Michael Jackson - Moonwalker [1988] [DVD]

Spectacular entertainment by the King of Pop. What else do you need to know?

Awesome as ever oldie but goodie

Many can remember watching this video as a little kid or a teenager and loving it. Luckily, it is still one of the greatest musical/visual spectacles out there. But be warned, while the film is still magical, it may seem a bit to some like going back to Disney World for adults who watched the film as a child. Amazing, but not like it was at the time. The video is pretty timeless, but the best of special effects then may not have the wow-effect today. The review may be broken down into each section of the video. This film contains: -'Man In The Mirror' [concert footage/tribute to great peacemakers] -'A Retrospective Of 24 Years Of Hits' [history as of 1988] -'Badder' [cute kiddie remake of 'Bad'] -'Speed Demon' [CLAYMATION sequence} -'Leave Me Alone' [short film] -'Smooth Criminal' [the 45-minute feature] -'Come Together' [concert at the end of SMOOTH CRIMINAL] - and as the 'THE MOON IS WALKING' song played through the credits by an African group called Ladysmith Black Mombazo. - Man In The Mirror is a great 'BAD' concert recap which successfully gives the respect to former men and women who have 'made that change' while showing off Michael's undoubtable charisma onstage. Uses a good bit of the split screen technique, which was a revolution back then. - The look back at the '24' years of Michael's history is great. It traces 'ABC' to 'BAD' flawlessly, with some neat high-tech transition animations aiding it and gives lots of hard to find clips of little Michael. Nice little set up of memoirs and newer memories like 'Thriller', 'Beat It', and 'The Way You Make Me Feel'. - The 'Badder' features a group of little kids in a mini-Michael Jackson bad cover. It's flat out cute, and the kiddies do a good job. You still get the feeling that no one does it like Michael. - 'Speed Demon' is cute and is a comical view of what Michael's life is like with his tremendous fame. The segment combines CLAYMATION with live action fairly well. The short features "Spike" the rabbit, as well as an all-star cast being spoofed by the CLAYMATION creators. Very cute! - 'Leave Me Alone' is a classic short film. The bizarre carnival theme laughably, yet with a severe undertone shows the rollercoaster ride which the Tabloid and media have locked Michael Jackson into. Sometimes scary, sometimes funny or cute - the piece is unique and meant to mock and illustrate the bogus media mayhem. - 'Smooth Criminal' is, though I won't spoil it, full of awesome dancing and an adorable adventure. Michael Jackson, Joe Pesci, and son of legend John Lennon - Sean Lennon. The music video portion is beyond belief and your kids will be trying to mimic it eternally. The action/adventure storyline is fun (a bit corny), but meaningfully set against drugs. A sort of blend between Star Wars and E.T. - 'Come Together' is an awesome performance. The Beatles hit is performed with much enthusiasm and forms a nice triumphant little ending. - The credits and behind the scenes selection is also very nice. The sort of chant is accompanied by the group doing some cute little dance with bits of Michael and graphic element sequences dispersed through out. Altogether A GREAT family film that adults will love and children will cherish. Catches your attention and keeps you happy throughout. You'll LOVE it! - AnDie

This movie brought back memories. It was starting to be hard to find.

Great

Spectacular

A journey of music videos and footage of Bad, but in great quality

Perfect it’s MJ

If I were to take a trip back to my childhood, the aptly-named "Moonwalker", the brainchild of Michael Jackson, would be one of the prominent stops. Even back when I wasn't necessarily an MJ fan (I am now), this movie captured my imagination. Rather than a whole, cohesive movie, it's a collection of mini-films, for the most part well-woven together. The first part is a performance of "Man in the Mirror". The second is a retrospective on Michael Jackson's career, with clips from his music videos and performances from his early career to his "Bad" days (which is the era when the movie was made, and it shows). The third is a re-enactment of the "Bad" video by a younger counterpart of the cast. The fourth part is a mini-movie which features Michael Jackson escaping from maniacal fans and press by racing a motorcycle as a rabbit-man and eventually doing a dance duel with him (you really need to see it to believe it). The fifth is a video for "Leave Me Alone", and the sixth and final part is a noir/sci-fi film where Michael and three young kids on the streets who have befriended him try to escape a drug lord (Joe Pesci) who wants Michael's head after the latter discovers his plans to get all kids addicted to drugs. "Moonwalker" never made it to theatres in the US (it did, however, in Europe and South America), but that didn't stop the VHS release to be sold in over 800,000 copies within a year of the movie's release. It is a truly engrossing trip through the imagination of the legendary musician/entertainer. While many musicians have tried their hands at filmmaking and only succeeded at showing that they have no talent at it, Michael Jackson surprises. Not only does he show that he has as much feel for staging and visual storytelling as he has for music, he manages to make this movie his own, weaving into both the collage and story some truly imaginative moments. Take the second part of the movie, where we sort of hit the "present". The "Bad" video is reenacted by younger actors, in a truly hilarious but nonetheless competent spectacle. After that, Michael Jackson emerges onto the 'streets' of Hollywood and is hounded by an assortment of stark-raving-mad, claymated fans and press. An attempt by a humoured Michael to escape his chasers ensues, but as he finds out, trying to hide out in Hollywood studios (especially when you're Michael Jackson) is about as easy as hiding the punch at a banquet. But his way out of this situation is possibly my favourite part of the movie. Disguising himself as a leather-clad rabbit man, he manages to escape the studios on a bicycle, which transforms into a motorcycle. At this point "Speed Demon" kicks in as the rabbit-man drives at breakneck speed down the highway, ocean and sky. And still the relentless fans and media are hot on Michael's tail, his disguise not fooling them. This all makes up a truly stunning piece of claymation, both excellently-paced and delicious to behold. Driving out into the desert, Michael takes off his disguise only to have the rabbit disguise reanimate itself, and the two do the best dance duel I've ever seen. It's especially stunning to see the claymated rabbit dance like MJ, and Will Vinton and co (who were responsible for the claymation segment, while Michael himself is live-action) truly deserve an applause for this as well as Michael. Following is the video for "Leave Me Alone", a truly imaginative, satirical portrait of the mass hysteria the media attribute to Michael. Michael humorously visualises this as an amusement park constructed on top of him, while a miniature version of him goes through a has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed tour, frequented by lots of dogs in suits. This video may feel like a filler but its imagination and vision more than make up for it. This is when the 'movie' itself begins. My favourite part is when Michael steps into a 30s-style club and "Smooth Criminal" kicks in, resulting in a truly artistic music-video sequence, climaxing in the middle, when the music dies and the club-goers chant, for almost a minute, before the music kicks back in. I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you, but these are my favourite parts. If you are a Michael Jackson fan then this belongs in your collection for sure. Whether or not you are a fan, if you want to see a really imaginative, creative journey through Michael Jackons's musical mindscape, I can also recommend this. One thing is for sure; the tag couldn't be more correct. This truly IS a movie like no other.

I have been a huge Michael Jackson fan all of my life. It was so great to finally have the Moonwalker "short film" on DVD. I finally got to watch the full version of Smooth Criminal, and enjoyed all of the dancing. This is a "must buy" for all Michael fans.

Ravie

Moonwalker - wohl ein Musikfilm wie kein anderer Über Michael Jackson kann man geteilter Meinung sein, aber eins muss man ihm lassen: Seine Musik ist schlicht genial und niemand hat bessere Videos produziert! Genauso wie über den Interpreten selbst kann man über Moonwalker geteilter Meinung sein. Zu aller erst, besteht der Film hauptsächlich aus verschiedenen Musikvideos die Michaels Kariere bis zum Bad Album von 1987 nachzeichnen. Der Film beginnt mit dem Musikvideos: "Man in the Mirror" ein Medley von alten Jackson 5 Songs und Michaels Solo Projekten, beginnend mit "Music and me" "Dirty Diana" "Badder" einer Version des Musikvideos von Bad, in dem alle Darsteller durch Kinder ersetzt wuden. "Speed Deamon" und Leave me alone" Nach diesen Videos beginnt der eigentliche Film. Zur Storyline des Filmes, die ... na ja wie soll man sagen, recht flach ist...: es geht darum, das ein Drogendealer (Joe Pesci) die Welt mit Drogen verseuchen möchte und mit der Verteilung der Drogen selbst vor Schulhöfen keinen Halt macht. Michael Jackson und drei Kinder wollen das nun verhindern und geraten dabei selbst in Gefahr. Die Handlung ist getrost zu vernachlässigen, denn in Moonwalker gibt es nur einen phänomenalen Höhepunkt (wenn man davon absieht, das Michael knall rote Socken zu schwarzen Schuhen und schwarzer Hose trägt, die mal so richtig schön hervor stechen :) ) nämlich das unerreicht geniale Musikvideo zu Smooth Criminal". Oft wurde dieses Video kopiert doch nie wurde etwas gleichartiges geschaffen. (und ehrlich, nachdem ich das Video gesehen hatte, lief ich JAHRE lang herum auf der Suche nach solch einen weißen Hut! Heute, nach 14 Jahren suchen hab ich einen ^-^) Wer Smooth Criminal" noch nicht als Ohrwurm hatte, hat ihn spätestens nach diesem Film! Der Film wird mit einem weiteren Musikvideo abgeschlossen, nämlich Come together!" Beatles Fans dürften hierbei die Ohren spitzen, denn tatsächlich handelt es sich hierbei um einen von Jackson gecoverten Beatles Song. Zu finden ist dieser Song auch erst auf HIStory CDII, wohlbemerkt ist diese CD erst erschienen, als der Song schon fast 10 Jahre alt war. Während dem Abspann läuft noch einmal die Albumversion von Smooth Criminal" und es geben sich Ladysmith Black Mambazo mit dem Song: The Moon is Walking" die Ehre. Alles in allem ist dieser Film wegen seiner Musik absolut genial und das flair der Fred Astaire Filme (der stets Michaels Vorbild war) und der Stil der 20ger und 30ger Jahre ist deutlich spürbar. Und hey, wer guckt Moonwalker denn schon wegen seiner flauen Handlung? P.S.: Auf Grund seines Alters sollte Moonwalker nicht mit heutigen Musikfilmen wie Walk the Line" etc verglichen werden, da gerade diese Filme in einer anderen Liga spielen. Filmtechnisch spielt Moonwalker auf einem recht hohen Niveau! (für die 80ger)

Un fan fini aimerais avoir ce film !! Je le recommande, en très bonne état et le son formidable 💃 Hee hee