Star Tours was a

motion simulator A motion simulator or motion platform is a mechanism that creates the feelings of being in a real motion environment. In a simulator, the movement is synchronised with a visual display of the outside world (OTW) scene. Motion platforms can provi ...

attraction at several

Disney theme parks Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Inc., formerly Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's five major business segments and a subsidiary. It was founded on Apri ...

, based on the successful ''Star Wars'' film series created by

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...

. Set in the ''Star Wars'' universe, the attraction sent guests on an

excursion An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes. Public transportation ...

trip to

Endor Endor or Ein Dor may refer to: Places * Endor (village), from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite village where the Witch of Endor lived * Indur, a Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war * Ein Dor, a Kibbutz in modern Israel F ...

, 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 R2-D2 () or Artoo-Detoo is a fictional robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical ''Star Wars'' films to date. At various points throughout the course of the films, R2, ...

and

C-3PO C-3PO () or See-Threepio is a humanoid robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise who appears in the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Built by Anakin Skywalker, was designed as a protocol droid intended to assis ...

. At its debut at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, 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. Disney in ...

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

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. The first incarnation of the ride appeared in

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...

at Disneyland in 1987, replacing the previous attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space. The attraction had subsequent openings at

Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') 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 Disney park to ...

Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...

, and

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...

. 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 ''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnin ...

''. 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 known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

, the creator of ''Star Wars'', that began in 1986 with the opening of ''

Captain EO ''Captain EO'' is a 1986 American 3D science fiction short film shown at Disney theme parks from 1986 through 1998. The movie stars Michael Jackson, was written by George Lucas, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who came up with the name "C ...

'' (a 3-D

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the 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 serve merely as breaks ...

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 one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

) at the California park. Disney then approached Lucas with the idea for ''Star Tours''. With Lucas's approval, Disney

Imagineers Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney Parks, Experiences an ...

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 SFX, 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 imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s technicians at

Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...

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

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

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,

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

, 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

Boba Fett Boba Fett ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. First appearing in the ''Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel fi ...

Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...

, 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 Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

en route to the Forest Moon of Endor, the site of the climactic battle of ''

Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...

'', 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 Audio-Animatronics (also known as simply Animatronics, and sometimes shortened to AAs) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequent ...

characters that seemed to speak to the ride patrons (including

and

), as well as a life-size mock-up of a StarSpeeder 3000, the fictional

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

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 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. 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 closed, the bumbling

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

droid of the ship, RX-24 or Rex (voiced by

Paul Reubens Paul Reubens (; born Rubenfeld; August 27, 1952) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and children's entertainer. He is known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s, an ...

), 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, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

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 Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Star Destroyers were produced by Kuat Drive Yards, later Kuat-Entralla Engineering, and serve as "the signature vessel of the fleet" for the Galactic Republic, Galactic Em ...

of the Imperial remnant. The starspeeder gets caught in its

tractor beam A tractor-beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor-beam") in his novel ''Spacehounds of IPC'' (19 ...

, but manages to get loose when a New Republic

X-wing The X-wing starfighter is a name applied to a family of fictional spacecraft manufactured by the Incom Corporation from the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Named for the distinctive shape made when its s-foils (wings) are in attack position, the X-win ...

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 ''Star Wars'' has been expanded to media other than the original films. This spin-off material is licensed and moderated by Lucasfilm, though during his involvement with the franchise ''Star Wars'' creator George Lucas reserved the right to bot ...

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 fighter The Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter is a series of fictional starfighters featured in the '' Star Wars'' universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire and b ...

s while a Republic pilot destroys the death star in the same manner as

Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The ...

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 Anthony Daniels ( ; born 21 February 1946) is an English actor and mime artist, best known for playing in 10 '' Star Wars'' films. He is the only actor to have either appeared in or been involved with all theatrical films in the series, and ...

–

(voice and action) *

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

–

– Captain RX-24, a.k.a. Rex (voice) *

Brian Cummings Brian Douglas Cummings (born March 4, 1948) is an American voice actor, 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 ...

– Vid-Screen Announcer (planetary destinations) (voice) *Stephanie Taylor – Safety Instructor * Steve Gawley – cameo as Red Leader (onboard video) *

Warwick Davis Warwick Ashley Davis (born 3 February 1970) is an English actor. He played the title character in ''Willow'' (1988) and the ''Leprechaun'' film series (1993–2003), several characters in the ''Star Wars'' film series (1983–2019), most nota ...

– cameo as

Wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

the

Ewok The Ewoks (singular: Ewok) are a fictional species There are a number of lists of fictional species: Extraterrestrial *List of fictional extraterrestrials (by media type) *Lists of fictional alien species: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, ...

Japanese dub

Yūji Mitsuya (born October 18, 1954) is a Japanese actor, voice actor, director of audiography, voice director and sound supervisor from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture who is affiliated with Combination. He graduated from Meiji University. He is best known for ...

– 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 ''Flight of the Navigator'' is a 1986 American science fiction adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton, and Matt MacManus. It stars Joey Cramer as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by ...

'' (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 Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

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

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, now owned by

Thales Training & Simulation Thales Training & Simulation Ltd. is a multinational company which manufactures simulators, including full flight simulators and military simulators, and provides related training and support services. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Th ...

(ex-

Thomson-CSF Thomson-CSF was a French company that specialized in the development and manufacture of electronics with a heavy focus upon the aerospace and defence sectors of the market. Thomson-CSF was formed in 1968 following the merger of Thomson-Houst ...

). 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 70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is wid ...

projector located beneath the cockpit barrier. The

original had four simulators, while the

, and

versions each had six motion bases.

Successor

The successor attraction, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, opened in

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 High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines (No ...

, a

Dolby 3D Dolby 3D (formerly known as Dolby 3D Digital Cinema) is a marketing name for a system from Dolby Laboratories, Inc. to show three-dimensional motion pictures in a digital cinema. Technology Dolby 3D uses a Dolby Digital Cinema projector that ...

high-definition screen, improved

s, and several new special effects and

Audio-animatronics Audio-Animatronics (also known as simply Animatronics, and sometimes shortened to AAs) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subse ...

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

Revenge of the Sith Revenge is committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of "wild justice" that "does... offend the law ndputteth the law out of office." Pr ...

'' and '' A New Hope'') and is piloted by

. 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 Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

and set roughly 3 decades after the events of the original Star Tours.

Gallery

File:Star_Tours_Cueue.jpg, An

Audio-animatronic Audio-Animatronics (also known as simply Animatronics, and sometimes shortened to AAs) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequent ...

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 agencies Lucasfilm films Simulator rides Star Tours Tokyo Disneyland Tomorrowland Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Walt Disney Parks and Resorts films Fictional airlines 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