Star Tours: Merci et Bon Voyage! Presentation
Full transcript of the presentation given by Imagineer Laurent Cayuela, at the Last Call for the Endor Express event
At 21:15 on Wednesday the 16th of March 2016, inside Videopolis Theatre at Disneyland Paris, Laurent Cayuela (Creative Writer) — with special guests Patrice Girod (Star Wars expert) and Luq Hamett (voice of Captain Rex) — gave a 40 minute presentation all about Star Tours.
The presentation was part of Last Call for the Endor Express, a special 4 hour event to mark the closing of the attraction, after almost 24 years of service!
Disney invited me to the event, but I was unfortunately unable to attend. Plus, it turns out, the Star Tours: Merci et Bon Voyage! presentation was entirely in French. However, Nicolai from @DLPTreasures was there, and shot an excellent video of it. So I thought it would be helpful to, with the skills of @Mangsney, transcribe and translate the whole thing into English, so that everyone can understand.
Announcement: Ladies and gentlemen, dear interplanetary travellers, welcome to Videopolis Theatre for our Star Tours: Merci et Bon Voyage! presentation. Please give a warm welcome to our Walt Disney Imagineering representative, Laurent Cayuela.
Laurent: Oh right. I’d been warned there were a lot of people and… I didn’t really get it. There are a lot of people! Thank you, good evening, welcome to Videopolis Theatre. Thank you, to all of you, for this special evening. My name is Laurent Cayuela, I’m a Creative Writer at Walt Disney Imagineering, along with some people I can see hiding here; they’re hiding very badly! Thank you all for being here. We are lucky to be on the stage of the Jedi Training Academy so we have the perfect set, with the perfect guests, such as R2-D2 as well as two more surprise guests later tonight.
I’m sure you remember your first flight onboard a StarSpeeder 3000? Unless it’s going to be after this presentation, in which case, you’re just in time! Anyway, yes, we all remember. But there’s an entire story that comes before that first flight, so we’re going to go back to the origins of the creation of this fantastic space adventure.
R2-D2: (beeping sounds)
Laurent: Yes, R2, but not all stories can start with “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...”
R2-D2: (beeping sounds)
Laurent: No, I promise you. This story doesn’t take place in a galaxy far, far away. Does anyone know when the very first interaction between George Lucas and Disneyland was?
I hear 1987 for the opening of Star Tours in California. But before that, there was… there was 1986 for Captain EO. And I heard the right answer somewhere over there. No… earlier. 1985? 1955! July 17th 1955. Indeed, George Lucas, aged 11, was at the opening of Disneyland. And when he entered the park, I’m pretty sure that at the time he had no idea how much he was going to change our lives by creating such a wonderful attraction as Star Tours.
Announcement: “Will the owner of a red and black Landspeeder, vehicle ID THX 1138, please return to your craft. You’re parked in a no-hover area.”
Laurent: And that’s not the first time you’ve heard it! You must’ve heard it in the Spaceport. And if you’re big fans, I’m sure you know what’s hidden in this message. THX 1138 is the title of George Lucas’ very first film, from 1971. 6 years later — and that’s why we’re here tonight — George Lucas created the first trilogy that would inspire the attraction we all know. So a trilogy, originally only three films, you know the whole story, we don’t need to get into that.
To tell us more about the history of this trilogy, and the link with the creation of the attraction, I’m very pleased to welcome a Star Wars expert onto the stage with me… Patrice Girod!
Patrice: Good evening!
Laurent: Good evening, thank you for coming, thank you for being with us tonight.
Patrice: Thank you.
Laurent: So Patrice, can you remind us what the link is between you, the Star Wars universe and France, what it is that makes you our expert today?
Patrice: To cut a long story short, I created the first international Star Wars magazine in 1995, it was called Lucasfilm Magazine in France. And then, during my 20-year old relationship with Lucasfilm, I worked on many projects, I went on shoots, I was lucky enough to be an extra in one of the films. And I also worked on three Star Wars exhibitions that took place in France for Lucasfilm. I guess that makes me an expert.
Laurent: He is a certified expert. Perfect! About the creation of Star Tours, why was George Lucas brought in, and why did George Lucas want to work with Disney?
Patrice: At the time, Michael Eisner had moved from Paramount to Disney with Jeffrey Katzenberg to try to revitalise the company. And Michael Eisner, who was CEO of the Walt Disney Company, was looking into bringing in George Lucas, who was a visionary not unlike Walt Disney himself, and he wanted a Star Wars attraction in the Disney parks. So they talked, they agreed, but Star Tours would take a long time to build. So, that’s how Captain EO with Michael Jackson was born, very quickly, in a meeting, because it was only a short film, a clip…
Laurent: Just a film? It’s not just a film!
Patrice: …just a short film that turned out to be the first 3D film. So that’s how Captain EO was born, and it took them 2 years to develop the Star Tours attraction. And here you can see a photo of George Lucas, without a beard. He shaved it off according to the company code at the time; all Disney employees had to be clean shaved, they couldn’t have a moustache. So, being a big Disney fan, George agreed to the code.
Laurent: And I can see he even has a name tag. Perfect. For the record, at the time, before deciding on Star Wars, the Imagineers had thought about another film, a Disney film that wasn’t picked in the end: Tron. And I should point out that a Tron-themed attraction is going to open in Shanghai in 3 months. So if they’d chosen it at the time, we wouldn’t be here tonight.
Patrice: That’s for sure.
Laurent: Was the project always like the Star Tours we’ve known until now?
Patrice: No. The very first project, the very first synopsis written by Tom Fitzgerald, who is a Disney Imagineer, was entitled Cosmic Winds, and in it R2-D2 and C-3PO were present within the shuttle. But everything was rewritten, and since George Lucas was himself a fan of Disney theme parks, he didn’t want Star Tours to be like the Star Wars films, and he wanted it to have a funny side. And he liked the attraction the Jungle Cruise, in the United States.
Laurent: Yes. Do you all know about the Jungle Cruise?
Audience: Yes!
Patrice: It’s a boat trip with a skipper who tells you stories, who shoots at the hippos, and who brings the action to the audience. That’s how Rex was born, the robot. They said Rex would pilot the shuttle, he would be a new robot who’s never piloted before. He would be the link between the film and the audience.
Laurent: So Rex was a George Lucas creation?
Patrice: A creation, and in the end, a tribute to another Disney attraction.
Laurent: We’ll see that there are other attractions. So do you remember your very first flight onboard a StarSpeeder 3000?
Patrice: Yes, it was a year after the opening in 1987 in the United States. It was my first trip, in 1988, to Skywalker Ranch, I had a meeting there. I was very young and I stopped in Los Angeles to go on the attraction and it was incredible at the time. I remember laughing throughout the attraction because I thought it was extraordinary; I was in Star Wars!
Laurent: Do you still laugh now, or have you calmed down?
Patrice: It’s all right now. I’ve been on it many times since.
Laurent: Do you have a favourite moment in the attraction? And if so, which one?
Patrice: Well of course, just like any fan, it’s when Rex decides to attack the Death Star and so you go into the trench to destroy it. For the record, at the time, that sequence was not in the scenario; George Lucas did not want to redo that sequence. Tom Fitzgerald the Imagineer, told him, “No George, people want to do it. They want to attack the Death Star again just like in the film”. Tom Fitzgerald finally won, they put the sequence in the film, and personally I’m glad they did.
Laurent: And then in the end you blow up the Death Star, again. Great… Well, thank you very much for spending some time with us.
Patrice: I’m very moved. It’s the end of an era.
Laurent: Yes, but Disneyland will never be completed.
Patrice: In the end, this attraction is 30 years old. That’s quite a long time.
Laurent: A beautiful adventure. Thank you very much for coming.
Patrice: Thank you very much! “Bon voyage”, see you soon!
Laurent: So that’s how the attraction was born, its origins and the collaboration with George Lucas. Once the entire attraction has been created, all the mechanics, all the technical stuff I won’t talk about because I’m bad at it, the Imagineers wanted to make sure that all the visitors coming to the attraction would have a good experience, whether they knew the films or not. And so, what ordinary people call the queue, we Imagineers call the pre-show. It helps set the right atmosphere for the visitors. If you know the attraction very well, the pre-show has no secrets for you. It’s divided into three areas that all have their importance.
The first area is the darkest one, where there isn’t much to see. Why? It’s to visually cut you off from the outside world, so that your eyes get accustomed to the darkness you’ll experience in space. So this first room is intentionally very dark.
You then step into the second area, which is the Spaceport, and you’re going to see some characters that you know from the films. The two most famous, of course: C-3PO and R2-D2. Once you become familiar with these characters, whom you’ve recognised, we start giving you some information about new elements from the attraction. So there’s a giant screen displaying logos and images about a galactic tour operator named Star Tours. And that’s also the moment when we give you a chance to see the vehicle in which you’ll be stepping; that’s when you discover the StarSpeeder 3000. The one you see isn’t in good condition, but there’s a commercial that sings the praises of this spacecraft. If you listen carefully to what C-3PO is saying, he’s not entirely sure how reliable these spacecraft are either, but never mind, let’s carry on…
You arrive in the third area, what we call the Droidnostics Centre, the well-known Sector 2. In Sector 2, you find yourself in some sort of warehouse, where you can see spare parts. And what C-3PO was trying to tell you starts making a little more sense because you’ll see many items and spare parts, but are these spare parts new, or have they been salvaged from mangled droids or shuttles? It’s not very clear. Things get even more gripping when you get to the two droids repairing the pilots. If you pay attention to the two droids, judging by their behaviour you can start getting very doubtful because these two droids don’t seem very reliable, and they’re the ones currently repairing the pilot of the StarSpeeder you’ll be taking. But don’t worry, I’m sure whichever spacecraft you take, it’ll be the first flight for the droid, so everything will of course be fine… So there, once you’ve gone through these three pre-shows, you’re ready to board.
To make our pre-shows and all our atmospheres even richer, we like adding a lot of detail. We use many details to make all the elements more believable, and we like doing references and nods to the universe known to the biggest fans. So even outside, the covers over the FastPass machines are these lovely orange roofs that are in fact inspired by the sails on Jabba the Hutt’s barge in Return of the Jedi. We really tried to use visual elements from the films.
The Droidnostics Centre also is a goldmine for us, to put in many small details; small details you might have seen, that move, that don’t move, that are easy to spot, or are more difficult. We like playing with that. So for example, the first detail you’ll find is a huge canon, located on a StarSpeeder 3000. That’s one element. There you see the whole canon. Further, you can find a piece of canon; on the picture, it’s to the right of the big ball. That’s a piece of canon. On the bottom left hand side, you can see a more oval-shaped object, with two antennas; that’s in fact a sort of frame for a Speeder Bike, as seen also in Return of the Jedi. If we go a little further into the attraction, you will find some droid spare parts. Don’t be mistaken, all that is gold is not necessarily C-3PO, but that must be a protocol droid from the same generation as our friend C-3PO.
Those are Star Wars references, but we also like to make Disney references. For the next one, under a walkway you can see some sort of old computer with tape reels. And this old computer is a real old computer. For this prop, this detail, this accessory, we actually reused something that — watch out, I’m going to use a technical term here, I’m scared as well — SIU: Show Interface Unit. In broad terms, it’s a computer that used to control audio-animatronics. So, big machines with big reels and lights everywhere. Once it wasn’t needed anymore, we reused it in our set. One of the last elements that can be found — not necessarily in the queue — here is a photo of an attraction that used to be in Tomorrowland, between 1976 and 1985, called Adventure Thru Inner Space. That attraction was located in California, exactly where Star Tours was built. And this big set element, which was called the Mighty Microscope— if you know the film within the Star Tours adventure very well — you might have seen it because it is in one of the scenes. So that’s where it came from, from that part.
So, we’ve talked about the creation, we’ve talked about the various atmospheres, we’ve talked about the details. Now we’re going to talk — I’m going to get my card out now, for real — we’re going to talk about the characters. And since you must be sick of listening to me by now, you’re going to participate. So Alex, wake up, it’s game time. Alex has been asking me all week: “What’s the game? What’s the game?” It’s happening now! So the game is, I’m going to quote a line of dialog, and you have to give me the name of the character from Star Tours. I’ll give you an example. If I say (beeping sounds) R2-D2! Thank you. OK, now it’s going to get harder. Watch out, because I’m going to say the line without any emotion, so that it doesn’t help. “I’m listening to K-DROID.” G2-9T, let’s check the video.
G2-9T (on screen): I’m listening to K-DROID, my favourite station. This is the latest hit from Danny and the Droids. It’s called “I Wanna Weld Your Hand”.
Laurent: Well done. Let’s now move on to the iconic phrase of the evening, which gave us the idea for the name for this evening. Who says, “Thank you, and have a pleasant tour”? It’s not C-3PO. That’s right, she doesn’t have a name, but let’s check the video!
Safety Video Spokeswoman (on screen): You’ll be boarding in just a few moments. Thank you, and have a pleasant tour.
Laurent: That’s my favourite line. All right, pay attention because the next one is in English, and it’s a long one. “Haven’t you people ever seen intelligent life before?” G2-4T, that’s right. Let’s check the video.
G2-4T (on screen): Hey! What’s the matter? Haven’t you people ever seen intelligent life before? Heh heh heh.
Laurent: I forgot to do the “heh heh heh”, sorry. OK, another long one, but in French this time, that should be easier for me. “We do hope you enjoyed your tour of Endor”. C-3PO. You can hear another voice at the beginning as well, we’ll talk about it later.
C-3PO (on screen): We do hope you enjoyed your tour of Endor, and will come back soon. Now please remain seated until the captain has opened the exit doors.
Laurent: Thank you, C-3PO. For C-3PO, the character and the voice, both in the film and in the attraction, were done by the British actor Anthony Daniels. For the record, he even did the French voice for our attraction. He went to Imagineering to act out the character, so that the animators could animate his audio-animatronic character as closely as possible to his own body language. So Anthony Daniels worked on the project, for real.
The next one is in English again. “Star Tours, what are you doing here?”. Yes, but he does have a name. Red Leader, yes!
Red Leader (on screen): Star Tours?!? What are you doing here? This is a combat zone, it’s restricted!
Laurent: “It’s restricted”. The character you’ve just seen, Red Leader, was created for the attraction, and as an anecdote, he was played by — I have his name here — Steve Gawley, who was part of the ILM team and who worked in the Model Shop. Many characters you see in Star Tours are in fact ILM employees who were given roles for the attraction. I shouldn’t say attraction… this adventure.
The last one. OK, I mustn’t put any emotion in it otherwise you’ll know right away who it is. “Comets”. So what’s his name? I want the complete nomenclature! OK, RX-24, better known as Rex. Well done!
Rex (on screen): Welcome aboard! This is Captain Rex from the cockpit. I know this is probably your last flight, and it’s… mine, too! Ha ha.
Laurent: There was something weird about that one, no? Rex should have been here, but he has to get ready for his first flight, so he won’t be able to come. I hope you don’t mind that I won’t have Rex himself here on the stage, but I have the pleasure of welcoming the man who gave him his voice and his personality, the actor… Luq Hamett!
Luq: Good evening!
Laurent: Good evening.
Luq (as Rex): Good evening Laurent. Ready for your last flight?
Laurent: Always, always. Thank you for being here as well tonight.
Luq: I’m very happy to be here. And wow, lots of people here.
Laurent: Yes, they didn’t lie to us, did they? So, I need to get my card out again — tadaa! So, yes, a good question! By any chance, have you lent your voice to other Disney characters before Rex?
Luq: I’m going to try to make you guess. I’ve got a very very difficult one, “Oh no, not Dip”. And here’s an easier one, “P-p-please…”. Roger Rabbit! And also, you know I’ve always dubbed Michael J. Fox, and Michael J. Fox worked on a great Disney film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He voiced Milo, who was drawn. He did the voice because Milo’s build is similar to Michael’s.
Laurent: So, we’re now getting to the core of the matter: Rex. You are the voice of Rex.
Luq (as Rex): Yes, Laurent, I’m listening!
Laurent: So, when you were called to do Rex’s voice, did you know about Star Tours? Had you already been on the attraction? Could you visualise the character?
Luq: Of course not. You know, I was a young French man, at the time I didn’t have the means to travel. I heard earlier — because I’ve learned things tonight — I heard earlier that the first attraction was from 1987, yes? I was in France, and I was young, I was a young actor. So when they called me, they called me to do a voice session, and they told me, “There’s going to be a big Disney park opening in France — Oh wow, great! — and there might be something suitable for you”. I’d started doing voices for a lot of cartoons here. At the time, I’d started my TV shows on France 2, Hanna-Barbera Dingue Dong… Yeah! Scooby Dooby Doo! And so they called me, because as soon as there’s a small part somewhere, I’m not the only one, and I found myself in a studio. But you know, it’s…
Laurent: OK, wait. So when I think about voice recording, I imagine you with big headphones over your ears, with a big table, with a giant screen…
Luq: Not at all!
Laurent: …and the images are displayed.
Luq: Not at all, because for this kind of recording, first of all I’d never done the attraction — I went on it later with my children, when I came here — so I just had a photo of the character, of Rex, and I heard the voice in English, and I was told, “You have to do the same”. So I said, “OK, I’ll try”. So you’re in a very small soundproof booth, there’s glass separating you from the Sound Engineer, and from the Artistic Director who’s also there, and they give you the text. And you see, 24 years later you’re on stage talking about something you did for half an hour of your life back in 1991. That’s it!
Laurent: So when you did all those lines you weren’t in a centrifuge going, “Lightspeed”?
Luq: No, not at all! And you know when he says, “Where are the brakes?!” You do it just like that, that’s all…
Laurent: Because I’m convinced we were all…
Luq (as Rex): Oh, sorry!
Laurent: We were all sure that you were falling, that they’d thrown you…
Luq: No, that’s what being an actor is about. You imagine situations, and you act them out!
Laurent: So you didn’t know anything, you didn’t know the character apart from the drawing? When you did the attraction for the first time, it must have been a shock!
Luq: Oh yes, I was scared. I was scared.
Laurent: Did you finally understand some of the lines you’d been given?
Luq: Yes, because so many things suddenly become a lot more prominent! And most of all, seeing this small character, seeing me made of metal, it was a shock, really. I’m pointing this way because he’s standing over there, the character. And so seeing that — (as Rex) “Hello, I am your Captain. Ha, this is my first flight.” — It’s great, you’re sat there, you’re talking to yourself, you know, it’s a rather amazing experience. You tell yourself, “Wait, what?”. I was with my son, who was young at the time, and he was quite disappointed because he’d understood that I was voicing the character, but when he saw Star Wars he couldn’t understand why the character wasn’t in the film.
Laurent: Oh right, he was disappointed. Sorry…
Luq: My oldest son, who’s 19 today, you see.
Laurent: Does he understand now?
Luq: Yes, he got it. He’s studying cinema, by the way.
Laurent: Ah, he’s not resentful, good.
Luq: He fell into the cauldron when he was young. (It’s an Astérix et Obélix reference)
Laurent: Did anyone get that? Perfect! So, what’s your favourite moment from the attraction here in Disneyland Paris?
Luq: What is what? Can you repeat the question?
Laurent: Your favourite moment from the Star Tours attraction here in Disneyland Paris?
Luq: Well, it’s… This character is very funny, because he makes so many mistakes. That’s what I like, all the small mistakes he makes.
Laurent: That’s nice. That reminds me of someone. Well I think we’ve come to the end of my card. But, ever since you got on the stage, all the people here, here, here, and especially one person in the booth, will get mad at me if I don’t quote this one line.
Luq: Which one?
Laurent: “Luq, I am your father.”
Audience: Boooooh!
Laurent: Thank you. I’m not an actor. Anyway, thank you very much for…
Luq: Thank you, thank you everyone! I was very pleased to see you tonight.
Laurent: …being here with us tonight. Thank you very much.
Luq (as Rex): Have a pleasant last tour!
Laurent: All right, we’ve talked about everything: the creation, the sets, the details, the voices, the characters. The only thing missing to finish this evening on a high note… Maybe I should take out another card, on which I have statistics I didn’t bother learning?
Did you know, Rex has told us 3,250,000 times that it was his first flight since 1992? And he thinks we’re going to believe him, does he? And then, something very serious, from the maintenance teams… The StarSpeeders, since 1992, have travelled 9,750 billions kilometres at light speed! I don’t know where they are now, but that’s quite a long way away.
So, now that we’ve mentioned all these hilarious statistics, we can now end with a short video. Because we’ve talked about everything to do with the creation of this attraction, but we can’t not mention all the people who brought life to this adventure, all the people who have welcomed you to this attraction, who have looked after you during your flight: all the Cast Members. We managed to make a short video that brings together the Cast Members who were working on the attraction here last week, as well as some of the Cast Members who were there in 1992, who opened the attraction. So, to finish off this evening, I will leave you with these Star Tours Cast Members, from the very first to the very last.
Laurent: Thank you to all the Cast Members who welcomed you throughout the years. Thank you, for this evening, for staying here with us. And thank you most of all to the two people who were brave enough to come on stage with me to host this evening: Patrice and Luq! Patrice Girot and Luq Hamett! Thank you very much to both of you, for being here with us.
Luq: Thank you, Laurent.
Patrice: Thank you.
Luq: Shall we go one last time?
Laurent: Shall we go one last time?
Luq: Now’s the time, we have to get on it.
Laurent: This is your last chance to go to the forest moon of Endor. So, do not miss the next Endor Express, the Star Tours service to the moon of Endor.
Luq (as Rex): My last flight.
Laurent: Thank you everyone. May the Force be with you. And, most of all, Merci et Bon Voyage!
Luq (as Rex): Bon Voyage!
Patrice: Have a good evening! ■
Video & Screenshots: @DLPTreasures
Transcription & Translation: @Mangsney
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