Star Tours 2.0

The Disney Star Tours ride is getting a reboot.

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/star-tours-disney-5358/

 

Yep. Bill George is ILM's vfx supervisor for this project. It's actually been in the works for a few years now.

 

Even though it's pretty much a definate now that it will be during TPM, I hope that they decide to have the ride set in the OT.

 

I'm not sure how much of the OT, if any, will still be a part of the ride.

But you can expect pod race goodness.

 

True. But I would much rather just have things added to the current "Star Tours" such as trips to Tantooine, Hoth, Bespin, etc.

 

Maybe one day they'll have a deluxe version where you can choose your trip?

 

I've always thought they should make like 4 scenarios from all six films and have them be random each time you go on.

 

That would be a very good idea. It would also keep the experience fresh as well as encouraging multiple rides.

It would cost more but they could recoup that no problem.

 

I've always thought they should make like 4 scenarios from all three films and have them be random each time you go on.

 

This is when Lucasfilm and Disney should listen to fans. It's not like we wouldn't go at least 4 different times hoping we got a different one each time.

Maybe the cost of 4 films is what keeps them from doing it? But it's not like they wouldn't make their money back.

 

Oh JKH... never missing a chance to bash the prequels.

 

What can I say? It's a coping mechanism.

 

Honestly, many sequences in the prequels are perfectly situated for a ride, the pod race for one.

So prequelized Star Tours works great for me.

 

Personally, if I get on a ride called STAR Tours, I want my ride to involve some exciting space travel - something the PT sorely lacks.

 

Not the Coruscant space battle. I'd love that.

 

Well, this looks every bit as dumb as I feared.

 

Well I was expecting the pod race so it works for me. But I do think they should mix it up eventually. Rotating different films would keep things more interesting.

 

Have no fear, JKH, it's not going to just be the podrace. It's going to be an ever changing scenario that is not the same every time you go on. The podrace is just one bit of many that can be combined in various ways to create unique adventures each ride. The scenarios also seem to draw on all six films, rather than just TPM or the PT. This is all confirmed by someone who actually worked on the visuals for the ride itself. A recent visit to Disneyland and a surreptitious peek through the construction barrier showed me that they are completely gutting the queue area as well, creating something entirely new. Lastly:

Proof of multiple scenarios.

 

Alderaan!

Now that was a surprise. Cool video.

I'm there....well when I can get there......and when it's finished.

 

I don't know if that video counts as proof. The original ride touted alternate destinations as well. But I have heard about the multiple tracks from reliable sources.

My issue at this point is the quality of visuals. The CGI from the only in-ride footage released so far (the pod race) isn't all that great. Hopefully those are early renders with the detail work yet to be done.

Say what you will about the original's dated projection system, but the actual images up on that screen looked like real things.

 

I am not basing stuff on that video, I am basing it on someone who actually worked on the effects for the footage. And as for the original film, I always thought the comets looked fake.

 

I got the part about your contact, and as I said I have also heard about it from reliable sources. But you labeled that in-universe commercial as "Proof of multiple scenarios", which it really wasn't - that was the only part I was objecting to.

The comets are definitely the weakest part of the ride, but they never really looked "fake" enough to pull me out of it - with the massive exception of the ride's one incredibly visible cut as you enter the big one.

...

So I just re-watched the original ride video on YouTube, and it hit me that what I find really disappointing about setting this re-do pre-OT is that the PT simply doesn't have the iconic "flight" sequences that the OT does. The closest it comes is the pod race, so it makes sense that that would be included, but there's no reason there couldn't have been a PT-era pod race.

Short of cameos from the main characters or the Millennium Falcon, the original ride had just about everything you could ask for from a "Star Wars" ride, hitting all the most famous beats - the Star Destroyer tractor beam, the debris field (comets making a decent proxy for the asteroids from TESB), and of course the Death Star surface and trench run which was a nice design hybrid of SW and RotJ.

The original ride felt like "I just rode Star Wars", whereas the new attraction seems to be more along the lines of just "I rode a ride set in the Star Wars universe".