There’s a question that I’ve seen pop up often over the years in the search results by which people are redirected to this site. With all the hubbub leading up to yesterday’s return of Captain EO to Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, I’ve seen a new explosion of people asking this question:
What does Captain “EO” stand for?
I’m assuming they mean as an abbreviation, not what does he stand for philosophically. Because you do not want to know.
Anyway, to answer that question I’ll quote myself – a citation from my old, old, old original Disney website, WEBCOT:
The name ‘Captain EO’ comes from Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn. Yes, Imagineers sometimes take drugs.
So there you go. Officially, EO doesn’t stand for anything. Not even Earl Owensby. It’s just a shout-out to all those ancient Greeks who happen to be Jacko fans.
And now, because it’s apropos, I repost this video:
While I’m no EO fan, doesn’t the fact that we’re still saddled with Honey, I Shrunk the Audience seem like another instance of Walt Disney World getting a swift kick to the batch while Disneyland points and laughs? Let’s see how John Lasseter would like it if he could only ever see Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management in perpetuity.
I’ll keep reminding myself – we have the WEDway, we have the WEDway…
EO is the language code for Esperanto, which makes about as much sense as anything else you can think of. In fact, Captain Esperanto has a certain ring to it.
NO WAIT! Extreme Offense. Now it all makes sense.
“…not what does he stand for philosophically. Because you do not want to know.”
I have to say, I’m disappointed you didn’t go after that. I was looking forward to hearing your take when I saw the title of the column. I have no absolutely no idea what you (or anyone else) could say on that but I was sure it was going to be interesting.
“Let’s see how John Lasseter would like it if he could only ever see Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management in perpetuity.”
And therein lies half the problem. JL is one of the few people at the WDC with both artistic integrity (he “gets it”) and the necessary clout to do something about it. Unfortunately he only seems to care about Anaheim. The other half of the problem is of course that while a sizable portion of Disneyland’s attendance figures comprise people who read web sites like this, most of WDW’s visitors are “tourists. What do they know?” It’d be nice if they knew enough to raise a stink about how little TLC WDW gets.
It’s often claimed that “no-one speaks Esperanto” but I would point to http://ikso.net/broshuro/pdf/malkovru_esperanton_en.pdf as well as http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
A glimpse of the Esperanto language can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
Extremely Owesome?
Best Comment of the Day:
“Those people who showed up early for ‘Captain Eo’ dressed up like Michael Jackson are somehow even creepier than Michael Jackson himself.”
Elephants and Orangutans as in the creatures of the film.