Michael Jackson Died

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 midway point, 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 imagination, I can also recommend this. One thing is for sure; the tagline couldn't be more correct. This truly IS a movie like no other.

The reason I bought this dvd is to watch a movie produced by Michael Jackson who loves making movies. I could say this movie is MJ's creativity putting together nicely the storyline along his greatest videos including "man in the mirror", "retrospective", "leave me alone", "come together" (uuuhhh I love it.. I love it.. wondering how many times he changed his ripped T-shirt, he must have kept his wardrobe staff busy), "the moon is walking", "smooth criminal" (I love when the antagonist character says 'it isn't smooth criminal, isn't it?').. with clips from his early days in the Jackson 5, live concert and Grammy performances. Also, I enjoyed the cameo appearances by Joe Pesci, Mick Jagger, Sean Lennon and Elizabeth Taylor. Funny 'MJ' scenes make me smiling and laughing.

His imaginative idea is creative, genius and original. It's interesting that MJ transformed his strong image as 'moonwalk' dancer into ... another imaginative character: a 'moonwalker' allien; shocking me after he frightened his enemies only by changing his appearance hiding into his 'rabbit' costume haha... The Moonwalker is actually a heroic-powerful character who got the power when he or his three best kid mates fly away their imagination into the outer space finding Moonwalker MJ's lucky star/meteor. Of course he only uses his power when he's in danger. He created the adventure storyline searching for Skipper (Katie's dog) and finally.. kidnapped Katie. Unfortunately after he completed his mission.. he left for the moon. I'm touching by this 'farewell' scene that is related to this mourning-year of Michael Jackson's passing.. Katie and her 2 kid mates say 'Good bye Michael..' 'I'm going to miss him' 'I wish he would come back'. She is holding Michael's lucky star made by Michael (her kid mate who shares the name with MJ), and.. does he come back?

One of the major regrets Michael Jackson often seemed to have was that his success never did manage to spill over into the silver screen the way that other 80's music stars such as Prince and Whitney Houston had. This presentation,released in 1988 is the closest he ever got. Released during the Bad tour and a huge period of all around success for him this presents Mike the artist in a very interesting period of transition. Of course as opposed to one whole movie this is more like a series of them-some longer and shorter than others. The themes that are explored in these....vignettes tend to have to do with children and paranoia,typical themes in Michael's career in general in the decade to come. First we are presented with a live rendition of "Man In The Mirror",interspersed with moving scenes from the music video.While Mike's performance is impassioned as always....I can't help but be reminded again of all the weird idolizing that seemed to be part of his own undoing;the scenes of fans panting at the mere sight of him and climbing over fences and whatnot. One of my favorite parts is a stop gap/clay animation presentation of Mike's early career with his brothers. Just a reminder this is 1988,before CGI was widely available so the animation has a highly organic look that I find personally refreshing. After that there's a quirky extended video for "Speed Demon" again involving claymation. There is a bit of a Who Framed Roger Rabbit flavor to it all;again the general focus is a sense of intense paranoia about his situation. The addition of a music video to "Leave Me Alone" of course is the ultimate flower of Mike's paranoia during the 80's. Something about the image of him as a giant human ammusement park gives you an idea that,at least at that point he did see his life as crazy and out of control. The conclusion of this presentation is an (almost) feature lengh movie based on "Smooth Criminal". Joe Pesci and Sean Lennon star in this.....spacious story that seems to be an homage to all the big budget films of the day-everything from Benji,E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial to....well Robocop I guess.The anti drug message of the story and Mike's reactions to Joe Pesci's character's attempts to get children addicted to drugs has a sad irony to it too. Mike haters might see this as some form of egotism as he clearly paints himself as some superhuman hero to three young orphaned children. The video ends,aside from a brief appearance by Mike's manager Frank Dileo with an intense performance by Mike of "Come Together",complete with ripped shirt and all.During the credits Ladysmith Black Mombaza perform a version of "Smooth Criminal" so...every moment of the film is packed with some performance. High entertainment factor aside this shows more than anything Michael Jackson at the point where he was transitioning from being a musical superstar to becoming an idolized and often overly paranoid phenomenon.........an occurance that sadly led to something sadly fatal. But for a reminder of Mike at the height of his powers,before he let his eccentricities take total control over him this is a great place to go.

I love Michael Jackson and I was excited when I was able to purchase Moonwalker from Amazon.com. I have never had problems before with Amazon. When I went to play the movie there was an error with the disk. It wouldn't play at all and when I made the purchase it was said to be pratically NEW. I can't resend it because I no longer have the information of the seller. Just advice, please test all products mailed because you never know what is good and not.

I happen to have a multi region DVD player so this DVD played like a gem! What is there to say? It's CLASSIC Michael at his highest popularity. He was EVERYTHING and I love thinking back to that time of wonder, surprise, awe and true showmanship. One of the reasons I decided to buy this DVD is not so much for me, being as the "special effects" and storyline are pretty 80's (haha) and was a lot more exciting when I was little :). I bought this for when I have kids. I want them to see what a gem we had on this earth and I want them to be exposed through me, and not through the media that depicts him in such a dim light. I want them to be as inspired by him as I was and continue to be! His music, vision and art will never die with me or those around me. Anyway, I really recommend this especially as a collectible. Enjoy! Rest in love MJ!

I could not review this product as they sent it to me in Region 2 - which I didn't understand would be unusable in my home. I have been fighting with the company ever since!

I didn't pay attention to the description when i orderes it, and so when i got it, it was the NON-US FORMAT, and i couldn't watch it. I tried to send it back or get the the right one and they wouldn't let me. So now i'm stuck with this dvd. i can't even watch.

I have to agree with the "Time Out Film Guide," that calls this "a witless project...boring...unimaginative." Sorry to disagree with the other reviewers who loved it, but I really do think it's one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. And I'm a Michael Jackson fan. The worst part of it was the last part, with the 3 children - and their dog, who makes an appearance just in case you didn't think it was cute and sentimental enough. Cute stuff so that your toes curl. I borrowed it from the library, I'm happy to say, and that's where it's going back, today. I was impressed by his running ability - there are a few scenes in which he runs very fast. He looked good, and he looked like he was in very good shape at that time.