Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney. Next month, the Michael Jackson attraction, Captain EO at EPCOT will be closing it's doors forever. Captain EO was a 1986 attraction that was a starring vehicle for the King of Pop, directed by Francis Ford Coopla, and had involvement from George Lucas. It originally closed in 1994 at EPCOT. And in 2010, after MJ passed away, Captain EO was brought back after so many fans had wanted this as a way to honor the passing of Michael Jackson. And the last time, I went to Disney World, I had the pleasure(?) of experiencing Captain EO. And well, you know the saying, "So bad, it's good". That kinda applies to Captain EO. To put it another way, Captain EO is the most '80s attraction at a Disney Park to ever '80s. Seriously, it may have been 2012, when I saw this but I'm pretty sure, that once the movie started in the theater, I was transported back to the eighties. That's not to say that I dislike Captain EO. I kinda enjoy it for it's cheesy charm.
However, we are not here to look at Captain EO. However, there is a possible chance of a Meet & Greet article on the good captain in the future as a possible cross over. Instead, we are here to look at something that was a tie-in to promote Captain EO. There was much promotion for this attraction, when it first came out and one thing that was done was a comic book in....
You can find the entire comic on Photobucket as someone was kind enough to scan the whole thing and upload it to there. However, if you choose to read it, I highly suggest finding a pair of 3-D glasses because otherwise, it'll hurt your eyes. Thankfully, I had my pair of 3-D glasses from the 3-D re-release of The Lion King. Let's begin.
Cover
That's the poster....
Seriously, that's just the poster. Don't get me wrong, I like the poster but this is already giving me an idea of what kind of comic, I'm in for.
Staff
Artist - Thomas Yeates
The art is fine as it captures the feel of Captain EO but to be honest, it's nothing special. It serve it's purpose of capturing the feeling of the attraction. I do apologize as I do have go against what I said up top as I do need to show you one page, so that I can properly explain the art.
Again, the art is okay but I do think that the 3-D effect makes it seem a busier than needed.
The Plot
This comic is a direct and I mean direct adaption of Captain EO and seeing as I plan to do a future review of EO in full, I'll be skipping the plot but here is the plot synopsis.
The film tells the story of Captain EO (Michael Jackson) and the ragtag crew of his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to "The Supreme Leader" (Anjelica Huston), who lives on a world of rotting, twisted metal and steaming vents. Captain EO's alien crew consists of his small flying sidekick Fuzzball, the double-headed navigator and pilot Idey (Debbie Lee Carrington) and Ody (Cindy Sorenson), robotic security officer Major Domo (Gary Depew), a small robot, Minor Domo (who fits like a module into Major Domo), and the clumsy elephant-like shipmate Hooter (Tony Cox) who always manages to upset the crew's missions. Dick Shawn plays Captain EO's boss, Commander Bog.
Upon arriving on the planet, the crew is captured by the henchmen of the Supreme Leader, and brought before her. She sentences the crew to be turned into trash cans, and Captain EO to 100 years of torture in her deepest dungeon. Before being sent away, Captain EO tells the Supreme Leader that he sees the beauty hidden within her, and that he brings her the key to unlock it: his song, "We Are Here to Change the World".
The two robot members of the crew transform into musical instruments, and the crew members begin to play the various instruments. As Hooter runs toward his instrument, he trips over EO's cape and breaks it, stopping the music. The spell broken, the Supreme Leader orders her guards to capture Captain EO and his crew.
Hooter manages to repair his instrument and sends out a blast of music, providing EO with the power to throw off the guards. He uses his power to transform the dark hulking guards into agile dancers who fall into step behind him for a dance number. As EO presses forward toward the Supreme Leader, she unleashes her Whip Warriors, two cybernetic defenders each with a whip and shield that can deflect EO's power.
The others all run away, leaving Captain EO to fight the Whip Warriors alone. EO is trapped by a closing gate and is preparing for a last stand as both the whip warriors draw their whips back for a final blow. Fuzzball drops his instrument and speedily flies over to tie the two whips together, causing the Whip Warriors to be thrown off balance giving EO an opportunity to transform them as well. With no further obstacles, EO uses his power to transform the remaining four henchmen (not yet unleashed) and they, the transformed whip warriors and the other dancers, press forward in dance before EO transforms the Supreme Leader into a beautiful woman, her lair into a peaceful Greek temple, and the planet into a verdant paradise.
A celebration breaks out to "Another Part of Me", as EO and his crew triumphantly exit and fly off into space.
And now imagine someone trying to capture the flair of this and Michael's dance moves in comics. It doesn't exactly transfer well. And it reminds me of two comics that Linkara has reviewed, the previously mentioned, Batman: Fortunate Son as it makes a mistake that Linkara complained about in that review of lyrics not working in a comic format. And they did include the lyrics to We Are Here To Change The World. And without the music to it, it doesn't work.
And the other comic that this reminds me of that Mr. Luvhaug reviewed is the comic adaption of Xanadu. In that, while Captain EO isn't a musical per se, I think doing such a direct adaption of Captain EO and including We Are Here To Change The World in the comic just makes it seem like a lesser version of the attraction. And going beyond that for a moment without the vocals of Michael Jackson, these lyrics are just words and not actually lyrics from a song.
And I really think that this is a big hindrance to the comic because, it just seems really odd to do this and if you played the video up above, you saw what went into this number and can understand how the gravitas and charm of that number is lost in a print format. But at the same time, this is not something that could have been edited out of the comic as We Are Here To Change The World is the climax to Captain EO. And yes, you could look up the song on YouTube as I did here but the song itself was not officially released until the year, 2004 as a part of Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection.
And this comic came out in 1987, a year after the attraction opened. And unless people had a bootleg of Captain EO, I don't think the intended audience for this comic had access for the song to get a feel for what it was suppose to sound.
In many respects, I found the biggest sin of this comic adaption of EO to be that it didn't have any of the cheesy charm that I enjoyed from the attraction as I have previously mentioned. The only thing that this comic really has going for it is the 3-D gimmick. Now, I understand that in 1987, that this comic was perhaps the only way for people to experience EO, if they couldn't go to the parks. Though in many years later, it would air on MTV and nowadays, you can find it on YouTube and I think that takes away from some of the novelty that this comic had. I'm not saying that it's bad but ultimately, I found it to be pointless.
Characters
I hate to say this but there isn't much positive or negative to say about the characters. And I'd rather save for my thoughts on the characters for the chance of a review of the actual attraction. which I may do now in the foreseeable future. But to give credit to the comic, they are true to how they are in the film. Captain EO is the brave leader, you have Hooter, the screw up. Fuzzball, the cutie. The Supreme Leader and the rest of the characters but without the performances from Michael Jackson, Tony Cox, Angelica Houston, and the rest of the cast, you really lose part of what makes Captain EO, so endearing. I think that is part of why that is so problematic for me that this was a such a direct adaption.
My Final Thoughts
While read this comic, I was thinking to myself, I 'd rather be watching the movie. And that's not a good thing. I will say this, I do understand the reasoning for the comic's existence but in this day & age, I think this comic is as I said ultimately pointless. Though, this does me hope for the possibility of Disney Kingdoms possibly doing a Captain EO miniseries. We've already seen, what they were able to do with Figment and Dreamfinder. And I have a feeling that if given the right team, Captain EO could almost be Disney Kingdom's version of Guardians of The Galaxy. Because in many respects, Captain EO's team are a bunch of ragtags and EO tells the fleet considers them losers. And I think that having the attraction gives them a great launching pad to expand upon the story and so much more with it. Though, I will say that I had fun with this one, even if I didn't like it all that much. Peace!
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