Captain EO to remain as permanent attraction at Tokyo Disneyland

The operators of Tokyo Disneyland have confirmed that Captain EO will remain as a permanent attraction at the park following its return last year.

The Oriental Land Company cited the popularity of Captain EO and its star Michael Jackson as the reason for extending the show's stay in the park. The news marks the end for the MicroAdventure! show (known as Honey, I Shrunk the Audience at Disney's US and Paris parks), which will not now return after a year as originally planned.

Captain EO originally occupied the same theater at Tokyo Disneyland between March 20, 1987 and September 1, 1986. It reopened on July 1, 2010, just 5 days after the first anniversary of Jackson's death, as a tribute to the pop superstar. The new version of the show is missing many of its original special effects, which were removed during the conversion to MicroAdventure!. Instead, it makes use of the moving seats, strobe lights and compressed-air effects that were installed for its replacement.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and executive-produced by Star Wars creator George Lucas, Captain EO was produced when Jackson was at the peak of his fame. The show's story sees the eponymous Captain EO (played by Jackson) and the crew of his spaceship using the "power of music and dance" to battle against the wicked Witch Queen of a faraway planet.

At just 17 minutes long, the film cost a massive $30 million to produce. It included "4D" elements such as lasers, smoke effects and starfields. At the time it was the most expensive film ever produced if measured per-minute (at $1.76 million), however this has since been topped by Universal's Terminator 2: 3D at $5 million per-minute.

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