This summer, we are reintroducing our listeners to the BEST OF SCFADP by playing our 10 most popular episodes. In this episode, we preview the new Disney Cirque du Soleil show, Drawn to Life, and Chris takes us back in time to Captain EO at EPCOT.
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All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Show Notes:
Chris and Kelli discuss Cirque du Soleil, sharing their knowledge and insights on the company’s history, evolution, and unique features. They also share their fond memories of Disney attractions, including the impact of Michael Jackson’s talent, the innovative use of technology, and the importance of music and choreography in the films and attractions. The conversation highlights the cultural impact of these experiences and the ways in which they have influenced the entertainment industry.
Outline
Cirque du Soleil shows, including history and audience experience.
- Chris and Kelli discuss Cirque du Soleil’s Drawn to Life show, which was supposed to open in April 2020 but was delayed due to COVID-19.
- Kelli is a massive Cirque du Soleil fan and has seen several shows, including Salacia, and will give a history of the company and its shows.
- Kelli loves Cirque du Soleil shows for their immersive experience, world-class acrobatics, and ability to put her in a meditative state.
- Cirque du Soleil has a unique history, starting in the early 1980s and offering something completely different from other circus-style shows.
Cirque du Soleil shows, including their history, artists, and sets.
- Chris and Kelli discuss Cirque du Soleil’s origins and growth, from street performances to worldwide success.
- Cirque du Soleil has over 1300 artists from 55 countries, with permanent shows in Vegas, Disney Springs, and internationally.
- Kelli describes the set design for Drawn to Life, a new Cirque du Soleil show, as an “amazing new world” with a “giant animation table” and “huge pieces of animation paper” making up the set.
- The show tells the story of a young girl named Julie who discovers a sequence of unfinished drawings left by her animator father and embarks on an inspiring quest filled with her childhood Disney memories.
Michael Jackson’s 3D movie “Captain EO” at Epcot.
- Kelli and Chris discuss their love for Cirque du Soleil and Disney, with Kelli expressing excitement for the upcoming “Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway” attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
- Chris shares his fond memories of the 3D/4D movie “Captain EO,” starring Michael Jackson, which ran at Epcot from 1986 to 1996 and was reintroduced in 2010 as a tribute after Jackson’s death.
- Chris’s ragtag crew delivers a gift to a creepy supreme leader on a planet of rot and twisted metal.
- Cattaneo’s song converts the leader’s guards and soldiers to his side, and they perform a dance routine together.
Michael Jackson’s involvement in a Disney theme park attraction.
- Chris and Kelli discuss the groundbreaking filmmaking and choreography in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video.
- Chris and Kelli discuss the groundbreaking TV show “Cattaneo” and its impact on popular culture.
- Chris and Kelli discuss the Disney attraction “Captain EO” and its history.
- Kelli remembers seeing the attraction with Chris, but can’t recall details.
Episode Transcript:
NOTE: This transcript was produced using AI. Please excuse any errors.
Welcome aboard Disney fam. Welcome to the show Disney fam. My name is Chris. And I’m Kelly. We are so happy to have you here. As we continue our all time favorite summer tour here. We’re going to hit our number five all time favorite podcast episode, where we’re going to hit a couple of shows this was recorded in season three January 14 2021. And we are you talk about the preview drawn to lie prey drawn
Kelli 0:56
to lie
Chris 0:57
the Cirque du Soleil show. Right?
Kelli 0:58
It was gonna be the first show created by Cirque for Disney coming out of COVID. Yeah,
Chris 1:05
we had tickets to see that we didn’t get to see it. We’ve still got tickets. I talked about a nostalgic favorite of mine from when I was a kid, Captain EO and how revolutionary that show was when it was released. It was 3d. George Lucas helped to produce it. It had all this amazing choreography incredible show. And so we hope you enjoy this recap of Drawn to Life and cacophony of Absolutely. Rock and roll.
Kelli 1:36
So we’re gonna go over to Disney Springs tonight and we’re going to talk about Cirque du Soleil drawn to like,
Chris 1:42
oh, boy, I’m just gonna sit back and listen. Yeah, you
Kelli 1:45
better because I’ve got so much information. So I am a massive Cirque du Soleil fan. Massive. We we saw the first surge of Salacia that came through Charlotte, I want to say in the early 2000s. Yes. And after I saw that first show, I said it is my life’s mission to see all of the Cirque shows. And I’ve seen a lot of them, but not all of them. And so we had reservations for Drawn to Life it when it was supposed to open in April 2020. And then of course they closed it all the Cirque shows are still closed. So we’re just going to talk about sort of, I’m going to give you the history of Cirque du Solei and sort of talk about how it came to be. We’ll talk about a few of the shows I’ve seen. And then I’ll tell you what Drawn to Life is going to be because they have now confirmed it will open in 2021. Beautiful, okay, so Cirque du Soleil is originally from Quebec. So that’s why a lot of their shows are in French, right, which I love. I love that I don’t speak French, but I love that. They call it redefining the circus. If you’ve never seen a Cirque du Soleil show, I’m gonna say that definition grossly under sales. It’s a circus. I mean, it’s not even I don’t call it a circus. But I get I get what they’re going with. They’re the first one I saw or we saw was Keenum. And it was a traveling show under a tent. Yeah, so a lot of their traveling shows are under tents, which I just real affection for you. I love I love it. So here’s what I love about Cirque shows. First of all, all seats are good seats, especially ones under the tent. Right? It’s a small venue. It’s done like in the round. So you’re sort of around almost the whole stage, almost like 75% of the stage that has seating around it. They actually come out into the audience for a pre show. The audience interaction is amazing. But there are no bad seats at a Cirque show. Right? You don’t have to understand the language to love the story. It is beautiful. It is mesmerizing. And you will find yourself gasping Yeah, I mean, I’ll be honest, sometimes I can be a little bit obtuse on these things. And I come out of there having no idea what happened in the story.
Chris 3:55
I don’t think that’s rare for Cirque show, honestly, and I still love it. I think a lot of people are come out saying, Yeah, Raul was awesome. Whatever it was.
Kelli 4:05
It was awesome. Yes. The acrobatics are world class. And I think it puts me in like a mentally meditative state. I mean, you know that sometimes it concerts I can fall asleep.
Chris 4:18
You do. You don’t use that you can you do blazing hot, loud music and you just are conked out
Kelli 4:27
there’s something about it like I fell asleep at a Bon Jovi concert. And I love Bon Jovi. That’s a favorite band. But there’s something about just being fully immersed and surrounded by that. It makes me so relaxed that I often want to just fight it’s just a little power nap. I don’t fall asleep while they’re singing. They’re important songs. But anyway, so I think cert does the same thing to me. It puts me in like a mentally meditative state and it is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Anything in the world. There is nothing You can compare to a Cirque show. And you can’t compare each of them to each other either. You can’t. They’re all completely different. So let’s go through a little bit of the history. First of all, it was started in the early 1980s. I mean, this has only been around for about 40 years.
Chris 5:14
Yeah, yeah, I remember they showed one of the earliest ones on HBO way back in the day. Okay,
Kelli 5:19
that’s cool. Yeah, you can find some of the Cirque shows like on TV. So it started as a group of street performers near Quebec City. They would do juggling dancing, fire breathing music, and they walked on stilts, people call them the still men. In 1984, Canada was celebrating the 400 and 50th anniversary of their discover discovery and a member of the group thought it’d be fun to take the show on a province wide tour, giving people a glimpse of the future of the circus while reflecting on the history of their storied nation. Wow. And so they renamed the troupe Cirque du Soleil for this tour because they said the Sun symbolizes youth energy in strength. So I guess that translates as circus of the sun. Okay. By 1987 They were touring in the US. They started at the Los Angeles festival and then sold out shows in San Diego in Santa Monica like seven years, seven years in. In 1990. They started their first overseas tour in Europe. Wow. 10 years in, and they are officially worldwide. In 1993. Mystere became the first permanent Show in Las Vegas to hear I’ve seen Mystere it’s so good. And oh is also at Las Vegas. And I’ve seen that twice. So good. You liked that one on fat yell. Oh, it’s I think one of my favorites by far. Oh sells like a metal keychain. And I had that keychain for years. It broke. I went back to Oh, bought another keychain. And it broke too. But I love love. Love that keychain. Oh is in water. Yeah. And so people go up really high. And you you’re looking at the stage and it looks solid and they jump off and you gasp because you don’t realize that the stage has dropped. And it’s now a watertight, incredible. I mean, you spend literally the whole show. The shows in Vegas, obviously are not in an intimate setting. They’re much larger, but the saints are all still good. I know I was in nosebleed for HoH at least twice. Four decades later, their shows travel the world and they have permanent shows in Vegas, Disney Springs, and then a couple internationally. They have over 1300 artists from 55 different countries. So when you see the show, you can tell this is a big deal like this production is special. Oh yeah. And so they have videos on their website where you can see their headquarters in Canada. And it’s amazing. I mean, it’s exactly what you think it would be right? I mean, amazing music studios where they can record the scores, amazing areas where they can make the costumes, huge practice areas is exactly what you think it needs to be. Each show has between 50 and 100 artists. All of the costumes are made in house and hand dyed. Some of them are hand painted. Like they buy the special textiles you know that are flexible and very durable. And then they essentially hand paint the things for the shows. I mean the talent, the talent. They have multiple composers on staff who write custom scores for every show. And the sets are computer design and then built in house. So I’ve seen key DOM Vera Kai Mystere, and oh twice okay. La Nouba was at Disney Springs for years and never saw it was really incredible and Drawn to Life was recently created. This is why it’s so special because the Nuba was there but it was still a Cirque show. Totally Sark Drawn to Life was created as a collaboration between Disney Imagineers and Cirque which I mean come on. So it is a Disney is a true Disney show. So here’s the description for Drawn to Life. Okay, Drawn to Life invites you into an astounding world or the art of Disney Animation is experienced like never before. Gather your whole family for an unforgettable leap into this amazing new show. I live acrobatic journey where our stage is transformed into a giant animation table.
Chris 9:30
Oh my gosh,
Kelli 9:31
this love letter to the art of Disney Animation celebrates life in all of its motions and emotions. The show tells the story of a determined girl Julie, who discovers one last gift left by her animator father a sequence of unfinished drawings. Guided by a magical pencil and a quirky troupe of imaginative muses. she embarks on an inspiring quest filled with her childhood Disney men. Marie’s will follow her as she leaps into a whimsical world of animation and discovers new possibilities that animate the story of her future. Does that not sound?
Chris 10:11
Great? I bet those muses are going to be some ridiculous acrobat.
Kelli 10:17
So I saw the design for the set a really in it is amazing. So the whole sort of outside the top part of the set, you know, sort of if the, if the stage is a rectangle, the sides and the top sort of make up the outer outer side of the stage. And it’s all like animation paper, like big, huge pieces of animation paper. It looked amazing. Like if you’ve seen wicked on Broadway. Oh, yeah, that exterior set on the outside of the state. Yeah, it reminds me a lot of that, like something that big and imposing. It was supposed to premiere on April 17. And obviously it didn’t. We had tickets for me. And but Disney has confirmed that it will open in 2021. All Cirque shows are still currently grounded. So I’m telling you, that’s that’s a trip for me. Yeah, just to get on there just to go I need to go and see that. I mean, my love for Cirque and my love for Disney. Coming together. I my mind will be blown. You just I may slip through the whole thing
Chris 11:28
my dad went to see car in Las Vegas Oh twice and fell asleep halfway through both times just because for the same thing. And same reason. Also me stayed up a little well. Yeah, that’s gonna be awesome. I can’t wait because he joined a life. Yes,
Kelli 11:41
absolutely. All right. Okay. Okay,
Chris 11:45
so we’re gonna talk about a show here to show that you cannot see anymore. But was one of my absolute favorites when I was growing up.
Kelli 11:55
I’m worried about this.
Chris 11:56
Captain EO.
Kelli 11:57
Oh, gosh.
Chris 12:00
Did you ever see cat?
Kelli 12:00
I never saw Captain EO. But you’ve, you’ve told me about it before I get the premise of it.
Chris 12:06
Oh my gosh. Okay, so this was a 3d It was actually a four D movie starring Michael Jackson. That ran at Epcot. In the end. I think it also ran out in Disneyland somewhere, too. But at Epcot, it was in the theater there that’s attached to journey into imagination. Okay, and it ran from 86 to 96. It was reintroduced in 2010. As a tribute after Michael Jackson’s death in 2009,
Kelli 12:36
that’s what I remember. Yeah,
Chris 12:37
that’s what I remember. Yeah, it’s the last time it was shown was at Epcot on December sixth. 2015. So they they ran for a few years. That’s what I remember. Yeah. Yep. Jackson, Michael Jackson is obviously a very polarizing figure for some people. But it’s hard to ignore his talent. He’s a pop legend. Yeah. And I mean, his impact on music and, and in many cases film with what he did with with music videos, whether it’s thriller or smooth criminal or so many other ones. This one is right in there, man. Because what they did with sight and sound with this thing was absolutely a triumph. I remember. I was 11 When I first saw it. Wow. And I remember sitting there being just legit, like, gobsmacked at what I was seeing on this what my senses were experiencing, watching this thing. Okay, so, here was the plot just really quick. This is a space adventure. Okay. Captain EO leads a ragtag crew on his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to the supreme leader who lives on this world of rot and twisted metal and steam vents and all kinds of ugliness. Okay. So after a sort of a dogfight in space with other ships, they crash land on her planet, and they’re quickly captured and brought to her in her like courtyard or whatever. She reminds me of kind of like a Star Trek Borg sort of a character. She’s super creepy. She’s like, literally connected to the machinery around her with with piping and I don’t know, she she like literally slides down from the ceiling. It’s really pretty creepy. She’s, you know, it’s 3d. Right? And so she’s got these long clicking fingernails that they bring right in your face. She’s Herky jerky and her speech patterns and movement and everything she’s she’s really creepy especially for 11 year old Chris so she sentences the crew because she’s evil right? She sentences the crew to become trash cans. And and she’s going to torture Cattaneo in her darkest dungeon for 100 years. Okay, so not looking good for them. Before they’re carried away, though Cattaneo tells her that he has a gift for her. He sees the beauty in her, and that he brought her a gift to unlock her beauty. She likes the idea of a gift. And the gift turns out to be his song. It’s a song called we’re here to change the world. His crew sprang into action because they’re not just a crew. They’re also his band, of course. And so two of the crew members are like robots. And so they sort of transform into a drum set and a guitar and some of the other crew members use them as their instruments. Cattaneo draws power from the music. And he sings and dances his way through fighting her guards and soldiers, converting them to his side along the way. So like, wow, they’re all They’re all in these dark robotic looking outfits, something between like Darth Vader and a regular Stormtrooper kind of thing. And when he sort of imposes his power on them, they there may still be wearing similar outfits, but their masks come away and all their outfits turn white and they’re they’re good now, right? Good guys wear white. Ultimately, after some really cool very Michael Jackson has choreography numbers with the music. He converts the Supreme Being herself into a beautiful caring leader and her rotting Palace becomes this beautiful temple and a green paradise and all this kind of WoW, right? Music is powerful man. Oh, sure. Here’s the bottom line for this thing. This thing was pure Michael Jackson music and dance magic. I mean, the choreography is you know, Thriller ask but with different music, different choreography, but lots of dancers in right syncopation right, it was, it was really great, energetic, inspiring. Music just made you feel happy. Okay, but the filmmaking was also groundbreaking. There’s documentaries on this. Like right after it came out a couple years later, HBO literally did a documentary on the making of its four d. So when the ship crashes in the into the planet, it’s not just images that fly at you. Right, right. Literal smoke comes out of the screen and fills up there. The theater. So this was the first time this was before Muppets, you know, really? Yeah, this was the first run at that kind of thing.
Kelli 17:29
And now it’s just totally common. It’s
Chris 17:31
like, exactly, exactly. They’re during the laser fight in space. It’s not just 3d film, movie lasers that are coming at your face. There are literal lasers that shoot out of the movie screen laser lights. And I’m thinking that the time it so that when the film’s ship comes to that part, the physical screen, I just that kind of thing blows my mind. And, you know, just some run of the mill imaginaires put this thing together, right? Course. No. This idea definitely sprung from Imagineers. Okay, it was their story idea. But this thing was executive produced by George Lucas. Wow. Yeah, exactly. He knows a thing or two about how to produce a space opera. You reckon? Yeah. And he’s, he’s, you know, he’s doing his executive production thing. And he’s like, I gotta get ourselves a director here. So who should we get? Let’s see if Francis Ford Coppola is busy. Oh, gee, so yeah, the guy that did the Godfather one and two and Apocalypse Now directed this thing and this show was only like 1520 minutes long. But let’s get let’s get George Lucas to produce it. Let’s get Francis Ford Coppola to direct it we’ll get Michael Jackson to do the song and dance this little thing yeah he’ll be thing and the supreme leader that was Angelica Houston Morticia Addams herself, right. She was also in the witches and and about 200 other credits to her name a little bitty thing little thing they did right for
Kelli 19:04
for the prep.
Chris 19:08
So yeah, this this thing was groundbreaking on a number of different levels and Michael Jackson hymns he wrote the two major songs and one was called we’re here to change the world. And then the closing credits the end their walkout song, right when everything is, you know, green and beautiful. There walkout song was another part of me and that’s something that I think we’ve actually probably heard on the radio before. But both of those songs are just toe tappers make you feel good when you when you hear him. And I just I I remember just being blown away me and my grandma mom. My stories are me and my grandma, right? But I remember her telling me you know, there’s this new show. It’s it’s 40 things actually come out of the movie screen. And, and then when, when you get there, if it lives up to the hype, then it’s something special. And this thing is crazy. So you can actually go on YouTube and type in Cattaneo and watch the whole thing. Oh, wow. Yeah, people have in there, they’re pretty good. There’s a lot of different versions of them. And some of them are actually pretty good quality. So I would if you if you never saw it, and you want to you want one of those things that’s not terribly long, but it’ll bring an automatic smile to your face without you having to work on it. Yeah, the Cattaneo will do that. So I would highly recommend going out to and, and, and searching on that, so
Kelli 20:37
why did they get rid of it?
Chris 20:40
I think that eventually, even that technology got old. Okay, and I, they, they always have something in that theater. They had something there the last time we were there, but I don’t remember what it was. Actually the last time we were there. It may have been something related to the holiday festival that we’re doing in that theater. But yeah, it’s uh, so what year did you say it launched 8686 And then it ended when 96 and then 10 years 10 year run and then in 2010 They brought it back as a tribute and it ran for about five years there. I saw them too. Wow. We would have had to have seen it together. We would
Kelli 21:16
have had to see it together but you know who I am?
Chris 21:18
I do know how you are honey I don’t think I saw it for sure I did see that I’m almost positive we started to get Yeah I’m
Kelli 21:27
pretty sure we did because I remember you getting really excited about it and maybe in like Captain EO that’s not Disney at all that didn’t like what Disney characters that
Chris 21:37
it’s catchy. Yeah
Kelli 21:42
I’m pretty sure we saw it together.
Chris 21:44
That’s my girl.
Kelli 21:45
But you know, I don’t remember stuff. I can’t remember everything. It just simple I can’t possibly remember everything.
Chris 21:56
All right, well, folks, that is our show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, do us a favor, run out to iTunes. type up a little message about how great how happy this show makes you leave us a rating and we sit back and we watch all the other people come to our show because you have to such a great review.
Kelli 22:19
It really does help y’all I can’t say that enough. And if you’re looking for more things Disney please visit SCF adp.com. That’s s for supersede for Cali F for Fragile listed a for awesome D for Disney Pete for podcast. We just put out a bonus episode last week on the Nomad lounge. And I’m telling you that’s one of my favorites. So if you haven’t seen that yet, be on the lookout for it.
Chris 22:42
That’s right run out there. Check that out on YouTube, subscribe to our channel Supercalifragilistic awesome Disney podcast. Check us out on all the socials Instagram, Twitter, Facebook at SCF, ADP. And the more the merrier out there, man. Absolutely. We would love to hear from you. And with that, we hope to see you real soon.