May Le Force Be with Vous
Elsewhere in Discoveryland, we're presented a vision of the future by George Lucas with Star Tours. An X-wing fighter is poised for take-off just outside the Starport, where a fleet of Starspeeder3000s await to take us anywhere in the galaxy.
The detailing around the entrance to the Starport is straight out of the Star Wars universe, specifically the original trilogy (the onlyStar Wars films there were when this attraction was built back in '92). From the "used technology" look of the signs and columns to the Jabba's barge-like sails shading the Fastpass distribution area, an atmosphere is created that transports you to that galaxy far, far away.
Here in Disneyland Paris, it's not just the film references that are original. The attraction itself is the original version of Star Tours, with Captain Rex in the cockpit for your trip to the moon of Endor. While the U.S. Disney Parks updated their Star Tours attractions in the past year, the international parks have not yet taken that step.
Once inside the Starport, there are unique elements only found in Paris, such as the planetary chart (above). There are also plenty of familiar sights, like the StarSpeeder maintenance bay with C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels speaking French) and R2-D2, hard at work on a heavily battle-scarred ship (In Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, this scene features an earlier-generationStarSpeeder 1000 in brand new condition).
Next up is the Droidnostics Center, a robot repair room where the baggage services scene is found in the newer versions of the attraction. Look closely amongst the junk these droids are sorting through, and you may spot some remnants of Imperial Speeder Bikes, actual movie props from Return of the Jedi.
Next, it's "Welcome aboard," and we're on our way to the Endormoon without any further delay.
Okay... with Rex at the controls, things do go "horribly wrong," but we soon find ourselves docked at L'Astroport: ServicesInterstellaires. This interplanetary rest stop serves as a post-show of sorts to the Star Tours experience.
You're welcomed at the information booth by RXN. You can call her Roxanne. She invites everyone to stay a while, offering tips on what to do during your visit. In all honesty, there's not much to do here. Beyond these details, L'Astroport is a fairly standard video game arcade.
One last fun thing to look for on your way out, though, is cases like this. Looks like someone's luggage from our flight that maybe fell out of the ship's hold during battle!
No Foolin'
Today is Friday, April 1 - April Fool's Day - a day when many a Disney website or blog runs phony stories about developments in and around the Walt Disney Company. Well... I won't be doing that. Instead, I present to you this week's final series of vintage Disney Parks photos. Each tells a story that, if not for the photographic evidence, might seem just as far fetched as an actual April Fool's Day prank. Enjoy.
Epcot replaces Disney Characters with
Larger-than-Life People of the World
When EPCOT Center opened in 1982, it was the first Disney Park designed outside the Disneyland mold. To help further differentiate the park from the Magic Kingdom, it was decided the traditional Disney characters would not appear in EPCOT Center (it was actually this decision that led to the first wide-spread use of "Hidden Mickeys"). Instead, the new park would feature a cast of characters all its own, from Dreamfinder and Figment in Future World to the People of the World in World Showcase. These oversize, doll-headed characters were adapted from America on Parade, which ran at the Magic Kingdom in the mid-70s. Brought to EPCOT Center, they were dressed in international costumes and set out to pose with guests around the World Showcase Lagoon. It wasn't long, though, before visitors to the park expressed their expectation that Mickey and friends would be on hand, and the People of the World were retired in favor of the Fab Five in "futuristic" silver jumpsuits.
"Three Little Pigs" Musical Added in Expansion
of Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom Park
As part of an early effort to add extra offerings to the Magic Kingdom (significantly more modest than the current park expansion), the Fantasy Faire Stage was created in the back ofFantasyland to host musical performances starring popular Disney characters. Various shows telling stories ranging from "Winnie the Pooh" to the "Three Little Pigs" graced the stage over the years. Even as recently as the mid-90s, this spot was home to Disney Magic Music Days guest performers and Miss Minnie's Country Christmas during holiday events. The Fantasy Faire Stage closed for good in 1996, to be replaced by Ariel's Grotto, and the site is now being transformed once again into part of Belle's village for New Fantasyland.
You're not seeing things. This is the dry riverbed of the Rivers of America in Frontierland at Disneyland, with the guide rail for theColumbia and Mark Twain visible on the ground. This level of refurbishment on the park's main river has only been undertaken a handful of times. This particular photograph is from early-1992, when the original infrastructure was added for a new Disneyland nighttime spectacular set to debut that spring - Fantasmic!
In the early years of the Walt Disney World Resort, when the Magic Kingdom was the only park to visit, guests crossing Seven Seas Lagoon were often treated to surprise appearances by the Disney characters. Favorites like Goofy and Mr. Smee could be seen water skiing alongside the ferries on their way to the park. More than just entertainment value, these stunts also served as a promotion of sorts of the resort's varied recreation offerings, something new that had never been available at Disneyland.
It's true! Full disclosure, though: The cantina structure was temporary, only built for the official grand opening ceremonies for Star Tours held on January 14, 1990. Look closely at the photo, and you can see the band playing (that's Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes for you die-hard Star Wars fans out there). Michael Eisner and George Lucas presided over the day's events. Star Warsstars Mark Hammill and Carrie Fisher were also in attendance. Even though Darth Vader and his Imperial Guard made an appearance atop the attraction building to try and stop the proceedings, everything opened according to plan. Now, twenty-one years later, we await the debut of the next chapter with Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, opening May 20.
The Future Has Arrived
Over the years, Tomorrowland has seen more change than any other land in a Disney Park. When the original opened with Disneyland in the '50s, it was intended to represent the world of 1986, when Halley's Comet would next return. It was a time when satellites were new, man had not yet travelled in space or landed on the moon, and home computers were the stuff of fantasy.
Today, the future has arrived. At the dawn of 2011, we may not have flying cars or colonies on Mars, but we carry sophisticated touch-screen computers in our pockets and watch wafer-thin televisions that hang on the wall. With the rapid advance of technology, Tomorrowland has had to adapt. The science-factual futurism of Tomorrowland past always ended up feeling dated, so Imagineers have transitioned the storytelling in the land more toward science fiction.
This shift began back in 1987 with the debut of Star Tours. To help the characters and settings of that galaxy far, far away fit into the land, the attraction was positioned as an intergalactic journey originating from a Tomorrowland spaceport. Storytelling details helped support this idea: "Gates," "Terminal," Baggage Claim signs at the exit, the Flight Attendant delivering the safety information.
In the more than two decades since the opening of Star Tours, nearly all of Tomorrowland has embraced the concept of a fantastic spaceport. Shuttles blast off from Space Station 77, XP-40 craft take brave space rangers to the Gamma Quadrant to defend the universe from the evil Emperor Zurg, and young Padawans learn the ways of the Force in the Jedi Training Academy.
While a fantasy Tomorrowland becomes dated far less quickly than a realistic one, even those sci-fi adventures can benefit from advances in technology. Later this year, we'll see the fruits of that with Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, bringing digital 3-D and branching story lines to these voyages through outer space.
Weekend Trivia: Star Wars & Indiana Jones
Sorry about the general lack of posts this week. It's been busy around here, with home remodeling projects and my twin boys' 5th birthday. It was, at their request, a huge movie-themed blowout... specifically Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Since that's where my mind has been, the Weekend Trivia for today on Twitter focused on the subject of Star Wars and Indy in the Disney Parks. Here are the questions. Look for the answers to appear in the comments some time tomorrow afternoon.
1) What was the first Disney Parks attractions created in association with George Lucas?
2) When and where did Star Tours make its debut?
3) Who provided the voice of RX-24 in Star Tours?
4) Where and how in the original Star Tours attraction was there a direct reference to George Lucas?
5) The G2 droids in the Star Tours queue at Disneyland previously appeared in what incarnation?
6) The original Star Tours film featured a cameo by what iconic element from an extinct Disneyland attraction?
7) In what year did Star Wars Weekends debut at Disney's Hollywood Studios?
8) For three years starting in 2003, Star Wars Weekends featured a Star Wars-themed version of what Hollywood Studios attraction?
9) The store at the exit of Star Tours at Disney's Hollywood Studios has gone by what two names?
10) In what venue outside of Disney Parks has the Disney-produced Jedi Training Academy show been presented?
11) What was the first Disney Parks attraction to feature Indiana Jones?
12) Indiana Jones attractions can be found in what four Disney Parks around the world?
13) What "treasures" are being sought on the Indiana Jones Adventure attractions in Disneyland and in Tokyo DisneySEA?
14) What was the title of the live show presented during the Disneyland Summer of Hidden Mysteries event in 2008?
15) What Indy attraction was conceived and announced for Disneyland, but never built?
Store Wars
Part of the magic of a studio backlot is that a change of setting can be made as simply as moving the camera to a different angle. Interior scenes for Star Tours are being shot inside Stage 12 at Disney's Hollywood Studios, but just outside are two unique sets recreating diverse locales from the Star Wars universe: the Ewokvillage on the forest moon of Endor and Anakin Skywalker'shomestead in Mos Espa on the planet Tatooine.
The Mos Espa facade was added in 1999, upon the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Anticipating a surge in demand for Star Wars-related merchandise, the shop at the exit of the Star Tours attraction was nearly doubled in size and renamedTatooine Traders, bringing a bit of the prequels into the park.
The original store in this location was known as Endor Vendors, housed in a replica of the Imperial bunker seen in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Photos from the Walt Dated Worldsite). Hints of the bunker can still be seen, if you look back between the trees where the Tatooine set meets the soundstage.
Today, the Imperial bunker has found a new home on the other side of the attraction, as a backdrop for the Jedi Training Academy.
A Galaxy Not So Far Away
When the original Star Tours opened at Disneyland in 1987, the story of the attraction was designed to fit right intoTomorrowland. As it was told, Star Tours takes place after Return of the Jedi, when R2-D2 and C-3PO have gone to work for a tourism outfit offering trips to various points of interest throughout the galaxy. From Star Tours' Tomorrowlandspaceport, passengers board a Starspeeder 3000 for a relaxing trip to the moon of Endor. Along the way, their inexperienced pilot winds up off course and in the middle of a battle to stop a resurgence of Imperial power.
Star Tours was an immediate hit, so it was natural that it would be added to the menu of attractions at the Walt Disney World Resort, but it wasn't clear at first just how it would fit in. Disney's Hollywood Studios was under construction at the time, and there was a desire to start work on Phase II of the park right away. Star Tours seemed a perfect choice, since it would bring a Hollywood blockbuster to a park that celebrated Hollywood, but it didn't make sense to place a futuristic spaceport into the Studios setting.
To make it work, the attraction was re-conceived as a movie shoot. Guests on the Studio Backlot visit the set of Star Tours, a motion picture now in production on Stage 12. To promote the new film, the outside walls of the stage are adorned with billboard-size movie posters, just like those promoting other movies and TV shows throughout the Studios.
On the western end of Stage 12, an exterior set has been built to match some of the location footage shot in California's Redwood National Park. This set, complete with facades of an Imperial bunker and All Terrain Armored Transport, is for special effects shots which couldn't be accomplished on location. As with many movie sets, though, the production team only built what the camera needed to see. Leaving the backs of the trees and the Walker open not only saved money, but allowed for the placement of lighting just out of camera view.
Take a closer look, and you'll notice some of the pieces of the set were labeled with a production stamp back at the Shops, so they would be sure to make it out to the right part of the Backlot. This set is marked with the Star Tours title, along with production number 120789 (December 7, 1989 was the day the attraction opened; although it wasn't officially dedicated until January 1990).
Just inside the soundstage, a couple of chairs stand ready for two of the stars of the film, so they can take it easy or review their lines between takes. They're not here now, though, because they're involved in a scene.
The lights are flashing. It's a Hot Set. Filming is currently in progress, but you're clear to pass. After all, you've been cast as extras!
Take a look to the left, and you'll see the inner wall of thesoundstage. It's relatively nondescript, with bulletins posted for the crew and padded walls to help muffle extraneous sound. To the right is the plywood back side of the standing set currently occupying the stage: the set of the Star Tours spaceport.
Once you round the corner, you are on the set. All the functional realities of motion picture production disappear, and movie magic takes over. Lights... Camera... Action! May the Force be with you!
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