Captain EO: Inside the $17 Million Michael Jackson Music Video that Changed Disney World Forever

The beginning of the end

Beginning in 1993 – just a year after EO opened in 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 crimes involving children…

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… Eight years is a very long run for a 3D film, much less one tied to the music and pop culture of its opening year.

Imagination’s 3D theater debuted Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in 1994 (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). Later, the 3D film would in turn spark 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, Declassified Disaster: Journey into YOUR Imagination.)

For years later, the same swap took place in California’s Captain EO. 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….”

By 1999, Captain EO was gone from all four Disney resorts where it had once starred. The one-time pop culture phenemenon was gone, and given that it closed before high definition videography was widely accessible, it seemed likely that Captain EO’s footage would be lost forever.

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.)

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 showing 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.

In September 2009, Disneyland’s Magic Eye Theater closed to the public for several days so that Captain EO could be screened in private for Michael’s family… but frankly, 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!”

Captain EO Tribute opened on 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.

What’s next?

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. Turns out, it wasn’t very limited, either. It played for four years – 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. Plus, years of diminishing returns proved that any investment in a 3D film ultimately ends up lacking the staying power of a ride.

The answer? Flex spaces.

Disneyland Resort’s three 3D theaters (built for Captain EO, “it’s tough to be a bug,” and Muppet*Vision) became rotating venues for showing “Exclusive Sneak Peek” extended trailers of upcoming Disney films. Ultimately, the latter two gained permanent replacements – the “bugs” theater by being annexed into Avengers Campus and gutted for the WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure attraction, and Muppet*Vision by curiously being converted in 2019 to show the decade-old Mickey’s Philharmagic imported from Magic Kingdom. Tomorrowland’s 3D theater has been playing the laughably-bad “Star Wars: Path of the Jedi” clip show to empty audiences for years.

At least at Disney World, the allure of 3D shows is a bit higher due to international and once-in-a-lifetime audiences, so both “it’s tough to be a bug” and Muppet*Vision survive at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, respectively. The 3D theater in the Imagination pavilion, meanwhile, has been used to house the “Disney-Pixar Short Film Festival,” a rotating collection of packaged animated shorts (which are, incidentally, available on home video and Disney+).

In the most permanent re-use, the large Captain EO theater in Tokyo Disneyland 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.

Tribute

Here’s the interesting thing about Captain EO…

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 the 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.

Captain EO was the start of it all.

Controversial at its opening and controversial at its closing, EO was a sincere wonder that jumpstarted interest in Disney Parks 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.