Star Tours: The Adventure Continues
Star Tours: The Adventure Continues is motion simulator attraction located in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Attraction History
Star Tours (1989-2010)
The creation of Star Tour actually began in Disneyland. In 1984, then Disney CEO, Michael Eisner wanted to find a way to attract the teenage demographic back to the park. Disneyland had been losing guest attendance to other theme parks in the area, so Eisner was determined to "update" Disneyland by replacing some of it's more dated attractions. One such attraction, Adventure Through Inner Space was an obvious candidate for replacement. Built during the space race, the attraction had begun to show it's age.
While Eisner was looking to renovate Disneyland, Imagineer Charles Bright was studying flight simulators in the United Kingdom. Although Disney had planned on a motion simulator attraction in 1976 for the proposed Discovery Bay expansion, the technology was seen as too primitive to be feasible. Now however, using motion simulation was a real possibility, Disney began making plans for an outer space attraction or an undersea adventure.
While rough plans were being made for the motion simulator attraction, Michael Eisner invited George Lucas to visit the Imagineering department. Eisner had known Lucas since is his days at Paramount Pictures. Eisner wanted Lucas to help him attract more teens to the park, and when Lucas saw the plans for the outer space flight simulator, he agreed to work on the project. As part of the partnership, Disney agreed to give Lucas a percentage of the merchandise fees from the attraction, as well as a six million dollar fee to create the film for the attraction. After reaching an agreement, Lucas told the press that if he was going to work on a theme park attraction wanted it to be Disney. The motion simulator project was then given a 27 million dollar budget, and a November 1986 opening date.
The original plot for the space motion simulator, focused on an intergalactic travel agency. The attraction itself would be housed within a spaceport. The stars of both the preshow and the attraction would be R2D2 and C3PO from the Star Wars franchise. A new character, known as RX-24, or Rex would pilot the attraction. The initial film created by George Lucas's ILM was 20 minutes long, and featured various special effects. The film was then cut down to three minutes, before it was changed again to a four minute film.
During construction, four 40 person simulator cabins were dropped in through the roof, before being sealed in. Although the construction started smoothly, the attraction soon ran into a series of delays. The first problem Imagineers faced, was that they could not get the motion simulator to synchronize with the film properly. Then, it was discovered that the roof of the building would need to be raised, meaning that the structural work of the building would also have to be redone. Furthermore, George Lucas decided that the Audio Systems in the ride vehicles would need upgrading, this cost another 100,000 dollars. Despite being over budget and 3 months late, Star Tours eventually opened to the public in Disneyland on January 9th 1987.
Due to the huge success of Star Tours in Disneyland, it was eventually decided that Imagineers would add the attraction to Disney World's newest park, the Disney MGM Studios. Although Disney's MGM Studios was originally envisioned as a half day park, Disney executives were worried that the park did not have the capacity for the projected crowds. In order to fit in with the rest of the park, the exterior of Disney World's Star Tours was designed to look like both a stage, and a movie set. The attraction itself was a carbon copy of the Disneyland version, but the capacity of the ride was increased by 50%. Due to the attraction's late addition, Star Tours did not open until December 15, 1989.
The first change to Star Tours came, in 1999. Initially, the attraction's exit store was designed to look like an Imperial Bunker. In 1999, the store was expanded, and rethemed. When the store reopened on September 10, 1999 it was known as Tatooine Traders. In 2007, the entrance to the attraction was also changed when a permanent Jedi Training Academy stage was built.
