Star Tours

In an effort to update their image, the Disney Theme Parks, with permission from George Lucas, produced the world's first motion simulator ride, Star Tours, which has been often copied, but never topped.

As opposed to a ride that goes somewhere or follows a track, Star Tours is a small theater that is bounced and jostled around in synch with a P.O.V. special effects film made by ILM where the craft flies through maintenance bays, meteors, and the famous death star trench. The effect is far more believable than it sounds.

The story is that guests are a commercial spaceport, boarding a flight to the moons of Endor, the que goes past several robots, including R2-D2 and C3-P0, repairing one of the shuttles.

The Shuttle is piloted by a first-time pilot robot, Rex who is physically there in front of the screen/window. The ship takes off to a rocky start, taking a wrong turn at the launch tunnels and flying through the maintenance bay, followed by light speed and a detour through a crystalline meteor shower. Then the craft stumbles into the middle of a battle between the Empire and the Rebellion, including Star Destroyers and the trench flight of the Death Star, then quickly returns home so the guests can be herded into the nearest souvenir shop to buy things.

It's a great ride, I'll give you that. It truly invokes the trench-run from "Star Wars: Episode IV" very vividly, and it causes the old feelings of nostalgia to rise up. But seriously Mr. Lucas, the technology is coming into it's 15th year. Being in how everything in Disneyland is evolving so rapidly, would it be so hard just to sink a million bucks into a new 15 minute real with updated special FX?

Well, without the flight simulator cabin (at EuroDisney), this might not be as good - as it is, it's kind of like being in one of the battles in Star Wars. Can't comment on the dialogue, it was in French, but it's worth seeing if you happen to be there.

I grew up near Disneyland and let me tell you, Star Tours is fantastic. What an adventure, from the moment you step into the building until the moment you leave. I am, of course, a Star Wars fan as well, and it really helped in feeding my "addiction," if you will. :D I think my favorite part of the thing was the little worker droid that talked to you while you waited. Oh, man: when I went to Disneyland one day when I was six, I wore my new Little Mermaid socks (SOCKS, people, yes) and this little droid commented on them. "Hey, I like your socks." Honest to GOD, I am serious. Someone must have been in a room off somewhere with a camera hooked up to the droid's eyes, but either way, it was the greatest thing any kid could go through, I just remember everyone smiling at me and laughing, and I felt like the coolest kid out there. Go on this ride, gosh darn it. :D You won't regret it!

Star Tours (1987, D: Richard Edlund) A fantastic ride which seems to be just as good every time. The ride does age, as does everything and could do with an upgrade. The projection system for instance is currently a Laserdisc based unit through an LCD system. It needs to be upgraded! But the ride in itself is just as great as ever. The ride is placed in all Disneyland parks, you cannot go to any of them without going on this ride!