From Film to Park
Star Wars Land will be here sooner than you know it
Story by Cory Jaynes
The Star Wars series has shown viewers a universe of adventure and magic that fans have been wishing to be a part of for years. Disney has recently announced that fans will be able to visit the Star Wars universe and sit in the pilot seat when they open Star Wars Land at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. While Disneyland’s Star Tours ride has adapted various scenes from the series, there are still some scenes that have unique experiences that Star Tours can’t just replicate.
While Disney has given some vague descriptions on two attractions so far, let’s hope for some more rides in this new themed land. As well the universe of Star Wars has stories and experiences that have yet to be seen on screen yet, so let’s go over some experiences we want in Disneyland’s Star Wars Land.
The speederbike scene in Return of the Jedi is one of the most memorable scenes in the series and the most memorable yet be adapted by Star Tours. While the scene may not be able to be perfectly replicated, it can be adapted by Disney’s Imagineers into a motorbike roller coaster running through trees or caves. The motorbike roller coaster is a rare sight with the only other one that I know of in Southern California being located at Knott’s Berry Farm.
If Disney doesn’t want to go with the motorbike roller coaster, they could also make a traditional roller coaster in the style of a podracer.
Yoda’s training of Luke on Dagobah can also be semi-adapted into another ride. This could be turned into a Haunted Mansion style tour of an old Jedi Temple inhabited by the ghost of Yoda as magical things happen around the riders. While there’s not too many things to be directly adapted from the scene this would leave a lot of creative decisions to the Disney Imagineers to flush out this ride.
Disney could also add to it’s selection of shooting gallery rides by adding a ride that let’s you take aim and fire your blasters in various locations of the Star Wars universe. The ride could even end with the iconic trench run from the original Star Wars. Let’s just hope you can shoot better than a Stormtrooper on this ride.
The problem with converting many of the scenes into rides is that Disney’s Star Tours has taken many of the scenes from past Star Wars films and made them a part of the ride.
In November this will include scenes from the upcoming Star Wars movies yet to be released. As it seems that the Star Wars themed land may not launch until after the release of the new trilogy many of the rides may be based on scenes that we have not yet seen or even yet been thought of from the up coming movies.
