Back in the 80s, Disney wasn’t in as a good shape as today. Facing acquisition or bankruptcy, the company set an attempt to revitalise the parks and studio to attract more teens and adults. They then focused on popular culture and cutting-edge technologies.
And what do you get in the 80s with those two elements: Captain EO!
Captain EO is a 4D space-age cinema adventure starring the most popular pop star in the world Michael Jackson and produced by the man behind “Star Wars”, George Lucas.
In 1983, Michael Jackson was the most known and popular singer in the music industry and just revolutionised the music video with “Thriller”, setting new standards for the music industry and record-braking sweep at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards. Not to mention that Michael was also a lifelong lover of Disney. He had visited the parks extensively after hours or in disguise to avoid being swarmed by crowds and had a well-documented love of Peter Pan specifically. Therefore, when Jeffrey Katzenberg offered to escort Jackson on a private tour around the Imagineering department, he readily accepted. This tour coincided with one that newly minted CEO Michael Eisner was giving to George Lucas, who was fresh off of working on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
1984 was a do-or-die year for the Disney company. Walt’s remaining relatives: Roy E., Lillian and Diana Disney, made the executive decision to force out Walt’s son-in-law Ron W. Miller in favour of Michael Eisner, who had years of experience working as the COO of Paramount Pictures. Eisner inherited a company in dire financial straits; billionaire Saul Steinberg had attempted to buy it out, forcing Disney to buy back all his stocks at a value of $325.5 million, when the company’s value was just $10 million.
Eisner’s mission was simple: reinvigorate the parks by sweeping away their reputation as wholesome but outdated family fun, and increase their offerings to the teenage and adult market, who largely thought of them as “lame”. It was this desire that led to Eisner’s close working relationship with George Lucas, who would eventually create Disney World projects like Star Tours. When Michael Jackson, the biggest pop star in the world at the time, expressed an interest in working with Disney on a cinematic project, it was Lucas who brought all the disparate pieces together.
Michael Jackson was reportedly delighted by the idea of creating a 3D movie for the Disney parks but needed to be assured of its quality. He reportedly only agreed to work on the project if it was helmed by George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, and Lucas happily obliged. Not only that, but Lucas seemed to pull in showbiz favours with every big name in the entertainment world imaginable, resulting in one of the most stacked cast and crew lists in history.
Though Lucas was in charge of the project, Francis Ford Coppola was brought on to direct, and Rusty Lemorande of Yentl and Electric Dreams fame was tasked with writing the script. Outfits were handled by the Tony Award-winning costume designer of CATS; Flashdance and A Chorus Line choreographer Jeffrey Hornaday collaborated with Jackon on the dance sequences, and creature design was handled by the team behind Ghostbusters. Even composer James Horner was relatively new to scoring major Hollywood projects, but would later go on to score the mega smash hit Titanic. Rounding out a cast of Disney puppeteers and dancers was Anjelica Huston, who costarred as the evil Supreme Leader who was redeemed by Michael Jackson’s magical musical powers.
Of course, all these names came with hefty price tags, resulting in a project that was over budget from almost the first day. In the end, the 17-minute Captain EO cost an estimated $30 million to produce, making it, by the minute, the most expensive film ever made. Not only that, but production was plagued with a “too many cooks in the kitchen” problem, with Eisner needing the movie to be a success to prove his thesis about making the parks more cutting edge, and Jackson, Lucas and Coppola all having strong feelings about how the film should go.
Most troublingly, the Hollywood “out of towners” were constantly clashing with Disney’s own Imagineers, who felt overworked and underappreciated. For example, Imagineer Rick Rothschild was only given three days to put together and pitch story ideas to Eisner, Lucas and Jackson – with the concept Jackson liked the most imagining him as a dashing space captain tasked with taking down an evil alien despot. Production began, but Lucas and Coppola were both quickly distracted by other projects, with Coppola spending more time on Peggy Sue got Married and Lucas splitting his attention between two other troubled efforts: Star Tours and Howard the Duck.
Meanwhile, principal photography was completed and revealed the story to be completely incoherent, so much so that editing assistants allegedly conspired to hide the footage from Michael Eisner until it could be salvaged. When Eisner finally viewed early cuts of the film, he was horrified by two things: Michael Jackson’s voice was too soft to convincingly evoke a swashbuckling hero, and he’d snuck far more signature crotch thrusts into the choreography than Eisner had bargained for.
The crotch thrusts were simply too numerous to cut around, and no one in charge of the production was brave enough to suggest dubbing or altering Michael Jackson’s voice to the superstar, so both issues were left alone. Eisner was also facing Imagineer discontent, as the visual effects were outsourced to Lucas’ own company Industrial Light and Magic, with Lucas himself jumping into the editing room to try to fix the various problems. However, the release window had been set for September of 1986, and so released it was.
Captain EO hit the Magic Eye Theatre in Epcot, Disney World on the 12th of September, 1986, after a star-studded premiere from which Michael Jackson was conspicuously absent. Jackson later explained that he was avoiding both the press and public at the time. He did later sneak into the projection booth to watch audiences watch the project though, as he was eager to see how his performance would be received.
Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising Jackson’s dancing and the visual effects but calling the project on the whole “empty flash”, the experience was an immense success with park guests. Disney World’s Epcot remained open for 60 consecutive hours to satisfy the demand for the movie, and theatres showing Captain EO were opened in Disneyland California, Tokyo Disney and Disneyland Paris over the next few years. Featuring fog machines, lasers and a giant fibreoptic star wall within the theatres themselves, Captain EO became one of the first true 4D movies in history, and was backed by an extensive merchandising effort, with t-shirts, souvenir cups and even plushies of Jackson’s sidekick Fuzzball.
Despite featuring cutting-edge visual effects and an ultra-modern sci-fi aesthetic, Captain EO faced the same problem as much of Epcot: it became dated fast. For all of these reasons, Epcot’s Captain EO was closed on July 6th, 1994 and replaced with the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience show, with the Captain EO shows at the other Disney locations following suit over the following years.
With that said, Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 reignited interest in the project, with what began as a private showing of Captain EO at the Magic Eye Theatre in Disneyland. Following fan pressure to bring the show back after the closure of Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in 2010, the attraction reopened at Disneyland on February 23rd. It subsequently returned to Disneyland Paris on June 12st, 2010, to Tokyo Disneyland on July 1st and to Epcot in Disney World on July 2nd. The show was missing many of its original special effects, including the giant fibreoptic starfield wall, lasers and fog machines, but still saw decent turnaround for the first few years.
As the shock of Michael Jackson’s death dissipated, the show’s final round of closures began with Tokyo Disneyland in 2014, which closed Captain EO to make room for Stitch Encounter in 2015. In July of the same year, Disneyland commandeered the Magic Eye Theater to show a sneak peak of Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain EO was never screened there again, though an official closure was never announced. Epcot’s Captain EO show was closed in 2015, in order to make room for the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival.
It is perhaps notable that in 2013 and 2014, two lawsuits were filed against Michael Jackson’s estate by Wade Robson and James Safechuck. This media attention may have influenced Disney’s decision to begin closing the attractions in 2014 but wasn’t confirmed by the company.
