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Lost Boy
08-20-2001, 07:51 PM
Fresh from Indiana Jones, here are some secrets for Disneyland's Star Tours:

In the Que Line:

C3P0 is covered with 24K gold plating.
Anthony Daniels recorded the speech and while he was recording the sound track, the Imagineers had him hooked up to a motion control device, which they then fed into the A/A figure of C3P0. So when you see C3P0 do his thing, you are not only hearing Anthony Daniels, you are seeing his movements also.

In the Robot Room:

The little droid that talks to you and begs you to take him with you, and his father up in the control room are Geese from America Sings. Look at their webbed feet. And the antenae on their tails was added to the tip of the goose tail.

On the Ride:

When you fall into the storage bay, look in the lower right corner of the room after Rex straightens out and you will see "The Mighty Microscope" sitting down there as a tribute to the ride that was in this building before Star Tours.

Ever wonder why Rex is so screwed up? Next time take a close look at him. He still has a tag hanging out of his body unit that says "Remove Before Operating". So all of his functions are not quite operational.

At the end of the ride as you are heading for the control room at top speed you will see a guy in the room duck down for cover. That is George Lucas.

I have seen the flight simulators operate from the outside of the ride. You wear seat belts because that thing really rocks and rolls. When you fall at the beginnng, dive into the asteroid and dive into the Death Star Trench, the cabin tips forward at a very steep angle downward. If you weren't strapped in, and you didn't hold on to anything and the way in front was clear of seats and people, you would fly right thru the front screen. As it is, you could be hurt real bad, so that is why the ride won't start unless every seat with a body in it must have the seat belt fastened and locked.

FantasmicFan82
08-20-2001, 08:12 PM
In the first, large, queue room, there are two calls made consecutively. the first is for 'Egroeg Sakul' then one for 'Tom Morrow.'
;) :)

JRob2k1
08-20-2001, 08:18 PM
I could read all your secrets off posts...

Next up...secrets of the Disneyland curbs!!!;) And if you wrote it, I would definetly read it.

One nice thing about Star Tours is that with the demise of the Rocket Rods, I can actually hear C-3PO and R2D2 now!! Before it was like:

"R2, what are you....ZOOM....Turn it off, turn it....ZOOM...beep boop beep...ZOOM....

-JRob

Morrigoon
08-20-2001, 08:50 PM
If there is so much as a wayward candy wrapper on the loading ramps (the walkways from the doors to the starspeeder) the ride will not start. In order to allow people below to watch it from the outside, they have to shut off almost every safety system in the ride, it's THAT sensitive.

That baby really ROCKS!

Gemini Cricket
08-20-2001, 08:56 PM
Here's one:

LightSpeed is achieved by the flight simulator tilting back. You feel like you're being pressed against your seat because gravity is making you.

Kuzcotopia
08-20-2001, 09:09 PM
Will the owner of a red and black landspeeder, vehicle ID: THX1138 please return to your craft. You are parked in a no-hover area.

(THX-1138 was George Lucas' student film).

The baskets above the repair station are marked with imagineer initials and birthdays.

Anthony Daniels is the voice of the Ewok-language announcements over the PA system. The announcements are in Ewokese and were written by Anthony and his son. The sound is slowed down to disguise Anthony's voice.

The door locks on the cabin used to engage right after Rex says, "I know this is probably your first flight, and it's .... mine too.... (lock!)" This was REALLY funny. I suspect it was changed for safety reasons.

During soft-opening, C3PO's exit message told people to remove their safety restraints, but since the doors hadn't opened yet, the mechanism wouldn't unbuckle. Anthony recorded a new message that instead told people to remain seated until the doors opened, and that eliminated the confusion.

Rex features the voice of Paul (Pee Wee Herman) Rubens. His signature laugh and "I meant to do that" are included as a nod to him. He was a very popular celebrity at the time. He was chosen because his shrill voice could pitch over the booming sound effects and the bombastic music.

The Starspeeder 3000 was designed to intentionally look like a flying Winnebego (not confirmed).

During soft opening G24T and G29T were an arguing worker and his supervisor. But during testing it was determined that they were too far apart, and the audience didn't understand that they were talking to each other, so new dialogue was created.

The music on KDROID in the second room was composed by Thomas Dolby, and is an homage to the Cantina Theme.

The Mon-Calamari heads that move in the control room were dubbed Admiral Akbar and Jeff (after the Matt Groening cartoon characters).

The original buckling systems had many problems with trapping guests, and coundn't easily be serviced, since the belts snapped right into the console itself. The ride was re-designed so that there was a buckle that was attached to the console.

When Rex notices the asteroid, he turns on the overhead "return to seat, fasten seat belt sign" with its distinctive airplane "ding" sound.

That's all of them I can think of.... I'll add more if I remember em.


-Kuzcotopia

Ralph Wiggum
08-20-2001, 09:42 PM
If you look on c3p0's own left chest you see an ingraving of an upsidedown mickey

Gregmh48
08-20-2001, 10:16 PM
I love your posts Lost Boy. You should start a series, or maybe even become a Mouse Planet writer!

Gregmh48
08-20-2001, 10:19 PM
A funny story just came to mind about Star Tours. Once I was riding in the center of the back row and there was a tennager and his girlfriend riding on the far right side of the cabin. After the cast member checked our seatbelts on the controls at the front of the cabin, she left and the doors began to close. As the doors were closing, the boy pushed his hand against it and it didn't close all the way. About five minutes later, all of the doors opened and the cast member came back into the cabin. She glanced back at the boy and then pressed the button on the control pannel to make the doors close again. This time, he didn't interfere as his girlfriend was rather embarassed at him. It was the longest time I've ever been in one of those Star Speeders!

Morrigoon
08-20-2001, 10:52 PM
The THX of THX1138 stands for Tom Holden experiment. The experiment was the sound setup we are now so familiar with ("the audience is listening"). Tom Holden was a professor at USC when THX sound was being developed.

(A little bit of Trojan trivia there ;) )

Kuzcotopia
08-20-2001, 11:22 PM
Originally posted by Morrigoon
The THX of THX1138 stands for Tom Holden experiment. The experiment was the sound setup we are now so familiar with ("the audience is listening"). Tom Holden was a professor at USC when THX sound was being developed.

(A little bit of Trojan trivia there ;) )

The movie came way before the sound system. Like 15 years before the sound system.

The original student film was created in 1967.

The first THX mixing room was built at Lucasfilm in 1982. The research created for this mixing studio became the basis for the THX standard.

Tom Holden was a contributor to the system, and the name is a further nod/inside joke about him. But the film was never named after him.

-Kuzcotopia

TokyoInsider
08-21-2001, 12:38 AM
Trivia question:

According to the operational manuals, which seat is the most turbulent on board Star Tours?

Mr D
08-21-2001, 05:07 AM
From what I have heard its the rearward most seats that are the most turbulent but I always try to get up front, funny bit of history was that some time ago there was cracks that developed in the cabins but when I asked a CM last december he said those were all fixed, hmmmmm. Hopefully someday they will update the theme to at least the last episode of Star Wars. Oh and btw I just remembered that the rockiest seat isn't a seat but the area for the wheelchairs, correct me someone.

oregonzooron
08-21-2001, 08:36 AM
The Mon-Calamari heads that move in the control room were dubbed Admiral Akbar and Jeff (after the Matt Groening cartoon characters).

If I'm not mistaken, isn't Admiral Akbar the actual name of the Mon Calamari Admiral in the Star Wars trilogy? (I have no ikea who Jeff is...)

ron

JeffG
08-21-2001, 09:06 AM
Originally posted by Lost Boy
At the end of the ride as you are heading for the control room at top speed you will see a guy in the room duck down for cover. That is George Lucas.


That is actually an urban legend. The guy at the end of the film is really a stage hand at ILM that was drafted for the part because he happened to be on the set that day. I got this information from an old WDW employee newsletter that contained an article debunking common urban legends about the parks.

I've never really understood why this rumor started since the guy doesn't look much like Lucas.



Originally posted by Morrigoon
The THX of THX1138 stands for Tom Holden experiment. The experiment was the sound setup we are now so familiar with ("the audience is listening"). Tom Holden was a professor at USC when THX sound was being developed.

The movie "THX-1138" is actually a feature-length expansion of George Lucas' student film short-subject titled "THX 1138-4EB: Electronic Labyrinth". The letter/number combination was actually the license plate number of Lucas' car at the time.

The sound system was named after the film, but since Tom Holman (not Holden) was the principal engineer on the project it was also given the alternate meaning in his honor.

-Jeff

Cadaverous Pallor
08-21-2001, 09:09 AM
originally posted by oregonzooron
If I'm not mistaken, isn't Admiral Akbar the actual name of the Mon Calamari Admiral in the Star Wars trilogy? (I have no ikea who Jeff is...)

Admiral Akbar WAS the name of the Mon Calamari Admiral in the Trilogy, but the added "Jeff" is a nod to Matt Groening. Groening does (did?) a comic strip called "Life in Hell" before the Simpsons, and it includes two gay characters in fez hats called Akbar and Jeff.

Thanks for the Star Tours tips, all. Isn't there also a hidden mickey when you come out of lightspeed the first time, made out of stars in the center of the screen?

Oh, and Kuzcotopia is right about THX. Just backing you up there, Kuz. :) But Lucas did attend USC....maybe he was influenced by this professor Tom Holden, and used his initials in his movie (and later his sound system)? I've never heard of Tom Holden before, and I'm a pretty rabid SW fan, so I kind of doubt it.

I also have a funny Star Tours story. The CM was checking to see that everyone had their belts on by looking at the little panel in the wall. Since we can see the lights in the panel, it was obvious that someone in the back hadn't buckled up. The CM looked at the back row and said something like "looks like some JERKS haven't buckled their seat belts yet!" The guys in the back laughed, and we realized that they were CM's too. Really fooled us for a second there!

An update to ST would be cool, but I bet (if it does happen) it won't happen until Episode 3 is out. E3 is supposed to be Lucas' last SW movie, and at the very least, it's going to be the one to leave the most lasting impression.

I read that when they were making the ride, it originally started out as a 20 min movie, but that got people too nauseous. Remember that back then, simulators were still brand-new technology. They made it shorter and shorter until they got it down to the 4 min you experience today. Rex originally "bordered on psychotic" but was toned down to "inexperienced" to make people less nervous.

That's all I've got....any more?:cool:

Cadaverous Pallor
08-21-2001, 09:13 AM
Ok, JeffG posted while I was writing my post....I've heard the idea that it was Lucas' licence plate before but I've never seen any decent evidence of such. I do know that THX1138 was used as a licence plate in Lucas' American Graffiti.....

Whatever, we're getting a bit off topic anyway.:D

DisneylandKid
08-21-2001, 12:32 PM
Does anyone know if and how much George Lucas worked on Star Tours?

Morrigoon
08-21-2001, 12:37 PM
Cool, thx for the corrections guys! ;)

Cadaverous Pallor
08-21-2001, 01:32 PM
Lucas TOTALLY worked on Star Tours, writing the story, filming the movie, etc. He got paid for it well, too - he still gets royalties from any related merchandise in the park.

Morrigoon
08-21-2001, 07:48 PM
Rumor is, he DIDN'T get paid... isn't that the source of his being at odds w/Disney now?

Kuzcotopia
08-21-2001, 08:15 PM
Originally posted by Morrigoon
Rumor is, he DIDN'T get paid... isn't that the source of his being at odds w/Disney now?


HAHAHAHA! You've got to be kidding!

That's what lawsuits are for! Do you really think that someone with the money to pay lawyers and the political untouchability of Lucas would have any trouble suing Disney for full payment?



That aside, I don't think there are any tensions between Lucas and Disney. Disney just built their FOURTH Indiana Jones attraction.

-Kuzcotopia

JRob2k1
08-21-2001, 09:00 PM
If there is any tension between Lucas and Disney, it's over trivial matters. I think Lucas wants to update Star Tours but might also want to upgrade the whole attraction to, maybe with new effects...Just something to make the ride more unique/memoriable then it is now. And Disney maybe just not at the point where it wants to spend money on an upgrade and that could be causing the tension...if any?

Like I said this is just a generalization, I really have no idea!:eek:

-JRob

Napsto
08-22-2001, 11:48 AM
i love all thos star tours secrets.

Sheila
08-22-2001, 02:15 PM
Originally posted by Kuzcotopia
The baskets above the repair station are marked with imagineer initials and birthdays.

Wow, you have some great trivia here!

Just one little thing, I've always heard that the repair station baskets were the Imagineers' initials and their *phone extensions*, which would make sense since the number of characters on the baskets don't look like numerical birthdays.

Can anyone clear this up?

Thanks!
Sheila