A 3D movie starring a strangely feline character? Step aside, James Cameron – Francis Ford Coppola beat you to that punch by decades. The genius director slummed it (during his epic slumming it period – see Jack) and made a movie for Disneyland back in the 80s. Called Captain EO, the film was the sort of thing that really epitomized both the 80s and Michael Jackson: garish, expensive, weird, silly, and not very good while at the same time somehow being brilliant.
Now Captain EO, which has been dormant for a decade, is coming back. The movie starts playing at Disneyland tomorrow, and it runs through… who knows when. When the short film (17 minutes) first started at Disneyland it was touted as being a 4D experience, as they would have smoke and wind and lasers in the theater, but Heather Hust Rivera, the keeper of the Disneyland blog, says that they won’t have all of the original elements (which makes it sound like they didn’t want to spend money on this).
Captain EO is going to be shown as a 70mm print, so it should look pretty amazing. Apparently the sound mix has been upgraded as well; the film is well worth seeing as a FFC curiosity, but it’s hard to recommend plunking down all the money that’s required to go to a Disney park. I’ve never quite seen the appeal of these overpriced hellholes except for pederasts and people hoping to lose their children.