History Main / MoonwalkDance

* [[VideoGame/MarioParty Super Mario Party]] has Waluigi moonwalk when he wins in the Sound Stage mode as his "freestyle" dance. The animation would be reused as part of a board event in Horror Land for [[MegamixGame Mario Party Superstars.]]

* The machinima ''Machinima/ArbyNTheChief'' has an episode in their ''Arby N The Chief in L.A.'' spinoff series where Arbiter and the Chief visit several attractions and sights around L.A./Hollywood, one of which is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chief does the moonwalk on Michael Jackson's tile, although, because of the format of the show (live-action action figures), only his upper body is seen, while his legs are not.

* One episode of the [[Recap/FairyTailEclipseCelestialSpiritArc Eclipse Celestial Spirit Filler Arc]] of ''Manga/FairyTail'' involves Gray having a dance battle against a corrupted Cancer. Through Cancer's powers, Gray ends up channeling Music/MichaelJackson complete with [[NiceHat fedora]] and dance moves. One of said moves is the moonwalk.

* Max Goof does it while lip syncing to Stand Out in ''WesternAnimation/{{AGoofyMovie}}''.
* Pinocchio performs it near the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek 2}}'' during the finale song, complete with crotch thrust.

* ''Film/CharliesAngels2000''. When a number of Knox's goons attempt to take out Dylan, who is tied to a chair, Dylan describes to them, step-by-step, how she's going to knock each and every one of them out, and finish by moonwalking out of the room. Guess what follows?
** Averted. [[InformedAbility She just walks backwards]]. But jiggling a bit, and with "Billie Jean" in the background.
* In ''Film/TheAnimal'', main character Marvin suffers a seemingly fatal accident, but finds out a doctor saved him by transplanting animal parts into him. The doctor also reveals that he looks after lone animals, some abandoned in the wild and others released from the ownership of pop stars. He gestures to a monkey sitting on a countertop and mentions that he "really misses the pop star...I'm not allowed to say who". Cut to the monkey doing a moonwalk.
* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': Quicksilver does this briefly while he was in the middle of rescuing Xavier's students from an explosion. Why does he do this? Because he has time to do so.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/JohnnyAndTheDead'', Johnny Maxwell and his 1990's gang teach the ghosts in the local cemetary - all of whom died in the period 1850-1948 - how to do the Moonwalk dance. (an affectionate parody of the ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' video with real Undead). The sight of a corpulent Victorian mayor and a suffragette who died for her beliefs getting really into it is one that provokes much amusement.

* An amusingly accidental case of this happens with the "True Damage Ekko" skin in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', which reimagines the teenage TimeMaster Ekko into a hip-hop-inspired superstar. While using the skin, triggering his "Z-Drive Resonance" (a passive ability that siphons movement speed from enemies), Ekko will start to moonwalk. As it turns out, despite the fact he has plenty of dance-inspired movement animations, this one was actually a bug (specifically the result of some of his animations triggering at the wrong time and facing the wrong direction), [[AscendedGlitch but fans and developers liked it enough to keep it and make sure it plays properly]] (though for clarity purposes, this only applies to the Ekko player and his ally team -- enemies will perceive him facing the direction he's moving in).

* ''WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite'': In one episode, Black Dynamite talks to young Michael Jackson's "Dad", Joeseph Jackson in prison. Joeseph explains that every time he and his sons screw up, Michael would remind them of Jamon, whom he moon walked to death.

* ''WesternAnimation/Black Dynamite'': In one episode, Black Dynamite talks to young Michael Jackson's "Dad", Joeseph Jackson in prison. Joeseph explains that every time he and his sons screw up, Micheal would remind them of Jamon, whom he moon walked to death.

* ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'': In one episode Alfred's girlfriend Winnie is in love with an arrogant pop singer named [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Michael Duckson]], who is a partial parody of Music/{{Prince}} too. His stage act is mostly parodying Michael though, even with a moonwalk-like dance.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{TheLoudHouse}}'': In "Sleuth or Consequences", Lincoln is seen doing that while he is dressed up as Ace Savvy in bed.

* There have been several celebrities credited with inventing the moonwalk before Jackson: Jeffery Daniels (Shalamar), Bill Bailey, Music/CabCalloway, Music/JamesBrown, Adalberto Martínez "Resortes", etc...

* ''VideoGame/MichaelJacksonsMoonwalker'': Probably the earliest example in video games.

* In one of the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''' backgrounds (more specifically, Dudley's) there is [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/c0a335990d3676bb7874afd642def347/tumblr_n999uhf43y1r7sijxo1_500.gif a young punk doing the dance]].

[[WrongfullyAttributed Yet Michael didn't invent it, as he was quick to point out himself]]. He had learned it from some black school children in the early 1980s, who knew it as "The Glide". Other sources claim he was inspired by Music/JamesBrown who also used the move and/or mime artist Marcel Marceau during his famous "walking against the wind" sketch, where he pretends to be pushed backwards by a gust of wind. Even Music/CabCalloway claimed [[OlderThanTheyThink that the dance move had been around since the 1930s]] and [[CallARabbitASmeerp that they called it "The Buzz" back then. Others claim it was named the "backslide"]]. However, none of these early prototypes quite match the magic and swift perfection of Jackson's performance. Generally most of them are much slower and the dancers don't move backwards very far. Although if they had the same amount of massive media exposure Jackson had at the time things might have been different.

* In ''Film/MichaelJacksonsThisIsIt'', Michael doesn't perform the moonwalk at all during the rehearsals. Even during the "Billie Jean" segment, he simply does a quick shuffle with his feet while remaining in place. Sorta sad, [[AuthorExistenceFailure given that we'd never see him do it again]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In ''Meet the Jeffersons'' the Michael Jackson {{Expy}} character performs the moonwalk briefly. When Ike is possessed by Jackson's ghost in ''Dead Celebrities'' he briefly does it too.

[-[[caption-width-right:263: [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Wow! How do you do that thing with your feet?]]]]-]

** In the video for "Jam", Jackson does both the regular moonwalk and a stationary version, and tries to teach Michael Jordan the dance at the end of the video along with a few other moves.

[[caption-width-right:263: [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Wow! How do you do that thing with your feet?]]]]

!! Examples of this trope can be found in:

* Features as a dancing emote in both ''Videogame/ImpressiveTitle'' and ''Videogame/FeralHeart''. However, since the players are playing as either {{Disneyesque}} lions or canines, the dance tends to resemble the Hakuna Matata dance from Disney/TheLionKing, but with a smoother, backwards-walking stride like the actual MoonwalkDance instead.

* Kuzco in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' does it during his theme song. He accidentally bumps into an old man while doing it, blames him for throwing off his "groove" and has him thrown out a window.

[[caption-width-right:263: Eat your heart out, Neil Armstrong!]]