Star Tours
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- "Star Tours announces the arrival of the Endor Exrpess, non-stop StarSpeeder service to the moon of Endor."
- ―Announcer
| Star Tours | |
 | |
| Disneyland | |
| Land | Tomorrowland |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering Inustrial Light & Magic |
| Attraction type | Flight simulator with Audio-Animatronics all synced to film |
| Soft opening date | December 1986 |
| Opening date | January 9, 1987 |
| Closing date | July 27, 2010 |
| Vehicle names | StarSpeeder 3000 |
| Vehicle capacity | 40 |
| Ride duration | 4:30 minutes |
| Replaced | Adventure Thru Inner Space |
| Replaced by | Star Tours: The Adventures Continue |
| Sponsored by | M&M's (1987-1995) Energizer |
| Star Tours | |
 | |
| Tokyo Disneyland | |
| Land | Tomorrowland |
| Opening date | July 12, 1989 |
| Closing date | April 2, 2012 |
| Vehicle names | StarSpeeder 3000 |
| Vehicle capacity | 40 |
| Ride duration | 4:30 minutes |
| Replacement | Star Tours: The Adventures Continue |
| Sponsored by | Panasonic (1989-2009) |
| Star Tours | |
 | |
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | |
| Land | Echo Lake |
| Opening date | December 15, 1989 |
| Closing date | September 7, 2010 |
| Replaced by | Star Tours: The Adventures Continue |
| Sponsored by | M&M's (1989-1995) Energizer (1995-2006) |
| Star Tours | |
 | |
| Disneyland Park (Paris) | |
| Land | Discoveryland |
| Opening date | April 12, 1992 |
| Vehicle names | StarSpeeder 3000 |
| Sponsored by | IBM (1992-2002) |
For the 2011 version of Star Tours, see Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. For the titular fictional company, see Star Tours (company).
Star Tours is a simulator attraction, based on the Star Wars media franchise, at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. This version of the attraction has since closed at its original home of Disneyland and at Disney's Hollywood Studios, but was replaced by Star Tours: The Adventures Continue at both parks in Spring 2011. It is themed as a galactic travel agency and spaceport that is employed with droids such as R2-D2 and C-3PO and that you are traveling to the Forest Moon of Endor. However, your inexperienced pilot, RX-24, ends up taking a journey through an asteroid field and a battle with the Death Star.
Although Star Tours may or may not be not be considered canon, its StarSpeeder 3000 is referenced in canon Star Wars works. In the PC game TIE Fighter, one ship appears on a certain level, and when the player identifies it, the ship is identified as "StarSpeeder 3000," LucasArts' tribute to the attraction. The StarSpeeder 3000 is also mentioned in the Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Specter of the Past and PC game Star Wars Galaxies.
Anthony Daniels reprises his role as C-3PO for this project. RX-24 is voiced by Paul Ruebens, a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman. (Ruebens also voiced a similar role—that is, a wacky alien pilot—in the Disney movie Flight of the Navigator in 1986.)
The ride premiered in Disneyland in 1987, in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. The ride was placed in Tomorrowland and had to be fit in between other attractions. It debuted at the Disney-MGM Studios in 1989, and was given a much more spacious venue, complete with a large AT-AT walker outside the ride entrance.
The soundtrack was remastered and remixed in 2004, and can be found on the CD A Musical History of Disneyland.
There is a similar attraction called StormRider in Tokyo Disneyland's sister park of Tokyo DisneySea.
Contents |
History
Edit
The ride that became Star Tours first saw light as a proposal for an attraction based on the 1979 Disney film The Black Hole. It would have been an interactive ride simulator attraction, where guests would have the ability to choose the ride car's route, but after premilinary planning, the Black Hole attraction was shelved due to its enormous cost - approximately US$50 million - as well as the unpopularity of the film itself.
But instead of completely dismissing the idea of a simulator attraction, the company decided to make use of a partnership between Disney and George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars franchise, that began in 1986 with the opening of a neighboring attraction, Captain EO in Disneyland. Disneyland then approached Lucas with the idea of Star Tours. With Lucas' approval, 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 effects technicians at Industrial Light & Magic produced the first-person perspective film that would be projected inside the simulators. When both the 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 the building and the entire Disneyland 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 opened for a special 60-hour marathon from January 9, 1987 at 10 am to January 11, 1987 at 10 pm.
CastEdit
(In order of appearance)
- Anthony Daniels as C-3PO (voice only, audio-animatronic in queue area, onboard video)
- Brian Cumming as the Vid-Screen Announcer (voice only, planetary destinations)
- Jenifer Lewis as the Safety Instructor
- Paul Reubens as Captain RX-24, aka Rex (voice only)
- Steve Gawley as the Red Leader (cameo, onboard video)
All our uncredited
Muren, Gawley, and Keeler are all Industrial Light & Magic special effects staff.
Star Tours sequelEdit
- Main article: Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Added by Lyght
At the inaugural D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, on September 12, 2009, Jay Rasulo and Darth Vader announced that Disneyland's Star Tours attraction would be closing in October 2010 to make way for an updated version, which will open in 2011. Tatooine was announced as one of the new destinations in Star Tours II, with footage released of the StarSpeeder 1000 speeding through a podrace.
The original Star Tours attraction at Disneyland saw its final day of operation on July 26, 2010, and Star Tours: The Adventure Continues is now open in its place. The Disney's Hollywood Studios version of the attraction closed on September 8, 2010, now updated to Star Tours II.
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue officially opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios on May 20, 2011 and at Disneyland two weeks later, on June 3.
Tokyo Disneyland closed their Star Tours on April 2, 2012 and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue for Tokyo Disneyland will open in Spring 2013.
Disneyland Paris has no plans of closing their Star Tours and changing it to its sequel.
NotesEdit
The week end Star Tours first opened, Disneyland gave all of its guests a digital watch. All guest were also given a wristband that would let them come back to Disneyland the next day for free.
GalleryEdit
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