Star Tours Classic complete ride @ Disneyland Tomorrowland Retired Anaheim

The ride that became Star Tours first saw light as a proposal for an attraction based on the 1979 Disney live-action film The Black Hole. It would have been an interactive ride simulator attraction, where guests would have had the ability to choose the ride car's route, but after preliminary planning, the Black Hole attraction was shelved due to its enormous cost—approximately $50 million USD—as well as the unpopularity of the film itself.

But instead of completely dismissing the idea of a simulator, the company decided to make use of a partnership between Disney and George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, that began in 1986 with the opening of Captain EO (a 3-D musical film starring Michael Jackson) at the California park. Disneyland then approached Lucas with the idea for the Star Tours amusement ride. With Lucas' approval, Disney Imagineers purchased four military-grade flight simulators at a cost of $500,000 each and designed the ride structure.

Meanwhile, Lucas and his team of special effects technicians at Industrial Light & Magic produced the first-person perspective film that would be projected inside the simulators. When both simulator and film were completed, a programmer then sat inside and, with the aid of a joystick, manually synchronized the movement of the simulator with the apparent movement on screen.
Advertised as "The Ultimate Star Wars Adventure!," Star Tours puts the guest in the role of a space tourist en route to the forest moon of Endor, the site of the climactic battle of Return of the Jedi, via the Star Tours travel agency. Much is made of this throughout the ride queue, which is designed to look like a spaceship boarding terminal; posters advertise voyages to different planets, and a giant screen informs riders of the benefits of going to Endor. This area is stocked with Audio-Animatronic characters that seem to speak to the ride patrons (including versions of Star Wars favorites C-3PO and R2-D2, delivering a typical Laurel and Hardy-esque routine), as well as a life size mock-up of the StarSpeeder 3000, the spacecraft that guests embark on.

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[LahVeeSharr]

I love this ride

[ThemeParkVideos100]

Wanted to see the queue, but a nice video regardless. Be sure to film the re-themed attraction in about 6 months.

[anaconda536]

i have a bad memory of this ride.... someone threw up behind me while i was videotaping the ride. at first i thought someone was opening a water bottle, but then i smelled it....but at least it was at the end of the ride so i enjoyed the rest of it.

[DoogleRawr]

Best Ride Ever!

[TheMLVideos]

@frostman1105 :D! YAYAYAYAYAAAY!

[mrsJRCelski]

rofl i remember when i went on this in 2006..aah good timez..good timez...ANYWAYS! everytime we were like crashing and bumping into things, this guy in the back yelled, "learn how to fly!" rofl it was pretty funny i love this ride..im going on this in a few days! i cant wait!!!!! :-)))))

[SFKiD49eRsBoI]

i love this ride. good memories

[Gotehagetanks]

this is the only BIG THRILL ride that I didn't went on :(

[DisMupPix010]

In case anyone hasn't heard, Star Tours at Disneyland will be closing July 27th to prepare for Star Tours 2, opening in 2011.

[Xenomorph237]

do the seats shake and stuff???