Check this out. (STAR TOURS: The Ultimate Star Wars Thrill Ride @ Disneyworld.com)
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If you were allowed to enter the “LODESTAR” production stage, you would’ve seen Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar, a Tusken Raider, and even some Jawas. C3PO himself Anthony Daniels will be filming later this week.

LucasFilm is shooting new footage for the Disney’s Star Tours ride.

Our source reveals that the revamp will incorporate prequel characters (like Naboo citizens and Geonosians) along with many aliens from the original trilogy (Aqualish. Bith, Rodians, etc). In the action sequence, the Star Tours vehicle is now going to be chased by Boba Fett. C3PO and R2-D2 are still the hosts, and Anthony Daniels will be recording his parts this week. Admiral Ackbar holographically communicates with the Star Tours vehicle. Right now they’re shooting mostly green screen footage, as it is the middle part of the production timeline.

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Now over 20 years old, the venerable Star Tours attraction will receive a much-anticipated -- and much rumored -- revamp as it blasts off for launch at the Disneyland Resort in California and Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida, in 2011.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo finally -- though only briefly -- lifted the veil of secrecy around the rumored project in a grand Star Wars style -- flanked by the white armored clone and stormtroopers of the 501st Legion fan group while on stage at first-ever D23 Expo convention in Anaheim, California today. As part of a presentation concerning the future of the parks and attractions, Rasulo talked about a variety of additions and brand new experiences arriving in the years to come. He saved the Star Tours news for last.

"I'm sorry to tell you that as of October 2010, Star Tours will be closing," said Rasulo, a statement immediately followed by the marching of stormtroopers on-stage accompanied by the ominous "Imperial March." Darth Vader appeared via video to question Rasulo about his plans, and bring the Disney crew "back on schedule."

"You didn't let me finish! We're closing Star Tours in order to create a spectacular new adventure. We're going to do things with Star Tours that have never been done in any theme park attraction, at any theme park anywhere," added Rasulo.

The new experience will be in 3-D, an all new ride that includes many of the new worlds and elements from the more recent Star Wars movies. Rasulo introduced a Disney Real-D 3-D clip that threw the Starspeeder 3000 into the thick of the Boonta Eve Podrace. Disney fans in attendance were also given an exclusive numbered Star Tours II preview poster, some featuring the iconic mask of Darth Vader topped with the title, "JOIN ME," others with Yoda and the title "The Force is Strong in This One," and a third with C-3PO lamenting, "Here We Go Again."

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UPDATE:

A Re-Imagined Star Tours to Blast Off in California and Florida in 2011
www.starwars.com
September 12, 2009





Rasulo introduced a Disney Real-D 3-D clip that threw the Starspeeder 3000 into the thick of the Boonta Eve Podrace. NOTE: Starspeeder is in fact Starspeeder 1000


Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Executive Tom Fitzgerald joins ILM VFX Supervisor Bill George and George Lucas in planning the update to Star Tours.

A Star Tours revamp is great news! I like the ride as-is but it does feel a bit retro. And if the improvements reported here are accurate, it sounds like it's going to be great. They need better merchandise at the store there though. More Fett and Evil Empire gear please.

And thanks for the TV series info. Sounds to be still sort of far off, but any news is good gnews.

If they do it, I hope they had in the new Disney Digital 3D. That'd really make the ride pop.

Disney Parks @ Twitter
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In an exciting scene from the new Star Tours, guests aboard Starspeeders will join in a high-speed pod race through the desert canyons of Tatooine. The launch of the new Star Wars based attraction was announced at the D23 Expo on Saturday by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo.

The announcement and an extended version of that podrace:
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It'll be 2011 before I can afford a vacation again anyway. Is this just for DisneyLand in Anaheim or are they going to update the Florida attraction as well? I bet if I knew a twitter from a twatter (I taw I taw a puty tatter) I'd allready know the answer to this.

Saw this and thought the MF'ers would think it was pretty cool.

Some fan created a C3P0 costume with a voice decoder to make him sound like Anthony Daniels and was appearing at big conventions like the last Celebration. Story goes that Lucasfilm and Disney contacted him to appear at Star Wars Weekends in Disneyworld and when he showed up unannounced to the crowds, people didn't know what to do with themselves.

[align=center]3PO @ Star Wars Weekends 2010[/align]
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I hope they do a Vader like this that actually keeps breathing as he talks. Also, not sure if anyone is interested in new new Star Wars ride they are getting ready to open next year, but it is supposed to go to multiple locations in the Star Wars universe and be 3-D.

That's incredible. This guy should be working for Disney. I had my photo taken with Chewbacca back in the 90s and the costume didn't even look that authentic, but we still ate it up. These spoiled kids nowadays get to swordfight with Vader. In all honesty, those shows are a bit lame, but such an event would have made my childhood.

Celebration V Star Speeder Re-release

Looks sorta small but I am a sucker for Star Wars window packaging.





Above are designs for a new StarSpeeder scaled larger for the 3 3/4" line.

That is awesome! They should make some tourist figures to ride in it. Some bratty kids, a fat and somewhat uncomfortable mom, and aloof zombie dad. And middle aged savagely buff Star Wars fan dragging his curvy and disinterested wife in behind them. That would be doap.

Still, this is a neat vehicle in the real world. I felt like a kid when I saw this thing for the first time (I was 31). I wonder if they are going to be changing the ride vehicles as part of the upgrade. The gigantic AT-AT out front is cool, and there is a speeder bike photo-op across the walkway from the ride que. They should do more life-sized vehicles, even if it's just for effect and not interactable. I eat that shit up, and I'm sure I aint alone.

[align=center]Star Tours Queue Video & Last Tour To Endor - Indiana Jones Shoots Greedo Cross Over - (photogallery)[/align]
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All right so I'm still not sure what they're planning to do with Star Tours II but judging from that clip dp posted above, is it safe to assume they're going to retain the original trip to Endor AND add Bespin & Alderaan or is that just going to be one of the reels they run while we're all waiting in line?

The old ride is officially retired. The new ride will take place between the prequels and the originals. It's said that there will be 50-something different ride combos, so the experience will be slightly or considerably different each time. Also, the planets in that ad won't be featured in the ride.

/on-the-set-of-star-tours-with-c-3po/


^ This confirms that report from the Hollywood shoot with Vader, Boba Fett, Admiral Ackbar, etc.

While I am not exactly enthused about a prequel ride, I did hear rumors of classic trilogy elements such as the snow battle. So who knows. But in all honesty, I wish they would ditch the ride system and go with something completely different. The 3D is no big deal for me. Something like Harry Potter at Universal, which is a phenomenal thing to behold.

The Stars of Star Tours Ackbar!! WooHoo!



Disney exclusive action figures from new Star Tours

So... does that mean the ride is now cannon? j/k (sorta)

Looks like the ride is set to open June 3rd over on the west coast. They're also doing two Star Wars In Concert shows at the Hollywood Bowl on the 3rd and 4th with the Bowl orchestra.

Omfg.

I hadn't really put it all together until now. I've been busy getting straight A's (blow me fellow students) and staring at all the fat booty at school to realize. Mrs Oblix booked our whole bi-bi-annual Floridian vacation this year, so I've been a little foggy on the details. But get this; I was reading about Disney crap here in prep for our trip, and saw that Star Tours II at Disney Studios opens May 20th, and that the 20th is the first day of Star Wars weekends. I'm going to be at WDW from the 14th to the 21st. How randomly right is that??



I'm gonna getta' ton of pictures. And since I'm leaving the next day anyways probably get kicked out for dry-humping the Amidala and stealing part of Boba Fett's costume. This is going to awesome! And I thought vacation was going to suck, since those new body scanners can see where you hide your stash so I'm leaving it at home for the first time ever wtf.

Worst. Vacation. Ever. Sorry to the buddy who let us use his timeshare, hope you don't read this. We left it cleaner than we found it las Saturday eww, and were nice if still furious. The place still sucks the emoticon I posted above, however. Moral of the story, for me, if you only want to go to Disney, stay at Disney. The rest of the area is glittering touristy scams and old fucking golfer Dbags. I'm sure there are decent locals there. They just didn't show up while I was out. We ended up paying the (S)Mears shuttle driver $40 a day to go where you could have gone for free on the Disney bus, and it made 15 other stops. Tried the Lynx (local) bus. Thought we were going to get murdered or hit by a fat bastard in a minivan waiting on the side of the highway. The "resort" prices for shit was insane for things we could have gotten pratically free from Disney Resorts. I ate pizza everyday for a week. And its miiiles from the place to a grocery store. I did walk to the Walgreens on 192 for some reality priced items, but I aint springing a leak about Raviolis and H2O.

Which leads me to Star Wars in FL 2011. Burnt my flesh and my cash to a heap of ash in mere moments of stepping off the plane Saturday. Tuesday my only bit of luck showed up when they opened up the new Star Tours early. Got to see it twice. I guess they were testing it or something. It's dope as fuck. Both shows seemed to start out the same, but ended differently. The new ride que is a'ight. I miss the droid wreckage. 3D effects are great, but much better toward the back. Maybe it's my eyes. Seemed clearer and deeper.

So by Friday, I already wanted to knife people. I saw the crowd for SW-Weekend and decided that, rather than strangle some 9 year old kids annoying father fighting over the last fast-pass to get C3Po's autograph, maybe I should just go to the Magic Kingdom instead. I didn't have bail money left, and it was better than certain I'd need it. So for you, yuppy dickhead tattooed mid-american dads and your spoiled 'potential padawan' kids, I missed the whole big shindig. Rode Space Mountain repeatedly and was glad to do so.

They just gave the queue a slightly different overlay. The biggest change is, yeah, that awesome droid room with all the junk heaps, broken robots, electronic music and moving boxes on the ceiling. In slight defense of the new line (which is a security check with robots), the original didn't make as much sense to the average person. You go from movie set into the movie (if you're in Florida, that is). Now, you're supposed to be at a starport. There's the spaceship, the droids, TV ads for the destinations. Then...robot junk heap. The fuck? It makes sense as a maintenance bay, but why in the hell would they send you through there before boarding? Still, it was classic.

I want to ride the new one(s).

Here is a video of the queue and ride footage. The ride footage starts at 4:15 mark

[flash width=645 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/gork1Jt28DM?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]

I rode it a few times the other day at Disneyland. It's great. 3P0 feels like OT 3P0 and isn't as annoying as I was expecting. The visuals are great and the details are perfect. Leia, Ackbar, Yoda and Vader are used perfectly. The 3D is also used perfectly. i think the frame rate is higher on the ride?

It's a really fun excuse to get to experience different parts of the films in 3D. It has a few cool gaps it fills. Seeing the Death Star above Geonosis or new/old footage of Leia was cool.

Troy you went at the absolute WORST possible time to Disney World. that's when all the white trash kids go. You should try again in the fall, after school starts. We've gone the past two years in October and it's still about 85 degrees but ZERO wait times if you use fast pass. This year we're doing the halloween trick or treat deal. Staying in the resort is cool if you drop the cash and get above the lowest option. There's this one resort that's a giant log cabin that is gorgeous. We ate there one night and the dinner was all you could eat BBQ and steak but not a buffet, they brought it to you. The atmosphere was like a rowdy mountain road house and If you wanted ketchup you had to literally scream "WE NEED KETCHUP!" It sounded cheesy but was encouraged.

Fort Wilderness?

Yeah, that is a great time to go. The only thing I don't like is early closing times, especially over at Universal.

I believe the ride officially opens in Disneyland today. Just ordered and printed my year pass online.

Dude, I know. We've been there several times, this was my fifth trip, but usually we go in late August-Early September. Hurricane season seems to make the lines shorter and there's more people speaking 'English' from my observation. Not that I mind foreigners, but when I tell someone 'Watch where you push your fucking stroller asshole' I prefer them to know wtf I'm saying. And we always stayed at a 'moderate' level resort, with the dining plan and park hopper options. We tried to save a few bucks this time, free borrowed time-share, cheap tickets and a loan from my Momma' (I'm 37, and yes, ashamed to still be borrowing money from my Momma). The resort was the problem. The staff was rude, the prices insane ($9 to rent an innertube to go around the pissed-up lazy river, $6 half gallon of milk, etc. fuck off) Transportation from there to the parks was a fortune, and inconvenient.

I'm chalking it up as a hard lesson learned. I'm planning our 'after my graduation' trip at the moment. So far it's going to cost me about $5k, + airfare. But I don't give a fuck. After wasting about half that this time and getting pissed, I'm going to do it right. Plus, I have two years to save up. I'm getting a degree in Mortuary Science, the only job left with a resonable expectation of steady income. Too bad a lot of people have to die for me to afford my vacation, but hey, nobody gets outta' here alive. Somebody's gotta' do it, and trust me, you don't want to embalm/aspirate Grandma.

Which leads me to something else I've been thinking about. Star Wars, for me, is just a part (granted, a big part) of my overall love for the liberation that sci-fi and futurism can represent for individuals. The streamlined architecture of Tomorrowland, the 'boring' yet inspiring visions and mind blowing detail of 'old' Epcot (still barely visible, if you peer past all the 'fluff' and crap of many cartoony redesigns), and the immersion of the Star Wars area of Disney Studios all lead my mind back to a place of hope in the future, my own future. And it bums me out to see those inspiring messages and visions being lost on so many people just looking for thrills. I married a woman with a body like a rollercoaster. If I want thrills, I try to get her naked. I still like the rides, but I like my brains set a'flame every so often as well.

Thats one of the things the Star-Tours redesign put in my head. Because while the old ride was 'aight', the new one is really pretty spectacular. And at the same time it made me, if only for the few minutes it takes you along, forget about the lousy time we were having until then. I forgot about all the bratty kids and thier overflexed tattoo (great, you joined a gym, fuck off Jersey Shore) laden fathers. The 'winnerwinner-chicken-dinner' room we got (there were four spoiled chicken breasts in the oven when we checked in). On the ride I started to think about why I like going there to begin with. I like a lot of things about Star Wars, but in the end, it's that liberation of jumping on a space-ship and jaunting off to somewhere different in pursuit of adventure, or whatever it is you are looking for, that inspires me. It's such a different journey, say for Luke in the OT, than the land-locked and fine-printed rat-race I usually find myself in.

Just getting a glimpse of that, and more, makes that $5k seem worthwhile.

yeah, Fort Wilderness. The dinner ROCKS. Don't know about the rooms but you felt like you were in some Viking lodge.

The new Star Tours ride is amazing. Rode it twice last Friday at Disneyland. I was blown away. Fantastically done.

Finally got out to Disneyland today. Despite a literal tsunami of people there today, after 2 hours finally got a chance to experience the new ride. It is really quick, seems faster than the prior incarnation, but that by no means took away from it. During my run-through, I got Vader/Air Troopers in the Imperial hanger, Podracing, Ackbar hologram, Episode III intro battle, then we tumbled down into the middle of Coruscant rush-hour swirling around oncoming traffic. The graphics was straight out of the films, and coupled with the 3D really give a peep at what we can expect to get once TPM 3D re-release hits theaters.

Unfortunately, I only got to have one go on the ride. Lines were horrendous due to the aforementioned literal tsunami of people in the park. I got there at 9 am, and while my friends waited in line, I walked across the way to get a fast pass hoping that by the time the two hour line finished we could hopefully time it to walk right in for ride #2. Boy, was I shocked when the fast pass told me to come back between 10:55-11:55... pm! By ten am all of the fast passes for the entire day for Star Tours v2 had been dispensed.

Just curious what everyone else saw during your run-throughs?

Man, this ride looks sweet. I'm planning on making the trip down in September. Hopefully then I won't have to wait twelve hours to get into another show. But with all your reviews here it's making it harder for me to wait.

Here's a video they posted over at SW.com with a couple of "fans" at the premiere. Apparently, there were quite a few Star Wars rah-tards in line that day. My favorite line, though, is from the kid that says, "C-3PO. It's that simple."

Indeed. Never liked when people write Artoo instead of R2 or Threepio instead of 3PO.

Um, well that's a little nitpicky aint it? I named my desktop PC 'Ahhr Fowah'. Wtfever that has to do w/anything I dunno'. My comment I mean, not yours.

I like what I hear of all the different enviornments, I rode it twice and both had pod-racing. Is that in all of the 'combo' variations? The 2 hour line sounds horrid. Never been to Disney'land', though. When I went to FL I thought the line was awful, and it was only 45 minutes. I can't wait two hours for anthing. Well, almost anything....

Yes, it is.

Aren't they spelled that way in the screenplays and novelizations? I always thought it was meant to evoke that these numbered machines had character and identity.

Yes, it is.

But dude don't like it, geez. It's cool if it bugs him. Now lets just stop pointing logic at him and back out of the room slowly. Close the door, softly, and call in a specialist. You never know how these kids are going to react so it's best not to provoke them, or turn your back.

I kid, I kid!

Anyways, Dear Disney Planning People, please give the Star Wars area a better front end. Wdw SW zone has a smoking section, and other than that is kind of lame. More AC please. You need better merchandise too. And something new, with some pep. How about a Star Wars themed indoor hanging coaster with a bunch of miniature environments to zoom through. Lucas sounds like he is going to be rehashing the existing films in one form or another for a while, capitalize. Your other coasters are lacking. In trying to appeal to the thrill seeking crowd, you guys leveled a lot of more interesting stuff. Mission:Space? Pretty building, nice walk thru, ride is lame as fuck and people die from previosly undiscovered health conditions every so often. The 'thrill' rides are scarce. Rockin rollercoaster sucks. Its like riding what I imagine an epileptic seizure feels like. Too dark. Its Space Mtn for ADD kids. Space Mntn is still your zippinest ride. Take a hint. Call me if you need ideas. I work cheap. I still liked the Star Tours tho. You should make more shuttles so the line isnt so long.

Sometimes, yes. Those are "the people" I'm talking about.