Captian Eo Still in 3D

Captain Eo lives at Disneyland

â€œCAPTAIN EOâ€ CAN STILL BE SEEN IN 3D â€“ AND NO, IT'S NOT A REMAKE

By Mario Patrick DeAngelis

Going to Disneyland has always been more of a chore than a joy â€“ for my kid. You know. Or the fam does the reunion at Disney because, that's what people do and it IS the happiest place on Earth. Actually, didn't see much unhappiness yesterday. Maybe it is where happiness is hiding in this world that has lost its mojo. Because, and I'm not just saying this, the 80's was a simpler time.

Go watch any behind the scenes making of something like Back to the Future or Captian Eo and you'll see the big awesome hair, the colors, the Parachute Pants, the simpler clothing, a Delorean here and there. Speaking of Captain Eo, I was at Disneyland in Califronia ( yes, there are people who still don't know Disneyland is on the west coast and Disneyworld is in Florida)
So, I was going through the motions of doing the Disney thing thinking it wasn't going to be special and then, there it was - the Captain Eo poster. I paused. I investigated. Yes. Disney has become the home for the movie that actually was shot using a 3D camera, and not just transferred to 3D. By the way, 1986 was not a year when they could do that. They had to actually go through the work to shoot it using revolutionary cameras.

The original film Captain Eo, shot using a Kodak 3D camera, produced by George Lucas coming off of Return of the Jedi and directed by the great Francis Coppola can be seen using 3D glasses in a theater where the seats even move. Originally released at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fl Captain Eo starring the late Michael Jackson WAS revolutionary. Artists brought together Lucas as a producer and his ILM machine, Coppola as one of the greatest directors living and MJ, having made one of the best albums â€“ ever. It was a dream team of filmmaking.

And I'm here to tell you if you have only seen Captain Eo on YouTube, NOT in 3D, NOT in the theater and NOT how it was intended book a ticket today and go to Epcot Center in Florida or Disnelyland in California. It looks amazing. From the first asteroid that floats slowly out of the screen and is blasted by Captain Eo's ship and we see actual puppets, not CG characters which haven't been replaced and there have been NO new scenes added which Lucas has been doing to his movies for about a decade now.
The entire presentation was prestine and even re-mastered of course â€“ the sound, the songs, the picture. Perfect. And a wonderful performance by Anjelica Huston as a Queen of a Dark World very reminiscent but pre-dating the Borg Queen from Star Trek. That, truly a geek moment, is yet another reason why Captain Eo is a revolutionary project much like Michael's other extended music video â€“ a little project called Thriller.

MJ had that instinct to involve some of the best film producers/directors John Landis, Franic Coppola, George Lucas and have them guide him as how to make those projects entertaining while still pushing the boundaries of what can we do. In today's standards the visual effects are outdated but for the time there were some impressive moments and concepts of the future, for the future.

Comments

I usually defend articles without pictures but I have to say that your article is a little thin. This would make a great forum post to start conversation on Captian Eo but it is a little short to have an article about.

I did not know that Captian Eo was still being shown, I have to see it when I'm at Disneyland. Is it pretty much going to be on for a while or is it just on right now because Michel Jackson died recently?

Live in Orlando and heard about this a while back, but didn't realize it had happened. After reading this I went over to Epcot last night for a view. Hadn't see it (at least on the big screen) since 1987. Too wild! Picture is so-so. At least by today's 3D standards, but the sound did sound pretty darn good. I like that the whole floor moves now with certain effects and beats. This of course was added when Honey, I Shrunk The Audience was there, but I guess modified to work with EO. Very neat. Read my article on EO too on here if you're interested:

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/2697/

You got it Mr.Nostalgia, this seems to be an open faced sandwich. Speaking of sandwiches, this could have been a passable article had there have been some meat to it. But yeah, this is a forum post.

Actually I'm sure Retrojerks comment wasn't positive so this sandwich seems to be lacking the top layer of bread.

I'm gonna use what I like to call a "Compliment Sandwich". "Sandwich" something negative with two positives on each side: You put forth effort and let the whole world see. I'd say forum post rather than article. Thanks for the heads up?

Not the best sandwich, but that was the most positive I could find myself being in this situation.

In early November, I actually went and saw Captian EO. The 3D is not excellent, but it was pretty cool to see.

Hey dude. May want to put at least a couple pictures in your next article. Having no pictures can heavily affect your score. Pics aren't everything on retrojunk, but they sure do help. Best of luck.

alright...