Where is Michael Jackson’s Chimpanzee Bubbles Now? Inside His ‘Peaceful’ Life and Why Filmmakers Used a CGI Chimp in ‘Michael’ 

PETA praises filmmakers and Lionsgate for not using a real primate.

By Marc Malkin

Marc Malkin

Senior Editor, Culture and Events

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Michael Jackson’s love of animals takes center stage in the new biopic “Michael.”

Featured in the movie are several of Jackson’s pets that he owned when he still lived at his family estate in Encino, Calif., including a llama, giraffe and a python as well as the most famous of them all, his chimpanzee Bubbles.

The film introduces Bubbles when he is first delivered to Michael (Jaafar Jackson) as his family looks on in horror. His mother, Katherine (Nia Long), questions her son’s choice, asking him if he realizes that chimpanzees are “wild animals” that don’t belong in a house in the suburban San Fernando Valley.

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