Star Tours
Encyclopedia
Star Tours is a motion simulator
attraction currently operating at Tokyo Disneyland
and Disneyland Park
at Disneyland Paris. The ride is based on the successful Star Wars film series created by George Lucas
, making it the first Disney attraction based on a non-Disney produced film.
The first incarnation of the ride appeared in Tomorrowland
at Disneyland in 1987, replacing the previous attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space
. Star Tours at Disneyland closed on July 27, 2010 to allow for the conversion to Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
. Disney's Hollywood Studios
closed its attraction on September 7, 2010 in anticipation of the same conversion which was completed on May 20, 2011. Tokyo Disneyland
's Star Tours will close on April 2, 2012, to make way for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue which will open in Spring 2013. No announcement has been made regarding the future of the attraction in France.
. It would have been an interactive ride simulator attraction, where guests would have had the ability to choose the ride car's route, but after preliminary planning, the Black Hole attraction was shelved due to its enormous cost—approximately $50 million USD—as well as the unpopularity of the film itself.
But instead of completely dismissing the idea of a simulator, the company decided to make use of a partnership between Disney and George Lucas
, the creator of Star Wars, that began in 1986 with the opening of Captain EO
(a 3-D
musical film
starring Michael Jackson
) at the California park. Disneyland then approached Lucas with the idea for Star Tours. With Lucas' approval, Disney Imagineers
purchased four military-grade flight simulators at a cost of $500,000 each and designed the ride structure.
Meanwhile, Lucas and his team of special effect
s technicians at Industrial Light & Magic produced the first-person perspective film that would be projected inside the simulators. When both simulator and film were completed, a programmer
then sat inside and, with the aid of a joystick, manually synchronized the movement of the simulator with the apparent movement on screen. On January 9, 1987, at a final cost of $32 million, almost twice the cost of building the entire park in 1955, the ride opened to throngs of patrons, many of whom dressed up as Star Wars characters for the occasion. In celebration, Disneyland remained open for a special 60-hour marathon from January 9, 1987 at 10 am to January 11, 1987 at 10 pm.
en route to the forest moon of Endor
, the site of the climactic battle of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
, via the Star Tours travel agency. Much is made of this throughout the ride queue, which is designed to look like a spaceship boarding terminal: posters advertise voyages to different planets, and a giant screen informs riders of the benefits of going to Endor. This area is stocked with Audio-Animatronic
characters that seem to speak to the ride patrons (including C-3PO
and R2-D2
), as well as a life-size mock-up of a StarSpeeder 3000, the fictional spacecraft
which riders are about to board. According to the book Disneyland Detective by Kendra Trahan, the figures of C-3PO and R2-D2 in the Disneyland attraction are actual props from the original film, modified to operate via Audio-Animatronics.
Guests then enter a maintenance area where an apparently underproductive G2 droid performs repairs on another droid while being distracted by the observing guests, and another droid inadvertently points out all the supposed flaws of the StarSpeeder 3000 and its RX pilots. The G2 droids are in fact the animatronic skeletons of two geese from the defunct Tomorrowland attraction America Sings
. A ride attendant escorts guests to one of several loading stations where they wait for their turn to ride.
A television screen posts a countdown to take-off time and shows images of the Starspeeder 3000 spacecraft being serviced. As launch time approaches, a safety video is shown featuring Star Wars aliens, Disney Imagineers, and their families. It instructs guests how to fasten their seat belts and where to place belongings. Once the doors to the Starspeeder open, guests walk across bridges into one of several ride theatres. As the doors close, the bumbling pilot droid of the ship, RX-24 or Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens
), chats up the guests about the trip as he sets up. It happens to be his first flight.
All goes well until a slight mistake on Rex's part sends the ship down the wrong tunnel and plummeting down into a maintenance yard, just managing to escape to open space before a giant mechanical appendage would have crushed the ship. Once in space, Rex puts the ship into light speed
, but overshoots the ship's intended destination, passing the Endor moon, instead getting caught inside a comet
cluster. The ship gets trapped inside one of the larger comets and has to maze its way out. Upon escaping the comet, the ship encounters a Star Destroyer
.
The ship gets caught in its tractor beam
, but manages to get loose when a rebel X-wing
fighter (played by ILM modelmaker Steve Gawley and not to be confused with Wedge Antilles
, the popular survivor of three Star Wars films, who was played by Denis Lawson
) provides assistance by destroying the tractor beam's generator. With the tractor beam deactivated, the StarSpeeder escapes the Star Destroyer. Soon the ship accompanies the Rebellion on a massive assault on a Death Star
. Rex uses the StarSpeeder's lasers to eliminate TIE fighter
s while a rebel destroys the Death Star in the same manner as Luke Skywalker
did in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
. A final light speed jump sends the StarSpeeder back where it started, but not before a near collision with a fuel truck in the spaceport.
Muren, Gawley, and Keeler are all Industrial Light & Magic special effects staff.
featuring 4 degrees of freedom. The trade name for this simulator is Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator
, or ATLAS. The ATLAS was designed by Rediffusion Simulation in Sussex
, England
, now owned by Thomson-CSF
. The Rediffusion 'Leisure' simulator was originally developed for a much simpler show in Canada called "Tour of the Universe", where it featured a single entrance/exit door in the rear of the cabin and a video projector. The film is front-projected onto the screen from a 70 mm film
projector located beneath the cockpit barrier. George Lucas has mentioned that the next generation of the attraction will feature digital high-definition video and motion bases capable of up to 6 degrees of freedom. The Disneyland original has four simulators, while the other versions have six.
attendees at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 8pm to 1am. Entertainment features and events at "Last Tour To Endor" included George Lucas
, character appearances, Jedi Training Academy, Death Star Disco, Bespin Stage Dance Party, Raiders Of The Lost Jedi Temple of Doom: A Fan Film of Epic Proportions live show, Hyperspace Hoopla, Symphony in the Stars fireworks, and the Star Tours shutdown ceremony. The Star Tours shutdown ceremony was a live show with characters C-3PO
, R2-D2
, Boba Fett
, Darth Vader
and a few Stormtroopers, culminating in the official power-down of the original Disney World Star Tours attraction. However, instead of R2-D2 simply shutting it down, Boba Fett blows it up using a thermal detonator (achieved using pyrotechnics).
on May 20, 2011 and replaced the original Star Tours: Tour of Endor. It features an updated ride system, which consists of a new high-definition video
, a Disney Digital 3-D
high-definition
screen, an improved motion simulator
and several newly added special effects.
In the original version, passengers rode in a vehicle named the "Starspeeder 3000". Since the new attraction is set before the original film, the new ride vehicle is referred to as a "Starspeeder 1000". The new vehicles are 'piloted' by an animatronic AC-38 droid, though during the show the controls are handed over to a new pilot, C-3PO
.
Motion simulator
A motion simulator or motion platform is a mechanism that encapsulates occupants and creates the effect/feelings of being in a moving vehicle...
attraction currently operating at Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland
is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...
and Disneyland Park
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Disneyland Park is a theme park at Disneyland Paris, a resort complex just outside of Paris, in the new town of Marne-la-Vallée, France. The first of two parks built at the resort, it opened as Euro Disneyland on 12 April, 1992...
at Disneyland Paris. The ride is based on the successful Star Wars film series created by George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, making it the first Disney attraction based on a non-Disney produced film.
The first incarnation of the ride appeared in Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland
- Tomorrowland 1955–1967 :The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 18, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open, due to budget cuts. The construction of the park was rushed, so Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. It became something of a corporate showcase,...
at Disneyland in 1987, replacing the previous attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space
Adventure Thru Inner Space
Adventure Thru Inner Space, presented by Monsanto Company, was an attraction in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. It was the first attraction to utilize Disney's Omnimover system....
. Star Tours at Disneyland closed on July 27, 2010 to allow for the conversion to Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue is an attraction located at Disneyland Park and at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It is also set to open at Tokyo Disneyland in Spring 2013. Set in the fictional Star Wars universe, The Adventures Continue updates the two parks' original Star Tours attractions...
. Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
closed its attraction on September 7, 2010 in anticipation of the same conversion which was completed on May 20, 2011. Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo Disneyland
is a 115 acre theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside of the United States and opened on April 15, 1983...
's Star Tours will close on April 2, 2012, to make way for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue which will open in Spring 2013. No announcement has been made regarding the future of the attraction in France.
History
The ride that became Star Tours first saw light as a proposal for an attraction based on the 1979 Disney live-action film The Black HoleThe Black Hole
The Black Hole is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson for Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy...
. It would have been an interactive ride simulator attraction, where guests would have had the ability to choose the ride car's route, but after preliminary planning, the Black Hole attraction was shelved due to its enormous cost—approximately $50 million USD—as well as the unpopularity of the film itself.
But instead of completely dismissing the idea of a simulator, the company decided to make use of a partnership between Disney and George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, the creator of Star Wars, that began in 1986 with the opening of Captain EO
Captain EO
Captain EO is a 3-D science fiction film starring Michael Jackson and directed by Francis Ford Coppola that was shown at Disney theme parks from 1986 through the 1990s...
(a 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
starring Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
) at the California park. Disneyland then approached Lucas with the idea for Star Tours. With Lucas' approval, Disney Imagineers
Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering is the design and development arm of the Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation and construction of Disney theme parks worldwide...
purchased four military-grade flight simulators at a cost of $500,000 each and designed the ride structure.
Meanwhile, Lucas and his team of special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s technicians at Industrial Light & Magic produced the first-person perspective film that would be projected inside the simulators. When both simulator and film were completed, a programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
then sat inside and, with the aid of a joystick, manually synchronized the movement of the simulator with the apparent movement on screen. On January 9, 1987, at a final cost of $32 million, almost twice the cost of building the entire park in 1955, the ride opened to throngs of patrons, many of whom dressed up as Star Wars characters for the occasion. In celebration, Disneyland remained open for a special 60-hour marathon from January 9, 1987 at 10 am to January 11, 1987 at 10 pm.
Star Tours: Tour to Endor
Advertised as "The Ultimate Star Wars Adventure!", Star Tours puts the guest in the role of a space touristSpace tourism
Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...
en route to the forest moon of Endor
Forest moon of Endor
The second moon of Endor, also referred to as the forest moon of Endor, or sanctuary moon, is a moon in the Star Wars universe. It appears in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as the home to the Ewoks, and is the body over which the second Death Star is constructed...
, the site of the climactic battle of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
, via the Star Tours travel agency. Much is made of this throughout the ride queue, which is designed to look like a spaceship boarding terminal: posters advertise voyages to different planets, and a giant screen informs riders of the benefits of going to Endor. This area is stocked with Audio-Animatronic
Audio-Animatronics
Audio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and make noise, generally in speech or song...
characters that seem to speak to the ride patrons (including C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
and R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
), as well as a life-size mock-up of a StarSpeeder 3000, the fictional spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
which riders are about to board. According to the book Disneyland Detective by Kendra Trahan, the figures of C-3PO and R2-D2 in the Disneyland attraction are actual props from the original film, modified to operate via Audio-Animatronics.
Guests then enter a maintenance area where an apparently underproductive G2 droid performs repairs on another droid while being distracted by the observing guests, and another droid inadvertently points out all the supposed flaws of the StarSpeeder 3000 and its RX pilots. The G2 droids are in fact the animatronic skeletons of two geese from the defunct Tomorrowland attraction America Sings
America Sings
America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronic animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion....
. A ride attendant escorts guests to one of several loading stations where they wait for their turn to ride.
A television screen posts a countdown to take-off time and shows images of the Starspeeder 3000 spacecraft being serviced. As launch time approaches, a safety video is shown featuring Star Wars aliens, Disney Imagineers, and their families. It instructs guests how to fasten their seat belts and where to place belongings. Once the doors to the Starspeeder open, guests walk across bridges into one of several ride theatres. As the doors close, the bumbling pilot droid of the ship, RX-24 or Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
), chats up the guests about the trip as he sets up. It happens to be his first flight.
All goes well until a slight mistake on Rex's part sends the ship down the wrong tunnel and plummeting down into a maintenance yard, just managing to escape to open space before a giant mechanical appendage would have crushed the ship. Once in space, Rex puts the ship into light speed
Speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time...
, but overshoots the ship's intended destination, passing the Endor moon, instead getting caught inside a comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
cluster. The ship gets trapped inside one of the larger comets and has to maze its way out. Upon escaping the comet, the ship encounters a Star Destroyer
Star Destroyer
Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional Star Wars universe. The Imperial Star Destroyer, which first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , is "the signature vessel of the Imperial fleet"...
.
The ship gets caught in its tractor beam
Tractor beam
A tractor beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Since the 1990s, technology and research has labored to make it a reality, mostly at microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam...
, but manages to get loose when a rebel X-wing
X-wing
X-wings are fictional starfighters from the original Star Wars trilogy and the expanded universe. They are depicted as the primary interceptor and dogfighter of the Rebel Alliance and the New Republic...
fighter (played by ILM modelmaker Steve Gawley and not to be confused with Wedge Antilles
Wedge Antilles
Wedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is a supporting character portrayed by Denis Lawson in the original Star Wars trilogy. Antilles, also called the "greatest ace" pilot in the Rebel Alliance, also appears in the Star Wars Expanded Universe and is the lead...
, the popular survivor of three Star Wars films, who was played by Denis Lawson
Denis Lawson
Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero, but is best known for playing the part of Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Early life:Lawson was...
) provides assistance by destroying the tractor beam's generator. With the tractor beam deactivated, the StarSpeeder escapes the Star Destroyer. Soon the ship accompanies the Rebellion on a massive assault on a Death Star
Death Star
The Death Star is a fictional moon-sized space station and superweapon appearing in the Star Wars movies and expanded universe. It is capable of destroying a planet with a single destructive super charged energy beam.-Origin and design:...
. Rex uses the StarSpeeder's lasers to eliminate TIE fighter
TIE fighter
TIE fighters are fictional starfighters in the Star Wars universe. Propelled by Twin Ion Engines , TIE fighters are depicted as fast, fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire...
s while a rebel destroys the Death Star in the same manner as Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
did in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
. A final light speed jump sends the StarSpeeder back where it started, but not before a near collision with a fuel truck in the spaceport.
Cast
(In order of appearance; all are uncredited)- Anthony DanielsAnthony DanielsAnthony Daniels is an English actor. He is best known for his role as the droid C-3PO in the Star Wars series of films made between 1977 and 2005.-Early life:...
- C-3POC-3POC-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
(audio-animatronic in queue area, onboard video) (voice) - Brian CummingsBrian CummingsBrian Cummings is an American voice actor.-Biography:He is known for his work in radio and television commercials, television and motion picture promos, cartoons and as the announcer on The All-New Let's Make a Deal from 1984 to 1985...
- Vid-Screen Announcer (planetary destinations) (voice) - Jenifer LewisJenifer LewisJenifer Jeanette Lewis is an American film and television actress and singer.-Early life:Lewis was born in Kinloch, Missouri, to a nurse's aid mother and a factory worker father. She attended college at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri...
- Safety Instructor - Paul ReubensPaul ReubensPaul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
- Captain RX-24, a.k.a Rex (voice) - Steve Gawley - cameo as Red Leader (onboard video)
Muren, Gawley, and Keeler are all Industrial Light & Magic special effects staff.
Ride system
Star Tours utilizes a hydraulic motion base cabinFlight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
featuring 4 degrees of freedom. The trade name for this simulator is Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator
Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator
The Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator, or ATLAS, is a large hydraulic motion simulator. It was designed, as the name implies, for the theme park industry. The ATLAS is a product of Rediffusion Simulation in Sussex, England, now owned by Thomson-CSF.The ATLAS was derived from...
, or ATLAS. The ATLAS was designed by Rediffusion Simulation in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, now owned by Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF was a major electronics and defence contractor. In December 2000 it was renamed Thales Group.-History:In 1879 Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company in the United States....
. The Rediffusion 'Leisure' simulator was originally developed for a much simpler show in Canada called "Tour of the Universe", where it featured a single entrance/exit door in the rear of the cabin and a video projector. The film is front-projected onto the screen from a 70 mm film
70 mm film
70mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge, with higher resolution than standard 35mm motion picture film format. As used in camera, the film is wide. For projection, the original 65mm film is printed on film. The additional 5mm are for magnetic strips holding four of the six tracks of sound...
projector located beneath the cockpit barrier. George Lucas has mentioned that the next generation of the attraction will feature digital high-definition video and motion bases capable of up to 6 degrees of freedom. The Disneyland original has four simulators, while the other versions have six.
"Last Tour To Endor"
On Saturday, August 14, 2010, Walt Disney World hosted "Last Tour To Endor" exclusively for Celebration VStar Wars Celebration
Star Wars Celebration is a fan gathering to celebrate the release of a Star Wars franchise movie. It all began in 1999, when Lucasfilm held the Star Wars Celebration in Denver, Colorado to celebrate the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace...
attendees at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 8pm to 1am. Entertainment features and events at "Last Tour To Endor" included George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, character appearances, Jedi Training Academy, Death Star Disco, Bespin Stage Dance Party, Raiders Of The Lost Jedi Temple of Doom: A Fan Film of Epic Proportions live show, Hyperspace Hoopla, Symphony in the Stars fireworks, and the Star Tours shutdown ceremony. The Star Tours shutdown ceremony was a live show with characters C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
, R2-D2
R2-D2
R2-D2 , is a character in the Star Wars universe. An astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character throughout all six Star Wars films. Along with his droid companion C-3PO, he joins or supports Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the saga...
, Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Boba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
, Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
and a few Stormtroopers, culminating in the official power-down of the original Disney World Star Tours attraction. However, instead of R2-D2 simply shutting it down, Boba Fett blows it up using a thermal detonator (achieved using pyrotechnics).
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
The attraction opened in Disney's Hollywood StudiosDisney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
on May 20, 2011 and replaced the original Star Tours: Tour of Endor. It features an updated ride system, which consists of a new high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
, a Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3-D
Disney Digital 3-D is a brand used by the Walt Disney Company to describe three-dimensional films made and released by the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and shown exclusively using digital projection....
high-definition
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
screen, an improved motion simulator
Motion simulator
A motion simulator or motion platform is a mechanism that encapsulates occupants and creates the effect/feelings of being in a moving vehicle...
and several newly added special effects.
In the original version, passengers rode in a vehicle named the "Starspeeder 3000". Since the new attraction is set before the original film, the new ride vehicle is referred to as a "Starspeeder 1000". The new vehicles are 'piloted' by an animatronic AC-38 droid, though during the show the controls are handed over to a new pilot, C-3PO
C-3PO
C-3PO is a robot character from the Star Wars universe who appears in both the original Star Wars films and the prequel trilogy. He is also a major character in the television show Droids, and appears frequently in the series' "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games...
.
See also
- Star Tours: The Adventure Continues
- List of current Disneyland attractions
- Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction and entertainment history
- List of amusement rides based on film franchises