More than just a musical genius who changed the world and earned a crown, Michael Jackson trailblazed as a pop icon with a flair for innovation. He wowed with pyrotechnics in concert (hair on fire notwithstanding) and commissioned morphing faces for a music video or two. He and sister, Janet Jackson, rocked out in space-age costumes — is studded latex considered space-aged? — and his most famous dance move (soon to be a video game goal) seemed to defy gravity.
Today, the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s passing, my heart goes out to the legacy of The Gloved/Masked/Blanketed One — and my memory shoots back to a theatrical experience unlike any I’ve ever had before or since. In 1988, I put on my paper glasses, took my seat in a dark room at Epcot Center in Orlando, and got lost in the first ever “4-D” movie experience: Michael Jackson’s Captain Eo.
If you weren’t lucky enough to have water sprayed on your face and get motion sickness in plush seat with oggling viewers awkwardly attempting to grab the optical illusions in front of our faces, I thought I’d share a little blast from the past. Ladies and gentlemen, “We Are Here to Change the World.”
Eo photo by Evan Wohrman via Wikimedia Commons.
Caroline Walker is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. She has worked in both the entertainment and the nonprofit sector. Walker holds a BA from the University of Southern California and an MA from New York University’s Gallatin School.
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