| Captain EO | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | Rusty Lemorande |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Anderson |
| Edited by | Lisa Fruchtman Walter Murch |
| Music by | James Horner |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 17 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23.7 million ($68 million in 2024 dollars)[1][nb 1] |
Captain EO is a 1986 American3Dscience fictionshort film shown at severalDisney theme parks from 1986 until 1998. The film, starringMichael Jackson, was directed byFrancis Ford Coppola. The film was shown as part of an attraction with in-theater effects. The attraction returned to the Disney theme parks in 2010 as a tribute afterJackson's death the previous year. The film was shown for the final time atEpcot on December 6, 2015.
A co-production betweenWalt Disney Studios andLucasfilm, in collaboration withWalt Disney Imagineering, the film's executive producer wasGeorge Lucas.[2] It waschoreographed byJeffrey Hornaday and Jackson,photographed byPeter Anderson,[3][4] produced byRusty Lemorande and written by Lemorande, Lucas and Coppola, from a story idea by the artists of Imagineering. Lemorande also initially designed and created two of the creatures, and was an editor of the film. The score was written byJames Horner and featured two songs ("We Are Here to Change the World" and "Another Part of Me"), both written and performed by Jackson.
CinematographerVittorio Storaro was the lighting director during much of the principal photography.Captain EO is regarded as one of the first"4D" films (a 3D film that incorporates in-theater effects, such as lasers, smoke, etc., synchronized to the film).[5]
The film tells the story of Captain EO and the ragtag crew of his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to awitch known as The Supreme Leader, who lives on aworld of rotting, twistedmetal and steaming vents. Captain EO'salien crew consists of his small flying cat-like sidekick Fuzzball, the double-headed navigator and pilot Geek (Idy and Ody), robotic security officer Major Domo, a smallrobot, Minor Domo (who fits like a module into Major Domo), and the clumsyelephant-like shipmate Hooter, who always manages to upset the crew's missions.
Upon arriving on the planet, the crew is captured by the henchmen of the Supreme Leader, and brought before her. She sentences the crew to be turned intotrash cans, and Captain EO to 100 years of torture in her deepestdungeon. Before being sent away, Captain EO tells the Supreme Leader that he sees the beauty hidden within her, and that he brings her the key to unlock it: his song, "We Are Here to Change the World".
The two robot members of the crew transform into musical instruments, and the crew members begin to play the various instruments. As Hooter runs toward his instrument, he trips over EO's cape and breaks it, stopping the music. Thespell broken, the Supreme Leader orders her guards to capture Captain EO and his crew.
Hooter manages to repair his instrument and sends out a blast of music, providing EO with the power to throw off the guards. He uses his power to transform the dark hulking guards into agile dancers who fall into step behind him for a dance number, which leads into the song, "We Are Here to Change the World". The Supreme Leader unleashes her Whip Warriors, two cybernetic defenders each with a whip and shield that can deflect EO's power.
The others all run away, leaving Captain EO to fight the Whip Warriors alone. EO is trapped by a closing gate and prepares for a last stand as both the whip warriors draw their whips back for a final blow. Fuzzball drops his instrument and speedily flies over to tie the two whips together, causing the Whip Warriors to be thrown off balance and giving EO an opportunity to transform them as well. With no further obstacles, EO uses his power to transform the remaining four henchmen (not yet unleashed) and they, the transformed whip warriors and the other dancers, press forward in dance. Captain EO then flies up to the Supreme Leader and transforms her into a beautiful woman, her lair into a peacefulGreek temple, and the planet into aparadise.
A celebration breaks out to "Another Part of Me", as Captain EO and his crew triumphantly exit and fly off into space, ending the film.
Captain EO made full use of its3D effects. The action on the screen extended into the audience, including asteroids, lasers, laser impacts, smoke effects, and starfields that filled the theater. These effects resulted in the seventeen-minute film costing an estimated $30 million to produce.[6] At the time, it was the most expensive film ever produced on a per-minute basis, averaging out at $1.76 million per minute.[7] Walt Disney Imagineering andEastman Kodak used 70mm 3-D photography to shoot the film, which was completed in considerable secrecy at the request of Jackson and Lucas.[8]
Captain EO began filming on July 15, 1985.[9]
The 2010 version did not include the in-theater laser and starfield effects. It did utilize hydraulics previously used forHoney, I Shrunk the Audience! to make the seats shake along with Captain EO's spaceship, as well as LED flood-lighting, which was new to the theater. The hydraulics were also used for the bass-heavy musical numbers, and the seats bounced to the beat of Jackson's song.Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!'s hidden water sprayers were employed when Hooter sneezed, and that attraction's leg ticklers were also reused for the Supreme Leader's Whip Warriors.
The show's orchestral score was composed byJames Horner, with additional score composed and performed by Tim Truman, while the area and pre-show music was written byRichard Bellis.
Two new songs appeared in the film: the first, "We Are Here to Change the World", was not officially released until 2004 as part ofMichael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection, but this version was a shorter edit of the full-length song; the second was an early mix of "Another Part of Me", which later appeared on Jackson's 1987 albumBad in remixed form and was subsequently released as a single.
Soul/R&B singerDeniece Williams covered "We Are Here to Change the World" on herAs Good As It Gets album in 1988.[10]
Concurrent with the opening of the attraction, a behind-the-scenesdocumentary special titledCaptain EO: Backstage was produced for television by MKD Productions. The piece was directed by Muffett Kaufman and was hosted byWhoopi Goldberg. It featured interviews with the cast, writers and director.[11]
The story was adapted as acomic book with art byTom Yeates forEclipse Comics, withstereoscopy effects byRay Zone. Released in April 1987,Captain EO was #18 in Eclipse's 3-D series and was issued in two formats: regular sized, for distribution to the national network of comic book stores; andtabloid sized, sold at Disneyland as a souvenir.[12] Yeates was contractually required to maintain the likenesses of the cards, and was given tightly-controlled slides of the film to work from.[8] In 1989,Amazing Heroes named the comic the third best 3D comic of all time, praising Yeates' artwork.[13]
Toys available included plush versions of Idey and Ody, Hooter, and the "Fuzzball" character. Other merchandise included trading cards, pins, keychains, a T-shirt of the film's logo, and a glow-in-the-dark T-shirt with the same three-color pattern painted across it that Captain EO wore in the film.
On September 20th, 1986 Disney aired Captain EO's Grand Opening Ceremony as their Disney Sunday Movie. The show was hosted byPatrick Duffy andJustine Bateman. The show featuredStarship performing "Sara" and "We Built This City".Belinda Carlisle andRobert Palmer also performed.George Lucas was interviewed. The special also showed the making of Captain EO with a lot of behind the scenes footage. There was also a parade.
In 1995, a decade after the attraction originally opened,Captain EO made its only television appearance onMTV, albeit in a down-converted 2-D version. It has not aired again since, nor has it officially been issued on home video, although bootleg videos exist.
After thedeath of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009,Captain EO regained popularity on the Internet. For several years, a small group of fans had petitioned Disney to bring back the attraction and Jackson's death had brought this campaign to a peak.[14] Soon afterward, Disney officials were seen in Disneyland at the Magic Eye Theater and reportedly held a private screening ofCaptain EO to determine if it could be shown again. On September 10, Disney CEOBob Iger said, "There aren't plans to bring backCaptain EO at this time ... We are looking at it. It's the kind of thing that, if we did it, would get a fair amount of attention and we'd want to make sure we do it right."[15]
On December 18, 2009, Disney announced thatCaptain EO would return to Tomorrowland at Disneyland, beginning in February 2010.[16] Social and Print Media Manager Heather Hust Rivera from Disneyland Resort confirmed this on theDisneyParks Blog and stated thatHoney, I Shrunk the Audience! would be closing. That attraction hosted its final public showing in the Magic Eye Theater at midnight on January 4, 2010, to make way forCaptain EO's return.
The attraction reopened at Disneyland on February 23, 2010[17] and subsequently returned toDiscoveryland atDisneyland Park (Paris) on June 12, 2010, toEpcot at Walt Disney World on July 2,[18] and toTokyo Disneyland on July 1. At Epcot, the film had a "soft opening" (actual opening to the public prior to the official opening) on June 30, two days prior to its official reopening.
The attraction's return was billed as "Captain EO Tribute" to distinguish the presentation of the film from its original 1986–1997 run. The new presentation made use of existing in-theater special effects held over fromHoney, I Shrunk the Audience!, but many of the original "4-D" effects—such as the enormous fiber-optic "starfield" wall, along with smoke and lasers—had been removed from the building at the show's first closing and were not returned for the revived presentation.[19] The removed special effects from the original presentation are also missing in the Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris revivals that followed.
On December 19, 2013, Tokyo Disneyland announced it would be closingCaptain EO on June 30, 2014, to make way forStitch Encounter in spring 2015.[20] Beginning July 4, 2014, the Magic Eye Theater at Disneyland was used to present a sneak peek ofMarvel Studios'Guardians of the Galaxy[21] originally with the expectation thatCaptain EO would return to the venue at a later date. Since then, the theater space was used for sneak previews of forthcoming films includingBig Hero 6[22] andTomorrowland with the venue itself later renamed the Tomorrowland Theater.[23] The Tomorrowland Theater at Disneyland would also be used to present scenes from theStar Wars films as part of the park's "Season of the Force" event.[24] On November 13, 2015, Disney announced thatCaptain EO would close at Epcot on December 6, 2015, to make way for a "Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival".[25]
In 1987,Electric Dreams Software began using a logo very similar to the one fromCaptain EO.[26]
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