Mouse Extra

We told you a few weeks back about an upcoming article in the Star Wars Insider magazine regarding the Star Tours attraction as it celebrates its 21st anniversary. One teaser to the article was possible information on the future of the attractions. Unfortunately, and predictably, there is nothing new about any Star Tours 2.0. In fact, it just rehashes some of the information we already new such as George Lucas stating at Celebration III in 2005 that there was a desire by Disney to update the attraction or his quote about using a more open venue for the next attraction which comes from a 2007 interview.

But thats the bad news. The good news is the article itself is a real whopper occupying 15 pages and going into incredible detail on the process that made Star Tours. There are early conceptual drawings and lots of fun photos. The article goes in depth into the process that brought Michael Eisner and Lucas together. There are some details on the early ideas such as a time-traveling romp through Lucas’ galaxy or an underwater high speed adventure in the Dagobah swamps. Did you know the orginal captain of your ship was going to be “Crazy Harry” a gung-ho vet from the (then undetailed) Clone Wars. There are lots of fun details on the construction of the animatronics, the launch of the attraction and the merchandising from the ride itself.

There are also lots of sidebars that add considerable flavor to the article. These include blurbs on the Orlando, Paris and Tokyo versions of the attraction. There are short interviews on some of the people involved like Dennis Muren from ILM, Tom Fitzgerald a writer and director for the attraction and Timothy Zahn an author of many popular Star Wars novels, among others. There also myths that are dispelled such as the urban legend that George Lucas actually appears in the ride’s film.

So for you Star Tours fans, I would definatley pluck down the $7.99 and grab this magazine.