Captain EO
Presented by Kodak

A
GEORGE LUCAS
PRODUCTION
 
STARRING
MICHAEL JACKSON
 
DIRECTED BY
FRANCIS COPPOLA

Supreme Leader:
“You think me
beautiful?”
 
Captain EO:
“Very beautiful
within, but
without a key
to unlock it...
and that is my
gift to you.”

Get ready to experience the singing, dancing, and song-writing talents of Michael Jackson, in a spectacular, 70-millimeter, 3-D space adventure.

You might have to wait a while. There’s only one theater, and it only has around 500 seats. The show lasts 17 minutes, and it takes several minutes to reload the audience between the shows.

It’s worth the wait if you’re a Michael Jackson fan... or if you’re a special effects fan. There are 150 special effects on the film, and a bunch of in-theater effects too.

Pick up your 3-D glasses as you enter the Magic Eye Theater... but please don’t put them on until you’re seated.

The doors open. Please move all the way to the end of a row and take a seat. You may put on your 3-D glasses now. (If you wear eyeglasses, don’t worry; the 3-D glasses fit right over them.) If you don’t like really loud music and noises, this also might be a good time to put some cotton in your ears.

Sit back and watch Captain EO and this faithful, if unusual, crew—Hooter, Fuzzball, the Geex, Major Domo, and Minor Domo—as they prepare to land their little spaceship on an oppressed planet. Where’s landing beacon? Don’t trip any alarms... Oops. The crew tripped the alarm. Oh no! There’s an enemy patrol ship. Still no landing beacon? How about a map? Hooter ate the map?

Crash! Too late—but there’s the landing beacon.

Oh, oh... Captain EO and his crew have been captured, taken to the wicked Supreme Leader (played by Anjelica Huston), and sentenced. “Justice” is swift and severe. Captain EO accepts his sentence, one hundred years of torture, with grace. He tells the Supreme Leader that he has brought her a gift, which she will see—and hear.

The music begins, and the battle begins. Lasers fire above your head. What is happening to the Supreme Leader’s troops? The power of music is transforming them. Look! Even the awful Supreme Leader is now a beautiful queen, and the planet looks great.

Who said rock music is a bad thing? Captain EO just proved that rock music causes good to triumph over evil!

As you exit, please drop your 3-D glasses in the receptacle.

It was 1984. Michael Jackson was as the height of his career. His 1982 album Thriller, already the best-selling album of all time, was still on the charts. In 1983, Jackson had debuted the moonwalk. His 1984 “Victory” tour played to sold-out stadiums. Michael Jackson wasn’t just a pop star. He was a cultural phenomenon.

Also in 1984, movie executives Michael Eisner and Frank Wells took over the top jobs at Disney. In addition to launching an aggressive slate of movie projects, Eisner and Wells sought to invigorate Disney’s theme parks. They brought their movie experience to the parks too. Traditionally, theme park attractions didn’t rely on star performers. That would now change.

In his 1998 book Work in Progress, Eisner explained:

The third idea we came up with for Disneyland was to create something with Michael Jackson, who appealed to teenagers, but also to young kids, and even their parents. Jackson was a huge fan of our parks, sometimes visiting several times a month, in and out of disguise. Our notion was to put him in an extended 3-D music video. George Lucas happened to be one of Jackson’s heroes, and provided another lure. Ultimately, Lucas decided to produce the video and recruited Francis Ford Coppola to direct.

Two years later, the result of this collaboration was Captain EO.

At Disneyland, a new theater for Captain EO would replace the Space Stage.

Although built for Captain EO, Disneyland’s Magic Eye Theater opened in May 1986 with the delightful Magic Journeys, the original 3-D movie from Epcot’s Imagination pavilion. (Actually, Magic Journeys was no stranger to Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, having enjoyed a previous run at the outdoor Space Stage.) In September of the same year, Captain EO moved into the Magic Eye Theater.

Most guests reacted favorably to Captain EO. A few newspaper articles were more critical.

Here’s a paragraph from Charles Solomon, writing in the Los Angles Times, 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 that list of credits and the film’s lavish budget (rumored to be between $16 million-$20 million, although Disney refuses to release any figures), audiences have a right to expect more than empty flash.

Here’s a paragraph from the Chicago Tribune, September 18, 1986:

The movie thrusts its characters into danger immediately. They are flying into your face, lasers blasting, just as you learn their names. Within such a short time you can’t empathize with their plight. But the novelty of the 3-D effect is enough to occupy you through the start, though the plot is overcomplicated for the time available.

Over years the crowds disappeared. Movie-based attractions tend to have less repeat appeal than rides. Michael Jackson’s star shined less brightly. After a run of over ten years at Disneyland, Captain EO closed quietly in April 1997.

In May 1998, the former Magic Eye Theater became the West Coast home of the 3-D movie Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which had already replaced Captain EO at Epcot in 1994.

At one time, Captain EO had been showing at Disney parks in California, Florida, Japan, and France. The final place at which you could see Captain EO was at CinéMagique, presented by Kodak, in Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris. In late summer 1998, the Captain departed from Paris as well.

By the way, at Tokyo Disneyland, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience is called MicroAdventure, while at Disneyland Paris, it’s Cherie j’ai rétréci le public.

Click here to discuss this page on the Yesterland Discussion Forum at MiceChat!

Character Shop America Sings Home

© 1997-2009 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated June 26, 2009.

Photograph of Magic Eye Theater sign: 1996 by Werner Weiss.
Photograph of Captain EO and Space Mountain pylons: 1995 by Chris Bales.
Photograph of Mission to Mars with Captain EO sign: 1991 by Chris Bales.
Photograph of Magic Eye Theater exterior at night: 1997 by Werner Weiss.
Captain EO poster: Copyright The Walt Disney Company), and is included here for historical illustration.
Scanned image of a small section of the 1983 Disneyland souvenir map: Copyright 1983 Walt Disney Productions (now The Walt Disney Company), and is included here for historical illustration.
Scanned image of a small section of the 1987 Disneyland souvenir map: Copyright 1987 The Walt Disney Company, and is included here for historical illustration.
Photograph of Honey, I Shrunk the Audience: 2006 by Werner Weiss.