The Adventure Has Continued for 25 Years

Twenty-five years ago today, Star Tours, a collaboration between George Lucas and the Disney Imagineers opened for business at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

The ride vehicle, a Starspeeder 3000, was a cutting edge simulator meant to take "passengers" on a journey to Endor. Unfortunately, hijinks ensued as the bumbling rookie pilot- your captain, Rex, voiced by Paul Reubens- came out of hyperspace too late and took the ship through a comet and inadvertently participated in the destruction of the first Death Star. The motion on the screen matched the motion of the seats so jostled park attendees got the feeling they had physically entered the world of Star Wars.

Star Tours became one of the park's most popular attractions so the mission to spread it to other parks began. In July of 1989 a second Star Tours debuted at Tokyo Disneyland and later that year Star Tours was opened at the fledgling Disney MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Orlando. In 1992 a fourth came to Disneyland Park in Paris.

A Starspeeder 3000 at Disneyland Tokyo

Rumors of an update to the attraction began going public in the late 90s as the film seen in the Starspeeder that had been state of the art in 1987 looked increasingly dated. As Star Wars: Episode I came to theaters there was hope that a podrace might be the setting for a new version of the ride. Star Tours remained a top attraction at each park so Disney executives decided to leave well enough alone and didn't fully commit to any change for almost a decade.

The end of an era

This finally changed in 2010 and the event was commemorated in Florida during Star Wars Celebration V at The Last Tour of Endor. Between July and September Star Tours in California and Florida were closed to begin a complete renovation of each attraction.

The new Starspeeder 1000

The ante was upped this time around and when Star Tours: The Adventure Continues opened at both parks last May it featured different destinations and segments that could take each group of guests on one of 54 different combinations, all in 3D with upgraded motion simulation.

The original Star Tours is slated to be be updated in Tokyo later this year with Disneyland Paris following eventually.

Star Tours Opened 24 Years Ago

Just down the road from most of us is a boarded off ride area in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Early this Summer, most likely May 17th at Star Wars Weekends 2011, it will emerge as Star Tours II. Twenty four years ago today, the original Star Tours opened to the public in Anaheim.

The Disney collaboration began when George Lucas and Disney produced the 3-D space-fantasy featurette Captain EO starring Michael Jackson, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Walt Disney Imagineering's concept designer Tony Baxter said in a 2004 interview with Lucasfilm's Bonnie Burton, "Star Tours evolved from the first presentation we gave to George of a possible ride that was a little more complicated than our average attraction -- you could go every which way and choose the direction," Baxter recalls. "George said, 'Well that's great, but what can we do to get something going right now?' So we looked around and found this fantastic device that was being used at the Air Force and the government to simulate excursions into space. We thought it was a natural fit. We combined the space of fantasy that George had created with real world technology, and we ended up with an attraction that would give the general public a brand new experience."

This led to the development of a state of the art simulator in Tomorrowland- the original Star Tours. After an opening that lasted 60 hours (10am January 9 to 10pm January 11, 1987) the ride became one of the biggest attractions at Disneyland, eventually being reproduced at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland.

photo by Dave Cobb