Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Back
in June I did an article talking about the original Star Tours and how it became one of the first major Star Wars experiences outside of the
movies. At the end of the article I promised I’d touch upon its sequel, The Adventures Continue, someday, and with
the ride having just been updated now feels like the perfect time for that.
The
year is 2009, over 20 years after the launch of the original Star Tours. With
the Prequel Trilogy having wrapped up a few years prior, Disney announced plans
to update the old ride with elements from the new movies. There would be a new
film in high-definition 3D that took you to several favourite planets from the Star Wars galaxy, including Tatooine and
Hoth.
The
original film took its final flight in 2010 in both Anaheim and Orlando (but
for whatever reason it continued to play in both Tokyo and Paris until 2012 and
2016 respectively), and preparations began to revamp the ride into a brand new
adventure. Good ol’ Captain Rex was finally removed from the pilot seat once and
for all in favour of the more famous face of C-3PO, and the timeline date was
changed from post-Return of the Jedi to
between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (not that it mattered, as Adventures Continue turned out to be
pretty blatantly non-canon). The biggest announcement to come out during
refurbishment was that the ride would be completely randomized, with several
different scenes chosen for each ride, only to be switched out for the next. At
opening there were 54 different combinations of scenes that were possible to
experience, and that number has only grown since then.
The
queue is almost identical, aside from a few small additions. In the second room
you can now spy a deactivated Captain Rex who sometimes spouts a quote or two
from the original ride. One of the old repair droids has also been repurposed
as a baggage check droid, who scans the luggage of everyone coming onboard.
Keep an eye out for several references and in-jokes to Disney, Pixar, the Parks
and other Star Wars stuff in the luggage
while you pass him. There’s a lot of clever nods hidden in there!
Upon
reaching the docking bay you’re treated to a brief pre-show as well as the
ubiquitous safety message. It turns out that C-3PO has been called to fix a
malfunctioning motivator, taking the place of the designated pilot and
accidentally getting locked inside. Once you make it onboard and the Starspeeder begins to move it doesn’t
take long for things to go haywire. Either Darth Vader or a swarm of
Stormtroopers swoop down and inform you that there’s a Rebel spy hidden
onboard. Hilariously the spy Vader’s looking for is a picture taken of somebody
on the ride with you. After escaping him, we zoom off into a journey through
the galaxy as we try to deliver the spy to the Rebellion safely.
As I
mentioned before, Adventures Continue is
completely randomized, but it is always separated into four scenes: Opening,
Planet #1, Secret Message, and Planet #2. The opening is, as mentioned before,
where Vader or the stormtroopers confront you about the rebel spy and you
escape. Planet #1 is where you end up after 3PO frantically hits lightspeed.
You can land on Kashyyyk and encounter Chewie, Hoth where you are pursued by
AT-ATs, or Tatooine where you participate in a podrace. Next up R2 recieves a
secret transmission from either Yoda, Leia or Admiral Ackbar, who send you
coordinates for the secret Rebel base you must deliver the spy to. Finally you
arrive at Planet #2, which can be either Naboo, Coruscant, or you accidentally
wind up at the Death Star as it orbits Geonosis. No matter what the Empire
throws at you your mission is successful and you deliver the spy safely to your
destination. But little do you know that after disembarking you will be
confronted by the Dark Side itself: a gift shop! Aaaaaahhhh!!!
The Adventures Continue was an enormous
success, taking the tried but true formula of the original film and taking it
to the next level. People loved it so much that when the new movies began to
roll out, fans asked for new scenes based on them, and Disney was happy to
deliver. When Force Awakens launched
a new scene was added to the Planet #1 section where you land on Jakku and are
aided by Finn in escaping some TIE Fighters, as well a new secret transmission
from BB-8. This, however, did cause a bit of a timeline problem, as it was a
bit confusing to see Darth Vader followed immediately by Finn 30 years later.
Disney fixed this problem just a few months ago with the release of new scenes
for The Last Jedi, as they created an
entirely separate albeit mostly unrandomized film set in the Sequel Trilogy
timeline. Now you are met with Kylo Ren in the opening before escaping to
Jakku, getting a secret transmission from either BB-8, Poe Dameron or Maz
Kanata, fleeing to Crait to meet up with Poe before finally delivering the spy
to Batuu, the planet that the upcoming Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge land will be
set on.
If memory serves me right the Sequel Trilogy film is the
only one playing right now, but Disney has announced plans to have both that
and the original Adventures Continue film
airing side by side before too long. While I haven’t been able to try the new
scenes yet, I can safely say that the classic Adventures Continue is the definitive way to experience Star Tours. The randomized nature of the film adds
an extra layer of unpredictability to the ride as you have no idea what’s going
to come next, and unless you get really unlucky with the scene selection it’s
not too difficult to experience all the scenes in a single vacation. While
Galaxy’s Edge looks really promising, next time you’re at a Disney park be sure
to check out the original and the best Star
Wars theme park adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment