Picture a kid in 1990, standing at an arcade machine with a pocket full of quarters. On the screen, Michael Jackson spins, points and makes a whole gang of bad guys dance until they drop.
That game didn’t come out of nowhere. It started with a strange, wonderful movie most of America never saw on a big screen.
The movie was called Moonwalker. Michael made it at the peak of his fame, right after his album Bad, and it’s less a regular film than a mixtape. There’s concert footage, a quick life story, a claymation chase and a “Bad” spoof where little kids play the grown-up roles.
And then there’s the big one.
In the main story, Michael plays a hero who looks out for three orphans. One of them was played by Sean Lennon, the son of Beatle John Lennon. The villain is Mr. Big, played by Joe Pesci, the tough-talking actor from Goodfellas. Mr. Big has a sick plan to get kids hooked on drugs, and Michael is the only thing standing in his way.
Halfway through, Michael walks into a dusty 1930s-style nightclub. Then the music kicks in. Keep an eye on his feet, and on that famous lean.
Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal (Official Video)
That song and dance became a hit all by itself. But the film around it got weirder from there, since Michael also turns into a sports car, a giant robot and finally a spaceship.
Moonwalker opened in theaters in October 1988, but only in places like Europe, Australia and South America. Warner Bros. dropped its plans for an American Christmas release, so fans in the U.S. got it on VHS in January 1989 instead.
They bought it fast. It sold more than 800,000 copies in the U.S. by that April and sat at No. 1 on Billboard’s video chart for 22 weeks.
One of the shorter pieces in the film, a wild cartoon-and-collage video about the tabloids, even won Michael a Grammy in 1990. Bubbles, his pet chimp, shows up in it too.
Michael Jackson – Leave Me Alone (Official Video)
Michael loved video games, and he reportedly reached out to Sega himself in 1988 about a game built around him. He’s said to have helped the designers along the way.
A computer version from the company U.S. Gold landed in Europe in 1989. Then in 1990, Sega rolled out its own arcade machine, with a separate home version for its Genesis console.
The games kept the movie’s story. You’re Michael. Mr. Big has taken the children, and it’s your job to save them. Your best move is “dance magic,” which forces every enemy on the screen to join in your routine.
In the arcade, up to three friends could play at once, each Michael in a different colored suit. And if you found Bubbles, he’d turn you into a robot that fired lasers and missiles, just like the ending of the film.
According to the trade magazine RePlay, it was the top-earning new arcade game in September 1990.
Sega pushed the Genesis version on TV, too, and this old ad is a fun little time machine.