So, uh, Star Tours.

[innerSpaceman]

No, I think you miss my point. If there had been a space fantasy motion simulator ride with worlds created by the Imagineers, I'd have no problem with it. But when I ride Star Tours, I think of Star Wars. Star Wars that's a movie series in the real world outside the berm. It's a little too famous not to have that effect on me.


(No one thinks of Third Man on the Mountain when riding the Matterhorn - but in any event, that's a Disney film).

Don't get me started on how even the most inept robot animals with constant rim-shot jokes told by boat guides are ten thousand times more realistic than two-dimensional images on a movie screen - whether or not it's more possible for me to go on safari than into imaginary realms of outer space.



The point is that the Jungle Cruise does NOT make me think of The African Queen, and the Haunted Mansion does not remind me of a movie I've seen, and Big Thunder Mountain doesn't bring up thoughts of some movie I own, and the only movies I was reminded of inside Disneyland before Star Tours broke down that beautiful wall were Disney movies - and even those brought up equal memories of real fairytales and children's stories.


Of course, YMMV, but that's how it is for me. I wouldn't be sorry if Star Tours disappeared from the Park forever. And it comforts me to know that, if the new version is based on the prequels, it will ultimately shake out to be one of those rides that no one ever goes on.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'm not debating, just continuing conversation...

It interests me that you, , don't buy into the fantasy of Star Wars being enough to take out the reality of a movie franchise. I don't know if this is a generational thing or not, but for me, SW is a fantasy of mine, as palpable as any of Disneyland's other fantasies, and perhaps more so. I have been pretending to be Luke Skywalker for as long as I can remember pretending anything. Getting to ride Tours felt like a treat. It's a real shame that the repeat value was so low.

If it's the screen that takes you out of it, I admit it worked for me in that context. The Finding Nemo (Nemo? Nemo?) Subs shows just what a difference context makes. Now THERE'S a ride that takes you right out of the park and places you squarely in your living room watching a DVD for the hundredth time.

This conversation makes me think of the Star Trek Experience (RIP) that was in Vegas. I only got to ride it once - and only just before it closed - but it gave me the exact same stupid grin to be in the middle of the Trek universe (though I give it to the Experience for going a few clicks more immersive).

[alphabassettgrrl]

I loved the Star Trek experience. I'm sad it closed.

Star Tours wasn't immersive for me, in part because I also associate it with the movie. Great movie, yes, but still a movie. Part of why the new Nemo ride doesn't work for me. It's just the movie and I wanted something more.

[innerSpaceman]

The Star Wars universe IS a great fantasy realm that I love. But I'm also uber conscious of it as a movie franchise, product-generator, money machine.

I bet if Star Tours were an actual, Pirates-like attraction taking us through actual sets of Tatooine, and the Death Star and what-not, all my misgivings would have faded away. But a movie screen does not take me to a fantasy world at Disneyland - in fact it just reinforces that the world I'm experiencing exists only on film.


Weird, because when I watch an actual Star Wars movie, I'm transported. Same with almost any movie. But movie attractions don't do that for me. Star Tours was fun, but never made me feel like I was really fighinting the Death Star. It made me feel like I was really in the movie of fighting the Death Star, but that's not quite the same thing.

I don't really feel like I'm soarin' over California when I ride Soarin' Over California either. But I do feel like I'm soaring over a beautiful movie of a beautiful place. Not quite the same. Not that it's bad, it's just not as good as I've come to expect from Disneyland.

The lack of originality and imagination represented by choosing to go outside of Disney's world (or even outside worlds that Disney has purchased - *cough*Pixar*cough) is what killed it for me. Disneyland never felt it had to do that before. It was a precedent I've never liked. Fortunately, it was only repeated once.

I'm not pleased about Indiana Jones either, but I have a much more favorable reaction to that ride because it IS a physical attraction, and the situations depicted are reminiscent of the movies, not cribbed from them wholesale.

Star Tours failed on all those fronts, and I still had a lot of fun on it. I'm a big Star Wars fan, so how could I not? But I'll never believe it belongs in Disneyland, and imo it has nothing much more than America Sings had to do with Tomorrowland.

In Florida, it's perfectly positioned at the movie studio park. That's exactly where it belongs, and the type of attraction it is.


So we'll be getting another lame movie-simulator ride, but this time based on the Star Wars films everyone hates? Um, how is this progress?


Build us an E-Ticket Star Wars universe ride-thru spectacular, and I'll look past the stealing from outside sources. I'll ride it again and again, and squee every time. Motion-simulator? Ho-frickin-hum.