Episode 11: Star Tours – Featuring Kris Van de Sande

For episode 11 of the Magical Disneyland Paris Podcast Andrew and Simon are joined by self titled Star Wars geek Kris Van de Sande to discuss the recently closed Star Tours attraction at Disneyland Paris. Feedback Send us your feedback, email us at: [email protected] or let us know via Twitter @MagicalDLP. RSS Feed: https://www.magicaldlp.co.uk/category/podcast/feed iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/magical-disneyland-paris-podcast/id928933247 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/magical-disneyland-paris-podcast?refid=stpr Show Notes (as promised!) From @CafeFantasia. HISTORY In a June 1985 episode of the documentary series “Disney Family Album”, Imagineer Randy Bright first spoke about WED’s simulator project. https://youtu.be/xkWVC6a6iaA?t=24m22s “It’s taking the principle of the flight simulation motion bases that are used to train fighter pilots, and applying it to a miniature theatre, in which 30 to 40 guests would experience (just like they would in real-time) a very visceral experience.” “Can you imagine if we had a simulation experience like that, where we can have simulated Star Wars type fights, in space? We can have all kinds of fantasy adventures.” “This box, that moves and accelerates and does things with you inside of it, can take you ANYWHERE your imagination wants to go.” The flight simulators used in Star Tours were built by Rediffusion Simulation, a company based near Gatwick Airport in West Sussex. Founded in 1946 as Redifon, and renamed Thales in 2000, their simulation business was eventually sold to Texas-based L-3 Communications in 2012. http://atwonline.com/operations/l-3-buys-thales-civil-simulation-business TRIVIA The original Star Tours at Disneyland cost $32 million; almost twice the cost of building the WHOLE of Disneyland in 1955 ($17 million). Imagineer Bruce Gordon wrote a dictionary of what the simulator could do, as Tony Baxter explained in a June 2011 interview with ForceCast: “Unlike a roller coaster that could keep going down a hill as long as you can build tracks going down, the simulator exhausts all its energy after a certain amount of time, of exhausting the hydraulic cylinders. So, you had to then TIME out your story points to meet those beats.” “One of my favourite scenes is being pulled by the magnetic force up to the imperial ship, and we used the Darth Vader theme. We were merely recovering all the energy in those cylinders at that point, but you HAD to do it.” There’s an interesting link between Star Tours and The Big Bang Theory. “The Droid Rooms” track heard in the queue was composer Richard Bellis’ attempt at creating something that SOUNDED similar to the 1982 Thomas Dolby hit “She Blinded Me With Science”. Well, the original theme song (for the initial pilot) for The Big Bang Theory, was “She Blinded Me With Science”. In a 1986 episode of the TV special “The Disney Sunday Movie”, dedicated to George Lucas’ Star Tours, C-3PO first performed his legendary rap. 😂 As long as Paul Reubens’ voice was used in the park (Captain REX in the original Star Tours) he had a free pass to go to Disneyland, anytime he wanted. Naturally he went ALL the time. So, as you can imagine,