Star Tours was a motion simulator attraction at several Disney theme parks, based on the successful ''Star Wars'' film series created by George Lucas. Set in the ''Star Wars'' universe, the attraction sent guests on an excursion trip to Endor, whilst being caught in an altercation between the New Republic and an Imperial Remnant. The attraction featured Captain "Rex" RX-24 along with series regulars R2-D2 and C-3PO. At its debut at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

in 1987, it was the first attraction based originally on a non-Disney

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. The first incarnation of the ride appeared in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in 1987, replacing the previous attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space. The attraction had subsequent openings at

Tokyo Disneyland is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney park t ...

, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France, located about east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, seven Disney-owned hotels, two convention centers, a golf course, an arena, and a shopping, dining and entert ...

. The attraction at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios closed in 2010 to allow conversion for its successor attraction, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. The latter location was completed on May 20, 2011. Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris closed their versions for conversion in 2012 and 2016, marking the original ride's final run of 29 years.

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 Hole''. It would have been an interactive ride-simulator attraction where guests would have had the ability to choose the route. However, after preliminary planning, the ''Black Hole'' attraction was shelved due to its enormous cost as well as the unpopularity of the film itself. Instead of completely dismissing the idea of a simulator, the company decided to make use of a partnership between

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

and George Lucas, the creator of ''Star Wars'', that began in 1986 with the opening of '' Captain EO'' (a 3-D

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

starring

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

) at the California park. Disney then approached Lucas with the idea for ''Star Tours''. With Lucas's 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 Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

s technicians at

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...

produced the first-person perspective film that would be projected inside the simulators. When both simulator and film were completed, a

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

then sat inside and used a joystick to synchronize the movement of the simulator with the apparent movement on screen. On January 9, 1987, at a final cost of $32 million, 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 60-hour marathon from January 9 at 10 a.m. to January 11 at 10 p.m.

Closing

On August 14, 2010, Disney's Hollywood Studios hosted the "Last Tour To Endor" event exclusively for Celebration V 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 destroyed the ride's power supply using a thermal detonator (achieved using pyrotechnics). The ride was still open after the shutdown ceremony until September 7, 2010, when the attraction held its "Final Flight to Endor" exclusive to D23 members.

Attraction

Advertised as "The Ultimate ''Star Wars'' Adventure!", Star Tours puts the guest in the role of a space tourist en route to the

Forest Moon of Endor Endor (designated: IX3244-A) is a fictional moon in the ''Star Wars'' universe, known for its endless forests, savannahs, grasslands, mountain ranges, and a few oceans. The moon was the site of a pivotal battle depicted in '' Return of the Jedi ...

, the site of the climactic battle of '' Return of the Jedi'', via the Star Tours travel agency. Much was made of this throughout the ride queue, which was designed to look like a spaceship boarding terminal: posters advertised voyages to different planets, and a giant screen informed riders of the benefits of going to Endor. This area was stocked with Audio-Animatronic characters that seemed 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 A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

which riders were about to board. According to the book ''Disneyland Detective'' by Kendra Trahan, the figures of C-3PO and R2-D2 in the Disneyland attraction were actual props from the original trilogy, 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. A ride attendant escorts guests to one of several loading stations where they wait for their turn to ride. A television screen above the queue displays 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 the several starspeeder cabins. As the doors close, the bumbling

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

droid of the ship, RX-24 or Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens), appears on the side screen and chats to the guests about the trip as R2-D2 is loaded onto the spacecraft. Rex lowers the cockpit shield, and the hangar crew activate the flight platform. All goes well until a slight mistake on Captain Rex's part sends the starspeeder crashing into the maintenance bay doors and plummeting into the maintenance yard. They barely crash into the control room and nearly collide with a giant mechanical arm. Once in space, Rex asks R2-D2 to make the jump to lightspeed. However, the ship accidentally passes the Endor moon and instead gets caught inside a

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

cluster. The ship gets hit by several comets before getting trapped in one of the larger comets. The StarSpeeder weaves its way through the comet and escapes by crashing through one of the walls. Upon escaping the comet, however, the ship encounters a Star Destroyer of the Imperial remnant. The StarSpeeder gets caught in its

tractor beam A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonl ...

, but manages to get loose when a New Republic X-wing fighter provides assistance by destroying the tractor beam generator. Soon the StarSpeeder accompanies the Republic fleet on an assault on the Death Star III (later revealed by Leland Chee in 2013 to be a habitation sphere disguised as a Death Star in a plot by an Imperial warlord to distract the New Republic). Rex uses the StarSpeeder's lasers to eliminate several TIE fighters while a Republic pilot destroys the Death Star in the same manner as Luke Skywalker by firing two proton torpedoes into the exhaust port. The X-wings jump to lightspeed as the Death Star explodes, and a final lightspeed jump sends the StarSpeeder back to the spaceport, nearly colliding with a fuel truck in the hangar and sending a Star Tours employee ducking under his desk. As the cockpit shield raises and cuts off Rex as he apologizes for the near-fatal flight, C-3PO instructs the passengers on the exit procedure and thanks them, oblivious to the perils they had faced. The exit doors opposite the entrance then open and the passengers proceed across another set of bridges into the exit hall towards the Star Trader gift shop.

Cast

English

* Anthony Daniels – C-3PO (voice and action) *

Ben Burtt Benjamin Burtt Jr. (born July 12, 1948) is an American sound designer, film director, film editor, screenwriter, and voice actor. As a sound designer, his credits include the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' film series, '' Invasion of the ...

– R2-D2 * Paul Reubens – Captain RX-24, a.k.a. Rex (voice) * Brian Cummings – Vid-Screen Announcer (planetary destinations) (voice) *Stephanie Taylor – Safety Instructor * Steve Gawley – cameo as Red Leader (onboard video) * Warwick Davis – cameo as

Wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

the

Ewok The Ewoks (singular: Ewok) are a fictional species of small, furry, mammaloid, bipeds in the ''Star Wars'' universe. They inhabit the forest moon of Endor and live in arboreal huts and other simple dwellings, being seen as primitive in com ...

Japanese dub

* Yūji Mitsuya – Captain RX-24, a.k.a. Rex (voice)

French dub

* Anthony Daniels – C-3PO * Luq Hamet – voice of Captain RX-24 (Rex) Muren, Gawley, and Keeler were all

computer animation staff. One year earlier, Reubens had voiced the shipboard computer in the Disney film '' Flight of the Navigator'' (credited as Paul Mall), in which his character was named Max. Reubens credited this role with his being cast for the ride.

Ride system

Star Tours utilized hydraulic motion base cabins featuring six degrees of freedom, including the ability to move 35 degrees in the X-Y-Z plane. The simulator was patented as Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator (ATLAS), originally designed by Rediffusion Simulation in

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, now owned by Thales Training & Simulation (ex- 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 was front-projected onto the screen from a 70 mm film projector located beneath the cockpit barrier. The

original had four simulators, while the

, and Disney's Hollywood Studios versions each had six motion bases.

Successor

The successor attraction, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, opened in Disney's Hollywood Studios on May 20, 2011, and at

on June 3, 2011, replacing the parks' original Star Tours attractions. It features an updated ride system, consisting of a new high-definition video, a Dolby 3D high-definition screen, improved motion simulators, and several new special effects and

Audio-animatronics Audio-Animatronics (also known simply as AAs) are a form of Mechatronics, mechatronic animatronics puppetry created by Walt Disney Imagineering and Trademark, trademarked by The Walt Disney Company for use in designed shows and attractions at Disn ...

. The attraction is set at an earlier point in the ''Star Wars'' timeline (between ''

Revenge of the Sith Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...

'' and '' A New Hope'') and is piloted by C-3PO. Rex appears as a newly-delivered droid in the queue of The Adventures Continue, and as the house DJ of Oga's Cantina in ''Star Wars'': Galaxy's Edge, with the latter considered official ''Star Wars'' canon and set roughly 3 decades after the events of the original Star Tours. An episode of "The Mandalorian," a Star Wars series featured on the Disney+ streaming platform, featured a group of RX-series Droids.

Gallery

File:Star Tours Queue.jpg, An Audio-animatronic Mon Calamari can be seen in the control booth. File:Star_Tours_Queue_Line_facing_Starspeeder.jpg, The queue showing the Starspeeder 3000 File:Star_Tours_Loading_Area.jpg, Loading Area File:MGM - Star Tours.jpg, Disney's Hollywood Studios' entrance File:StarToursEntrance98 wb.jpg, Disneyland's entrance in 1998 after the Tomorrowland makeover File:StarToursEntrance96 wb.jpg, Disneyland's entrance in 1996 before Tomorrowland makeover File:Tomorrowland TDL.jpg, Tokyo Disneyland's entrance

References

External links

Disneyland: Star ToursWalt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios: Star Tours
*
EndorExpress.net (formerly SWStarTours.net) a comprehensive Star Tours siteFlash recreation of the ride
{{Lucasfilm 1987 films 1987 short films Amusement rides based on film franchises Amusement rides introduced in 1987 Amusement rides introduced in 1989 Amusement rides introduced in 1992 Amusement rides that closed in 2010 Amusement rides that closed in 2012 Amusement rides that closed in 2016 Amusement rides manufactured by Rediffusion Simulation Audio-Animatronic attractions Disney's Hollywood Studios Disneyland Disneyland Park (Paris) Echo Lake (Disney) Fictional companies Lucasfilm films Simulator rides Star Tours Tokyo Disneyland Tomorrowland (Disney Parks) Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Walt Disney Parks and Resorts films Fictional airlines Outer space in amusement parks 1987 establishments in California 1989 establishments in Japan 1989 establishments in Florida 1992 establishments in France Attractions based on Star Wars 1980s American films