Captain EO Articles
Star Tours Disneyland Relaunch T-Minus Three Weeks
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To say that Disneyland's old Star Tours ride (which originally opened in the park in 1987) was a little dated doesn't even begin to do it justice. Sure, some of the park's attractions are brought back with an admitted sense of nostalgia attached to them. Occasionally, enough time has passed for them to become kitschy and "cool again." Other times, all it takes is the unexpected death of a pop icon to ...
No End Date Yet For Captain EO At Disneyland
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Nearly two years after Michael Jackson's death, "Captain EO," is still playing at Disneyland. The "Captain EO Tribute," the 3-D film and music video featuring Jackson, originally ran from 1986 to 1997 and was revived on a temporary basis in 2010. Recently, the Oriental Land Company, which operates the Tokyo Disney Resort, indicated the scheduled end date for "Captain EO" has been eliminated. ...
Wall-E Perfect Replacement For Captain EO At Disneyland
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Reports are surfacing that Disneyland is actively looking to replace Captain EO in its 3D theatre in tommorrowland. The park brought it back for an encore run after a 13 year run of "Honey, I shrunk the audience" made its home there. Now Captain EO's return has run its course as well and the park is looking for an upgrade. Disneyland brought back Captain EO in January of 2010 after the death of ...
Still Returning After 36 Years
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Having first visited Disneyland as a 2-year-old, Fairfax journalist James Croot reflects after his recent sixth visit. "To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savour the challenge and promise of the future." Walter E Disney's words when he opened his theme park in July 1955 have never felt truer than ...
California vs. Paris: The Lands of The Future - Part Three
This month I shall conclude my comparisons of California's Tomorrowland with Paris's Discoveryland, by looking at their versions of Autopia and Captain EO. Captain EO, the $30million 3-d musical starring Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston, was an opening day attraction at Disneyland Paris, by which time the film had already been showing for five and a half years in the California Park and EPCOT ...
Disney Buys Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion
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For more than two decades, Jedi Knights and Darth Vader have wielded their lightsabers at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. On Tuesday, they officially became part of the family when The Walt Disney Co. acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. from founder George Lucas for $4.05 billion. Disney is paying approximately half in cash and issuing 40 million stock shares at the deal's closing, the company said. "This ...
Failed Ugly 90s Ride That Still Looms Over Guests
Disneyland is a kingdom of illusions. Forced perspective makes small buildings appear grander. Special paint colors hide eyesores in plain sight. Disney Imagineers company lingo for theme park creatives are the best in the business at keeping reality from creeping into guests ' consciousness.
But there is a glaring exception: a ride, dead now for nearly 25 years, that still looms large ...
The Force Reigns At Disneyland New Star Wars Event
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What if Disneyland converted Tomorrowland to a "Star Wars"-themed area rather than building a 14-acre Star Wars Land? Starting Friday, you can see what that would have looked like with Star Wars Season of the Force at the Anaheim theme park. The "Star Wars" festival officially kicks off Monday, but you can check out all the new additions to Tomorrowland right now as Disneyland "soft opens" a ...
This Is How Disneyland Changed In The 1980s
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Changes at Disneyland in the 1980s started slow, then ended in a splash down a mountain. During the first couple years of the decade, Disney Imagineers were busy with the design and building of Epcot Center (as it was called then) at Walt Disney World. But they were also planning a project for Disneyland - rebuilding Fantasyland. 1980-83 In early 1982, most of Fantasyland was behind a ...
This Is How Disneyland Changed In The 1990s
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It was a "Fantasmic!" start for Disneyland in the 1990s, and the decade ended with a new Tomorrowland and the disappearance of the parking lot. 1990-92 Not much happened for the first two years in terms of changes or additions of new attractions until 1992. Mission to Mars had its last flight and was grounded. In New Orleans Square, something new was coming to the waterfront of the Rivers of ...
Todays Future
During the rush of getting the Park constructed, "Tomorrowland" was the last land finished. Budget cuts didn't allow all of its attractions to be opened that first day. One of those cuts was to use the "Nautilus" sets from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" as a walk-through. When it closed in 1966, the organ belonging to Captain Nemo was moved to the ballroom of the "Haunted Mansion." For the first four ...
9 Extinct Disneyland Attractions You Probably Never Knew Existed
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Over 60 years ago, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. In the decades since, Walt Disney's original theme park vision has undergone changes both big and small. Rides, attractions, and entire swaths of land have sometimes been overhauled or torn down to make way for modern amusements. But thanks to documentaries and numerous Disney bloggers, we can still look back at some of the most iconic rides ...
10 Disneyland Attractions That Do Not Exist Anymore But We Wish Did
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It's not easy being Disneyland. To keep people coming back and visiting year after year, the Anaheim amusement park has to constantly reinvent itself while not changing in ways that'll alienate diehard fans whose nostalgia runs deep. A few months ago, the park permanently closed the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to turn it into Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!, which opens May 27. While Disney ...
How Did Walt Disney Vision Of A Futuristic Metropolis Become A Quaint Symbol Of A Bygone Era
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When Disneyland opened its doors in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955, the word astronaut was not yet a household term. But a bright white rocketship towered over Tomorrowland (and, in fact, the entire park), poised to blast off into soon-to-be explored galaxies. Behind it stood a geometric space station, red letters over the entrance labeling it "Rocket To The Moon," with two large spherical theatres ...
Sneak Peek Of Ralph Breaks The Internet In Tomorrowland
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Disneyland will offer a sneak peek of the "Wreck-It Ralph" sequel that takes video game bad guy Wreck-It Ralph and race car driver/princess Vanellope von Schweetz to the wilds of the internet during a month-long preview at the Anaheim theme park. The 3D preview sequence from Disney's new animated film "Ralph Breaks the Internet" will run from Nov. 9 through Dec. 9 in Disneyland's Tomorrowland Theater. ...
Your Best Day Ever At Disneyland
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Enjoy a Mickey Mouse flapjack for breakfast, then hit Splash Mountain early. Eat lunch at the Big Thunder Ranch. Top off your day at Disneyland by watching fireworks from a little know vantage point. Those are some of the tips we picked up after visiting Disneyland five times last season. We learned how to tackle the park during its busiest time-summer. We discovered how to cut hours from time spent ...
For 'EO' Fans, The Thriller's Gone
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Brent Fidler gave it his best shot. He scrawled "Save Michael!" across a white T-shirt, distributed homemade "Pedal Captain Eo, not drugs" Pog milkcaps and even circulated a petition at school. Despite his allegiance, "Captain Eo" zoomed out of 3-D sight forever when Disneyland closed Sunday night. "I swear I'm going to cry," said Fidler, 14. Tomorrowland's 3-D musical space adventure starring a ...
Disneyland: A Parents' Survival Guide
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Disneyland, a monument to childhood, is also a test of how well you've grown up. Your first visit is guaranteed to be interesting, just as the first time you drive a car, have sex or spend a night by yourself is filled with wonder. But by the tenth or hundredth time you do it, amazement will elude you unless you apply an adult imagination to the experience. The adults who have the least trouble ...
When Disneyland Debuted His 3-D Movie Marvel
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George Lucas was there because he is the producer. Francis Coppola was there because he is the director. But the star wasn't there because, after all, he's Michael Jackson. Although the premier of Jackson's sci-fi short, Captain EO, lured a slew of stars to an afternoon at Disneyland, the main attraction himself was mysteriously but predictably absent. After photographs of Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric ...
Looking Back The Year In Tomorrow
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Was a time when Tomorrow was big. Back in the '60s and '70s, despite-or perhaps because of-Vietnam and nuclear missiles, Tomorrow was a good place to be. They even gave it a name: Tomorrowland. Unlike the rest of Disneyland's fluff, Tomorrowland had the feel of an exhibit, a place where we learned that the future would burst with helpful robots, time-saving products, efficient mass transit and commonplace ...
Disneyland Scuttling Submarine Fleet
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Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it will retire one of Disneyland's oldest rides, the venerable fleet of yellow submarines that have taken millions of passengers on underwater journeys, without ever fully submerging the vessels. The 39-year-old Submarine Voyage will close following the Labor Day weekend, to make way for a new, snazzier attraction that will debut in 2003. It may be ...
See You In Disneyland
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As he was led manacled away after his conviction, serial killer Richard Ramirez, Los Angeles's infamous "Night Stalker," turned to the courtroom audience and snarled "See you in Disneyland." America recognized the turn of phrase from the familiar TV as that invariably follows the World Series or Super Bowl. After a montage of key plays - with "When You Wish upon a Star" swelling behind - the beaming hero ...
Do You Believe In Magic?
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Once upon a time in a popular tourist destination called the Magic Kingdom, there lived some very prosperous characters. They were happy all the time (except for Grumpy, but it was his job to be that way). They produced souvenirs, cartoons and movies that were the delight of families around the world. But one day a great disenchantment fell over the kingdom, for the magic no longer worked. Tinker Bell's ...
Disneyland Through The Years
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1954-Summer Construction gets under way and Disneyland begins to emerge from the surrounding bean fields and orange groves of Anaheim. 1955-July 17 The opening day ceremonies are beamed coast-to-coast in a TV special. One of the hosts: actor Ronald Wilson Reagan. 1956-October Attendance hits the five million mark; the Skyway, Tom Sawyer Island, Storybook Land attractions open this year. 1957 ...
Disneyland Marks 50 Years Of Magic
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To build his dream theme park a half-century ago, Walt Disney borrowed against his life-insurance policy and cashed in property, including a vacation home in Palm Springs, to pay the $17 million construction bill.When the theme park opened July 17, 1955, on a sweltering day, toilets clogged, the food ran out and women's high heels sank into wet asphalt. Disney officials still call it Black Sunday. ...
A Park With A Powerful Spell
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Disneyland opened on this day in 1955. For five decades, the Anaheim attraction has worked its magic on our culture and transformed the entertainment industry. To build his dream theme park in Anaheim a half-century ago, Walt Disney borrowed against his life insurance policy and cashed in property, including a vacation home in Palm Springs, to pay the $17-million construction bill. When the ...
Disneyland Urged To Bring Back Michael Jackson's Captain EO
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On various Internet sites, including the "Captain EO @ Disneyland" Facebook page, Disneyland is being urged to bring back the Captain EO attraction to honor Michael Jackson. Captain EO, which debuted at Disneyland on Sept. 18, 1986 (six days after its world premiere at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida), and ran continuously through April of 1997, was the 17-minute film. Other ...
Remembering Michael Jackson: ‘Captain EO'
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Michael Jackson was the epitome of cool to those of us who grew up in the 1980s. He was probably the first celebrity I recognized and followed as a young kid. One of my fondest memories of Jackson was his Disneyland 3-D movie, "Captain EO." When I first visited Disneyland it was one of the newest and most popular attractions. Being at Disneyland, the last thing you really want to do is sit down for ...
Michael Jackson In ‘Captain EO': A Fellow Dancer Remembers
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In 1986, Michael Jackson became a Disney park attraction in Captain EO, a $30 million "space opera" that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and executive produced by George Lucas. Besides a nifty 3-D component that made it a real gas to watch - was that massive space rock really going to drop in your lap? - the film featured two of Jackson's songs ("We Are Here to Change the World" and "Another Part of ...
Captain's EO's Michael Jackson Singer, Actor Film Has Sprung Back To Life!
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After Michael Jackson's death, memorials, funeral and wake, his past musical and acting projects are beginning to resurface and take on a life of their very own. One such is that of the short film Captain EO. Captain EO (1986) is a 3-D film starring The King of Pop and directed by Francis Ford Coppola that was shown at Disney theme parks in the 1980s and 1990s, and again in Disneyland Park in ...
Jackson Kids Attend Special Screening Of Captain EO
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Michael Jackson's young children were given a special treat during a trip to Disneyland, California last Thursday (10Sep09) - they attended a one-off screening of the late King of Pop's 3-D movie CAPTAIN EO. The 17-minute film closed as an attraction at the theme park in 1998, but Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, aka Blanket, were given a rare chance to catch the ...
