EON

The 1986 musical, Captain EO, starring the late Michael Jackson is making its return to the Disney Tommorrowland Theater. The 17 minute 3-D film that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas, originally cost an estimated $30 million to create. The musical space adventure stars Jackson as a a spaceship captain that uses music to defeat an evil queen played by the Oscar winning actress Angelica Houston.

Heather Hust Rivera, a Disney executive, said via the Disney Park blog, that some slight changes have been made to the original show, which ran in the park from 1986 to 1997. The new 70mm print being shown will have enhanced sound, but the original smoke and laser effects that were part of previous presentation will be cut from the show. These effects combined with the 3-D film, had won the original production the title of the first “4-D” movie. Disney decided to bring back the space traveling King of Pop after the recent success of “This is It”, a movie featuring interviews and behind the scenes footage of Jackson. Captain EO is slated to play in the California theme park from February 23, 2010, to an undetermined date.