George Lucas’ beloved characters from the epic space saga first flew onto Disney property on January 9th, 1987 at Disneyland in California. The first simulator ride of it’s kind in a theme park replaced the omnimover ride, Adventures thru Inner Space. The new thrill ride had a final cost of $32 million. It was double the amount it cost Walt to build all of Disneyland in 1955. Needless to say, the collaboration between George Lucas and Disney paid off and the attraction became a smash hit. But it seems that Lucas always intended the ride to be upgraded. To change from time to time, traveling to new exciting worlds. Yet the attraction never saw an upgrade until nearly 25 years later. Let’s look back on a history and the relationship between the film director and the mouse himself with the popular attraction known as Star Tours.
Captain EO was the first attraction to open at a Disney park with George Lucas’ name attached. The 3D film was a new story story about a space captain, played by Michael Jackson, and his ragtag space crew delivering a gift of song and dance to an evil supreme leader. The movie experience opened at Epcot on September 12th, 1986 and at Disneyland, right below Space Mountain, just six days after. To the public, this was the first Lucas/Disney collaboration. But Lucas began working on the original Star Tours attraction a few years prior to Captain EO’s premiere. At a press conference in 1987, Lucas said that he always wanted to work on an attraction with Disney, and he believed his talents and imagination would naturally fit for an attraction in Tomorrowland. He referred to Disney as the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of amusement parks and he was only willing to allow a company of that status to even come close to his characters from Star Wars. This opening day press conference at Disneyland is fascinating from today’s perspective. Lucas made three clear points throughout the press event. First, that the attraction would make no sense if it was in 3D. Secondly, that the attraction was intended to be upgraded from time to time. Finally, he expressed his confidence that his Star Wars attraction was the best Disney had ever developed. In fact, he half-way arrogantly boosts that Star Tours was far superior to attractions such as Space Mountain.
His comment about the attraction not suited for 3D came out of a question related to Captain EO. The public loved that the visionary director helped developed Disney’s 3D based attraction. It was natural for them to think that Lucas and Imagineers would continue down that path of using 3D with an attraction such as Star Tours. After all, this is a ride based on a film that pushed the boundaries of visual effects. But Lucas very clearly stated that 3D wouldn’t make sense, because guests were watching a film that was an image of what they were meant to be seeing out of a window. If something popped out in 3D and into the interior space of the starspeeder, this would imply that an object broke through the glass. We all know what would happen if a glass window on a spaceship breaks while traveling in outer space. We would die instantly. Imagineer Marty Sklar, also mentioned how a park guests claimed to have lost her glasses while riding in the back row because of the ride’s intensity. Another reason why wearing 3D glasses on the simulator wouldn’t work…back then at least. Lucas, and the rest of the panel, quickly brushed the silly question aside as if it was insignificant.
Lucas also made a point to explain why he thought this simulator attraction was not only more thrilling than a rollercoaster, but had greater potential in the future. Lucas could easily see in 1987, that if Disney wanted to change the story of the attraction, all that had to be done was put in a new film for the attraction. Star Tours is, as he put it, a software based attraction. The software, in this case the film and recorded movements of the simulator, are all that would need to be altered to created a whole new experience. The hardware, meaning the show building and overall infrastructure could stay absolutely the same. This gave the attraction longevity. Therefore, Lucas saw an attraction limited to a ride track, such as a roller coaster, as inferior. A rollercoaster attraction would have to be bulldozed and rebuilt if Imagineers wanted something new. or update the ride technology. This leaves me wondering why it took so long for Imagineers to actually realise this attraction’s full potential before its recent upgrade. Perhaps Lucas would’ve demanded a large sum of money for his production company to reshoot a new film each time Disney wanted an updated film. Well we all know how that story ends.
Michael Eisner, the then CEO of the company, also had an interesting perspective at this press conference on the potential for not only this attraction, but the future of Imagineering. Disney’s collaboration with Lucas was one of the first new relationships that Eisner developed as the newly appointed head of the company. He was a man from the movie business. He understood the potential for the Disney parks if he starting building relationships with other creative minds. Eisner would go even further with this business model with opening up a theme park in Florida centered on movie making with MGM studios. Both Eisner and Lucas also knew the financial potential for them individually with a move like building Star Tours. After lots of ego rubbing at this press conference, Eisner politely stated that Disney was never after the Star Wars characters; that they were only after George. In some respects this may be true. Eisner saw two very successful film franchises with Star Wars and Indiana Jones, in which Lucas was the gatekeeper of. Eisner knew that getting those characters in the parks would dramatically raise park attendance. He also saw some of Walt’s qualities in George Lucas. A creative storyteller intrigued by technology. It was also advantageous to Lucas because he had full financial ownership of the characters. This meant that Lucas could demand millions of toys of his beloved characters to be sold at the park. He would get a large cut of the profits, and this demand would drive more people through the turnstiles and provide more profits for Disney. It was a win/win situation. But Eisner also clearly stated how he wanted to keep George close, because he wanted Disney to make movies with George. Eventually, Eisner’s desires to get companies outside of Disney within Mickey’s gates, and his micromanagement style, would eventually be his ticket out the door. But there is no doubt that his ideas have merit even today.
Stay tuned for my next chapter in this story as we explore Imagineers’ first ideas to develop a Star Wars rollercoaster before settling for a simulator attraction, and how the Star Tours attraction had it’s grand opening in Florida at the Disney MGM Studios.
