For every age of Disney Park fan, there are attractions that can only be described as legends… the most incredible, daring, moving, and cutting-edge rides of an era. Still, even the most spectacular classics can fall. That’s why our growing library of Lost Legends captures the in-depth stories of fan-favorite rides taken before their time… The series has told the full story of everything from the original Test Track to Adventure Thru Inner Space, Maelstrom to JAWS, and Snow White’s Scary Adventures to If You Had Wings and dozens more catalogued in our In-Depth Features Library.
Today, our series heads to the stars for one of our most spectacular entries yet… an unbelievable encounter with one of the world’s biggest superstars. An unimaginable turning point in the history of Disney Parks, this Lost Legend literally jump-started the decades-long cinematic push that created the Epcot we know – and love or loathe – today.
Captain EO was here to change the world… and he changed Disney World along with it. Michael Jackson’s biggest music video ever was unprecedented; an unimaginable collaboration of stars created specifically to reinvigorate Disney Parks when all hope seemed lost. In so doing, EO set the stage for a revolution, redefining Disney’s relationship with pop culture, film, and celebrity. Today, we’ll look behind-the-scenes of this industry-altering film and see exactly how – and why – it came to be.
1980s
The lost legend of Captain EO begins in a desolate and dark place: Disneyland in the 1980s.
See, after Walt’s unexpected death in 1966, things were looking grim. More to the point, it wasn’t exactly clear how – or even if – Walt Disney Productions could reasonably continue without Walt Disney.
Throughout the 1970s and early ‘80s, Disney’s live action films were more busts than box-office gold, and the animation division had more or less flatlined. Disney’s theme parks, too, felt like relics from another era. Though unthinkable now, Disney was far from a global leader. It was a faded film studio whose future was uncertain. In fact, Disney endured a number of takeover attempts that would’ve likely seen the studios assets divided and its brand phased out.
Image: Disney
When Michael Eisner stepped aboard as CEO in 1984, he brought with him an extensive history in the world of film (having been the CEO of Paramount Pictures for the decade prior). That made him just the man for righting Disney’s sinking studios. Despite the sour cloud that rains over Eisner’s tenure today, his early years at Disney were some of the company’s most successful. Eisner’s the one who literally turned the $1.8 billion Walt Disney Productions into the $80 billion Walt Disney Company, acquiring and partnering with dozens of companies and organizations to craft a global media empire.
Turning Tides
As the story goes, one part of the business Michael Eisner was not well-versed in was the company’s theme parks. When invited to tour Disneyland (after all, he would now oversee it), Eisner invited his preteen son, Breck, along with him. Apparently, Breck scoffed and reported, “That place is for babies, dad.” Horrified, Eisner made it his personal mission to shift the perception of the Disney Parks and make them the kind of place that every member of the family – even teenagers! – would want to visit.
With his personal goal selected, Eisner headed to the Imagineering headquarters in Glendale, California to learn as much as he could about the Parks & Resorts division and the masterminds behind it. On that fateful trip, projects were green-lit left and right in a rushed attempt to get the parks up to snuff as quickly as possible. His first fast-fired project? Videopolis.
Videopolis was a brand new entertainment venue built on the edge of Disneyland’s Fantasyland. Every evening, the theater was alight with the hottest top 40 hits and the cutting edge music videos of the era, broadcast across 70 video monitors. Those who’d been to Walt Disney’s original Magic Kingdom at its opening three decades earlier likely would’ve been aghast at the flashing lights, pounding ’80s music, and hoardes of teenagers that frequented the “club.” (And it would end up being converted to the much more gentle Fantasyland Theater in 1989 after a few too many gang-related incidents.)
Videopolis. Image: Disney
Even with the emergence of the MTV generation and a slew of videos from Starship, Mr. Mister, David Bowie, Madonna, and Wham!, the screens of Videopolis were dominated by one man… royalty – the King of Pop. Released December 2, 1983, the music video for Michael Jackon’s “Thriller” is today recognized as a watershed moment for the music industry, and often regarded as the most influential pop music video of all time.
The 14-minute epic literally changed pop culture, and was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” – the first music video ever to be preserved. (Interestingly, the video was even released theatrically as a “short film” before a 1983 re-issue of Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia in order for it to technically qualify for an Academy Award nomination!)
Michael Jackson had instantly cemented himself as the world’s leading pop culture figure; a singer, dancer, songwriter, and producer. And if his groundbreaking, earth-shaking videos could fuel Disneyland’s Videopolis, just imagine what a Michael Jackson attraction could do in turning Eisner’s dreams into a reality…
Stars Align
As luck would have it, Michael Jackson was an unrepentant lover of Disneyland. He visited often (both in and out of disguise) and often rented the park to visit in solitude after hours. Imagine, then, how thrilled Jackson was when Eisner and company contacted him about the possibility of becoming involved with a brand new attraction for the park.
Image: Universal / Motown Productions
A few ideas were tossed around, but Michael in particular saw this opportunity as one to pursue a long-sought-after new career opportunity: film. While he’d played the Scarecrow in 1978’s The Wiz, Michael still hadn’t come into his own as an actor. Privately, he was already reporting that he was tired of making music videos and wanted a more serious career on the screen. For that reason, Disney and Michael agreed: they could leverage his starpower and music in a brand new, cutting-edge 3D film that would play exclusively at Disney’s theme parks.
He had only two requests: he wanted both George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T.) behind the camera as producer and director, respectively. The two had collaborated on 1982’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (the start of the Indiana Jones series) and Michael believed them to be among the best filmmakers alive.
Image: Disney / ABC
Though George Lucas’ attention was split thinly in the era (thanks to Indiana Jones, the emerging computer animation division that would become Pixar, and his new ILM special effects firm), he agreed to produce and hired on Rusty Lemorande (producer of Caddyshack and writer of 1984’s Electric Dreams) to handle the day-to-day on set. Lemorande is also the one who suggested that the new film feature not just 3D, but accompanying in-theater practical effects like fog and lasers. For that reason, Lemorande is sometimes called the Father of “4D.”
One star that did not align? Steven Spielberg. Despite Michael’s request, Spielberg was unavailable for the production (he was, by this time, working closely with Disney’s competitor, Universal Studios, on their plans for a ride based on Back to the Future set to anchor a new Orlando-based movie park…). Still, the new Disney Parks / Michael Jackson feature needed a director, and Lucas used the opportunity to bring on his friend and colleague, Francis Ford Coppola. A filmmaking legend in his own right, two consecutive years of box office busts left Coppola’s schedule empty. He gladly signed on, adding still more star-power to the billing.
Jackson, Coppola, and Lucas. Image: Disney via davelandweb.com
Imagine the team: Michael Eisner (Disney’s new, film-industry focused CEO determined to do whatever it took to modernize Disney’s parks), Michael Jackson (the biggest star in the world coming off of his biggest release ever – “Thriller”), George Lucas (the unthinkable hit-maker piloting both Star Wars and the brand-new Indiana Jones), and Francis Ford Coppola (Academy Award winning director of The Godfather).
Now all they needed was a half-decent plot… Read on…
Stellar Stories
Of course, the pressure would be on to craft a project that all parties (Disney, Jackson, and the production team) could agree on… But imagine how Disney Imagineer Rick Rothschild must’ve felt when he was given just three days to cook up concepts to present to Michael Eisner, George Lucas, and Michael Jackson. Yikes.
Still, in three days, Rothschild developed as many good concepts for the team to choose from.
Image: Disney
The first idea played off of Jackson’s love for Disneyland. In the film, he would’ve stayed inside Disneyland after hours to explore, waking the park’s Audio Animatronics figures along the way. Of course, it would’ve crescendoed with a full-on “Thriller” style dance performance inside Pirates of the Caribbean – his favorite ride.
In another concept, Michael would’ve played the part of a forever-young forest sprite (a logical fit given how much he loved Peter Pan – so much so that his exclusive Santa Barbara, California manor was called Neverland Ranch. Here at Theme Park Tourist, we even did a deep dive as we looked into Neverland Ranch and the theme park Jackson had built there, modeled after Disneyland). When a cruel, frosty ice queen threatened the forest and its enchanted inhabitants, Jackson’s gift of song would’ve melted her heart and saved the forest and its mythological creatures.
Michael Jackson and director Francis Ford Coppola. Image: Disney
All parties zeroed in on the latter idea, but knew it was more fit for Fantasyland than the attraction’s destination in Tomorrowland. Luckily, Jackson and company were thrilled with the idea of reformatting the story to fit George Lucas’ interstellar style. Rothschild reworked the idea as an “Intergalactic Music Man” who would arrive at a dismal, industrial alien planet bearing the gift of song to soften the heart of a ruthless empress.
With a story in-hand, production on the world’s most extravagent music video was set… SPACE KNIGHTS was ready for production!
Creations
With a plot set, it was time to retroactively create a cast.
First, Michael’s character… Still unnamed, it was Ford Coppola who began to toy with some ideas. Ultimately, he and Michael liked the idea of naming the character after the Greek goddess of dawn – Eos. Like the mythological deity, Jackson’s character would be a light-bearer, bringing warmth and life to a cold and lonely industrial planet, (crafted by Harrison Ellenshaw, who’d created many of the groundbreaking space backgrounds for Star Wars). The character became Captain EO, and the working title Space Knights was dropped.
Image: Disney
The film’s other lead – the Supreme Leader of the cold, industrial planet was initially famed actress Shelley Duvall (known for dozens of films, not the least of which being The Shining). Only one thing stood in the way… Michael was determined that the Supreme Leader would be scary – really scary – as he felt that children liked to be frightened. Duvall, then, would play an ugly, twisted, industrial character who’d seemingly fused into the tattered and rusted planet. When she arrived for pre-production, crewmembers needed to take a casting of her torso to create prosthetics to cover her. The claustrophic Duvall was so horrified by the process, she opted out of the production entirely.
A little-known actress named Anjelica Huston took over. As luck would have it, just as production began, Huston won an Academy Award for her role in Prizzi’s Honor, catapulting her into fame and making her a star in her own right opposite Jackson. In 2015, Lemorande told Yahoo! News, “We suddenly had a way bigger star. She became famous very quickly after Captain EO. She didn’t have an Oscar before we hired her. If she had an Oscar before we hired her, I’m sure she wouldn’t have done the job.”
Image: Disney
Perhaps the next most important members of the cast would be the imagined ones. Lemorande and the rest of the crew developed a ragtag team of fantastical explorers to be part of EO’s crew. The flying housecat/butterfly hybrid Fuzzball, the double-headed navigator and pilot pair Idey and Ody, the robotic security officer Major Domo, and the unforgettable fan-favorite, Hooter. Michael, particularly, was said to be deeply fascinated by the puppeted creations.
Guts, Grabs, and Grandeur
Image: Disney
With everyone on set, filming for EO began.
Even then, the conflicting desires of Disney, Coppola, Jackson, and the mostly-absent George Lucas led to disagreements, re-shoots, and editing. As ideas grew, so did the budget as Jeffrey Katzenberg (then part of Disney, soon to be exiled by Eisner to create their competitor, Dreamworks) tried to refuse budget increases against Lucas’ insistance.
Meanwhile, Coppola wanted to be sure that the inevitable dance number was integrated into the production, rather than just being “tacked on” at the end of a short film. A problem arose there, too: Michael Jackson hadn’t told anyone what or how he’d be performing. In fact, he’d written “We Are Here to Change the World” and “Another Part of Me” just for the film.
In editing, Disney executives were horrified by the number of crotch-grabs (a signature dance move) Jackson had slipped in. They insisted that editors cut the shots to block out the “obscene” dance move, but ultimately editors decreed it too time-consuming and – frankly – impossible. Another potential edit? Michael’s voice. While his signature singing voice was the whole point, executives feared that Michael’s naturally high-pitched, childlike speaking voice might surprise audiences. Allegedly, they considered digitially lowering or even dubbing over Michael’s speaking voice altogether, but ultimately no one had the guts to break the news to Michael, so they simply left his natural voice in place.
Image: Disney
Captain EO might’ve been the boldest, wildest, most cutting-edge music video ever made. But one aspect of the production trumps all others: its budget. The film cost somewhere between $17 and 30 million. True to form, no one from Disney is talking. Assuming the lowest end, that would mean that the 17-minute Captain EO cost $1 million per minute – by far the most expensive film “per minute” ever created at the time. And despite its miniscule runtime, production took a full year, wrapping in June 1986.
Even so, one thing remained to be seen: would anyone even like this unprecedented collaboration? On the next page, we’ll celebrate the attraction’s Grand Opening and see (and hear and feel) exactly what guests did… Read on…
Intergalactic Openings
Captain EO had its intergalactic premier at Epcot on September 12, 1986.
Housed within the park’s once-beloved Imagination pavilion, EO was neighbors with another of Epcot’s most missed Lost Legends: Journey into Imagination. It replaced a custom 3D film called “Magic Journeys” that had been showing since the park’s grand opening in October 1982.
Dreamfinder, Figment, and Hooter were fast friends. Image: Disney
Just six days later, the film premiered in the custom-built Magic Eye Theater in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland with a star-studded affair drawing all manner of celebrity from 1986 Hollywood – Dolph Lundgren (of Rocky IV), Belinda Carlisle, Alan Thicke, romance novelist Jackie Collins, and O.J. Simpson came to celebrate with George Lucas, Francis Coppola, and Anjelica Huston.
Image: Disney
Major Domo, Idey, Ody, and Hooter were there, too. (Jackson was no where to be seen… he’d deliberately decided to take a year out of the spotlight, though an infamous photo of him sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber surfaced the week of the premier – what Michael himself later suggested was an intentional stunt to draw attention to EO’s debut.)
Demand was so high to see Jackson’s new intergalactic music video, Disneyland stayed open for 60 continuous hours – yes, predating the 60th Anniversary’s 60-hour celebration by nearly thirty years!
Early reports from the media were… well… mixed. The Los Angeles Times famously reported on October 9, 1986:
“For all its wondrous imagery, Captain EO is nothing more than the most elaborate rock video in history: Like a hollow chocolate Easter bunny, it’s a glorious surface over a void. No one expects an amusement-park diversion to be Gone With the Wind, but given its production team credits and the film’s lavish budget (rumored to be between $15 million and $20 million, although Disney refuses to release any figures), audiences have a right to expect more than empty flash.”
However, their dismissal didn’t seem to affect audiences, who flocked to the cutting edge, headline-grabbing production starring the world’s biggest superstar. The Los Angeles Times also fairly admitted, “audiences “ooh-ed,” “aah-ed” and broke into applause several times at the numerous elaborate special effects, costumes and intricate sets. … Exiting the 17-minute attraction, audience members praised the film with one-word descriptions like “brilliant,” “outstanding,” and “genius.”
What inspired them so? Here’s the breakdown…
CAPTAIN EO
Image: Disney
Captain EO.
That’s all that can be seen on the screen as guests take their seats in the palatial theaters at Disneyland Park or Epcot. Once seated, guests would don their spectacular 3D glasses and settle in.
When the film opens with a swirling galaxy, a starfield glows around the theater, immersing us in the magic of space. In the distance, a rocky asteroid draws closer and closer, earning gasps and wonder from the audience. (Consider that, for guests during EO’s opening years, the use of stereoscopic 3D was sincerely groundbreaking… as a matter of fact, Captain EO is remembered today as an early example of 3D’s rebirth.)
With a distant laser blast, a red beam strikes the asteroid as it explodes. A rusted, pod-like spaceship protected by metallic wings glides past. If it’s reminiscent of Star Wars, that’s intentional. Not only did George Lucas bring along many of the creative minds behind the series, but Jackson specifically requested that his film carry on the look set forth by Star Wars: a grimy, industrial future of burnt-out ships and aged mechanical landscapes… (before Star Wars, films of the ’60s and ’70s had cast the future as a sleek, white, geometric world of polyesther and pristine rockets… the kind of future envisioned by a Lost Legend: Walt’s Tomorrowland and the Peoplemover.)
Image: Disney
Inside the ship, we’re introduced to Idey and Ody (the two headed navigator and pilot), security officer Major Domo (and his mini-nesting robot, Minor Domo), the fluttering Fuzzball, and the clumsy Hooter. They’re en route to homing beacon on an alien planet… and already, they’ve tripped the planet’s intrusion alarm. The Captain himself rises from below deck (accompanied by the triumphant score of James Horner, orchestrator of the scores for Titanic and Avatar to name a few).
“We’re going in,” EO sings. “Listen, the Commander considers us a bunch of losers! But we’re gonna do it right this time because we’re the best. If we don’t, we’ll be drummed out of the corps.”
Before too much celebration can commence, an alien vessel comes roaring from the planet’s atmosphere, on course to ram the ship. Spiraling through space, EO and crew narrowly avoid the destroyer as its fearsome lasers break through the hull. EO dives toward the surface of the planet, racing down into the metallic trenches and steaming industrial alleys that appear to make up its surface. Narrowly avoiding certain doom, the ship nonetheless takes one hit too many and crash lands… into the homing beacon!
Image: Disney
Having successfully appeased Commander Bog (played by Dick Shawn, his face broadcast into the ship via holo-transmission), he presses: “Well, so far so good, Captain EO… Though I must admit, I am a bit surprised after the mess you made of your last mission. But now that you’ve found the beacon, take the map, find the Supreme Leader, and give her the Gift.”
The crew sets off across the smoking, steaming, mecho-landscape of the alien planet, only be ambushed by strange humanoid creatures composed of wires, metallic plates, and rods. They carry EO to a brilliant, grimy, towering throne room with geothermal vents guzzling smog… then, a marred, horrifying creature descends on metallic tubes. It’s the Supreme Leader, who looks as if she’s become connected to the mehcanical planet. Her darkened eyes and pale face resemble a skull, and her metallic, pointed fingers click and clatter as she descends.
Image: Disney
“SILENCE,” her gravelly voice hisses as she gazes upon EO standing before her throne. “Infidel… You infect my world with your presence. Turn the others into… trash cans! And for him, 100 years of tortune in my deepest dungeon.”
“Your highness,” EO coos, “my loyal companions and I accept these punishments.”
“We do?!” Hooter squeaks.
“We have come here uninvited and unannounced,” EO steps toward her.
“So…” she hisses, “you admit to your… stupidity! Why have you come?”
“To bring you a gift, your highness. To someone as beautiful as you.”
“You think me beautiful?” She hisses, descending toward him.
Image: Disney
“Very beautiful within, but without a key to unlock it. And that is my gift to you!”
So, let me see this gift!
“Not only see, your highness,” he points at his ear. “But hear.”
What follows can only be understood by seeing it with your own eyes. That’s why we’re including this unabridged look at Captain EO in all of its original glory. An absolute must-see, this Lost Legend will leave your toes tapping even thirty years later. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the magic here:
Across the Cosmos
Despite promises that Captain EO would play exclusively in two theaters in the entire galaxy – EPCOT Center and Disneyland – Jackson’s star was destined to shine brighter. In 1987 – just one year after its debut – the interplanetary musical landed in Tokyo Disneyland, as well.
When Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, it, too, hosted Captain EO in the park’s golden, European steampunk style Discoveryland (admittedly, an odd juxtaposition with the Jules-Verne inspired land and its one-of-a-kind, retro-futuristic Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre à la Lune).
Jackson’s iconic hero of light and song could be seen at four theaters across three continents. The mile-a-minute, undeniable force of EO and the headline-grabbing playbill of Jackson, Lucas, Coppola, and Huston ensured that the lofty expectations set by Eisner were met. Captain EO reinvigorated Disney Parks, sincerely launching a new mindset and a new strategy: pop culture, cinema, stars, and headlines would become the de facto prerequisites for future projects.
A few changes, 1983 to 1987. Image: Disney, via Yesterland.com
The success of Captain EO, for example, is what prompted its neighbor – another Lucas-produced Lost Legend: Star Tours that opened the following year. Lucas’ partnership with Disney Imagineering continued with The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye at Disneyland – all attractions that, just a decade before, would never have been associated with Disney Parks.
Expand that to today’s immersive worlds themed to AVATAR and Star Wars, and box-office buoyed projects focused on Marvel and Pixar. Because Captain EO succeeded, Disney Parks did become places to “ride the movies” with hot properties, well-known stars, and more. Like it or not, Captain EO set the course for the American Disney Parks we know today: parks that, increasingly, rely on intellectual properties, screen-based rides with Hollywood casts, and proven box-office success.
And yet, while EO shaped the future of Disney Parks, it also showcased the pitfalls of chasing pop culture… The end was in-sight. On the last page, we’ll dissect the unusual and unforgettable circumstances that began to shift perception of Captain EO and what became of the 3D spectacular.
The Beginning of the End
Image: Disney / ESPN
Beginning in 1993 – just a year after EO opened its fourth and final showing alongside Disneyland Paris – Michael Jackson was accused of some very serious crimes regarding his personal life. Though the case was dropped, the unusual events, media firestorm, and paparazzi-fueled circus set in motion followed Jackson, culminating in a second round of accusation in the mid-2000s. The King of Pop became embroiled in scandals, controversy, and question. He infamously hid himself away, becoming somewhat of a recluse behind the walls of his Neverland Ranch estate, emerging infrequently and rarely speaking.
Now, four Disney Parks featured expensive attractions whose entire marketing centered around an increasingly controversial figure accused of heinous crimes…
Image: Disney
All the while, the future envisioned by the ‘80s and incarnate in Captain EO was looking and sounding increasingly dated to audiences of the ‘90s. And given that – understandably – movie-based attractions tend to have less repeat appeal than rides do, audiences shrunk at each performance.
In 1994, Captain EO closed at Epcot’s Imagination pavilion. Admittedly, the curtain call was already overdue.
In its place opened Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. The new 3D attraction was based on the 1989 theatrical film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids which had become an unexpected hit for Disney, sparking a series of films, cartoons, and attractions. (The new 3D film in turn sparked a rather regrettable re-do of the neighboring dark ride, uniting the pavilion’s two attractions in an overarching “Imagination Institute” continuity. If you dare, you can read up on that unmitigated mess in its own feature, Disaster Files: Journey into YOUR Imagination.)
Image: Disney
The same switch took over California’s Captain EO, but four years later. There, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience debuted alongside the park’s equally infamous New Tomorrowland. Nevermind that the five-year-old 3D film based on a 10-year-old movie was already the stuff of “yesterday….” The infamous low-budget Tomorrowland “rebirth” that closed California’s EO was chronicled in its own Disaster File: Rocket Rods and New Tomorrowland 1998.
By 1999, Captain EO was gone from all four Disney resorts where it had once starred.
EO Rides Again
Michael Jackson died unexpectedly on June 25, 2009.
As can sometimes happen with scandalous celebrity figures, Jackson’s death seemed to overshadow much of the controversy his life had entailed. His music was viewed with more interest than it had been in decades, and – rightly or wrongly – many of the accusations that had helped tank Jackson’s public image and career were forgotten. (For the record, Jackson was never convicted on any charges, with all being either dropped or acquitted.)
Image: Disney
At once, fans began to speculate that EO could make a return as a temporary tribute.
(After all, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience had been playing for a decade or more itself, playing to even emptier theaters than EO had been at the end of its run… Though its 1989 source material film might’ve been a sleeper hit, it had been largely forgotten, and the 3D film was far from a fan-favorite. It seemed at least possible that EO could return…)
In September 2009, Disneyland’s Magic Eye Theater closed to the public for several days as Disney screened Captain EO in private for Michael’s family… but it was also a test to see if the 1986 film could reasonably retake its place in the theater.
It was announced on December 18, 2009 on the Disney Parks Blog: “We are excited to confirm that the classic musical spectacular that thrilled Disneyland park guests from 1986-1997, will return for an exclusive, limited engagement at Disneyland park beginning in February 2010!”
Image: Disney
Captain EO Tribute opened February 23, 2010. No one would’ve mistaken Captain EO as a genuine Tomorrowland installation in 2010. The restored 3D film wasn’t really a showcase of future cinematography, current music, or cutting edge special effects anymore; it was a celebration of a bygone musical era, a lost superstar, and a piece of cult classic 1980s filmmaking. Since many of the effects Captain EO had used (starfields, fog, and lasers) had been removed for Honey, the re-installed Captain EO Tribute instead made use of Honey’s bouncing theater floor to groove to the music.
3D Dies
To hear Werner Weiss of the wonderful Yesterland say it, the “exclusive, limited engagement” turned out to be not-so-exclusive, since the film was reinstated in Paris, Tokyo, and Orlando later that very summer.
Image: Disney
Turns out, it wasn’t very limited, either. It played until 2014 in Anaheim and Tokyo, and until 2015 in Orlando and Paris. Once the “tribute” to Jackson had sufficiently served its purpose, it was quietly closed.
Fans wondered what was next. After all, Disney likely has practically zero interest in creating a brand new 3D theme park film (given how remarkably unremarkable such an attraction would be to audiences of the 21st century). Not even a world-renowned star or a leading intellectual property would make a ‘4D’ movie feel new, fresh, and like a must-see.
Image: Disney
At Disneyland, the renamed Tomorrowland Theater was recast as a showcase for theatrical previews for upcoming Disney (and Marvel and Pixar) films, showing exclusive, extended trailers using the in-theater effects. (The same unfortunate fate befell another of the resort’s 3D films, since Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney California Adventure became the regrettable “Sunset Showcase Theater” in 2014.) At Disneyland Paris, EO’s departure created the Discoveryland Theater with the same movie-preview purpose.
At Epcot, the theater was at least reformatted into the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival – frankly, nothing more than an air-conditioned reprieve offering continuous showing of a selection of Disney and Pixar “shorts” (the short-form cartoons that play before Disney and Pixar theatrical releases – a revived art form beloved by fans), never mind that they’re available on Blu-Ray and DVD in their own dedicated collection.
Image: Tokyo Disney Resort
In the cleverest re-use, the large Captain EO theater in Tokyo was utilized for a new attraction, Stitch Encounter. The live, digitally puppeted show (similar in style and tone to Turtle Talk with Crush) is a massive hit with the Japanese audience (who adore Stitch and already feature him – controversy-free – in their Tiki Room).
Tribute
Here’s the interesting thing about Captain EO…
Image: Disney
Never before had Disney so deliberately and defiantly chased pop culture. Under Michael Eisner’s new reign, EO marked an unprecedented (and perhaps unstoppable) directional shift for Disney Parks. From 1986 on, Disneyland would become a place where guests could “ride the movies” and see their favorite stars. In Eisner’s time, it was unexpected – even controversial – to imagine Disneyland as a place where Michael Jackson might star; to think of EPCOT Center as a place where George Lucas’ creations could showcase.
And yet, as we follow this thread through the Lost Legends that follow, we find ever more evidence that today, just the opposite is true! Sometimes it feels like no attraction will ever again be greenlit for a U.S. Disney Park unless it’s tied to a current, modern, trendy box office hit, long-term consideration be damned. Like its competitors at Universal, Disney now seems determined to build rides based on whatever’s hot, even if that means ride lifetimes are measured in seasons, not decades.
Image: Disney
Captain EO was the start.
Controversial as it may have been in later years, EO was a sincere wonder that jumpstarted interest in Disney Parks (and Disney as a brand) when hope seemed lost. Michael Jackson today may be remembered as many things, but thanks to Captain EO, he’ll always be remembered by Disney Parks fans as an intergalactic hero who was here to change the world… and changed Disney World along the way.
If you enjoyed your in-depth journey through the world of Captain EO, make the jump to our In-Depth Features Library and set course for another Lost Legend.
