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Moonwalker

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For a related video game, see Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. For other uses, see moonwalk.
Moonwalker
Movie poster by Bill Gold
Directed byMichael Jackson,
Will Vinton (segment "Speed Demon")
Jim Blashfield (segment "Leave Me Alone"),
Colin Chilvers (segment "Smooth Criminal")
Written byMichael Jackson (story) (segment "Smooth Criminal")
David Newman (screenplay) (segment "Smooth Criminal")
Produced byFrank DiLeo,
Michael Jackson
Dennis E. Jones
Jerry Kramer
Will Vinton (segment "Speed Demon")
StarringMichael Jackson
Joe Pesci
Sean Lennon
Kellie Parker
Brandon Quintin Adams
CinematographyThomas E. Ackerman
Robert E. Collins
Frederick Elmes
John Hora
Crescenzo Notarile
Edited byDale Beldin
David E. Blewitt
Mitchell Sinoway
Music byMichael Jackson
Bruce Broughton
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
October 29, 1988
Running time
93 min
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish

Moonwalker, also known as Michael Jackson: Moonwalker, is an American film released in 1988 by singer Michael Jackson.

Rather than featuring one continuous narrative, the film is a collection of short films about Jackson, several of which are long-form music videos from Jackson's Bad album. The film is named after the dance technique known as the moonwalk, which was one of his trademark moves. The name of the dance move was dubbed by the media, not by Jackson himself; however, he did choose the title of the film himself.

Release

The release of Moonwalker was originally scheduled to coincide with Jackson's 1987 album, Bad. During the theatrical release of Moonwalker, Jackson was also embarking on the Bad World Tour, his first tour as a solo performer. The film was released theatrically in Europe and South America, but Warner Brothers canceled plans for a Christmas 1988 theatrical release in the U.S. Moonwalker was released on home video in the United States and Canada on January 10, 1989, just as the Bad World Tour finished. (His tour was supposed to finish sooner, but had been postponed due to some vocal strain, so it went on until the last week of January 1989.) The video had sold more than 800,000 copies in the U.S by April 17, 1989.[1]

Plot

The film consists of a collage of short stories, concert footage and music videos rather than being one continuous storyline. Each of the segments is described in the separate sub-sections below.

Man in the Mirror

A live performance of Jackson's song "Man in the Mirror" acts as the opening music to the film. This short segment features a montage of clips of children from Africa as well as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and other historical figures.

Retrospective

A short biographical film about Jackson, covering the early years from the Jackson 5 until the Bad World Tour. Excerpts of the following songs are played:

Badder

A parody of the music video for Bad's title song, featuring children filling the roles of various people from the original clip.

The video stars Brandon Quintin Adams, who would later star in The Mighty Ducks, as the young Michael Jackson. It also featured Jermaine La Jaune Jackson, Jr. (Michael's nephew) and a young Nikki Cox, who later starred in Unhappily Ever After and Las Vegas. The singing group The Boys appeared as background dancers. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog co-writer Maurissa Tancharoen, as well as future R&B star Bilal Oliver, are also featured in this segment.

Speed Demon

The "Badder" clip transitions into a second short film, referred to as "Speed Demon", directed by Claymation innovator Will Vinton. A portion of this clip is set to the track Speed Demon. In the film, Michael, in an attempt to avoid overzealous fans (even The Noid), disguises himself as a rabbit (named Spike), but ends up taunting the fans into chasing him. During the chase, he morphs into other celebrities, namely Sylvester Stallone, Tina Turner and Pee-Wee Herman. After finally losing the fans, he removes the costume, which comes to life and challenges him to a dance-off.

In the end, a traffic cop tells him he is in a "No Dancing Zone", and when Michael turns to point to Spike, the rabbit has disappeared. The cop then sarcastically asks for Michael's autograph (as opposed to "signature") on the ticket. The irony intended is that the fans that pursued him all wanted his autograph. Just as Michael is preparing to leave, Spike's head materialises in a nearby rocky crag. Spike then nods to him and the clip ends.

Producer Quincy Jones has stated Michael wrote this song after receiving a speeding ticket which made him late for a recording session. After telling Quincy about it, he told him to write how he felt about it.

Leave Me Alone

The fifth segment of the film is the short film for the song "Leave Me Alone", and features an animated music video focusing on media interest in Jackson's personal life, because he had felt that the tabloid, media, press, paparazzi, etc. wouldn't leave him alone, no matter what he did to prove his innocence. The video for the song won a Grammy in 1989 for Breakthrough, animated video, the only Grammy Award received for the album, Bad.

Smooth Criminal

The segment begins with three homeless children (Sean, Katie and Zeke) sneaking through a big city to see their friend Michael walk out of his store. As Michael stands in front of the door, he gazes at the night sky before he is attacked by mobsters with machine guns. The film then backtracks to show Michael and the children playing in a meadow in happier times. Their dog Skipper runs away, and as Michael and Katie look for him they uncover the lair of Mr. Big (Joe Pesci). Mr. Big, whose real name Frankie Lideo is an anagram of Frank DiLeo, is a drug-dealing mobster with an army of henchmen. He wants to get the entire population of Earth addicted to drugs, starting with children. He likes to eat nuts and leaves nutshells wherever he goes. He is obsessed with spiders, as displayed by their abundance at the entrance to his lair, he called his operation "bugs and drugs". He also has them engulfing a model globe when making a speech about his burgeoning drug empire. They signify the spread of his proposed control of the world via drug dealing. Further, all his henchmen sport a spider crest on their uniforms. Mr. Big discovers Michael and Katie are spying on his operation.

The story returns to the shooting in front of Michael's store. Unknown to the gangsters, Michael has a lucky star, and, using it, he escaped the gunfire. Upon realizing that Michael has escaped again, Mr. Big orders his henchmen to track him down with dogs. He is eventually cornered in an alley, where he uses his lucky star again to turn into a sportscar (the 1970 Lancia Stratos prototype) that mows down several of Mr. Big's henchmen. Michael is pursued through the city streets until he loses the henchmen. Meanwhile, the children scout out Club 30's, where Michael had told them to meet him, and find only an abandoned and haunted nightclub. As Michael arrives, Katie sees a silhouette of him turning back from a car into himself. The door of the club opens with a gust of wind, and Michael walks in to find it filled with zoot suiters and swing dancers. The children gather outside a window of the club and watch Michael dance to "Smooth Criminal."

The song used in the film is much longer than the album release, with several lyrics that clarify the story. There is also an interlude where Jackson joins the other dancers in a modern interpretive dance. At the climax of the song, Mr. Big lays siege to the club and kidnaps Katie. Michael follows them back to Big's lair and ends up surrounded by his henchmen. Mr. Big appears and taunts Michael by threatening to inject Katie with highly addictive narcotics. Katie breaks free for a moment, but Mr. Big grabs her again and starts kicking Michael. As Mr. Big stands over Michael and orders his henchmen to kill him and Katie, Michael looks up and sees his lucky star. He transforms into a giant robot and kills all of Mr. Big's soldiers, then turns into a spaceship. Mr. Big gets into a large hillside-mounted energy cannon, firing on the spaceship into a nearby ravine. The children are his next target, but the spaceship returns from the ravine just in time to fire a beam in the cannon with Mr. Big inside killing him. The children watch the ship fly into the night sky with shower of light.

The children return to the city, believing that Michael is gone forever. As the boys talk about Michael, Katie walks away crying and clutching a paper star. As she sits in a corner wishing for him to come back, the paper star flies out of her hand and Michael walks out of the night fog. He takes them to Club 30's, where they find that the club has turned into the backstage area of a concert. Michael's stage crew return the children's missing dog and then escort Michael onto the stage.

Come Together

The film closes with Jackson performing a cover of the Beatles' song "Come Together." One of the child actors in this movie is Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon. It was first released as the B-Side to "Remember the Time" in January 1992, with a slightly different version appearing on the second disc of the HIStory album in 1995.

Closing credits

During the closing credits, two more segments are shown. The first has Ladysmith Black Mambazo performing "The Moon is Walking" in Club 30's amidst behind-the-scenes clips. The second is the four-minute version of the "Smooth Criminal" music video.

Cast

Reception

The movie received mixed reviews, critics praised the music but complained that there was no plot, and that it seemed like a series of music videos poorly tied together. Variety reported that Moonwalker "seems unsure of what it was supposed to be. At the center of the pic is the "Smooth Criminal" segment, a musical/dramatic piece full of dancing, schmaltzy kids, sci-fi effects and blazing machine guns [directed by Colin Chilvers, based on a story by Jackson]. Around it are really just numerous Jackson music videos with little or no linkage. Although quite enjoyable the whole affair does not make for a structured or professional movie."[2] The Nostalgia Critic did a review of the movie, declaring it nothing more than a massive ego-trip for Michael Jackson, though admitting that the "Smooth Criminal" segment was the best part of the movie.[3]

Current availability

Throughout the 1990s, VH1 often featured Moonwalker in their Michael Jackson marathons, but have ceased since the last marathon in 2001.

The movie is available on VHS from Sony. In April 2005, Moonwalker was released on DVD by Warner Home Video (Europe only, in Region 2). The DVD was also released in 2006 in a NTSC Region 3 code in South Korea. It has also been released on DVD in a Region 4 code in Australia and an NTSC transfer is available on the Warner Brothers Japanese R2 DVD. It was recently released again in South Korea as Warners Product #WK00817 as NTSC Region 3 which plays on North American NTSC Region 1 players. The film has also been released on VCD and Laserdisc.

After Michael Jackson's death in June 2009, the Region 2 version of Moonwalker went to No. 3 on Play.com's DVD chart and the available copies were sold out.

Although bootleg transfers can be found on at many video specialty stores, online auction and shopping sites, there are no known plans for an official region 1 release.

In early August 2009, Warner Mexico released the DVD in Region 4 code.

Recently, Warner Bros. released a Region 1 DVD, although the case label contained several typos.

Video game

Main article: Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
Screenshot of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker arcade game

Moonwalker was developed into an arcade video game by Sega with the help of Jackson, which was released on the Sega System 18 hardware. Home versions of the game were released for Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System home video game systems, though the gameplay was completely different on home computers such as the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, which was a more puzzle based video game, with the view looking down on Michael. The console versions of the game were actually based on an evolved version of the side-scrolling Sega Mega Drive Shinobi series engine, while the arcade version was a three-quarters view shooter/fighter type game. The games involved the player controlling the pop star in a quest to save children (the console version features only "Katie", while the arcade version includes all three children) that had been kidnapped by Mr. Big.

In the three player simultaneous arcade game, contact with Bubbles, Michael's chimp, transformed him into a robot warrior, replacing Michael's "star magic" and melee dance attacks with missiles and laser beams. In the one or two player (taking turns) console versions on certain levels, rescuing a certain child first would trigger a comet to fall from the sky that could be grabbed transforming Michael into the robot (which could fly with a rocket pack as well as use lasers and a missile special attack). Michael automatically changes into a robot for the final showdown with Mr. Big's henchmen and finally into a space ship for the last battle, in a sort of flight-sim shooter in the Genesis/Mega Drive version. All incarnations of the game featured the ability of Michael to use some form of "Dance Magic" which would force his enemies to dance to the music of various tunes from "Bad" or "Thriller" and be destroyed as a result.

Certification

Country Certification Sales
Canada Gold [4] 50,000
USA 8x Platinum [1] 800,000

References

  1. ^ a b RIAA Gold & Platinum Certification information
  2. ^ By (1988-01-01). "Moonwalker Review — Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Moonwalker". Variety.com. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
  3. ^ http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/5929-moonwalker
  4. ^ http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php?page=3&wclause=WHERE+artist_name+like+%27%25michael+jackson%25%27+ORDER+BY+cert_date%2C+cert_award+&rcnt=45&csearch=0&nextprev=1

[[[Category:Fantasy films]]

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