Jermaine was competing with him.

The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" On education (why to study constantly) & how to be successful & importance of books! page quotes Michael as saying the following statements, that show how he was more internally, than externally, driven:

"I'm never pleased with anything, I'm a perfectionist, it's part of who I am."

"I have always be kinda determined. I have always [had] a vision of things I have wanted to do[,] and goals I have wanted to reach[,] and nothing could stop me getting that. I am focused[,] and I know what I want[,] and what I want to achieve[,] and I won't get side-tracked. And even though I get down sometimes, I keep running the race of endurance to achieve those goals. It keeps me on track. I am dedicated."

"The idea is to take it a step forward and to innovate[,] or else why am I doing it? I'm just -- I don't wanna be just another can in the assembly line. You know, I want to create, do something that's totally different and unusual."

"I look at things and try to imagine what is possible[,] and then, hope to surpass those boundaries."

Ironically, The Jackson's move gave Michael creative freedom with the group and individually, while Jermaine locked himself in a cage, with his decision to stay with Motown.

Like the comment from the redditor that I included earlier mentioned, I think that Jermaine was really bitter about Michael's success, and his own lack of success, and that's why he was pissed off that Michael was working with L.A. Reid and Babyface. If you think about the fact that Jermaine wasn't with the Jacksons for such a long time, and only reunited with them after Motown, I think that he was only using this to propel his career after he left Motown, and, when that didn't work, he focused on Jaafar.

I understand Jermaine's position, and I think that a comment in the reddit thread Michael VS Jermaine summed it up well: "A lot of the comments completely dismissing Jermaine are kind of lame. He was really talented[,] and so were the other members[,] but when you step onto the court with Michael Jordan[,] you don't look as impressive.

Plus[,] he was always told he was going to be the front man by his father. Now imagine being in his position[,] then[,] last minute[,] they switch to your little brother. That's gotta be annoying[,] lol[.]

Then years later[,] he breaks out as a solo star[,] and the most popular artist in the world[.]

Of course if you're him[,] you'd be thinking[,] [']hmm maybe if some things went my way['] 💀 that's just human nature to have those thoughts[.]"

(And I would add that it would add insult to injury to have your youngest brother, Randy, ending up filling in where you would have been.)

Jermaine Jackson Michael Jackson "Rivalry"

The reddit thread Michael VS Jermaine asked, "Is it true that these two were rivals? I think I saw an interview with [La Toya] where she said that Jermaine was always jealous of Michael[,] and that it was obvious[,] because he was the most successful in their family.

I heard that Jermaine said that he and Michael were on the same level in terms of artistry[,] and that the only reason MJ was successful was because he got ahead of himself.

What do you think? Do you have any anecdotes? :)"

The comments in thread agreed that the rivalry was one-sided, with some of the replies including the following:

"Maybe Jermaine saw Michael as his rival... but the opposite wasn't true 🤣."

"They weren't rivals in any real sense, but they might have been[,] in Jermaine's mind[.]"

"I think Jermaine wrote a song or wrote a book where he spoke sarcastically about Michael. I forget which.

But the rivalry was one-sided. Michael saw him as his brother. Period."

"[L]ess that they were rivals and more that Jermaine was jealous and felt like he deserved what Michael had."

"This is something I'm curious about too. Do you know about the diss track Jermaine put out against Michael? Look on [YouTube]. Jermaine later claimed in interviews [that] he did it because Michael wouldn't return his calls, but ehhh you can watch and see if you believe that. Also look up "including Jermaine"....for another example of Michael's clever, witty, petty (I say that with love), funny personality. Lol[.]"

"I don't understand publicizing a beef you may have with a sibling. Even if Jermaine felt disrespected by Michael, why publicize it? It reminds me of the Braxton family. Why advertise your family drama?

Now if there was some abuse going on in a family that you wanted to shed light on, then I could understand why you'd want to make THAT public."

"I heard Michael got it pulled from the radio and it kind of just disappeared and went away or calmed down. [']Including Jermaine['][,] as I know the story goes back to Thriller[,] and Jermaine saying the album was trash (NOT his words)... so when Michael wins for it, he makes an acceptance speech saying [']I love all my brothers... including Jermaine.['] Then smiles and points at Jermaine. The quote just kind of lived on after that. Lol[.]"

I feel like it's another pivotal moment, because I don't think that the family was the same after, because in The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, the drama is still there, with the brothers still kind of upset about how Jermaine was behaving, and what he was saying, and the fact that he stayed behind, and Jermaine was saying how they betrayed him. Even though they were hanging out and working together, there still seemed be this thing in the middle that had an effect.

I get the feeling that Jermaine is using Jaafar as the newest version of Jermaine's plan, where, before, Jermaine was competing with the family, and then with Michael, and then with Randy, but now, the plan seems to be Jermaine wanting to make Jaafar the new Michael. This parallels how Jermaine lost the opportunity to become more famous with his brothers, and[,] when he realized that his strategy wasn't going to work, he decided to go work with his brothers.

If you want to watch The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, you can buy the DVD on Amazon through our affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B06bL42nE

As an Amazon associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases made through our link.

I feel like this is an important period, and ignoring it completely is kind of weird. And I think it's weird that Jermaine has such a big role in the Michael biopic.

As a comment in the reddit thread Michael VS Jermaine said, "I've been wondering about this in the context of the new biopic. Is Jaafar going to portray Michael having any tension with Jermaine (Jaafar's dad?). Awkward[,] lol[.]"

If anything, it feels like the MJ film 2026 is a half-Jermaine, half-Branca movie. For Jermaine, it's like, "Let's take out all the drama with me, and make my son the star," and for Branca, it's like, "Let's make me the bestie."

I wonder if that's part of the reason why Janet and Paris were like, "Okay, so we're just gonna ignore all this??" (re. the historical inaccuracies of skipping over such major events). And it makes perfect sense to me that Randy would feel insulted that Jermaine made the son that he had with Randy's ex-wife the star of the show, and why Randy didn't want anything to do with the Michael 2026 movie.

The Treasure-Sharer thinks that maybe one of the reasons why Jermaine went for Randy's girl was maybe out of jealousy that Randy replaced him in The Jacksons, after Jermaine stayed behind in Motown, so maybe Jermaine later took Randy's lover because he resented Randy's success that would have been his, had he stayed with the group. That might explain the start of the Randy Jackson and Jermaine Jackson feud.

I think that including some family feud Jackson family scenes would have shown how the Jackson family dynamic really was like. I'm not sure that the family would ever want to show that, since the point was to sanitize the biopic MJ movie, including the family's own image; and with many family members as executuve producers, it's not likely that they would want to air that drama. I feel like if the MJ film 2026 had shown this, it would have shown the family dynamic of why Randy is like the way he is, why the brothers are the way that they are, why Michael was the way he was, and why Janet and Randy didn't want to be in the movie. But then, how could they have put that in the movie if Randy and Janet didn't want to be in the Michael 2026 movie? I think that if Jaafar wasn't in the movie, then Randy might have been more okay with being in the movie. The fact that it was a Michael Jackson biopic film starring Jaafar Jackson was probably unacceptable to him. And also, if Jermaine had a big hand in deciding the direction of the movie, then Randy wouldn't have wanted to be involved in that either, as it would have been too funky for him.

I feel like, if the Michael film had shown this piece, this would have explained how come Janet Jackson's not in the Michael movie, and Randy Jackson not being in the Michael movie, as well. It feels like the only way that this could ever happen is to make a new movie, where the family can't be involved as executive producers, and where all of the family members agree to have that.

I want the most honest Michael Jackson depiction, that is as close to the truth as possible, so I would have wanted the Michael Jackson biopic 2026 movie to have been closer to that.

The Jacksons Destiny and Triumph albums

Another thing that I would have liked to have seen more of in the 2026 Michael film was the creation of The Jacksons Destiny album, and The Jacksons Triumph album, as well as the The Jacksons Triumph tour, between July 8 to September 26, 1981. In that particular scene, I think that it would have been awesome to have seen The Jacksons perform "Heartbreak Hotel." It would have also been nice to have seen them in the studio, recording songs from their albums, including Michael movie missing songs, such as "Can You Feel It?", and also maybe seen some of their music videos, and the promo that went into those tours. The only promo that the Michael biography movie showed was the filming of the Pepsi Generation Michael Jackson commercial.

The article The Real Reason the Jackson 5 Left Motown said that the Destiny album, which came out in 1978, was when "everything clicks" -- where, "For the first time, The Jacksons took full creative control, writing and producing the album themselves," and "where they sound at their best, showcasing a smooth confidence throughout." As the article said, "This was a group no longer defined by Motown, but by their own artistry. Destiny sold very well and reestablished them as a force, not just as Michael Jackson's backing group, but as a legitimate band." If the film had gone into the group's split from Motown, then it could have highlighted the contrast and difference in The Jackson's sound and artistry.

The article says of the Triumph album, which was released in 1980, "If Destiny was the breakthrough, Triumph was the masterpiece.

Everything is sharper: the production, the songwriting, the ambition. Tracks like 'Can You Feel It' feel massive, almost cinematic. And you can hear Michael Jackson evolving in real time, bringing lessons from Off the Wall into the group dynamic. The album went platinum and became their biggest critical success... This is the moment where The Jacksons weren't just relevant, they were elite." It would have been good for the Michael movie 2026 to have shown that massive jump, and highlighted some of these Michael Jackson movie missing parts.

Michael Jackson and "Thriller" Video

Michael movie Thriller scene still, showing Michael Jackson makeup look for Thriller music video

The makeup in the Michael movie 2026 "Thriller" scene was a bit weird, and did not look like the "Thriller" Michael Jackson makeup did in the actual music video, which made the Michael Jackson "Thriller" costume look off, and so was one of the Michael movie inaccuracies. I did, however, like the part where Michael tells the directors to zoom out so that Michael and the dancers' feet are captured during the dancing. It showed Michael's attention to detail. See above for a still of the makeup for Michael from the biopic Michael "Thriller" scene.

See below for a still from the original "Thriller" video, showing the Michael Jackson makeup look for the video:

Michael Jackson Thriller video still showing the Michael Jackson makeup look for the Thriller video, taken from the biopic MJ movie

The big thing that Michael was showing in the "Thriller" movie scene was that Michael was annoyed that if the cameramen zoomed in on him and on everyone's faces, that this would take away from the "Thriller" choreography, as it would completely miss the choreography, by not showing the group and their dancing, and not allowing viewers to appreciate the dance as a whole.

See below for a close-up still of the Michael movie "Thriller" dancers, and a zoomed-out still of the Michael movie "Thriller" dance scene, better showcasing the Michael movie "Thriller" choreography.

new Michael Jackson movie Thriller scene still, showing Michael Jackson Thriller dance choreography, taken from the MJ biopic movie

Michael Jackson movie 2026 Thriller scene still, showing Michael Jackson Thriller choreography, taken from 2026 MJ movie

The Relationship Between Michael Jackson and Prince

Another person who's not in the Michael movie is Prince. I think that it would have been interesting if the Michael biopic movie had added in a scene where both Michael Jackson and Prince were brought on stage by James Brown, on August 20, 1983. What's particularly interesting to point out about that night was that Prince and Michael Jackson have never been seen together in the same room throughout their careers, and on this night, it was no different. When Michael was brought on stage, Prince wasn't on stage, and as soon as Michael left the stage, Prince went on stage.

It might have also been interesting for the film Michael 2026 to have gone into why Prince turned down being a part of the song "We Are the World" artists.

Michael Jackson Motown 25 Award Performance

The remake of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" performance at Motown 25, in Pasadena, California was well done. Jaafar Jackson pretty much nailed it. Of all the scenes where he performed, it was probably the best recreation scene in the MJ biopic movie.

They even put in a kid in the Michael Motown 25 scene that reminded me of the one from the Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial called "New Generation." See below for stills of the Pepsi New Generation kid (taken from the Michael Jackson Pepsi Generation commercial), and of the Michael movie Billie Jean performance scene kid shown in the audience during the Motown 25 performance, taken from the Michael movie.

Pepsi New Generation kid still, taken from Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial, still of Pepsi New Generation kid lookalike, shown making the famous MJ Billie Jean Motown 25 reaction, taken from 2026 MJ movie

The Treasurer-Sharer found the reddit thread Motown 25 scene, where, according to commenters, the kid is likely a re-creation of the child captured cheering during the original Motown 25 performance, who is famous for his MJ Billie Jean Motown 25 reaction, and is played by Jaafar Jackson's nephew, Soltan Jackson. See below for a screen capture of the kid famous for his Michael Jackson Motown 25 performance reaction, taken from the reddit thread.

Billie Jean performance kid reaction screen capture, taken from reddit thread

I know that Emmanuel Lewis, Gary Coleman, Alfonso Ribeiro, and the Pepsi New Generation kid might not have been present at Motown 25, but I wonder if the kid in the Michael 2026 movie is supposed to be a bunch of them rolled into one, representing all of them, all in one (in addition to the kid at the Motown performance), similar to what they did when they didn't name the TV show that The Jackson 5 was featured on in the 2026 Michael Jackson movie (like I referred to earlier in this Michael Jackson biopic movie review).

Jaafar's and Prince's fiances, Maddie Simpson and Molly Schirmang, were also featured in the Motown 25 crowd in the Michael biopic, which you can see a still of below, taken from the thread Jaafar's fiance' in motown crowd.

Prince and Jaafar's fiances in the Motown 25 audience in Michael the movie, taken from reddit thread

Alfonso Ribeiro and Michael Jackson Relationship

Alfonso Ribeiro and Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial still, taken from Pepsi New Generation commercial

Another person who was missing in the Michael Jackson movie was Alfonso Ribeiro. I think that it would have been awesome for the Michael biopic to have shown how Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who plays Carlton Banks in the hit show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with Will Smith, got casted to be mini-Michael in that Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial, when he was much younger. See above for a still of Alfonso Ribeiro and Michael Jackson, taken from the Michael Jackson Pepsi Generation commercial.

I think that it would have been interesting if the biopic Michael movie had shown a short segment of their relationship, and also shown the performance that they shared together at the Pepsi Bottlers Convention in 1984, at the Lincoln Center. That Michael biopic scene could have even added the story that Alfonso shared, where Michael accidentally dropped his glove in the toilet, prior to going on stage.

See the thread Alfonso Ribeiro's Story about Michael Jackson's Sequined Glove for a video of Alfonso describing the moment, and for comments in the thread offering other versions of the story.

Michael Jackson Eight Grammy Wins During Michael Jackson Billie Jean Performance 1983

Michael Jackson 8 grammys photo, taken from IMBD I did think that it was weird that the biopic Michael Jackson movie embedded Michael Jackson winning eight Grammys within the beginning of the "Billie Jean" section, because, actually, the Michael Jackson 8 Grammy night occured after the Pepsi burns -- not during Motown 25, so the incorrect sequence of events was another of many Michael movie mistakes. See above for a Michael movie still of Michael Jackson holding 8 Grammys.

still showing Michael Jackson up on his toes during Billie Jean performance, taken from Michael movie IMBD page Also, after "Billie Jean," backstage, it was cool to see the reactions of Berry Gordy, but the movie of Michael Jackson didn't show how Michael was crying from not staying on his toes long enough during the performance. He mentioned it, but the MJ film didn't show the emotions that actually took place, that were one of the things left out of Michael movie scenes that I would have wanted to have seen. It was annoying to see how Joe behaved backstage after that performance. See the photo to the side for a still of the Jaafar Jackson Billie Jean recreation of the Michael Jackson Motown 25 Billie Jean performance, showing the Michael Jackson on his toes pose.

Michael Jackson Meets Ronald Reagan

President Reagan and Nancy Reagan were two people missing from the Michael Jackson biographical film 2026. A scene that I wish had been featured in the Michael biopic movie was when Michael Jackson meets President Reagan -- when Ronald Reagan invited Michael Jackson to the White House to give him a humanitarian award, on May 14, 1984.

The Treasure-Sharer found an article that went more into the details about this, Presidents and Celebrities: Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson, and discovered that Michael Jackson was awarded the Presidential Public Safety Communication Award by President Reagan, for allowing the song "Beat It" to be used in a public service campaign against teen drinking and driving.

The article included President Reagan's introduction of Michael, and Michael's response, which we think that it would have been cool to have included, as they would have shown how popular Michael Jackson's music was, even with the president of the United States, and also demonstrated Michael Jackson's shyness.

According to the article, Reagan referenced some of Michael's more popular songs in his speech, saying: "I hope you'll forgive me, but we have quite a few young folks in the White House who all wanted me to give you the same message. They said to tell Michael, 'Please give some TLC to the PYTs.' Now I know that sounds a little 'off the wall,' but you know what I mean. And, Michael, I have another message from our fans in the Washington, D.C., area. They said, 'We want you back.' So when you begin your greatly awaited cross-country tour, will you please be sure to drop off here in the nation's capital?"

In response, Michael had spoken a total of 13 words at the event, saying, "I'm very, very honored. Thank you very much, Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan."

See below for a still of President Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson and Nancy Reagan, after Michael was awarded the humanitarian award, taken from the YouTube video President Ronald Reagan Hosts Michael Jackson at the White House, from ABC News Video Source.

Michael Jackson and President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, with Michael accepting a humanitarian award, taken from ABC News Video Source video

Including the Michael Jackson humanitarian award 1993 scene could have also demonstrated Michael's desire to lead a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle (which the Michael film failed to touch on), which Reagan praised in his speech, as well as shown an example of Michael Jackson humanitarian efforts.

Don King and the Victory Tour

The Michael scene where Joe Jackson and Don King were scheming to make The Jacksons Victory Tour happen was a good scene, not in the sense that I liked that they were scheming (I actually didn't like that at all, as I wanted Michael to have his creative dreams come true), but in that it was interesting to see the mindsets of the two men, and to see what really went on during that time period.

I hate that Michael felt obligated to do The Jacksons Victory Tour, when I know that he genuinely didn't want to do it. It wasn't shown in the MJ 2026 film, but some missing Michael movie scenes that I would have liked to have seen were of Michael not taking the same plane as his family, and distancing himself from the family, outside of the actual performances, during that time, so that they could have illustrated how much Michael wanted his independence.

Michael Jackson Pepsi Burn Injury

Michael Jackson Pepsi burns incident still, taken from the biopic MJ movie

As I mentioned, one of the Michael movie inaccurate facts was when the Michael Jackson Pepsi burn accident happened, as it occured before Michael Jackson won eight Grammys in one night. Even though I think that it's tragic what happened to Michael during the Pepsi incident Michael Jackson experienced, I was glad that the Michael biography movie added the Michael Jackson Pepsi burn incident in, because that was literally the halfway-point of Michael's life/career, and it was the beginning of Michael having to rely on painkillers, but I also believe that it was a major turning point for him, because he was now determined to gain his independence from Joe and the family, and also, it was the beginning of a major difference in the subject matter of the music that Michael made and released.

See above for a still of the Pepsi burn accident Michael Jackson suffered, with his hair catching fire, and below for a still of the post Pepsi burn Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson Pepsi burns aftermath still, taken from the MJ biopic movie

The Third Act of Michael

The third act of the biopic Michael Jackson movie, in general, was pretty lackluster, as it practically didn't even have a third act, because it just ended abruptly. The Michael movie 3rd act could have explored more of Michael's independent comeback, even though he was emotionally scarred.

Also, I assume that this was where the Jordan Chandler allegations would have been, before they were taken out. Even without the deleted scenes from the Michael movie that the Jordan Chandler allegations caused, leaving them in would have still left the Michael movie incomplete, because of everything missing from the Michael Jackson movie that I have already mentioned -- that isn't even all the things missing from the Michael movie, since it would be impossible to include all of it in this Michael biography movie review.

Don't get me wrong -- Jaafar Jackson's reenactment of "BAD" on stage was good, but I think that it needed more, to feel satisfying. The way that the Michael Jackson film part 1 ended was also a bit weird, because it just said, "HIS STORY CONTINUES." See a still of this below, taken from the Michael movie.

His Story Continues Michael movie still, taken from the 2026 MJ movie

The Michael 2026 movie could have said something else, to indicate that another film was on the way. I realize that the Michael 2026 sequel hadn't been confirmed yet, but it was still a weird way to end the movie.

Moreover, it almost feels like there's a deeper meaning to that statement, like it's hinting that Michael Jackson is still alive, and that his actual story has continued, and that he'll be making a return soon.

Also, because of the Michael biopic movie's abrupt ending, as a standalone movie, it feels stupid without a Michael sequel movie. If you were to compare it to some other films that had sequels, a lot of them were good on their own, and almost didn't need a sequel. This one, on the other hand, feels like it absolutely needs a sequel -- otherwise, it just feels confusing and weird.

The Treasure-Sharer saw on the Michael movie poster 2026 that we posted at the beginning of this Michael film review that the tagline "HIS STORY BEGINS" was used, which was an interesting tie-in to the line used at the end of the movie.

What I'm trying to figure out is if they had that line in the poster before they re-made the ending, or if they added it in after, so that the "HIS STORY CONTINUES" line would feel less weird. I still think it's weird even with the Michael movie poster tie-in, but the Treasure-Sharer thought that it was kind of like a cool Michael Jackson film Easter egg.

More 2026 Michael Jackson Movie Missing Parts

Women in Michael Jackson's life

As I mentioned earlier, the Michael movie missing scenes include Michael Jackson's romantic relationships over time, and lady friends, and these things left out of Michael movie scenes feed into the image of Michael being a loner and recluse, when Michael, in fact, was involved with and friends with quite a few women, who were often celebrities like he was, since their backgrounds allowed them to relate to and understand each other better. Because I can't confirm the actual details of these Michael Jackson relationships, I'll just mention the notable ones (in addition to Michael's relationships with Tatum O'Neal, Stephanie Mills, and Diana Ross) that I would have liked to have seen the film Michael 2026 delve more into.

Michael Jackson and Brooke Shields Relationship

Brooke Shields was one of the women in Michael's life who was missing in the Michael Jackson movie. I think that the third act could have been more interesting if it had shown a bit of the relationship that took place between Michael and Brooke Shields in the mid-'80s.

Michael Jackson and Madonna Relationship

Madonna is another person who's not in the Michael Jackson movie. I would have liked to have seen the relationship between Madonna and Michael Jackson in the late '80s, and how Madonna and Michael Jackson's relationship fizzled out before it even got going, because of her criticism of Michael's style -- particularly with the buckle outfits that he wore during the "BAD" era -- and how Madonna spoke to children.

Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor Relationship

Michael Jackson's close relationship with Elizabeth Taylor was another of the things the Michael movie missed. I would have loved to have seen the start of Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson's long-time friendship, in the early '80s.

Michael Jackson "We Are The World" Original

The "We Are The World" collaboration Michael Jackson did with many other artists was another thing that should have definitely been included in the Michael movie 3rd act, but was unfortunately another of the Michael Jackson movie missing parts. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones did the song "We Are The World" with a bunch of other artists in 1985. The Michael biopic could have also shown a bit of Michael Jackson's perfectionism, by showing how dissatisfied Michael was with how Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper sang their solo parts of the song.

Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney Relationship

As I mentioned, Paul McCartney is another person who's not in the Michael movie, who I would have liked to have seen. The third act could have included Michael's relationship with Paul McCartney, the songs they did together, and how McCartney shared with Michael that he wanted to purchase the ATV catalog.

Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson did songs for each other's albums, so the MJ 2026 film could have shown how they developed their friendship by doing songs for each other's albums, and how that led up to the ATV catalogue, and how Michael ended up doing a cover for "Come Together."

Michael Jackson ATV Music Catalog

Some major Michael movie missing scenes included the Michael Jackson Sony ATV catalog acquisition. I think that it would have been good to have shown how Paul McCartney indicating that he wanted to purchase the ATV catalog eventually led to Michael acquiring the ATV catalog for $47.5 million, which gave Michael control over 250 Beatles songs, and an additional 4000 other songs from various artists, like Mariah Carey, Babyface, and Willie Nelson.

I think that if the Michael biopic movie had included scenes covering these subjects in its third act, then the 2026 MJ movie would have ended satisfactorily for me.

Michael Jackson's Vitiligo Skin Condition

MJ vitilago still, taken from MJ 2026 film

An explanation of Michael Jackson's development of vitilago was one of the major Michael Jackson movie missing parts. I would have liked to have seen the Michael Jackson biography film cover the Michael Jackson skin color change over the years, showing Michael Jackson's vitilago progression. For instance, I would have wanted to have seen Michael applying makeup to cover up the vitiligo, when he made public appearances, or when he was performing, and how the makeup was maintained even when Michael was sweating on stage. See above for a MJ movie vitilago still, showing Michael starting to show signs of vitilago.

The Treasure-Sharer found an article called How Come Nobody Ever Apologizes to Michael Jackson: Vitiligo and Lupus that says, "To this day, there are certain individuals who make statements along the lines of 'Michael Jackson bleached his skin,' 'Michael Jackson didn't want to be Black,' and so on and so forth," and thinks that the biopic MJ movie should have done more to explain Michael's condition to those who didn't already know about it, and dispel the false beliefs about it, by showing scenes of Michael with his doctor actually addressing his condition, its progression, and the treatments that Michael would have to undergo for it.

The article said that, according to Michael Jackson makeup artist Karen Faye, during a 2003 interview, "[T]he original course of action was to use makeup matching [Michael]'s skin color all over his body for his first few years of having the condition," and "[l]ater, they used creams that would even out the same color, and destroyed the remaining pigment cells."

In the YouTube video Geraldo The Truth Behind MJ's Plastic Surgery, Vitiligo Secrets Revealed.avi, Dr. Richard Strick (who was appointed and paid for by DA Tom Sneddon to perform the court-ordered examination of MJ in December 1993, and had viewed Michael's medical records), said, "Michael had a disease vitiligo[,] in which the pigment is lost[,] and attempts had been made to bring that pigment back[,] which had been unsuccessful[,] so he tried to bleach it out[,] so it would be one [color]."

Showing viewers how Michael had tried to bring his skin back to its original color before finally deciding to try to go the route of going the other way, and making it white, would have helped viewers understand how the Michael Jackson skin color change over time, and turning white, were not what he would have preferred, but was the result of his attempts to make his skin look uniform and normal -- contrary to people pushing the belief that Michael didn't want to be Black.

A lot of people want to know "Did Michael Jackson change skin color on purpose?" or "Did Michael Jackson's skin color change naturally?" as well as what made Michael Jackson's skin change color, and the Michael movie would have been the perfect opportunity to share the real Michael Jackson skin color change reason.

Michael Jackson Lupus Symptoms

Michael Jackson's Lupus was another of the important things left out of the Michael movie. Michael got diagnosed with Lupus while he was working on the "Thriller" album, so the Michael biopic movie really should have shown him starting to develop some of the symptoms that came with Lupus, and the impact that the disease's progression had on his life.

The Treasure-Sharer looked more into Michael Jackson's Lupus, and discovered that it hugely impacted Michael's life, and that it explains a lot of the surgeries that Michael had done on his nose, and a lot of the seemingly strange behaviors that Michael adopted. The "True Michael Jackson ... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" Lupus page featured a Larry King interview with Michael Jackson dermatologist Dr. Arnie Klein, where Arnie describes how he had diagnosed Michael with lupus with one look, after seeing Michael's red butterfly rash on his face, and the severe crusting on the anterior portion of his scalp.

The page includes a description of Lupus as "an achronic autoimmune disease where the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue, which results in symptoms such as inflammation, swelling, and damage to joints, skin, kidneys, blood, the heart, and lungs, with photosensitivity being a common feature of lupus erythematosus."

It says, "Patients with discoid lupus have a version of the disease that is limited to the skin. It is characterized by a rash that appears on the face, neck, and scalp, and it does not affect internal organs," and that "[t]here is currently no cure for lupus, nor has there been a new drug to treat the disease in the last 50 years."

The page mentioned that a Lupus expert, Dr. Robert Lahita, on GMA, on July 9th, 2009, talked about how what most considered to be MJ's "weirdness" could be tied to his vitiligo and lupus.

The page quoted how, "At some point in 1983, MJ had his second or third nose job, and it was also this year [that] his first butterfly rash appeared."

According to the page, after having reviewed those medical records, Dr. Richard Strick, a medical expert, who the page states "was not biased towards MJ, as he was working for the government," stated that the reasons MJ had so many nose jobs were for "reconstructive" reasons, due to the skin healing problems and scarring associated with discoid lupus."

(As I mentioned in the previous section of this MJ film review, Dr. Richard Strick was a doctor appointed by Tom Sneddon to perform a court-ordered examination of MJ in December 1993[,] and to review MJ's medical records in 1993[,] seized from Michael Jackson's dermatologist and plastic surgeon.)

The page continues, "The fact that Michael got a [nose job] (this was before he was diagnosed) during a discoid lupus flare up... most likely complicated the healing[,] and this could be why he needed reconstructive work done."

The page says, "It doesn't matter what other surgeons have speculated ... -- they do not have access to MJ's medical history. A doctor who was hired by the prosecuting team, who did have access to his medical history, confirmed that the majority of surgery on [Michael's] nose was corrective[,] due to Lupus."

In the YouTube video Geraldo The Truth Behind MJ's Plastic Surgery, Vitiligo Secrets Revealed.avi, Dr. Richard Strick stated, "Lupus is also an autoimmune disease[,] and [Michael] also had skin involvement, which had destroyed part of the skin of his nose and his nasal surgeries[,] and all were really reconstructive, to try and look normal." When asked if he was saying that all of these nose reconstructions were as a result of Michael treating his lupus, Dr. Strick replied, "The first one was to try and reconstruct from some scar tissue and obstruction that had happened with the skin there. It didn't work out very well[,] and all subsequent attempts were to make it right. I think he was trying to look like a normal guy as best as ... he could."

The page also said, "Exposure to sunlight or artificial UV rays can aggravate lupus symptoms. This explains why, in the late '80s, [Michael] started carrying around umbrellas."

Michael also experienced huge lung problems as a result of his lupus, with the site saying, "But even before, in 1977, MJ had a pneumothorax relating to pleurisy, which is the biggest lung[-] related symptom of lupus," and Michael even had his lung collapse.

It also shows how Michael Jackson's autopsy report confirmed the lung problems, with his lungs reported as being "chronically inflamed with a reduced capacity," and the medical notes saying that Michael even coughed up blood, in 2007.

The page said that, in Michael Jackson's autopsy results, it was stated that Prednisone, which is one of the most common drugs used for treating lupus, was found in his house, and was prescribed two months before Michael Jackson's death, and that Michael had taken all of the prescribed dosage. It said, "Insomnia is one [of] the side effects of Prednisone, so part of his sleeping problems may have involved the use of this drug."

If the Michael 2026 film had shown scenes of Michael's doctor identifying numerous Lupus symptoms in Michael, and had shown him recommending that Michael do reconstruction surgery to fix his nose (multiple times), use umbrellas to protect his skin, etc., this would have helped viewers understand that a lot of Michael's seemingly odd behaviors were actually logical and necessary, and might have also helped them empathize with the fact that Michael had to suffer and endure all of this while still producing some of his greatest hits, and donating to and visiting others who were suffering. He could have just felt sorry for himself and focused on himself, but he continued to even expand the help that he gave others, and it's a shame the MJ biopic film did not show scenes of Michael's continued positive attitude toward helping others, even as he himself suffered so many major and debilitating issues over the course of his life.

Michael had to endure so many cruel rumors based on misconceptions, and the new Michael Jackson film could have helped correct some of those Michael Jackson misconceptions, by addressing things like how his Lupus and vitilago influenced a lot of his behaviors, but, unfortunately, these things were part of what was left out of the Michael movie.

Michael Jackson's Relation With Brothers

I would have liked to have seen more of Michael's relationship with his brothers in the 2026 Michael film. The biopic Michael kind of makes it feel like the brothers are insignificant, and that the brothers could have been anyone, because they make so few appearances, and have little to no dialogue, so that you almost don't even care that they're part of the story. Since so many of Michael's family members were part of the Michael Jackson movie executive producers team, it's odd that Michael's conversations with his brothers were part of the things left out of Michael movie scenes.

Michael Jackson's Mother, Katherine Jackson

Katherine Jackson standing up to Joe Jackson Michael still, taken from MJ 2026 film

I would have liked to have seen more dialogue from Katherine Jackson in the biopic Michael Jackson movie, outside of all the looks that she gives Joe. I did like when she finally stood up to Joe, and defended Michael.

See above for a still of Katherine Jackson standing up to Joe Jackson, and below for one of the Treasure-Sharer's favorite Michael biopic scenes, of Katherine Jackson and young Michael Jackson hugging after a heart-to-heart talk, while having ice cream. The Treasure-Sharer really enjoyed the Michael film scenes showing the closeness of the Michael Jackson and Katherine Jackson relationship, and wishes that more of Katherine's influence on Michael's life had been included -- such as the Michael movie missing scenes showing how she got Michael and the other siblings to become Jehovah's Witnesses, after she herself converted to the religion.

still of Michael Jackson and his mother hugging after heart-to-heart talk, taken from the 2026 MJ movie

Michael Jackson and Frank DiLeo Relationship

Frank DiLeo is another person who is not in the new Michael Jackson movie, who should have been in it. Michael Jackson manager Frank DiLeo was an important person in Michael's life, as he was instrumental in helping Michael's career as a solo artist take off, from the business side, so it's surprising that the biopic Michael movie did not mention him at all. He basically was the one who replaced Joe, after Joe was fired by Michael.

As the Michael Jackson Wiki Fandom Frank DiLeo page said, "Frank DiLeo was an American music industry executive. From 1984 to 1989, and again in 2009, he was Michael Jackson's manager. [Michael] and DiLeo first met in the early [1980s], as the former was looking for a new manager. DiLeo, at the time, was one of the most successful music executives in the industry... He was skeptical at first about having [Michael] as a client[,] due to his eccentric behavior. He changed his mind after they first met[,] and he helped [Michael] shape his career."

The page continues, "[Michael] fired DiLeo after having troubles with his financial status, lawsuits[,] and creative control which he felt were mishandled by the manager."

It would have been interesting if the Michael movie 2026 had shown the dynamics of the Frank DiLeo and Michael Jackson relationship, and what led to DiLeo's firing (and maybe go into his rehiring, in the Michael Part 2 film).

The fact that the 2026 MJ movie didn't feature Frank, despite his prominent role in Michael's life, calls into question what Branca was trying to depict in the movie, as it almost feels like he was framing himself as a bestie, a lawyer, a manager, and an advisor to Michael at the same time. If Frank had been included, Branca's perceived importance in Michael's life may have been diminished. Since we don't know for sure why Frank wasn't mentioned in the Michael biopic movie, it's uncertain whether or not this was a factor, but it did end up benefiting Branca that Frank wasn't featured.

My Favorite Scenes From the Michael Movie

Michael Jackson and His Bodyguard

One of my favorite parts of the MJ 2026 movie was the scene with Michael Jackson's bodyguard, Bill Bray, when Michael takes off with his driver/bodyguard, and they discuss Michael splitting from the family. See below for a still of this heart-to-heart moment between Michael Jackson and his bodyguard.

I loved that the Michael Jackson biopic went into Michael's relationship with his bodyguard, Bill Bray, showing that he was both a Michael Jackson bodyguard and friend. That was definitely one of the better parts of the biopic MJ movie.

Miles Teller as Michael Jackson's Lawyer, John Branca

One of my other favorite parts of the Michael biopic movie was the John Branca Michael scene when Michael meets with his life-long lawyer, John Branca, for the first time. See below for a still of this moment.

John Branca Michael movie scene featuring Michael Jackson and John Branca first meeting, taken from the MJ biopic movie

I also loved the scenes with Michael talking to John Branca about his future plans.

It makes me wonder: Did Michael Jackson and John Branca have a good relationship? And did Michael Jackson and John Branca get along in real life?

I thought that Miles Teller played a pretty good John Branca, and I also enjoyed his performances in the Footloose remake, the Divergent series, and Top Gun: Maverick.

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I do kind of wonder why John Branca was fired to begin with, and why he was rehired after Michael died. Did Michael Jackson and John Branca fall out, and did they actually make up?

It makes me wonder if John Branca is actually looking out for Michael's interest, or if he's not, since he played such a pivotal role in the 2026 MJ film. He was responsible for getting MJ the Beatles catalogue, launching Michael Jackson's solo career, firing Joe Jackson, etc. Was he partly responsible for Michael Jackson's downfall? Of course, this won't make it into the Michael biopic movie, since John Branca is on the Michael movie production team, but John Branca has a lot of control over Michael Jackson's estate.

I question Branca's rehiring, because there was a dispute that said that Michael Jackson's signature was forged, and that the will was not set up in the way that Michael would have wanted. It makes it sound like it was saying that John Branca forged the signature. You can read the article "Fake, flawed and fraudulent": Michael Jackson's siblings claim that their brother didn't sign his own will for more details.

However, it also almost feels like Michael's family was trying to get Michael's money. Why are the siblings fighting over it? Shouldn't it go to Michael Jackson's kids and mom? I would have wanted to have seen what was really going on about this, but there's no way that we're ever going to see this in the Michael movies, since John Branca is a producer, and so many members of the Jackson family are the executive producers.

The Michael Jackson biopic 2026 movie makes John Branca look good in the movie, but there's no way of knowing if that was really the case in real life, or just shown that way, due to John Branca's influence. It does seem like it could be part of what is not accurate in Michael movie scenes, and could be part of what Paris Jackson identifies as one of the things making the Michael movie inaccurate.

The level of power that John Branca has is unbelievable, as he sold off Neverland and the Sony catalogue, and was responsible for making the albums after Michael died, and for the Immortal world tour. Maybe because the Jackson family didn't get money from Michael's death, they might have been trying to make money from doing this Michael Jackson film.

You can read the article John Branca: the greedy backstabber! for more on this subject.

These are some of the things that make me question the MJ biography film in a different way.

Also, was John Branca a little compromised? Was he secretly working with people who wanted to destroy Michael, and get at his assets? I don't know, but it does make one wonder.

Did Michael Fire Joe Jackson by Fax?

still of Michael Jackson fax firing Joe Jackson, taken from the biopic MJ movie

I and the Vagabond and the Treasurer-Sharer thought that the scene where John Branca and Michael Jackson fired Joe Jackson by fax was hilarious, even though it's part of what is not true in Michael movie scenes, as it wasn't historically accurate, since Michael didn't do so by fax, and, also, Michael didn't just go home after firing Joe Jackson, but spent some time away from the house to let the news marinate -- for definitely more than a few days -- before coming back home, because he knew that his dad was going to be furious with him about it.

As the article What's Really True In New Michael Jackson Movie says, "In real life... according to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli -- who penned Michael Jackson -- The Magic and the Madness, documents were indeed delivered to Joseph at the house, just not via fax necessarily. Michael himself was absent at the time[,] and reportedly purposely waited a while to let Joseph ingest the bad news before he came back home."

See above for a biopic MJ movie still of the fax written by Branca, where Michael Jackson fired Joe Jackson.

Child-like Michael

Michael and sick child Michael movie still, taken from the 2026 MJ movie

The Michael movie toy store scene, where Michael was in a toy store signing autographs, and the Michael Jackson movie Twister scene, with his brothers not wanting to play Twister with Michael anymore, and all the Michael biopic scenes showing Michael Jackson visiting kids in the hospital, were nice touches. They really illustrated how Michael was genuinely different, child-like, and empathetic. See above for a still of Michael chatting with a sick child at a hospital, and below, for a still of Michael talking to a mother and her child at the toy store, taken from the MJ 2026 film.

Michael 2026 toy store scene still, showing Michael and fans at toy store, taken from the 2026 MJ film

For example, the scene at the toy store where Michael gave a little boy tips on how to win an Atari game showed how Michael was able to connect with children in ways that he wouldn't have been able to do with adults, who wouldn't have appreciated his advice.

Michael Jackson Twister scene, taken from the MJ 2026 movie

And the Michael Jackson and Bubbles Twister scene, with Michael ending up playing Twister with his monkey Bubbles, because he had asked his brothers to play Twister with him (because he still liked games), and his brothers said no (because they were too grown up to be interested in playing a kid's game), showed the contrast between Michael (who still retained his child-like essence and interest in continuing to do the things that most adults abandon after a certain age, because it's considered socially-weird), and his brothers, who were more into women -- with one even making a joke about how one of the brothers would play "his own version of Twister" (with his date). See above for a still of Michael Jackson playing Twister with Bubbles the monkey.

God's Hand Over Michael

Michael movie swimming pool scene still, showing Michael Jackson channelling, taken from the biopic MJ movie

I also loved the Michael movie swimming pool scene, when Michael is in the pool, where his brother laughs when he looks at Michael, and says, "What are you doing, Mike?" and Michael responds by saying, "Channeling. I'm letting the creator give me a song right now. But if I'm not here to receive these ideas, God might give them to Prince." See above for a still of Michael's channeling, taken from the biopic MJ movie.

The site "True Michael Jackson... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" God, faith, spirituality, consciousness, unity page quotes Michael, from his book, Dancing The Dream, as saying, "For me[,] the form God takes is not the most important thing. What's most important is the essence. My songs and dances are outlines for Him to come in and fill. I hold out the form. She puts in the sweetness."

Michael Jackson was actually very spiritual, but his strong spiritual background was not a subject of focus in the film Michael. As I mentioned earlier, according to the article Michael Jackson's life as a Jehovah's Witness, Michael was raised by his mother, Katherine Jackson, as a Jehovah's Witness, and Michael was active in meeting attendance and regular preaching until his disassociation from the group in 1987. Apparently, for five days a week, he and La Toya would do door-to-door evangelism every morning, knocking on doors around Los Angeles, with Michael donning disguises during his attempts to convert people to the Jehovah's Witness faith, to avoid recognition.

I can't confirm this, but I get the impression that Michael wasn't pushing the religion as much later in his career as he had been in his earlier years, and this could be because he knew that it might make certain religious groups, and people in general, like Michael less, because maybe they didn't agree with his views or religion, or just might be turned off by his overt attempts to convert people.

The site "True Michael Jackson... in his own words and in words of those, who knew him" God, faith, spirituality, consciousness, unity page quotes Michael Jackson as saying, "I don't consider myself religious in order to form part of a dogma in particular. I consider myself to be spiritual. I think there is a field of knowledge in which we experience our universality. I read all kinds of religious literature because I believe that the truth is in all of them."

It also quotes him from a 1979 Ebony Magazine interview as saying, "I avoid using the term 'religion', because many people say 'my religion' this and 'my religion' that. Why should it be 'my' religion? I just believe what's in the Bible with regard to which religion is involved. I simply believe.... I believe in it[,] and I get down on my knees every night[,] and thank God[,] and ask Him to lead the way."

Despite Michael gaining tremendous fame and fortune, even in 1984, Michael still went door to door to attempt to convert people to the Jehovah's Witness faith "twice a week, maybe for an hour or two," according to Katherine Jackson, and Michael also attended meetings at Kingdom Hall with his mother four times a week, when he was in town.

Even an exchange between Michael and one of his tour staff, Michael Bearden, during his "This Is It" tour, found in the documentary Michael Jackson's 'This Is It': Memories of Michael, from the extras/special features of the This is It movie, shows Michael's humbleness in the face of God. In the Memories of Michael documentary film, Michael Bearden described how, when Michael told him that their name meant "one who's most like God," and Bearden started getting cocky, Michael told him that they needed to be humble, or God would take their gifts away, and, even when Bearden told Michael that Michael Jackson's gifts were greater than his, Michael got angry and told him that "we have to use our gifts together to help others figure out what their gifts are."

So you can see that, even before he died, Michael was still spiritual, and was steadfast about being humble. I think that his big message was that God gave you that gift, and he can take it away, so you should always be grateful that you even have the gift.

I think that it would have been good for the Michael 2026 movie to have included more scenes of Michael referencing God, and thanking God, to show how important God was to Michael.

Michael Jackson Llama Pet

Michael Jackson and llama still, taken from MJ 2026 film

The Michael Jackson movie llama scene where Michael is just casually walking through the neighborhood with his pet llama was hilarious. See a still of this Michael film scene above.

It would have been more accurate to have shown that Michael, in fact, had two llamas: Lola the llama (Michael Jackson's first llama, that got attacked by his dogs and died), and Louie the llama, that Michael adopted from the circus.

See the YouTube video Michael Jackson and Louie the Llama to see Michael talk about his two pet llamas.

Michael Jackson's Creative Process

Michael movie post-it notes still taken from MJ biopic movie

The Michael Jackson biopic scenes where Michael is in the studio going through his creative process are definitely some of my top favorites of the MJ biopic, although I really wanted to see more of these. I appreciated the Michael movie Post-it notes scenes showing Michael Jackson handwritten affirmations and more, and those with him looking at some films, but that was all we really got to see, apart from him in his studio looking at the news, beatboxing, looking at the names of the songs in his album, and figuring out which songs to include, and what the order of the songs and the name of the album were going to be. The Michael film scenes didn't really show him writing "Billie Jean," "Thriller," or anything, which is what I would have wanted to have seen. See above for a still of some random Michael Jackson movie Post it notes, and below, for a still of more Michael Post it notes, showing some MJ affirmations examples.

Michael.Jackson movie sticky notes with Michael Jackson affirmations, taken from MJ 2026 film

I know that they couldn't really do it, because they would have had to ask for permission from a lot of films (since Michael took inspiration from movies for a lot of his own short film productions), but it would have been good to have had the biopic Michael movie show how Michael got his ideas for each of his songs. Some songs that I particularly would have liked to have seen the process for were "Billie Jean," and "The Lady in My Life."

I feel like it would have been cool to have seen Michael film scenes showing how he got his ideas for his songs, and him actually writing the songs, as most of the scenes show the songs already written and recorded. This was done with "Beat It" in the Michael biopic movie, but it would have been cool to have seen him conjuring up all of his other songs.

As an artist myself, I had really been hoping for more specifics on how Michael Jackson's creative process worked. For example, in the case of "Thriller," I would have wanted to know if, to get the idea to make the short film, Michael had watched one film, or had watched a bunch of films, and gotten the idea to make a horror film, or if he had made the song and then thought of tying it to one horror film, or if his process for coming up with the idea for the "Thriller" music video was something else entirely. I wouldn't know, since I wasn't there, but that's why this is what I had wanted to see covered in the MJ movie 2026.

Even if the biopic Michael had only shown short montages of Michael's creative processes with each of his songs, I think that it would have been super-interesting to have seen. For example, I want to know why Michael put "The Lady in My Life" in his Thriller album, and why it made the cut. Even though the song was not written by him, I wonder if he sang it with a particular lady in mind, such as one of his ex-girlfriends.

"The Lady in My Life" is one of my favorite Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones songs, and the Treasure-Sharer discovered on a page called Lyrics & the Story behind Lady in my Life that "The Lady in My Life" was supposed to serve as the "cool down" after the party, to end off Michael Jackson's Thriller album -- a "Quiet Storm" ballad, to satisfy Michael's core R&B audience. It said that the song was written by Rod Temperton, who wrote the song specifically to showcase Michael's vocal control, but that Quincy Jones wanted raw emotion -- not satisfied with Michael just hitting the notes, but wanting him to sound desperate -- and so turned off the studio lights, leaving Michael in total darkness in the vocal booth, and famously told Michael: "I want you to beg. Sing it like you're begging for her love."

I still want to know if Michael was able to sing about the scenario in the song without thinking of a particular woman, or if he was thinking of a particular situation, or able to look at someone else's situation or relationship -- understanding and expressing someone else's emotion, and acting the emotion. I feel like Michael is an actor of emotion, and I want to know if he's just really good at acting (and not feeling or thinking about anything when he's singing songs that were written by other people for him to sing), or if he's re-experiencing something that happened to him, for him to execute the tone needed for him to perform the song convincingly. Is he going into a vision, where he's picturing a girl he likes, and is thinking about her while begging (kind of like how Bruno Mars does when he is singing to Cardi B in the song "Please Me"), as opposed to just thinking that he has to communicate the feeling of begging?

The Michael biopic didn't even go into Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album. I would have liked to have seen a scene of Michael making Off the Wall, as all we see is one scene of him with Quincy Jones, and then going to Studio 54, just highlighted for all of two seconds. The Michael biopic movie spent a little more time showing the making of the Thriller album, but I would have liked to have seen what inspired Michael to make "Thriller" the song, "Billie Jean" the song, etc.

It could have also been interesting to have seen Quincy Jones's input on the songs, since Quincy is a musical genius, and he and Michael must have had some spats while collaborating on the albums -- a natural result of putting two geniuses together, who might have had differences in opinion on various aspects of the albums that they worked on together. They probably had around 120 songs, and narrowed them down to the ones that finally appeared on the albums, as Michael even said in the video Michael jackson exposes sony (from 3:20 to 3:32) that, "Every album that I record, I write like, literally I'm telling you the truth, I write at least like, 120 songs, I do."

I would have wanted to know what their process was for picking those particular songs (although it's possible that the MJ 2026 film didn't show the process because it didn't want to reveal what those songs were, since the songs might not have been released yet).

See below for a still of Michael movie Post its showing earlier stages of Michael deciding the order of the songs in his Thriller album.

Michael Jackson movie post it notes taken from biopic MJ movie

The one scene that we saw of Michael writing in the biopic MJ movie, that showed him writing while on a bus, didn't even show him writing any of his songs, but, rather, what appeared to be some affirmations to himself. While I thought that it was an important scene, I wish that there had been more Michael movie writing scenes, of Michael writing particular songs and song ideas.

To me, the bus scene was a transition point in the MJ 2026 film, where Michael was saying, "Okay I'm separating from my family, and am writing my own songs, and I'm writing my affirmations to affirm to myself that this is what I'm going to do." I think that he just wasn't ready to pull the actual trigger yet, because that's why there was the Michael film scene with him and his bodyguard, where they were talking about this, with Michael saying that he wanted to do his own thing, and also saying that he wasn't ready for that.

He had just made Thriller, and his dad wanted him to go on tour with his brothers, when he wanted to go on tour to promote his own album. The bus scene shows Michael making the plans for his independence, but he is still in the dreaming phase -- probably wanting to know the details first, before pulling the trigger.

See below for a still showing some Michael Jackson written affirmations that he had been jotting down in his notebook while on the bus, taken from the MJ 2026 film.

Michael Jackson affirmations notes still, taken from 2026 MJ film

It would have been nice to have seen a few Michael biopic scenes of Michael formulating his ideas about how he was going to perform when he was touring. Clearly, the problem was that he didn't have the creative freedom to choose how the songs got performed on stage, when he was touring with his family, as he was still able to make his own album, but not able to go on his own tour for his albums, and choose how the songs got performed on stage, while he was touring with his brothers.

Michael Jackson and the Crips and Bloods Unite in "Beat It" Video

Michael Jackson and Crips and Bloods gang still, taken from Michael biopic movie

The Michael movie "Beat It: scenes were another of my favorite Michael Jackson film scenes, and I thought that they were fantastic. I enjoyed seeing Michael squash the beef that the Crips and the Bloods -- two of the most notorious and violent rival gangs in American history (which you can read more about in the article Who are the Bloods & Crips) -- had with each other, to come together for Michael Jackson's short film. The Treasure-Sharer and I both agreed that this Michael Jackson and Crips and Bloods truce scene was one of our favorite scenes in the Michael biopic movie. It really shows how Michael used his influence and star power for good -- making what would have probably been impossible for anyone else to do possible, with the intent to promote unity between the gangs. The making of the Michael Jackson short film with Bloods and Crips showed how Michael could take a negative situation and turn it into a positive one. That particular scene showed Michael Jackson the humanitarian, but also Michael the visionary, the dancer, the choreographer, and the artist, rolled into one scene. See above for a still of Michael and the Crips and Bloods gangs, taken from the MJ biopic movie.

The Treasure-Sharer looked more into the Michael 2026 "Beat It" scene, since she liked it so much, and discovered a lot of details about the making of the Michael Jackson short film Beat It that would have made the MJ movie Crips and Bloods scenes even stronger, if they had been incorporated. For example, they could have shown how it was Michael who wanted to feature real gang members in the video, and even film the video on the actual Skid Row, and that, when his record label, CBS Records, refused to pay for his idea, Michael spent $150,000 of his own money to make the music video his way, and worked with the L.A. police to recruit 80 real, active gang members -- actual Crips and Bloods -- together on the same set, wanting to use it as an opportunity to have members of the rival gangs, who were mortal enemies, hang out together in peace, wanting not only authenticity for his music video, but also to prove that music and dance could stop violence. A real fight even broke out between the gangs on the set, but seeing the dancers and Michael come out and dance apparently made the gang members stop their fighting, in favor of watching Michael do his thing. It would have revealed so much more about Michael to have included all those details in the Michael film "Beat It" scene, as they would have shown Michael's desire for portraying authenticity in his videos, for the film to have shown how it was Michael who wanted to use real gang members in his video; shown how much clout Michael held, to have had the police on his side, helping him recruit gang members and be on set to help maintain order between the gangs (even allowing him to continue filming after the fight broke out); and the gang members being willing set aside their differences to get to be a part of a Michael Jackson short film with gang members, and stop their fighting just to watch him dance.

While most movies overdramatize, it felt like the Michael biopic movie underplayed what really went down during the making of Beat It, when it could have been an even stronger demonstration of Michael's devotion to making his art his way (even spending his own money to do so), his genuine desire to bring people together, put a stop to violence, and create peace, and his desire to make his work as true to real life as possible.

See the articles below for more information about the making of Michael Jackson's Beat It video: https://viralmusic.fm/michael-jackson-beat-it-behind-the-scenes/

https://truemichaeljackson.webnode.cz/true-stories/bob-giraldi-on-directing-beat-it/

Walter Yetnikoff Michael Jackson MTV Scene

Michael Walter Yetnikoff scene still, taken from MJ 2026 film

I also love the Michael 2026 MTV scene, where John Branca and Michael Jackson go to meet with the president of CBS, Walter Yetnikoff, to ask him to strong-arm the CEO and cofounder of MTV, Robert Pittman, to air Michael Jackson's short films on MTV, by threatening to pull CBS artists from MTV's lineup, which included Bruce Springsteen, Cheap Trick, Charlie Daniels, Billy Joel, Cindy Lauper, and Bob Dylan, if he did not. See above for a still of Walter Yetnikoff, from the Michael movie MTV scene.

At the time, MTV, while denying having a formal "no Black artist policy" on its network, had stayed away from playing music by Black artists.

The article The star, the face, the fire breaks down how important this moment was, with Toure, a contributing editor to Rolling Stone Magazine saying, "[Michael]'s everything... And he also had the ability to change... And the first thing that you have to remember with 'Thriller,' is before 'Thriller,' MTV was not playing black artists at all. 'Thriller' is the first time that they start to play black artists. So this is a huge benchmark in the history of modern American music, that finally the apartheid system ends."

And when Toure is asked, "So 'Thriller' not only made [Michael] the biggest musical star in the world, but it also opened the door for a lot of people to follow," Toure replied, "Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, he was so huge that MTV couldn't ignore him. And then after that, you had a lot more black artists on the channel. I mean there is tremendous, Jackie Robinson almost, you know, barrier-breaking that happened."

I'm glad that the Michael Jackson movie MTV scene showed how Michael made it happen.

Michael Jackson's Three Phases

The Michael biopic movie doesn't really show this, but there were sort of three phases of Michael Jackson: the Motown-curated Michael Jackson with The Jackson 5, the song-writing Michael Jackson with The Jacksons, and the completely-free-to-create Michael Jackson the solo artist.

The first phase was where Motown created the songs, and Michael was loved because Motown knew how to create the perfect image for Michael and The Jackson 5, so that they were loved by the public, and the group wasn't involved in any of the studio parts or stages (e.g. editing the songs, or the creation of their image, or how the stage would be set for when they would perform). Motown was probably deciding where they would perform, what shows they would go on, what they would sing, and how they would behave and what they would say during their interviews and performances, etc. There wasn't much creativity going on there, and Michael and The Jackson 5 didn't have the creative freedom to write their own songs, while they were with Motown.

When The Jackson 5 left Motown and became The Jacksons, they gained the ability to write their own songs. However, Michael was now starting to change -- wanting to do things outside of his brothers, and believing that his brothers wouldn't be able to execute the vision that he wanted. At CBS, the group got creative freedom, but not ownership over their songs.

Then, when Michael went solo, he got the creative freedom to decide on every little aspect of his performances and concerts, and was able to decide what would go on the stage -- the lights, the 3D, the fireworks, the choreo, etc. It went from him just singing and dancing, to him being involved in all aspects of the concerts, down to the last detail, and he was very involved in details that one wouldn't think that he would be involved in. He didn't offload anything, and was very much involved in everything. It was like other artists were using their talents to help Michael execute his vision, as close to it as was possible. Michael got to say how he wanted the dancers to dance, the outfits they wore, how he wanted the audience to feel, and how to achieve that, and more. He could tell the musicians what parts of the music to extend, when to stop, when to start, when to be loud, when to be quiet, etc. He was involved in every part, and that was the difference.

The first phase was Michael, just the singer and dancer, and the second phase added on Michael the writer, and then the third phase was Michael being involved with everything else on top of that -- still the singing and dancing, and the songwriting, but also the directing, etc. If this had actually been illustrated in the MJ movie 2026, then I think that it would have really made a huge difference. Frankly, I don't think that the MJ film showed enough of how Michael was involved in everything, and I hope that the new MJ 2 movie does go into it, because that would explain Michael as an adult.

This was why Studio 54 was so important to Michael's life, because Michael had to get the magical experiences at Studio 54 to spark his inspiration to create the same kinds of experiences that he had there through his concerts. Because he had already experienced the magic at Studio 54, he knew exactly the feeling that he wanted to create, and how to achieve it, such as when to release fireworks and sparkles at his concerts, etc., to spark similar escapes and magical experiences for his audiences.

Michael wanted to be a new person, and outdo who he was before, and all the events that he experienced had to have happened, and all the freedoms that he fought for had to be gained, because the first image of Michael had been curated, by Motown, and Michael took back control, saying, "I'm going create the songs, the image, etc." The fact that he even outdid Motown shows what a creative genius Michael was -- making his new songs more widely known, accepted, and played than the Motown ones. The Michael movie didn't really show how important this separation from Motown and his father's control over his image were, and why.

Curated Michael Jackson

With Michael, he didn't feel heard or seen, because what the public was seeing was Michael, the curated image, rather than Michael, the individual and human being, who was going through vitilago, acne, etc.

Michael wanted to show everyone who he really was, but what they wanted to see was Michael's curated image, so he had to recreate an image for himself that he could control, that he could at least be proud of, like how he could be proud of the art and brand that he created, that were separate from Motown.

Because most people like soft, fluffy, and curated things, Michael never really got the chance to show who he really was, but only the perfected, curated, and polished version of who he was -- because no one was going to accept the other things about him.

With Michael, he separated the artist and who he was from his "performer" alterego -- the Michael Jackson version loved by the audience.

Because no one really understands Michael the human being, but only Michael Jackson the performer, that's probably one of the major reasons why the MJ movie production teams created a movie only showing Michael the performer. Every time Michael tries to show who he really is, he gets criticized. The only version of him that most people want to see is Michael the performer, and so that's the version that the MJ biopic movie delivers -- so that we don't get much more than Michael Jackson the singer, Michael Jackson the entertainer, and those areas of his life depicted in the MJ 2026 movie.

I think that a depiction of the real Michael Jackson is what Paris -- and possibly Janet -- are fighting for, as, probably, Paris was thinking, "You don't know my dad. And after this movie, you still don't know anything about him." If I were Paris, I would be annoyed that the MJ film production teams didn't use the MJ 2026 movie as an opportunity to dispel the image of Michael as, among other things, an eccentric who hung out with animals (like they portrayed him as being in the first MJ movie) -- in the same way that they'll probably portray him as an eccentric who hung out with kids in the next movie -- and other images of Michael as an eccentric, when his behaviors would not be viewed as so eccentric, if the biopic MJ movie had taken the time to fill in the gaps, and explain the "why"s behind Michael's actions.

The MJ 2026 film sort of went into some, but framed them in a way that made Michael look kind of weird. I feel like if the 2026 MJ film had showed everything that I talked about in this MJ film review, then it would have made Michael's reasons for doing the things that he did more tangible to everyone, but it unfortunately didn't do that. It's like the MJ 2026 movie had the missed opportunity to change the paradigm of how people viewed Michael Jackson, in not doing a good job of going into things in a way that would have done the job.

Who Really Benefits From The Michael Movie?

Michael Jackson didn't really get his story told in the MJ 2026 film, thanks to the mixed agendas behind the Michael movie 2026.

In terms of who benefited from the biopic Michael movie, I feel like Michael and his immediate family (Katherine, Prince, Paris, and Bigi [formerly known as Blanket]), as Michael Jackson estate beneficiaries, benefited from the payout from the 2026 MJ movie, and from the rise in the Michael Jackson music royalties, from the renewed interest in and playing of Michael's songs; the Jackson family members who were part of the MJ film executive producers list benefited from the payout from the MJ 2026 film; Jermaine Jackson benefited from the scrubbing of the drama that he had with the family from the memories related to Michael, and from furthering Jaafar Jackson's career; and John Branca benefited from both the payout from the 2026 MJ movie, and from the image that he curated of himself as being a star lawyer, that could potentially get him even more big clients, and immortalize his legacy as a big-time lawyer for celebrities.

My Thoughts on Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson

Michael is the first biopic of Michael Jackson to feature one of Michael Jackson's family members playing Michael. I know that there are quite a few people saying that Jaafar Jackson looks like Michael. I personally don't think so, but I'm not taking anything away from Jaafar's acting or dancing, or voice impression of Michael. I think that Jaafar did a great job, from that perspective. See above for a photo of Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson.

It's kind of cool that, through Jaafar Jackson playing MJ, they were able to keep it in the family, and didn't have to outsource finding some other actor or dancer to play Michael.

Something that has been in the back of my mind is how Jaafar Jackson's father, Jermaine Jackson, originally intended to piggyback off Michael's star power during Motown 25 and the Victory Tour to relaunch his solo career. It does make me wonder if he's trying to use this opportunity to do the same with his son, Jaafar, and make him kind like the new face of the Jackson brand.

The US Magazine article Janet and Paris Jackson Both Skip 'Michael' Film Premiere in Los Angeles shared Page Six's report that "Jermaine sees the new biopic as a way to portray the Jackson family positively[,] after Michael faced multiple high-profile allegations of child sex abuse[,] both before and after his 2009 death," mentioning that Michael denied all allegations while he was alive, and that his family has maintained his innocence.

A relative apparently told the outlet after the screening: "We keep looking for that moment again, [but] only Michael can give us that[,] and he's not even with us anymore ... This isn't just about Michael. It's about us. It's about our legacy. It's about the comeback in store for all of us."

I actually began writing this MJ biopic movie review prior to the Michael biopic sequel's announcement, but now that a MJ sequel movie has been confirmed, I hope that the Michael movie Part 2 adds things like when Michael Jackson's skin color started to really change in 1986, as well as when he was diagnosed with Lupus. Because they didn't address the Lupus in the Michael Jackson movie Part 1, they should at least include flashbacks of it in the MJ movie Part 2, because it actually took place a little before the "BAD" period. I also hope that the Michael movie 2 shows how mean the tabloids were to Michael, by showing when they ran stories like Michael sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, and taking hormones to sound like a girl, and when they coined the term "Wacko Jacko."

I probably haven't covered everything missing from the Michael Jackson movie, since there's just so much that it only touched on superficially, or completely left out, but what I have included should show you how incomplete and inaccurate the Michael biopic movie is.

After seeing all the stuff that the first Michael movie didn't include, I've decided to make a separate article from this MJ biopic review -- detailing the stuff that I would like to see in the MJ film 2 -- which I will be publishing separately from this Michael Jackson biopic review, since my wishlist for the Michael biopic part 2 is pretty long. With all the Michael movie missing scenes that I've already identified in this Michael movie 2026 Part 1 review, I won't hold my breath that the Michael movie 2 will cover what I hope it will, but, hey, maybe the Michael Jackson production team for the MJ biopic Part 2 will see this 2026 Michael film review, and my Michael movie wish list, and take note. ;)

I don't necessarily think that the biopic MJ movie was horrible -- I just personally found myself emotionally-unsatisfied and frustrated, because I wanted more accuracy and continuity, and would have loved to have seen more of Michael's creative process, and more depth into Michael's human details: his relationships, his psyche, his complexities, his motivations, and what inspired him. I feel like that would have given the biopic of Michael Jackson movie more meat and substance, as opposed to feeling a bit overly-simplistic and empty.

I think that the Michael movie 2026 focused far more on the music part, than on the biography part, and I personally wanted more biography.

I don't necessarily blame the Jackson family for wanting to keep the biopic Michael respectful and sanitized, and I also understand that a movie's primary objective is entertainment, so that certain things needed to be left out, skipped over, and condensed. I just personally felt like the biopic Michael Jackson film 2026 was overly-condensed.

It touched lightly on a few darker aspects of Michael's life, like Joe being the villain, Michael's eccentricities, and his growing struggle with his image, but, overall, I don't think that the movie is meant to feel dark, but is more meant to be a feel-good movie for everyone to enjoy -- which is fine. I wasn't going into the Michael biopic movie expecting a dark movie anyway -- I just wanted to see more of the aspects that I have mentioned in this Michael movie 2026 review included.

I think that if you're a Michael Jackson fan, and you want to relive some of those most iconic Michael Jackson moments, then the MJ biopic movie is fine -- but there's nothing new in it for you here. For me, I wanted to see some new things that the public doesn't already know. I assume that this movie was designed to appeal to the newer generations, and, if that was the objective, then I think that it was good enough to at least peak their interest in Michael Jackson.

However, I feel like this Michael Jackson biography movie missed a perfect opportunity to help the general population understand who Michael Jackson really was, behind the glitz, glam, and refined image on screen and on stage. That being said, I also understand why the MJ biography film would want to tread carefully, given all the media spins and tabloids that have come out about Michael, over the decades.

Overall, I personally believe that Michael deserved a better movie than just a greatest hits album on screen.

Michael Biopic Still Leaves Michael Jackson Misunderstood

The Treasure-Sharer found the article The Man They Never Understood: Michael Jackson and the Cost of Being Too Much for This World, which sums up the problem of the treatment of Michael, that says, "Michael Jackson wasn't just misunderstood -- he was misinterpreted, mistranslated, and mythologized to the point where the real person disappeared behind the spectacle.

People called him a genius, but rarely a human being. 'They adored the performer. They questioned the person. That's the real tragedy of his legacy.'"

The Michael biography film was the perfect opportunity to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about, and misrepresentations of, Michael Jackson -- from his changing skin color and nose surgery reasons, to the time, attention, aid, and special treatment he gave to children -- but because of the movie's superficial treatment of even the issues that it did cover, Michael was still portrayed as an eccentric, rather than having the reasons for his behaviors explained -- as a man whose personal tragedies led him to respond in very logical ways, to remedy and compensate for the situations and circumstances that he found himself in.

It didn't really clear up any Michael Jackson misunderstanding that viewers might have had, in not conveying how Michael Jackson was so misunderstood in multiple ways.

Even showing what a God-fearing man Michael was -- who was even willing to destroy his "Thriller" video after receiving disapproval from the Jehovah's Witness elders about it -- coupled with Michael's complete disdain for, and resolve to never engage in, any form of child abuse, having been a victim of numerous forms of child abuse himself, would have helped the public see how abusing children -- let alone sexually abusing them -- was completely counter to everything that Michael stood for, represented, and did, but because the Michael biopic movie either ignored such issues completely, or barely touched on them, viewers were not helped to understand these things about Michael, or clear up some of their potential Michael Jackson misconceptions.

Even the Michael Jackson biography movie showing some of the women that Michael was involved with and dated, and the kidding around that Michael did with his friends, staff, and strangers, and how Michael tried to put everyone around him at ease, would have allowed viewers to better see how Michael was a human who had the same kinds of relationships that they did, and helped answer the question "Was Michael Jackson a misunderstood person?"

The article The Man They Never Understood: Michael Jackson and the Cost of Being Too Much for This World continues, "Even when he told us -- in song, in interviews, in silence --that he felt isolated, alone, exiled from the very world he was trying to heal... No one listened. They just asked when the next album was coming... If you really want to know Michael Jackson, don't look at the headlines. Listen to the songs no one talks about."

The article goes on to list songs with "how was Michael Jackson misunderstood?" lyrics -- which were all Michael movie missing songs:

"'Stranger in Moscow' -- loneliness like ice.
'Childhood' -- a cry to be understood.
'Is It Scary' -- a question that flips the mirror back onto us.
'Tabloid Junkie' -- a fierce rebuttal to the lies, slander, and media addiction that consumed his image."

It highlights the lyrics, "Just because you read it in a magazine, or see it on the TV screen -- don't make it factual…," saying about them, "That wasn't just a lyric. That was a plea.
He told us who he was.
We just weren't ready to hear it."

The Michael biographical movie could have brought attention to the Michael Jackson songs "that no one talks about," to bring the public's attention to them, and show accompanying scenes demonstrating what Michael was trying to communicate through these songs, and what inspired them, but the MJ movie 2026 instead focused on spotlighting Michael's most famous and popular songs, and Jaafar Jackson's performance of them, showing the truth in the article's conclusions that,

"We didn't fail Michael Jackson because we didn't love him.

We failed him because we loved only the version of him that entertained us.

We never made room for the rest:

The brokenness. The brilliance. The boy behind the curtain.

'But if you take the time to truly listen, the man is still there -- etched into every note.'"

The Michael biopic movie focused on showcasing Michael Jackson, the loved entertainer, rather than revealing the broken boy behind the curtain, and the songs that captured this real side of him.

That's why, even if this Michael Jackson movie 2026 is a hit with the Michael Jackson fans who watched the movie to be entertained by it (in the same way that they loved Michael for how he entertained them), it bombed in terms of portraying the lesser-known, much-less publicized, sides of Michael Jackson, and failed viewers who watched the film asking "Was Michael Jackson misunderstood?", and wanting to know "How was Michael Jackson misunderstood?"

Will I watch the Michael movie sequel? Yes, of course, and if they do a trilogy, I will likely watch the Michael 3rd movie as well -- but I'm hoping that the MJ biopic 2 will dive a bit deeper than what has been done thus far with the Michael Jackson Part 1 movie, so that the Michael movie review I write for it will have less for me to critique.

Jackson Cinematic Universe (JCU)?

Also, it probably won't happen, because I'm not sure how much interest would be in it, but I think that it would be cool if the Michael movie production team did something like a Jackson Cinematic Universe (JCU) -- similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) -- and made Jackson Cinematic Universe movies that go into the other siblings, their kids, their grandkids, and even Katherine and Joe Jackson. It would give the Michael Jackson production team an opportunity to fill in the rest of the things that I was wanting to see in this latest Michael Jackson movie 2026, if they did.

Michael Movie Possible Alternative Agenda?

While I do wish that all the Michael Jackson movie missing parts that I mentioned in my Michael biopic movie review had been included in the Michael biography film, I do think that it's possible that the Michael production team might have made the Michael 2026 movie a highlight reel on purpose -- placing the focus on Michael Jackson's music on purpose, to remind people of what good music sounds like.

The quality of music has fallen drastically, especially in recent years, so a film like Michael, that focuses so much on delivering performances of some of Michael Jackson's greatest hits, exposes viewers who might not have been familiar with Michael and his music to a taste of it, to contrast with the mostly junk that's on the airwaves now -- and could help spark a comeback for good music, and an interest for it.

If that is the case, then that would explain the movie's Michael Jackson music focus. As the King of Pop, Michael Jackson sort of represents popular culture and popular music.

Review:

Pros:

-excellent Michael Jackson performances
-highlight reel of Michael's life, for those who don't know much about it
-depictions of Michael Jackson's childlike side, and his genuinely unique eccentricities
-showed how Michael used his star power and influence for good

-showed a glimpse of Michael's artistic/creative side, although I would have liked to have seen more of his creative processes

-included some funny moments in the film, that they took liberties with (e.g. when Michael faxed his dad that he was fired, even though he never fired him by fax)

-might motivate people to learn more about Michael Jackson

Cons:

-inaccurate sequence-of-events details
-left out key parts of Michael Jackson's life

-didn't show a lot of Michael Jackson's life growing up

-not a lot of Michael Jackson's life as a kid

-skips out on teenage years of Michael Jackson's life
-some made-up parts, and miscrediting of key events in Michael's life to the wrong people
-overly-condensed
-too little dialogue from Michael Jackson family members
-not enough biography: focused far more on the music part of Michael Jackson's life, than on the biography part
-sanitized portrayal of Michael Jackson's earlier years, censored by the Jackson estate, to avoid controversial chapters in Michael's and the Jackson family's lives
-minimal interactions with family members depicted made all the encounters superficial, and many of their characters feel irrelevant

-didn't cover a lot of the important people in Michael Jackson's life

-didn't cover many of the women in Michael Jackson's life

-didn't reference Michael Jackson's inspirations

-bias from involvement of John Branca, and Michael Jackson's family

-didn't really clear up any Michael Jackson misconceptions

Gem or Junk

For us:

Gem or Junk Cusp (3 stars out of 5)

I chose to give this Michael movie rating of 3 stars, because both me and the Treasure-Sharer thought that the Michael movie 2026 release was just okay -- not bad, but not amazing. The Vagabond, who is a Boomer, and has been a fan of Michael Jackson's music for years, told us that she liked this latest Michael Jackson movie, and would give it 4 stars out of 5, telling us that she would have been okay with paying to see it on the big screen, as she thought that it was good enough to pay money to see.

It was tough for me to rate this biography of Michael Jackson, because of how much better I know that it could have been, had it included all the things that I had wanted to see in it, and had it focused on telling Michael Jackson’s life story, and on helping us understand Michael Jackson the person, instead of just giving us a highlight reel of Michael Jackson’s life, that did not even provide accurate depictions of what the Michael film did choose to show. As I mentioned, I recognize that films can’t show everything, and have to take liberties sometimes to ensure that they keep the audience’s attention, and keep the film moving at a good pace, etc., but I personally would have preferred to have sat through a five-hour MJ movie that gave us an accurate understanding of what Michael’s childhood, teenage years, and early adulthood were like, than what the Michael biopic movie actually presented -- where it combined and skipped over moments, and left me feeling unsatisfied, knowing what was wrong with each of the Michael film scenes. I told the Treasure-Sharer that it made me get her gripes about movie remakes of books. She hates how movie versions change key characteristics of characters, leave out important scenes, and alter other important aspects of the book that they’re supposed to be based on, and that’s how I felt, knowing as much as I know about Michael Jackson’s life, and knowing how much this movie of Michael Jackson veered from an accurate depiction of it.

While I understand the intentions of the Jackson estate to put out a positive picture of Michael, that the media and other potentially malicious actors wouldn’t have too much room to jump on and spin, as they have done throughout most of Michael Jackson’s career, I think that leaving out defining moments also does Michael a disservice, by missing out on a great opportunity to help the public better understand Michael Jackson, his choices and thought processes, his artistry, his contributions to music and dance, and all the ways that he helped people, and used his fame and fortune for good. We got small tastes of this, like with the "Beat It" scene with the Crips and Bloods that the Treasurer-Sharer and I both loved, but we wish that the film let us get in Michael’s head more, to allow us to understand his creative process, and his intentions behind all his productions and projects. The Michael 2026 movie was the perfect opportunity to dispel rumors about Michael Jackson, and show the sides of him that the public normally isn’t privy to seeing, but instead, we are given more of the same of what we could watch for free on YouTube, with nothing new for die-hard Michael Jackson fans. Even the Vagabond mentioned to us that she would have wanted more story, and not just singing, in the Michael biopic film.

As I mentioned, for the new generations who didn’t grow up with Michael Jackson music, the movie provides an adequate intro to Michael Jackson, that will help keep Michael relevant and on the charts, and ensure that his royalties continue to pull in big bucks, for the people who will profit from them.

As for me, who has followed Michael Jackson over the decades, and was expecting a lot more from this Michael Jackson biopic movie, I have to say that it didn’t feel like a biopic or a biography, but was more like a promotional piece to regenerate hype for Michael Jackson product sales and song requests, and for propelling Jaafar Jackson into stardom.

As I said, as a standalone movie, the Michael biopic movie was a disappointment, though I did enjoy some of the scenes and performances -- but I have heard that the MJ biopic sequel will include flashbacks to some of the things that were not shown, which will hopefully address some of the issues that I didn’t like about the film.

The Treasure-Sharer told me that the MJ biopic scenes that she liked the most were the Michael Jackson movie Bubbles scene that showed when Michael Jackson and Bubbles the chimp first met, the Michael Jackson movie ice cream scene, when Michael and his mother had a heart-to-heart talk, and the Michael film "Beat It" scene, with Michael getting the Crips and Bloods together at the "Beat It" music video filming. She liked that these scenes actually captured moments of emotional connection and bonding, that the majority of the biopic movie Michael lacked. She was disappointed that the 2026 movie Michael didn't show more intimate and personal moments like these ones, and didn't show Michael's thought processes behind his decisions and actions. She wanted more story, and more behind-the-scenes moments missing from previous documentaries and shows put out about Michael -- showing him as a person, and the things that shaped him -- and thought that the MJ biopic movie should have devoted more time to that, than to scenes of Jaafar recreating Michael Jackson's performances.

She agrees with me that Jaafar Jackson doesn't look like Michael Jackson at all, which made her find it weird when I told her how everyone was going on about how much he looked like Michael, and had nailed his voice and dancing. She agrees with my suspicion that the movie was about showcasing Jaafar Jackson, and told me that she wouldn't be surprised if some of the comments hyping up Jaafar's Michael Jackson look and imitations are probably fake, and meant to try to create an image of Jaafar as the next Michael Jackson, by making it look like that's what the public thinks, even though he doesn't actually look or sound like Michael.

The Vagabond agrees with us that Jaafar does not look like Michael, and thinks that the Jaafar Jackson performances of Michael's songs were just okay. However, the only thing that she didn't like about the biopic MJ movie was the fact that it included Joe Jackson hitting Michael when Michael was a kid, as she doesn't like seeing children being abused -- especially the youngest kid, which Michael was, in the scene. She did like some of the same Michael film scenes that I and the Treasure-Sharer liked, like when Michael got Bubbles the monkey, when Michael fired Joe Jackson by fax, and when Michael was in the swimming pool, channeling. When I asked her if she would have been interested in seeing some of the things that I mentioned that I would have wanted in the MJ movie 2026, such as Michael's relationships with women like Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, etc., she told us that she would have been interested in seeing them, although she would have wanted the scenes to stay PG, and be limited to showing the couples holding hands, walking down the street, giving each other a little peck, etc. She tends to not like very explicit scenes of affection.

I feel that some superfans, in the sense that they like the musical performances in this movie of Michael Jackson, will probably still like this biopic MJ movie, whereas for people like me, who wanted to see Michael Jackson's human side, this area felt lacking.

I really hope that the Michael 2026 producers step up their game, and do justice to whatever sequels follow this first Michael Jackson biopic movie.

Gems For Who?

1. Michael Jackson fans.
2. Michael Jackson superfans.

3.People who love biopics.
4. People who want to know more about Michael Jackson and his life.
5. Gen-Zers and Gen-Alphas who want to know more about Michael Jackson's life.
6. People who like to keep up with the biggest, most popular films.

7. Lovers of music-related movies.

8. Lovers of dance-related movies.

9. People who want to see a movie of Michael Jackson highlight reels.

10. People who like watching Michael Jackson biography movies.

11. People who like feel-good movies.

12. The Jackson 5 fans.

13. The Jacksons fans.

14. People interested in Jaafar Jackson movies.

15. People who want information about Michael Jackson's life.

16. People with short attention spans, who want snapshots of, rather than deep dives into, Michael Jackson's life.

Conclusion:

While I and the Treasure-Sharer thought that the biopic Michael Jackson movie was okay, we also didn't think that it was great, as it didn't really go into Michael Jackson's life the way that we think that a biopic should. I wanted new insights about Michael Jackson that I hadn't been able to access before, but the latest Michael Jackson movie 2026 didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know, or that hadn't already been covered in previous Michael Jackson biography movies and TV shows, and even had a bunch of inaccuracies, that take away from the credibility of the film's MJ depictions, and made me understand Janet Jackson's reservations about, and decision not to appear in, the MJ biopic movie. It failed to talk about a lot of the important people in Michael Jackson's life, many of the women in Michael Jackson's life, and many defining moments in Michael Jackson's life. This Jaafar Jackson Michael Jackson movie felt more slanted toward showcasing Jaafar Jackson's performance of Michael than showing the many sides of Michael himself.

If you're someone who doesn't know much about Michael Jackson, and just wants to know a bit more, and see what all the hype is about, then you'll probably enjoy this latest Michael Jackson film and the performances, and perhaps even be inspired to start listening to Michael Jackson music. If you're someone who knows a lot about Michael Jackson's life, and wanted a deeper dive into him and his life, then you'll probably be disappointed by what this movie of Michael Jackson actually delivers. As a biography of Michael Jackson, it doesn't add anything to what's already out there about Michael Jackson.

If you want to watch the Michael movie, you can buy the DVD on Amazon through our affiliate link: https://link.amazon/B0762xSP1MICHAEL

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If you want to read more of my reviews, check out my MoneyGPT by Jim Rickards book review.

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Be sure to check back here, to catch my Michael Movie Review, Part 2: Wishlist For the Michael Movie Sequel.

While we're not just a movie reviews website, if you're just interested in reading movie reviews, the Treasure-Sharer has three other movie reviews that you can check out: F1: The Movie review, Freakier Friday review, and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey review.

'Til next time!

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REVIEW: Michael Movie, Part 1: What It's Missing

For us:

Gem or Junk Cusp (3 stars out of 5)

I feel that some superfans, in the sense that they like the musical performances in this movie of Michael Jackson, will probably still like this biopic MJ movie, whereas for people like me, who wanted to see Michael Jackson's human side, this area felt lacking.

I really hope that the Michael 2026 producers step up their game, and do justice to whatever sequels follow this first Michael Jackson biopic movie.

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