The Years 1985 to 1987
On July 24, 1985, it was reported that Michael Jackson would play a role in a space-fantasy three-dimensional musical film titled “Captain E.O” (Captain E.O). The film was intended for exclusive screenings at Disneyland and Disneyworld.
Michael: ”This film was made because Disney studios asked me to come up with a new form of entertainment for these parks.
I flew to San Francisco a few times to meet George at the Skywalker villa. And we gradually wrote a scenario for a short film—one that used all the advancements that had recently been achieved at that time in the field of creating three-dimensional effects. “Captain E.O” seemed to be just like that, and it gave viewers the feeling that they were really in a spaceship.“
[Francis Ford Coppola — Michael — George Lucas]
On September 12, 1986, after more than a year had passed since the announcement of the making of Michael Jackson’s seventeen-minute space-fantasy three-dimensional musical film titled “Captain E.O,” the film premiered at the Epcot Center in Disneyworld—Florida. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola [director of Dracula and The Godfather], and George Lucas [director of Star Wars] was responsible for its production. The amount spent on producing this film minute by minute made it the most expensive film in the history of cinema, and even today, with the thirty million dollars spent to produce this seventeen-minute film, “Captain E.O” remains the most expensive film ever made.
Michael appeared in the lead role of this film, alongside Anjelica Huston, and two of Michael’s new songs—“Another Part Of Me” and “We Are Here To Change The World”—were featured in the film.
[The Captain E.O film cover]
[Michael in Captain E.O]
After the first screening of “Captain E.O” in Disneyworld—Florida, this three-dimensional film was shown in all four Disney theme parks in the United States states of Florida and California, as well as in the countries of Japan and France, achieving tremendous success and becoming one of the major attractions of Disney theme parks.
Later, Michael said: ”Working on “Captain E.O” strengthened all the positive feelings I had toward filmmaking. And it allowed me to think even more about the possibility that working on films might be my next path in the future.“
On March 12, 1986, just six months before the first screening of “Captain E.O,” at a press conference, news was announced of a new contract worth fifteen million dollars between Pepsi-Cola and Michael Jackson.
[Pepsi announcement]
Following that, Michael’s name was entered into the Guinness World Records as the person who had signed the highest number of major contracts with a commercial company [Pepsi-Cola].
After the song “We Are The World,” Michael decided to hide himself from public view for a while. During the span of two and a half years, he devoted most of his time to working on his new album “Bad” (Bad).
Michael: ”Why did it take so long to make the album “Bad”? The answer is that Quincy and I decided to make this album as flawless as possible.”
In this album, whose producer and assistant producer were Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, there were also two songs—one with Steve Wonder’s backing vocals, and the other with Seda Garrett’s backing vocals—and other prominent musicians, such as Greg Phillinganes, Steve Porcaro, David Paich, Paulinho Da Costa, and Steve Stevens, also collaborated on this album.