Moonwalker is an American experimental anthology musical film produced by and starring American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson, released on October 29, 1988. The film doesn’t feature one continuous narrative, instead expressing the influence of fandom and innocence through a collection of short films about Jackson, several of which are long-form music videos from his 1987 album, Bad.[1] The film is named after the dance technique known as the moonwalk, which Jackson was known for performing.
Release & Reception
The film was released theatrically in Australia, Europe, and South America. It was also planned to be theatrically released in the United States in Christmas 1988, but Warner Bros. canceled the release.[2][3] Moonwalker was instead released on home video by CMV Enterprises in the United States and Canada on January 10 of 1989, just as the Bad World Tour finished.[4] The release was originally scheduled to coincide with the Bad album. During the release of Moonwalker, Jackson was also embarking on the Bad World Tour, his first tour as a solo performer. 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 film was released in the United States on VHS and LaserDisc. The vignettes featured in the movie also appear in a DVD box set of Michael Jackson music videos titled Michael Jackson’s Vision. The set only features the song and dance sequences from “Smooth Criminal”, the title song, and the ending “Come Together” as opposed to the entire short film.
Moonwalker was released on a region-free Blu-ray in the United Kingdom in June 2010 by Warner Bros.[5] This version contained a new remastered transfer and a DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This release censored the scenes of Mr. Big hitting Katie and threatening to inject her with heroin cut from the film.[6] The Blu-ray was released in its original theatrical 16:9 aspect ratio, different from the previous 4:3 home releases.
In April 2026, Plaion Pictures released a limited edition Blu-ray Mediabook in Germany, which includes the original theatrical cut of the film, restoring the previously censored scenes. This release also features the film in both its 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios.[7]
Moonwalker was released on VHS and remained #1 on Billboard‘s Video Chart for 22 weeks. Moonwalker also spent 14 weeks at #1 on Billboard”s Top Video Cassette Sales chart.[8] In 1989, Moonwalker was honored with a certification of 800,000 copies sold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Moonwalker has been certified 9x Platinum in the United Kingdom. The “Leave Me Alone” video aired as a separate entity and won a Grammy in 1990 for Best Music Video, Short Form, which is the only Grammy Award Jackson received for the album Bad. That video also won the Cannes Gold Lion Award for Best Special Effects.