Star Tours (real-world)

Star Tours, advertised as "The Ultimate Star Wars Adventure!," places guests in the role of space tourists traveling to the Forest Moon of Endor via the "Star Tours" travel agency. This concept is emphasized in the ride queue, and the interior waiting area is convincingly designed to resemble a spaceship boarding terminal. This area features Audio-Animatronic characters that appear to interact with the guests, including Mon Calamari technicians and versions of C-3PO and R2-D2, as well as a life-size model of the StarSpeeder 3000, the "starship" that guests board. The C-3PO and R2-D2 figures in the Disneyland park are actual props from the original film trilogy, modified for Audio-Animatronics operation.

Once guests reach the front of the line, the ride operators guide them into one of the ride theaters. As the doors close, the ship's clumsy RX-24 pilot droid, known as "Rex" (voiced by Paul Reubens), talks to the guests about the trip as he prepares for takeoff. Everything seems fine until Rex makes a small error, sending the ship down the wrong tunnel and into a maintenance yard. The ship barely escapes into space before a large mechanical arm almost destroys it.

Once in space, the ship enters hyperspace, but Rex activates its hyperdrives too late to stop at the ship's intended destination. Instead, the ship gets trapped in a comet field. The ship becomes trapped inside a large comet and must navigate through a maze of passages and chambers. Just when the trouble seems to be over, the ship encounters a Star Destroyer and is caught in its tractor beam. However, a timely attack by a Rebel X-wing fighter destroys the tractor beam generator, allowing the ship to escape. Soon, the ship and its tourists find themselves assisting the Rebellion in a massive assault on the Death Star (the specific Death Star is not specified). Rex uses the StarSpeeder's lasers to destroy TIE/LN starfighters, while a Rebel destroys the Death Star in a similar manner to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. A final light-speed jump returns the StarSpeeder to its starting point, but not before it nearly collides with a fuel truck in the spaceport.

The concept for Star Tours began as a proposal for an attraction based on the 1979 Disney live-action film The Black Hole, which was a box office failure. It was envisioned as an interactive ride simulator where guests could choose the ride car's route. However, the Black Hole attraction was abandoned due to its high cost (around $50 million US) and the film's lack of popularity.

Disney Imagineers, with Disney's approval, purchased four large military flight simulators for $500,000 each and designed the ride structure. Meanwhile, Lucas and his special-effects team at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) created the first-person-perspective film that would be shown inside the simulators. Once the simulator and film were completed, a programmer manually synchronized the simulator's movement with the film using a joystick. On January 9, 1987, the ride opened to large crowds, many dressed as Star Wars characters, at a final cost of $32 million (almost twice the cost of building the entire park in 1955). To celebrate, Disneyland remained open for a special 60-hour marathon from 10:00 am on January 9, 1987, to 10:00 pm on January 11, 1987.

The flight-information board in the ride queue advertised future adventures to Hoth, Tatooine, and Dagobah and displayed the phrase "Soon Endor Won't Be The End-All." These details, particularly the tagline, were often mistaken for recent additions and used to support rumors of upcoming changes to the attraction, but they had been in place since Star Tours first opened.

At the Star Wars Celebration III in April 2005, Star Wars creator George Lucas confirmed that Star Tours: The Adventures Continue was being developed. This new ride is set between Episode III and Episode IV. The sequel features 54 different story combinations and visits to various planets from the entire film saga. The new ride system includes a 3D film and an improved motion simulator. The sequel opened on May 20, 2011, at Walt Disney World, on June 3 at Disneyland, on May 7, 2013, at Tokyo Disneyland, and in Paris on March 18, 2017.

• Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering, Industrial Light and Magic [1]
• Simulators: 4 (Disneyland) ; 6 (Disney Hollywood Studios, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris) [1]
• Guests per simulator: 40 [1]
• Height requirement: 40 inches (102 cm) [18]
• Sponsors: Disneyland: M&M's (1987–1995), Energizer (1995–2006) Tokyo Disneyland: Panasonic (1999–2009) Disneyland Paris: IBM (1992–2002) Walt Disney World: M&M's (1989–1995), Energizer (1995–2006)
• Show length: 4:30 [1]
• Ride system: Flight simulator with Audio-Animatronics, synced to film [1]

When the ride was launched, press kits for Star Tours were distributed. These kits contained interviews with George Lucas, Disney's Michael Eisner, and C-3PO. The video portion of the kit was approximately one hour long, with a significant portion dedicated to the ride's opening ceremony, which included actors dressed as Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Darth Vader dancing and performing scenes from the Star Wars films.

A TV special also aired around the time of the ride's opening. This program, titled George Lucas' Star Tours, was designed to promote the ride and aired in late 1986. It was hosted by Gil Gerard and Ernie Reyes Jr.. The show explored the making of Star Tours and the history of space travel and space-related films. Highlights included an opening segment with C-3PO and R2-D2 performing a rap song and a closing segment where Reyes boarded the StarSpeeder 3000, providing previews of the ride itself.

As part of the Star Tours experience, passengers exiting the StarSpeeder 3000 were directed to a store selling Star Wars and ride-related merchandise, such as action figures and clothing. At Disneyland, this store is The Star Trader. At Disney's Hollywood Studios, the store was originally called Endor Vendors and was themed after Endor, with a facade resembling the back door of the Endor shield generator bunker. Around the release of Episode I, the store was replaced by Tatooine Traders, themed to resemble the buildings of Mos Eisley and Mos Espa. Both stores offered exclusive merchandise sold only at Disney theme parks, including action figures of the droids from the ride and queue and StarSpeeder 3000 toys.

Initially, the specific date of the original Star Tours events was not provided. However, press materials at the time of the attraction's opening indicated it took place after Return of the Jedi, and C-3PO's dialogue mentioned his past visits to various planets, including his capture by the Ewoks. The Complete Guide to Star Tours booklet, available at Tokyo Disneyland, further confirmed this setting.

The inclusion of an attack on the Death Star, with a trench run similar to that in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, led some to question the ride's canonicity within the Star Wars universe. Although early press materials suggested the space station was a new Death Star appearing after Return of the Jedi, no subsequent sources provided an explanation for this station for many years.

In 2005, Lucasfilm's Leland Chee first used the term "Death Star III" in a blog post, placing its destruction a few months after the Battle of Endor. This was later confirmed as canon in the article Convenient Daily Departures: The History of Star Tours on StarWars.com, although no explanation was given for the station. The article also set the events of the ride during the Nagai–Tof War, which occurred months after Return of the Jedi in the Marvel Star Wars comic series. Some fans speculated that the Death Star could have been a modification of one of the habitation spheres under construction over Coruscant. This was later confirmed in Supreme Commander Ennix Devian's entry for the second part of the blog series The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire.

As with all material released before April 25, 2014, questions of canonicity regarding Star Tours only apply to the continuity of the Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends, and its story is considered entirely non-canon within the current continuity.

The Expanded Universe (now known as Legends) included several references to the fictional travel agency and its ships:

• Several aliens from the Star Wars theatrical films and offshoot productions appear in the opening safety video: Some Mon Calamari , a Gran , a Wookiee (a Chewbacca costume), and Teek from Ewoks: The Battle for Endor .
• In the PC game TIE Fighter , the first TIE Interceptor historical mission identifies a Lambda-class shuttle as " StarTour 7 ," with its cargo listed as "Tourists." [30]
• The StarSpeeder 3000 is mentioned in the novel Specter of the Past . [31]
• The article Endor and the Moddell Sector in Star Wars Gamer 9 explains that a short-lived travel agency offered trips to Endor before accidents and mismanagement drove them out of business. It suggests that these trips occurred in the New Republic era and includes an illustration of a StarSpeeder 3000 at a landing site on Endor. [32]
• In the Star Wars Galaxies game, players discover the crash site of the Star Tours ship Tzarina on Dathomir, attributed to an incompetent droid captain who got too close to what sounds like the Battle of Yavin . [33]
• The ride's G2 repair droids are featured in The New Essential Guide to Droids [34] and mentioned in the novel Specter of the Past . [31]

• " Lightsaber Lost ," an episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, features a holographic advertisement from Star Tours promoting travel to Glee Anselm . [35]
• " Droids in Distress ," an episode of the Star Wars Rebels animated series, features the heroes traveling in a civilian transport vessel similar to the StarSpeeder 3000, piloted by a droid of the same name and design as RX-24 ; Paul Reubens reprised his role as the voice of Rex. [36]
• Oga's Cantina , a dining establishment and attraction at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, features Rex, now reprogrammed to be a DJ and renamed R-3X . [37] The canon version of Rex also piloted a StarSpeeder 3000 for Star Tours at some point. [38]

Many of the background characters in the pre-flight videos and the ride film are played by ILM employees who worked on the attraction. In the pre-ride video, modelmaker Bill Beck is a technician conducting the final pre-flight inspection of the StarSpeeder.

Visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren, camera operator Selwyn Eddy, and modelmaker Claudia Mullaly appear at the beginning of the ride as crew members in the starport's maintenance area when RX-24 nearly crashes the ship into their office, causing them to dive behind a desk for cover. Another worker seen ducking behind a desk before Rex crashes into a fuel truck near the end of the ride was played by modelmaker Ira Keeler (the character was previously misidentified as George Lucas).

The more prominent character of X-wing pilot Red Leader, who shouts a warning to the speeder on the in-cabin video screen, was played by model shop supervisor Steve Gawley.

• Several inside jokes can be heard over the public-address system in the ride's queue: [40] The announcer calls out for an illegally parked speeder with license number THX 1138, the name of George Lucas's first studio film. The announcer pages a "Mr. Egroeg Sacul," which is "George Lucas" spelled backward. A voice mentions a message for "Mr. Tom Morrow," a character from Disneyland's former Flight to the Moon attraction who later became a separate character for Innoventions at Epcot and Disneyland Park in 1998.
• The StarSpeeder 3000 has several blast marks, one of which resembles a Hidden Mickey .
• The G2 repair droids in the queue line are actually the skeletons of Audio-Animatronic geese from the old Disneyland show, America Sings . They were removed from the show during its final two years. [1] The droids can be heard singing "I've been working on the same droid, all the live-long day," a reference to the geese singing " I've Been Working on the Railroad " during America Sings . The New Essential Guide to Droids nicknamed the G2s "Goose droids" in reference to this show. [40]
• In the queue, a model of Kermit the Frog made from spare parts can be seen when you reach the overhead conveyor belt. [41]
• The baskets of parts in the Droidnostics Center in the ride queue at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios contain hidden initials and birth dates of Walt Disney Imagineering and ILM team members who worked on the attraction. [41]
• The woman sitting next to Teek in the preshow video is wearing a cast member costume for EPCOT Computer Central, an attraction formerly located in Epcot's CommuniCore pavilion. [42]
• The exit of the Tokyo Disneyland version features a " Tourscan " kiosk that uses footage from the multiple endings of the discontinued Epcot attraction Horizons to depict other Star Tours excursions. The sets for the endings footage, and therefore the locales featured at the exit, were developed by David Jones , who also did special-effects work for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope . [43]
• One of the droids, DL-X2 , was a modified version of an Imagineer-developed prop for the robot TK4600 from the NBC police drama series Hill Street Blues . [44]

• At Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Star Tours replaced an attraction called Adventure Thru Inner Space , where guests were supposedly shrunk to microscopic size. The Mighty Microscope from the old ride can be seen exiting the first scene during the Star Tours film. [1]
• A bright red tag that says "Remove before Flight" is attached to Captain Rex's torso. This tag is a reference to similar labels placed on some aircraft parts. [40]
• Rex says he " has a very bad feeling about this " when the ship flies into one of the comets. This is a running gag in the Star Wars films.
• Rex is voiced by Paul Reubens , famous for playing Pee-wee Herman . Despite rumors that Reubens' voice was replaced after his 1991 or 2002 arrests, this did not happen. [1] One of the droids in the queue says, "You got a camera. Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer!," which is a Paul Reubens quote.
• During the ride, Rex says "I've always wanted to do this!" In " One Last Night in the Mos Eisley Cantina: The Tale of the Wolfman and the Lamproid ," Lak Sivrak hears a droid announce it had "always wanted to do this" during the Battle of Endor . [45]