More details on the new 3D Star Tours ride at Hollywood Studios

The fans’ excitement is growing as it’s just one month until the May 20 official opening of “Star Tours -The Adventures Continue” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney has been helping to grow that excitement with a mall tour, new online presence and offering more details on the ride itself.

Taking place between Star Wars movies three and four, Star Tours will take riders to multiple destinations where they will interact with characters from throughout the Saga. And it will all be in 3D. With digital filming, a dramatic musical score and motion simulator-based technology, guests will be immersed in the Star Wars galaxy like never before. Walt Disney Imagineering worked with Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic to bring the out-of-this-world attraction to life.

Star Tours, which had thrilled Disney Parks guests since the 1980s, was “powered down” at Hollywood Studios in 2010 so Imagineers could begin work on the new attraction.

In a new twist, guests may be able to enjoy the attraction multiple times without ever experiencing the same adventure. Fifty-four different story combinations are possible to experience aboard the new Star Tours and all of the storyline’s twists and turns will be random.

Whether it’s a battle with Darth Vader and his legion of stormtroopers or a plea from Princess Leia to help her save the Rebellion, guests will find themselves in the middle of the action – literally – in the 3D, multi-sensory attraction.

Disney’s sneak peek mall tour is continuing in Florida for three more weekends (Details Here). The tour was first announced on the new Star Tours Facebook page. Now Disney has also set up a website at startourspassport.com where you can make and print out a passport to have stamped after riding the attraction to show which planet you visited.

Spokesbot Aly San San.
When entering the attraction queue area, guests will be entering a bustling spaceport. The famed Star Wars droid duo, C-3PO and R2-D2, greet them as the Starspeeder 1000 is prepped for service. Anthony Daniels, the voice of C-3PO and the only actor to appear in every theatrical chapter of the Star Wars Saga, reprises his role as the golden protocol droid. Daniels worked with Walt Disney Imagineering to record new dialogue for the attraction. Guests are also introduced to AC-38, a hotshot droid pilot known simply as “Ace,” and Aly San San (voiced by actress Allison Janney), the “spokesbot” for the spaceport.

After winding through the spaceport, guests board the Starspeeder 1000 spacecraft and prepare for Star Tours Flight #1401. Through a series of mishaps, however, C-3PO finds himself in the pilot’s seat instead of Ace, and it’s up to him and R2-D2 to navigate their passengers through the galaxy. However, the tyrannical Empire is out to stop the Starspeeder at all costs. C-3PO and R2-D2 take the controls and try to outwit and outrun the Imperial forces and a galactic bounty hunter hired to pursue the spaceship and its passengers.

Pilot AC-38 - AKA Ace.
Utilizing the 50 plus random story combinations, the Starspeeder then embarks on a wild trip through the galaxy, visiting several planets made famous in the Star Wars films. Guests may ride through the forests of the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk, kick up some sand across the desert in a podrace on Tatooine and even submerge into the deep waters of Naboo. Or, they may weave through the busy city planet of Coruscant, blast through the blizzards of Hoth and even race through the Death Star.

And along the way guests may encounter Star Wars characters that offer to help (or hinder) their journey, including Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Darth Vader and Boba Fett. “Skytroopers,” a legion of stormtroopers created just for the Star Tours attraction story, might even join in the chase.

Star Tours opens May 20, 2011, the same day the annual Star Wars Weekends event begins. Star Tours and Star Wars Weekends event activities are included in regular admission to Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. The attraction will open at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., on June 3.

• Be sure to follow Orlando Attractions Magazine as we bring you sights, sounds and information from the Grand Opening of Star Tours 3D on May 20.

Photos provided by Jose Castillo.

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