Captain EO, original 3-D experience returns to Disney in July

Michael Jackson will live on with the return of Captain EO, the classic Walt Disney World favorite.
The groundbreaking 3-D experience debuted at Epcot in 1986 before ending in almost eight-year run in 1994.
Captain EO was a technological wonder when it first opened. George Lucas produced the 17-minute film and it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The show recently returned to Disneyland as well.
Disney officials said the attraction’s return provides new audiences the opportunity to experience the original 3-D production for the very first time, as well as a nostalgic look back for longtime fans wanting to see Jackson in a rare performance created for the big screen.
The show also features Academy Award-winning actress Anjelica Huston and a cast of mythical space characters.
The colorful Disney-created characters include: Hooter, the little green elephant-like creature who sneezes wild musical notes through his flute-like trunk; Fuzzball, the orange-haired space monkey with butterfly wings; the Geex, a golden-haired, two-faced personality with two left feet, one right foot and two shaggy heads named Idy and Ody; Major Domo, whose mirrored silver costume becomes a complete set of drums; and Minor Domo with his sparkling purple torso that turns into an electronic synthesizer played by Hooter.
For all its technology, Captain EO is first and foremost a musical spectacular and a thrilling space-fantasy adventure. The realism of the 3-D process will once again make it seem that Jackson dances right out of the screen into the theater, officials said. While it’s not possible to replicate some of the special effects elements originally in the theater, it will boast a new 70mm print of the film and sound better than ever thanks to acoustical enhancements made to the theater since the film last played there. The total effect is one of motion, color and high energy filled with Jackson’s musical brilliance and various illusions to create an exciting and realistic journey in space for the audience.
During the journey, Captain EO and his merry crew discover a colorless planet where they are confronted by the Supreme Leader (Huston) and her forces of darkness. Using the power of music, dance and light to fill the planet and the theater with all the shades of the rainbow, the EO crew turns the black and white land into a magical world of color and happiness.
The production of Captain EO called on Hollywood’s finest choreographers, set designers, costume creators and special effects artists – all of them excited by the challenge of shooting this kind of imaginative film in three dimensions.
Captain EO will be presented multiple times daily at the Imagination pavilion at Epcot. It will replace Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which is planned to return at an undetermined date.