In 1988 Michael Jackson reached the peak of his artistic creative powers and released one of the greatest pop masterpieces of all time. But first of all, to set the record straight, let me tell you that I’m not part of that loyal fanbase that still believes he’s got a ‘pigmentation disorder’ and has only had ‘two nose jobs’, or that he likes to sleeps with kids without any sexual desire. Yet, to all of you who slag him off I ask you to take a look at yourselves and honestly say that you never did a little crotch grab and a kick to the air emulating the King of Pop's spectacular dance moves.
Jackson was a total master in the dark arts of pop entertainment.The masterpiece I'm talking about is called Moonwalker and it's some kind of super extended music video for the hit song Smooth Criminal. It was released on theatres in some countries with videos for other Michael Jackson songs like Leave Me Alone, Man in the Mirror, Come Together, and others.
Starring Michael himself, Joe Pesci as the evil druglord Mr. Big, and Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon) as a kid Jackson looks after, Moonwalker tells us the heroic story about how Michael Jackson saved his infant friends from Mr. Big's plans of making then addicted to drugs and taking over the world subsequently. To do this Michael not only takes the form of dancing gangster but also a futuristic car, an ugly robot and finally a full blown spaceship.
The most important part is, of course, the dance in Club 30s, where Michael arrives searching for the bad guys and dances with everyone there. From the beginning, when Michael tosses a coin and it lands perfectly inside the jukebox across the room, to the part where he shoots a thug coming from behind without even looking back and the genius choreography during the whole thing, this is definitely a sublime moment in pop music history.
Michael invented a special technology to achieve this visual illusion of defying gravity. On the right side you can see the patent form which he titled "Methods and means for creating and anti gravity illusion".
And now, here's the main dance in Club 30s from Moonwalker in its entirety...
Moonwalker was so popular with the kids that Sega released an arcade game and a Genesis/Mega Drive game where you could kill the bad guys by making them dance and rescue little girls trapped in closets. Once you rescued all the girls a chimp would appear on your shoulders pointing to the next location. I remember really enjoyed controlling Michael's dance moves and shouts and also seeing prostitutes for the first time on a videogame.
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