Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome, Parkgoers! Join Dustin, Logan, and Nate on Parkgoers Go!, your ultimate theme park podcast for everything Disney, Universal, and beyond. From thrilling roller coasters and must-try theme park foods to immersive attractions, insider park tips, and exciting trivia games, we cover it all. Dive deep into the magic of theme parks, discover hidden secrets, and get expert advice to make the most of every park adventure. Perfect for theme park enthusiasts, families, and thrill-seekers alike!
PGG - Transcript - 82 - Lucas in the Parks
Join us on this episode of Parkgoers Go, where we talk about George Lucas in the parks and may the fourth be with you. Let's go. Hello and welcome to this episode of Parkgoers Go, where we are talking about the one, the only George Lucas. Who this episode is called Lucas in the Park. I thought it was called Lucas Films in the parks. It just says Lucas in the park. Lucas in the parks. Because then later we get into Spielberg and Henson. So. Well, I guess I can cut out half my. What do you mean? You have to change everything now. I mean, once he's gone, I guess that's like half of my segment. So. No no no no no you it's still his inspired stuff. Because when we get to Jim Henson, we still talk about Jim Henson in the park after he dies. True, true. So otherwise there would be like nothing to talk about anyway. God, you say that like, every time. You know that, right? Yeah. On purpose. Oh, okay. Anyway, speaking of no longer in the parks, uh, in this episode, we are going to be focusing on three. What are they called? His representation. It's basically him involved in the park. So it's either his IP in the park or just him working with the theme parks. Okay. Anyway, anyway, and today we're going to be talking about Lucas in the parks with a focus on Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Captain EO. And kicking us off is me. I'm your host, Logan. Are you waiting to do introductions? No. Now you're doing. No, this is introductions. I'm your other host, Nate, and I'll be rounding it out as Dustin. Wait, did you say the three things, though? Yes, I already did. I said that, and then I said, do you want are you fine with me saying all of them or do you should we go around and you're like, no, that's fine. Yeah, no that's fine. I said that literally right before we just did intros. We don't listen to each other. We don't. And we just wait for our turn. Yeah. I am going first though, aren't I? Yeah. I think Dustin said that before and ahead of the synopsis. Or I do the synopsis like the little intro synopsis first. No, no. Do your part first and then give us a little bit of what I meant to say anyway. All right. Well, first let's talk a little bit about Georgie, Mr. Lucas. He is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and entrepreneur, best known as a creator for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Hint hint wink wink. Those are the two that we're talking about today. Two of the most influential franchises in cinema history. He founded Lucasfilm in nineteen seventy one and later Industrial Light and Magic, or ILM, revolutionizing visual effects, sound design, and digital filmmaking. According to Lucas, he was a fan of Disney since he was a kid. Having attended the second day, Disneyland was open, enjoying the immersion and transportation to other worlds. But with the success in the seventies, it wouldn't be until the late eighties that Disney would reach out to him to use his skills for a Disney project. In nineteen eighty four, Michael Eisner became the CEO of Disney, and in a now infamous trip to the park with his teenage son, Eisner realized that teens were bored and that the place needed to be brought into a new era. Tony Baxter was also in agreement, specifically when it came to Tomorrowland and pitched an idea including a modern ride themed to a big blockbuster like Star Wars da da da da. Hey, don't go crazy. Don't go crazy. We might not be able to play that. Who? What? I don't know that song. This one involved Disney reaching outside of the company for creative input, which was odd at the time, but would also mean that they would get Lucas to agree. According to Baxter Disney president of productions Ron Miller. Marty Schuyler, is it Sklar? Sklar, Marty Sklar and Diane. Diane Disney, it's Diane Disney. Miller. Yes. And Diane Disney. Well, yeah. That's his daughter, Diane Disney Miller. Yeah. Because she was married to Ron and Diane Disney. Miller would all go to the meeting with Lucas in a fateful lunch. That would change everything. And if you didn't think that was enough, don't you worry. I have more in store for you because I get to keep going. As we enter our first topic of captain EO. Captain EO. And this is this one's really this is really good for our audience because you know how much they love hearing me talk. Mhm. They're like, oh, yeah, you guys wouldn't believe how many notes and emails and just DMs. I get saying, oh, please talk more. We want to hear you nonstop or for at least ten, fifteen minutes straight. And for to those people, I bless you with this. George Lucas involvement with captain EO was a part of a bigger effort in the mid nineteen eighties to explore new forms of cinematic technology and audience immersion. By this point in his career, Lucas had already transformed modern filmmaking through what he stopped. There he is. Someone wasn't paying attention. And now Star Wars. Star Wars, yeah. Anyway. Sorry. Go ahead Anyway, and was increasingly interested in how technology would expand the way stories were experienced. Lucas was already working closely with Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who was focusing on modernizing Disney theme parks. At the same time, Lucas was collaborating with Disney on Star Tours, which was in development during this period. Eisner encouraged Lucas to help create high quality, technologically advanced attractions that will bring contemporary filmmaking techniques into the Disney parks. Disney was also developing a short 3D Park film starring Michael Jackson. Jackson agreed to participate in Are You Okay? Jackson agreed to participate on the condition that the project. Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? Major creative filmmaker, specifically George Lucas or Steven Spielberg. Although Spielberg was unavailable and Lucas agreed to come on as executive producer and co-writer, Lucas's goal with captain EO was to create a short, high quality seven millimetres stereoscopic 3D science fiction film with production values comparable to that of a theatrical release. The project also incorporated in theatre effects such as lasers, smoke, fog, and synchronized seating, allowing the physical environment of the theatre to interact with the film itself. As executive producer, Lucas helped shape the story and oversaw production, bringing his visual effects company ILM, or Industrial Light and Magic to handle the film's complex effects. Ilm's involvement ensured that the visuals could uphold large format projections, stereoscopic presentation, and repeated daily screenings in a theme park setting. Lucas was also reunited with Francis Ford Coppola, who directed the film. The film's music was composed by James Horner, whose orchestral score added a cinematic foundation to the attraction. Michael Jackson performed two songs in the film We Are Here to Change the World, specifically written for the project and an earlier version of Another Part of Me, which was later released on the album Bad Captain EO opened at Epcot in September nineteen eighty six, with a reported budget generally cited between twenty three and thirty million, making it one of the most expensive films ever produced on a per minute basis at the time. The attraction ran through the late nineteen nineties, returning briefly to review returned briefly in twenty ten following Michael Jackson's death and then permanently closed in twenty fifteen. No, but that was pretty cool. I wish I remembered it. What were you just read? No. Oh, it's out of his head now. We've definitely seen it. When did it? I definitely went in. I remember physically going, but I don't remember anything that occurs on the screen. I don't remember anything before. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which, you know, took its place. But when it came back again, I remember seeing it. And it was cool because on the monitors, on the outside, because they have monitors before you go into the the theater, it showed the behind the scenes and you could see Spielberg and not Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola. Um, working with Michael Jackson on the set. It was cool. It was cool to watch. George Lucas reminds me of your dad. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. I could see that. Yeah. Yeah. They're both. George is his alter ego, George Lucas he's known for. It's a reoccurring theme with him. These revolutionary technologies and stuff to like bring these, you know, obviously with sci fi and everything like that. But just in general, that's true. Is that is that you trying to slowly make your way? Well, no, no, I mean, like, yes, I am making my way to Star Wars, but I'm also just emphasizing, I guess like what? Yeah. What George Lucas is like known for, you know, like why he's made a mark and stuff in both film and obviously theme parks now. Yeah. And by at the time they were doing stuff, it wasn't there was no computer generated anything. So it was all kind of old school Star Wars type of effects and everything was practical. Like, I know there's hooter and then there's that one cat who like can fly. And um, so yeah, no, it's a fun watch. I recommend it for anybody who, you know, wants to. It's short. So it's not like you're, you know, wasting your time if you end up hating it. But it's, it's not a nine movie trilogy, like not trilogy. Correct. It's not even a, it's barely a one film thing. It's, uh, it's just, you know, it's just a short film. It is interesting. It definitely feels, it doesn't feel like Lucas or Coppola, but I guess if you had to pick one, it feels a little bit more like Lucas. It's just a fun little romp. Boop be doop in space with Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson. So but talking about romance in space, talking about space, uh, operas, that's not what we were talking about, but sure, let's talk about the space opera, Star Wars, everyone's favorite Star Wars. No one can hate Star Wars. Everyone loves Star Wars. MM. I said mhm, mhm. Obviously George Lucas says, what is that staple? I guess you could say his like most. Yeah. Most famous franchise I've probably ever created. Not just for George, but for everybody, I guess you could say, um, cultural impact. Well, obviously Star Wars came out in the what was it, the seventies. The Star Wars came out. I didn't look up anything really about the films I'm focusing on. The Empire Strikes Back came out in nineteen eighty. So it was, I think between seventy seven. And he said, I didn't really look anything up. I'm just vibing right now, just waiting for. I have to actually have a lot of resources. A new Hope came out in seventy seven in Empire Strikes Back came out in nineteen eighty. Yeah. Which again was, like we said, revolutionary in terms of technology and filmmaking and all the storytelling and stuff like that. right? So we kind of touched a bit on it. You know, the partnership between George and and Disney and stuff. Obviously, George was a big fan of Disney, but the false initial introduction to Star Wars in the parks was the infamous Star Tours attraction. Star Tours at Disneyland Resort to. His attraction came out in the nineteen eighties, but the conception of it wasn't originally supposed to be Star Wars. It was actually supposed to be a. Disney was looking to make a similar ride based on, um, this action live action film that they created called The Black Hole. Has anyone seen the Black Hole? I have not. Yeah. Uh, no, I have not. But I know you know well, the black hole I, we talked about Star Wars being, like so impactful after all the buzz about Star Wars, people were trying to like, recreate that, you know, create that feeling again, this whole the new frontier of film genres. So Disney created this film called the Black Hole is supposed to be a, I think they described it as a, a space apocalypse or something like that. You know that, you know, things don't go right. Apocalypse. Yeah. Um, it was not a popular film. It did not do very well. So I think it's like Tony Baxter, a Disney legend from an engineer. Um, he again, I think we already talked about this, but he, he, you know, introduced the idea of partnering with George Lucas instead. Um, and that's when, you know, they went over to his ranch and kind of pitched that idea. And, you know, George was very receptive to the idea. He's always loved. He described it in one of the interviews. He was like, what he did with Star Wars was frustrating. And what Disney does with theme parks was also frustrating. So there was a lot of like mutual respect there. So he was very excited to like, kind of like figure out a way to bring these films that he's obviously holds very dearly to life. And that's what Star Tours was born. So Star Tours was the first, I think simulation ride in a theme park is used a military grade flight simulator, which is slated to cost five hundred thousand dollars each, which, I mean, that's a lot of money now, but I'm sure that's even a lot of money back then. And the whole ride is designed to let you, you know, you go in, you're going on this like space to space thing and then something goes, you know, things go awry. You're in the middle of all these battles and stuff like that. Um, and eventually you make it to your destination. Um, but Star Tours opened at Disneyland in nineteen eighty seven and was instantly popular, so popular that they famously had kept the parks open for a sixty hours straight. What, from January nine to January eleventh? It was a Star Wars marathon, if you will, of Star Tours. Anyway, so the ride was very, very, very popular. Eventually they bought the rides to basically, you know, all well, not all the parks, but they brought it to Hollywood Studios. They brought Tokyo, Disneyland, Disneyland, Paris. Um, it was a huge, huge success. That was like a graphic thing. Noise. Yeah. Huge success. That's a Bob's Burgers reference. And if you didn't know, now you're about to know that little segment with the spy. If you've ridden the ride before and if you haven't, there was a segment in the beginning of the ride where it puts up a picture of somebody in the audience, and I was like, oh, they're the rebels Bible, you know, whatever. Um, that was actually the big man himself idea, not Mickey Mouse. George Lucas, the big man. Yeah, the big man for this episode. Um, that was actually his idea that he wanted, you know, something like interactive in the ride, which was cool. I love that. Good idea, good idea. Very. It's about time he had one. Let me know when you're done talking about star Tours. Um, I was just gonna mention, uh. Hey, like, hey, Nathaniel, if you wouldn't mind, let me know when you're done. Go ahead. Well, no, I wanted to say something, but if he was gonna say it, then I wasn't gonna say it. So now you can go ahead, because what I have next is just talking about, like, the updates and stuff. Oh, okay. So I would like to talk a little bit, just a little bit about the original Star Tours. Oh, God, this is gonna take a long time. Rex Ryder no, no, no. When he says just a little bit twice, you know it's gonna be a while. Well, it is funny because currently they have C-3po who is the driver. But apparently that was not wanted originally. So we had the driver whose name was Rex, DJ Rex, on the track. Yes, yes. Okay. So originally he rode the ride and then after they changed it to the new version, he was found in the queue as a broken droid, which you could still see him in the queue. And every so often he'll say some quotes. Um, but yeah, no, now he is in, uh. I believe. Yeah. Oga's cantina as DJ Rex, which is pretty awesome because the original voice, Paul Reubens, who did that ended up making new vocals before he passed away. So that's where he lives on now. I was about to say good for him, but I'm talking about the robot until you just said that. It's like I'm like, good for him. I was gonna say, glad to see him, you know, move up in his career and you're like, uh, he did vocals when Star Tours came out originally. Yeah. But, um, what I recommend is if you never got the opportunity to ride Star Tours, the original look it up online because they once again, this was during a time when CGI didn't exist. So everything had to be done. Practically. You do go out of a hangar, you go through a comet, but at one point you do the trench run from the original Star Wars and listening to some of the Imagineers talking about it originally, George Lucas didn't want that because, you know, why redo that again since you could see it in the movie. But they convinced him. So ILM at the time didn't have files that they could just access, so they had to go in and redo the whole trench run from the movie with all the miniatures and everything, remake some of the miniatures because they didn't have all of them. I bet they love that. I know. Whoever was walking on, I probably loved that if they didn't get to walk on the original films. That's so exciting. Yeah. And mind you, this is about ten years after the first film where the Trench Run came in. So this is, um, they had to redo all that again. And if you, if you ride it, you're or watch it online, you're like, wow, this is very exciting and very fun. So that's, that's all I had to add to that. But yay, yay. Star tours is really cool. Actually reminds me, I really need to go back and see if I can find and watch like the original Star Wars films like before they updated the special effects because I wonder how different that is. Like the original original. Yeah, like original because then they like, they like updated the effects on that famously, like from the new version to the old version to the new one. I just remember that the Star Wars that most people watch today, like of the original trilogy, a lot of those effects are updated. Oh, and it was like, I see you're talking about the movies. Yeah, I'm talking about the movie because you mentioned the trench run and things like that. So not to get too much into it, but yes, you are correct. There's the original version that were shown in the theaters. But mind you, when the movies came out, VHS wasn't a thing. So there was just movie theaters and then a little bit of TV when it moved from movies to TV. He edited some. Yeah, right. And then he came out with VHS, which had some new additions to it. Um, but then once he got to VHS to DVD, once you got to DVD, that's when all the CGI started to come in. And then, you know, with each Blu ray, he just kept on like adding more and more. But fun announcement next year at the beginning of the year, Disney has just announced that they are bringing back the original cut. Oh, perfect. Back in theaters. I don't have to deep dive for her. No, but here's the thing. Uh, Nathaniel, we haven't seen the original cut, you and I. Logan hasn't seen it. Only people who saw it in theaters at the very beginning. That's actually really exciting. And I think I definitely will go to the theaters to watch that. Oh, I'm gonna see it. Yeah, I wanna see what it looks like. It's. I don't think it's gonna be great, but I want to see it. You know, I mean, it's I'm sure that's great. It's revolutionary. Well, speaking of updated effects, torturous was eventually updated. They did update it in twenty eleven to Star Wars the Adventure continues. Um, which is where you got that 3D element of the ride. I wish they would take that out. Oh that's okay. You know, looking at Ratatouille, they might be. Yeah. They also actually, I, I, I'm not gonna lie. Actually I do, I do like the 3D element on this ride and I usually don't even though it does, you know, make it does play with the nausea. I think they do. It's a it's one of the better ones. Anyway, that's also why they threw in like the randomized sequences, which I think that's what Star Tours shines is the randomized sequences, you know, so that every writer is different and unique. Well, unless they have a new movie coming out and then they make sure you get certain they push, push, push, push. Yeah. And then they also, you know, expanded the different with that, expanded the different stories and things like that. And of course, as, as time goes by, we have new Star Wars movies always being released. Um, they'll always updating it, you know, with different different characters and stuff like Kylo and Rey and all that jazz. Yeah. We actually have a lot more about Star Wars. So enough about Star Tours. After the big hit of Star Tours, Star Wars in the parks only got larger, I would say. So between the years of like ninety seven and twenty fifteen, they would regularly have Star Wars Weekends and Hollywood studios, which we've talked about Star Wars weekends before. If you don't know what that is, listen to episode thirty six in our interview talking about that. Um, but they also have different like seasonal events, like the seasons of the force is a big Star Wars, uh, event that's still going on at Disneyland. Another things like hyperspace, mountain overlays and things like that. So, so, so wars has become very integrated in the parks outside of what I'm about to talk about right now, which is obviously, you know, the big one. Oh, I didn't mention they also have things like the Jedi Training Academy, which was like a kids show and kids would come in with like lights, you know, learn how to like be a Jedi and things like that as well as, um, you know, creating like the Star Wars launch Bay, which is soon to be demolished in Hollywood studios as well. Actually, they just put up the, uh, sorcerer's hat for the new, uh, the magic of Disney animation. So that's fun. New thing. But I did want to interrupt for this, uh, really interesting thing that I found. So apparently almost every year there is this thing called Star Wars Celebration. And it happens like in different locations. But in twenty ten, for the fifth one, they held it at Hollywood Studios. And one of the special things they did was they had a Star Wars crossover with the Indiana Jones stunt show, which they called the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom. And, uh, it was, I don't know, it was it was really cool. It opened with Indy going through the temple with the boulder like normal, except for instead of the idol, he was getting a golden lightsaber. And while he's going through the spikes, he runs into Boba Fett. In one of the spikes there was the head of Jar Jar. Okay. Calm down. And then in the next scene with the shopping bazaar, Indy is helping Leia, and they run into C-3po and R2-d2. Uh, when Greedo shows up and mistakens Indiana Jones as Han Solo. And then everybody starts to fight. There's Jawas there and Tusken Raiders, and then Han Solo and Chewie show up, and as well as a bunch of bounty hunters. But then at one point, Darth Maul shows up and pulls out his lightsaber and does like a big twisting trick. And then just like in the movie Indy, well, Indiana Jones movie Indy just pulls out his gun and then shoots him. Oh my God, so much is happening. I know. And at the end, um, instead of, uh, in the big plane sequence, instead of Indy fighting the big Nazi, he fights, uh, Darth Vader. So how long did it run? Well, I believe it only happened for, like, one day or a couple of days. It was, uh, it was one of those celebrations. Um, but it did happen multiple times, uh, during that time and some of the volunteers that they had to do, you know, how they call people from the audience to do the stunts? Uh, some of them were, uh, let's see, Clone Wars actors Dee Bradley Baker, Ashley Eckstein, and Matt Lautner and some actors from the original trilogy like Warwick Davis and the original Boba Fett, Jeremy Bulloch. So yeah. Also, in one of the showings, George Lucas was there in attendance to watch, so I thought that was fun. Fun little thing from the history. But like I said, it only happened like for one day and it was, uh, so that's kind of sad. I would love to see that in person. I think it'd be fun. That sound fun? But anyways, we'll get back to what you were saying. Uh, should I go over the acquisition a little? Sure. Yeah, I guess why not? Eventually, in twenty twelve, George Lucas decided to retire. And I'm guessing that, you know, the partnerships with Disney and stuff was a played a big part of it. But Disney did acquire Lucasfilm for a total of four point five four point zero five billion dollars. Um, which gave Disney control of everything Star Wars, including, you know, movies, TVs, merchandise and everything in the theme parks. So obviously Disney's gonna take huge advantage of this. And that is where we finally, finally got a dedicated land to the Star Wars franchise itself, known as Galaxy's Edge. Announced in twenty fifteen with a close collaboration with Lucasfilm's. Because, of course, even though George Lucas retired, Lucasfilm still lives on. They created the land of Batuu, which is a. How do you say? Uh, Commerce City. Say, uh. It's an ice world, I guess, in the Star Wars universe, but it's not part of the. It's not seen in the films, but it's I guess it's canon. Yeah, they they mentioned it in one of the films, I think. Right. Yeah. So it's canon and that's why you, you know, that's what you know, on the world of Batuu, you enter into the Black Spire outpost. It's supposed to be this like, actually, I don't really know how to describe. Uh, so I won't know where like, what's the vibe? How would you describe the vibe? It's kind of like it's not seedy at all. It's just like a kind of chill. Yeah, it's a it's just an outpost. It's like an intergalactic outpost. You know, you have a lot of different, um, you know, you have a marketplace, you have some resistance influence there. But at the same time you have, you know, the Empire, not the Empire. What are they called? The new first order? The first order? Yeah. Not the new you get, you get, you get different tastes of, of all the like the, the highlights of Star Wars, I guess, you know, the things that most people I think are attracted to, but it's not again, they, they pivoted from the direction of having like a recreation of a Star Wars world, which was very controversial at the time and probably still is. Um, but that opened in twenty nineteen and Disney in California as well as in, I'm sorry, in May twenty nineteen, Disney in California as well as in August in Disney's Hollywood studios here in Florida. The land itself has highlighted attractions are the Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run, which is attraction based off the infamous Millennium Falcon seen in the films, as well as Star Wars Rise of the resistance, which is definitely, to say the least, a groundbreaking attraction in terms of ride technology, storytelling. And it's just everyone loves it, right? It's one of the best theme park rides ever created. I mean, honestly, when it comes to Star Wars rides, I don't hate any of them. You know, it's all just good. It's hard to hate. Yeah. I mean, I mean, the well, the films are another story, but like, it's hard to hate. It's hard to hate on, um, an original idea. I get like, not an original idea, but like the. What am I trying to say? Talking is hard. The, uh, the, um, what is it called? Uh, the excitement, the, um, the overeager, not over eagerness. Um, I don't know. It's like ingenuity. Yeah. Like when you have like a genre of like film or, you know, whatever you have like a genre that is pretty exciting to everyone, I would say, which is space and like, you know, space battles and all that stuff. Like that whole sci fi film, it's hard to hate things where like, like, I mean, he didn't make sci fi per se, but he popularized it, you know? So like when it comes to like the vibe, like I feel like even if you don't like Star Wars in theme parks, it tends to be a very popular attraction, regardless of how you feel about the films. That didn't really make any sense, but I hope somebody in the audience resonates with what I'm saying. I understand, and it's funny because I feel like as we go through all these filmmaker ones, you start to realize that a lot of the technology in the theme parks, like quickly start to move to catch up with these creative stories and worlds that are created by these filmmakers, and Star Wars is one of them. With the motion simulator, the first one in a theme park ever. We got it with Star Tours, and then the first controllable motion simulator we got in the parks, which is Smuggler's Run. We got with Star Wars. And then, as you said, one of the greatest rides now, which is a hybrid of like fifty different types of rides, is, uh, Trackless rise of the resistance. Yeah, yeah. Innovative storytelling. Longer, longer. Yeah. Long rides. You love those. Yeah. And I mean, we also saw the same thing with, uh, with Rowling's works in the Harry Potter universe is also at universal, which I know we're not talking about that, but it's just the, the, the new technology. You never see them using old technology. It's always new technology. Yeah. Only the best for innovative IPS. I would say it's simply the best. Um, I'm gonna quickly touch on it even though it's not around anymore. Touch on it, honey. Um, but it is still Star Wars, so obviously we want to talk about it. Uh, the Star Wars Galactic starcruiser. Speaking of borders. Oh, my gosh, I completely forgot about that one. Um, we put it out of your memory, put it out the memory so that the pain doesn't haunt. Stop it. So Disney did, um, in twenty twenty two, they opened the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, which was a Star Wars hotel. Um, but it was more than a Star Wars hotel. It was a Star Wars experience, if you will. It was a two night stay, I think three days, three days, two nights. Um, in this fully immersive, basically live action role playing experience where you're going on this cruise ship, which is a intergalactic cruise ship, if you will, I will. Well, you wish you were. I know it's a single tour. Yeah. Um, well, you basically role play as you know, characters in Star Wars universe. Um, those there were different, um, what are they called when you act on the spot? Oh, improv. Um, improv. Mhm. Different improv, um, actors throughout, um, with some, you know, some scripts and directions in terms of plot. Um, but there was different missions that you can go on, you can basically have basically free reign of the entire area that would be like sort and meet ups and activities such as like lightsaber training as well as like special, like, you know, bars like the hyperspace lounge and themed eats and stuff with cuisine based on the Star Wars universe. Um, and performances from I forget her name, which I guess it doesn't really matter now because you're never gonna see her again, but, um, never say never. Yeah. She was just really this really cool character that was like fully full prosthetics and everything looked like an alien. Looked like someone out of actually, um, if you guys have ever seen fifth Element, I know what you're referring to. Yeah. Yeah. That got that one I forgot. Um, reminds me a lot of though they don't look the same. This girl actually kind of reminds me of Toadette from Super Mario, but, um, it was the same same vibes as like, an operatic space performance and stuff. It was honestly one of the. I think it was one of the coolest things that Disney has ever done. Um, but unfortunately it only lasted a year and a half, I think. Um, it closed in twenty twenty three, uh, because not a lot of people were going because on top of everything, it was very, very expensive. So again, another example of, you know, very innovative ideas and very ambitious ideas when it comes to Disney and Lucas, um, combining, you know, to make something new and exciting. Um, unfortunately they did, You know, some would say they missed the mark on this one. Some would say maybe it was just bad marketing. Maybe it was just, you know, again, maybe it's just the price tag and maybe it was just Maybelline. Maybe it's Maybelline. Um, you know, but it is an honorable mention. And again, unfortunately you can't do it now. I would love to do it. I, you know, I wanted to do it so bad, but who knows, maybe maybe they'll bring some iteration back. And I think they have kind of teased that they might do that leaving the door open, if you will. Right now it's office space because so somebody, somebody walking in in those star cruisers, I wonder if they redecorate it or not. And just to add a little bit, the or at least my opinion about it, the. I feel like this idea is one of those ideas that we like back in the nineties, we would have seen one hundred percent without even a second thought, right? It's this weird idea out of the box doesn't really make any sense when it comes to money or anything like that, but it's just one of those ideas like Disney Store, like, oh, let's put a Disney store in every mall, or let's put a Disney restaurant in every mall, or let's, you know, all these like different ideas where it's just like bam or Disney Quest, right? Let's make an arcade about Disney and then put it in Chicago. It's like all these things like this would have fit perfectly in one of those, um, that we don't see that much anymore. So I do love the idea that it existed and it happened. I hate the idea that it failed, you know? Yeah. Like it didn't seem like it was perfect, but I wish they at least would have scaled it down, you know, so that it would be a little bit more manageable. But it's just, it's such a shame that it had to go the way that it went. And, um, I know I was watching an interview with Steve McNair Wilson, who was an Imagineer who came up with Street Mosphere when, uh, Epcot and Hollywood Studios opened. So basically those actors who would act on the street and kind of do improv with you. And he brought up, he was he kind of, you know, was saying a couple different things. On why he thinks that it didn't work. But one of the big things was that he said was he's like, they didn't they didn't contact me. They didn't contact him or anybody else who like was kind of in that realm. It was very much, um, kind of cold and calculated, which, you know, I think there is, you know, something to be said when it comes to that, but it's, uh. Yeah, no, that seems like a huge undertaking. Yeah. For Disney to do, but I'm happy they did it. Um, once again, I, I don't like that it failed because I feel like now that tells them, oh, let's not do that again. I'm hoping it doesn't, you know, because I think that I think it's one of those things that people are very excited about. But By the I personally, I think the disappointment came with the money. Sure. Do I think it was worth that much? I don't know, because I don't really remember the price tag, but it definitely made sense why it was a higher price tag than other hotels. Because it wasn't just the hotel, it was a whole experience. It was a three day experience. Yeah, like an escape room, kind of. I do hope that I'm glad that they did it, though, because now that they we've gotten a taste of what like a Star Wars hotel could be. And I definitely think that we will be getting a Star Wars hotel in the future because it's shock that we don't have one, you know, just like in general. Yeah. Um, and I would love to see again, they've, they've left the door open. Hopefully in the future we can kind of get a Star Wars hotel and maybe like, I don't know, I think it would have been more successful if they still did that as like a seasonal thing or like a couple weekends every year that you can like kind of pay more to do that kind of stuff. But I guess that's also a little complicated. Yeah. And I would say also strip away a ton of those storylines and like a whole bunch of those mini things have like three and then just have something happen every so often, you know what I mean? Like you don't have to have everything happen constantly and let people leave. Yeah. Let people just leave if they need to and be like, oh yeah. Yeah. And for me, it wasn't so much like, oh, it's a trapping them. It's just when you have them there, you have to entertain them. So therefore you have to offer more, which I do wonder how many people were just like, oh, I'm not going to do any of these puzzle things and I'm just gonna hang out, you know? Does that justify the actors being there and whatnot? But anyways. Yeah, no, it's it's gone now. I wonder if they'll ever. I am currently. Yeah. No. Go ahead. No. I am currently looking at a picture and now I think, you know what I think would be a great example or gateway into starting smaller in this idea is just have a Muppet show, uh, hotel where it looks like you're. It's just designed to be. And every so often a Muppet will just walk by and then you'll be like, oh, hey, never mind. Forget that. That was stupid. But in my mind it looks awesome. But anyways, that's Dustin's forgot about that one. I hate Dustin's. I thought you were transitioning to like shows and stuff because I was gonna say like, I'm also kind of shocked that we don't have a Star Wars like stage show. Yeah, stunt show, star Wars stunt show, Pirates stunt show, all these different stunt shows are right there. Archaeology stunt show. Yeah, yeah. Well, no, we already have a Indiana Jones stunt show. And is that the is that where we're going to what? Tell me more. Tell me more. Okay, fine. There's the, uh, there's the transition into our final, uh, thing, which is Indiana Jones. Now your fears have a name. The Indiana Jones adventure. I've always had a passion for archaeology. Well, this isn't gonna help you. He's always had a passion for Harrison Ford. Yeah, that's also true. So the, uh, the first of the, uh, Lucas properties to enter the park came in a short amount of time, a relatively short amount of time, because we had captain EO in nineteen eighty six, Star Tours in nineteen eighty seven, and our first Indiana Jones reference in nineteen eighty nine. Uh, but this story starts a few years before. Even before Epcot. Uh. While creating Epcot, one idea for a pavilion was to focus on films in Hollywood, hosting a ride that would take you through the movies. But as Epcot progressed, it was decided that this idea may be too big for one pavilion. This. In the imminent threat of a competing park themed to, would I say imminent? Imminent? Yeah, that's that works. No it's not. It's not even a word. So this imminent. Its imminent. Imminent Imminent. So this imminent threat of a competing park to film studios. So this imminent park imminent, so this imminent, imminent. It's imminent. So this imminent imminent. So it's with an eye eminent. No, that's how you say it E imminent. So this and an imminent threat. Anemone. Anemone. And the imminent threat of a competing park themed to film studios was about to open right down the street. The green light was lit for a theme park of its own. Epic, you know, not epic universe with not only a focus on film, but also a functioning studio. And I actually don't say that the theme park is, but it was Universal Studios Orlando, not epic. This is before epic. So in um, oh, we already talked about this. In nineteen eighty four, Michael Eisner and Tony Baxter reached out to George Lucas on collaborating with ideas for them. In that same year, he took his son. Yeah. So technically, we owe a lot of things to Michael Eisner's son. His name's Breck Breck Eisner. So one, two, three. Thank you, thank you. But, um, no, according to Bob Weiss, though, with the licensing of Star Wars for Star Tours, Disney Imagineering also had access to other Lucasfilm projects, including Indiana Jones. He also said while coming up with the concepts for attractions in the new movie based theme park, he wrote down an idea on a piece of paper which caught Michael Eisner's eye, and all it said was Indiana Jones stunt show. Uh. The stunt show relives many of the scenes from the original Raiders of the Lost Ark film, and would cut intermediately to show the behind the scenes of filmmaking since Disney hadn't had a stunt show of that caliber before. They reached out to the stunt coordinator on Raiders, and together they planned the whole show. But with the deadline looming until the park opened, they realized it wouldn't be ready for opening day. So on August twenty fifth, nineteen eighty nine, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular opened three months after the park opened and making it the second Indiana Jones sighting on property. But what was the first about to say? What was the pause? Thank you for asking. So now remember when I said that there was going to be a movie pavilion in Epcot? Well, remember how I said there was going to be a ride that took you through the movies? Well guess what? They went and brought that concept over to the new park and called it the Great Movie Ride. From the beginning, it was very evident that the Disney catalog for live action films wouldn't be enough to fill a ride, let alone a park. So this inspired the different partnerships and licensing to come into play. And since Disney was already talking to George Lucas about Star Wars and also working on captain EO, it seemed like a great opportunity. So in one of the scenes in great movie ry, you come into an Egyptian pyramid and you see an animatronic of both Indy and Sallah lifting the Ark of the covenant. Uh, this would be the first reference to Indiana Jones in the park's opening May first, nineteen eighty nine, with the park. It's also worth noting that the great movie ride was in the Chinese theater in Hollywood studios, where Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway currently is. But in the queue of the ride, they would often have screen used props on display. One of the frequent ones was The Ark from the film. Now in the eighties and 90s Indiana Jones was a giant hit in both the theaters and also in the zeitgeist, and that didn't go unnoticed by Disney. One of the concepts that Disney had to, make the most of. The licensing of Indiana Jones was to make an entire land within a land in Adventureland, themed to Indiana Jones for both Disneyland and Anaheim, and also in the new French Park. Euro Disney, which is now known as Disneyland Paris. This would involve a lot of different things, one including a new Jungle Cruise like ride that focused on expedition and adventure. A new type of ride that was based off of enhanced motion vehicles, and also a minecart coaster that would be based off of the minecart scene in Temple of Doom. These plans would fall short when the parks would hit financial difficulties and budget constraints, resulting in most of the ideas being scrapped. In France, the minecart coaster remained, and it was called Temple of Peril, which opened in nineteen ninety three. Now, what's interesting is, while making Temple of Doom, Spielberg, in behind the scenes footage has described the scene that is the minecart to be similar to a ride in Disneyland, which I thought was interesting because, you know, it became one just Spielberg. Yeah, Spielberg directed Indiana Jones. I'm about to show you guys something. It's about to change your lives. When when I talk about land within a land, the original concept was specifically in California, was to take the Jungle Cruise and take a section of it and have an indoor section similar to like in the Temple at Disney World. And what you would do is basically go into this building that had three rides in it, which would be part of the Jungle Cruise, an indoor roller coaster mine thing, and then also a Indiana Jones ride. And I'm gonna show you guys the concept art. I wish you all a video about it. Guess I'll put it on the website. If you look on the left, you can see the car coming toward us, right? And that's the one Indiana Jones ride. If you look all the way on the right, you can see the boat from Jungle Cruise, and in the middle you can see the roller coaster kind of just, you know, going around the idea of like rides being merging into. Yeah. Isn't that awesome? And this was one of the ideas that they had. Why didn't they do it a budget? I mean, look at it. It all came down to financial budget. Now I have a theory that if they weren't doing Euro Disney, then I feel like they definitely would have done this in Disneyland, but also with the with the vastness of the Indiana Jones ride. Like they could totally do it, like how big the area is. Oh, I can't wait for that. I think Florida. Yeah. I also think it's not as big as we think it is, but I, I hear what you're saying. It feels big. I agree, but like according to this, it only would be like a little bit of the current Indiana Jones ride and also a little bit of the Jungle Cruise. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So the way I completely forgot about the ride. Anyway. Let's ride. Well hold on. Yeah. Which ride? Let me tell you. Let me, let me tell you. so? In Disneyland Paris. They got that roller coaster right. Well, in Disneyland Anaheim, the thing that survived was the e-ticket attraction. With the new technology of enhanced motion vehicle's. Now, the enhanced motion vehicles are pretty much they look kind of like jeeps, right? But instead of the terrain being rough, what they utilize is hydraulics that shift the car. So it feels like you're going over rough terrain, which was, you know, revolutionary at the time. Now, in this ride, I guess the company Indiana Jones on a turbulent quest aboard military troop transport vehicles through a dangerous subterranean lost temple guarded by supernatural powers. Ooh. And yeah, in nineteen ninety five, that would open as Indiana Jones adventure temple of the Forbidden Eye. And it would be an understatement to say that it was a massive hit, not only during the time, but also still currently racking up those, uh, wait times. It's a very fun ride. Ten out of ten if you haven't done it. I agree, and it was so big, in fact, that it also ended up across the sea in Japan, in Disney or Disney, Tokyo Sea, uh, in two thousand and Tokyo DisneySea. Tokyo DisneySea as two thousand or in two thousand and one as Disney as Indiana Jones. Adventure. Temple of the Crystal skull. Temple of the Crystal skull, two thousand and one as a Crystal skull, two thousand and one. I thought, what? Wait, when did that movie come out? Well, that's the thing. Don't tell me that movie came out in two thousand and one. No, the movie came out afterwards. This predates the movie. I didn't know that. Now, technically, it's another ride that has a movie made from it. Yeah, no, not really, but if if I remember correctly, and you guys can tell me because you guys have written it after the movie came out. They then put crystal skulls in. We completely forgot to write that again. The last time we went, I didn't even remember it was there. I honestly, I just want to tell. No, no, I'm gonna tell this. Or was it I'm gonna tell this to the podcast. Oh, it was down. You guys have written this ride, correct? It was down when we went the second time we went, but we did ride it the first time. So when you ride the original ride, uh, or the one in Anaheim, you come into this giant room and then there's this giant skull and you see the bridge and then da da da, and then it shoots. Yes, that is the big thing. Set piece from the one in Disneyland in Japan. The big set piece is that there's a giant tornado that forms in the middle of the room. And I say, how did you miss it? Unless it wasn't working? We even looked at it and we looked at it online. It's not even that big. Honestly, I don't even I don't remember a tornado thing about it. What I was focusing on is that they really liked instead of file. It was like lasers out of his eyes and I don't remember. It looked cool. I just remember it being so comfortable. I'm gonna look it up again. Yeah, there's seats. Like everything is so comfortable. You're really in there and it's just great. And for, um, for all those listening and have ridden this ride and be like, why aren't you guys talking more about this ride? There's so much to talk about this ride that I kind of just want to save it for its own episode. Because it is. It's so good. This is the closest. I mean, I love rise of the resistance and I think this is also on par, but I think this is the closest to actually completely realizing a theme of a movie or a film, and then capturing it so perfectly. It is adventure, it is action, it is going exploration, discovery. It's so good. Even the queue getting up to, uh, where it looks, you can see all the booby traps that are undone. It's so good and it's just pure. It's like it popped right out of the film or you popped right into the film. Oh, it's so good. And this, um, ride vehicle was actually so popular, uh, here in Disney or in Disneyland that it came over to the East Coast in Animal Kingdom in nineteen ninety eight as Countdown to Extinction, later to be called dinosaur, which was the exact same ride, vehicle and track. But as we know this year, earlier this year, uh, dinosaur did close. Oh, but it's going to be reskinned as Indiana Jones. Woo! But are they doing the forbidden eye or the Crystal skull? They're doing neither though. Some third thing. Yeah. They're doing nothing. Ooh. It's like an Aztec thing. Yeah. It's gonna be South American inspired. Uh, ruins and the. The scary thing isn't going to be a tornado or eye of Mara. Tell us what it is. They go all out though. If you ever get to ride the one in Japan, it's the same, but it's very different. And I love that. I couldn't tell you, but this one is supposed to have a mythical creature that is stalking you or you're trying to find or something like that, so it should be cool. I'm excited about that. I mean, I love dinosaur. Yeah. Same. Yeah, that would be crazy. Tell me if I'm right in. Um, in both of the Indiana Jones rides so far, there's a boulder at the end, correct? Yeah. Okay. I don't think there's gonna be a boulder at the end of this one. I think we're gonna get something very similar to the dinosaur ride where something's gonna come at you, but that's based off of nothing. Except for. That's what I want in my heart. So even though I do love the, the, the boulder scene, um, we, we have it, so let's do something new. But anyways, super excited. Yeah. Disneyland or dinosaur always has a place in my heart. But you know, Indiana Jones, I just love this franchise. I love it so much. It's just so much fun to watch. And he loves Harrison Ford. I do. And this is Harrison Ford. No offense to Star Wars, but this is Harrison Ford's best character Indiana Jones not the Red Hulk. No no. But um, George Lucas let's bring it all back. George Lucas coming into the parks he brought in or he inspired the Imagineers to go bring in the first motion simulator, the first hybrid ride that brought in, uh, motionless, uh, not motionless, trackless motion ride vehicles, no trackless vehicles mixed with screens, drops, all these other things with rise of the resistance. He, uh, inspired, uh, these enhanced motion vehicle ride vehicles that, you know, do all these crazy things. And all of this was, oh, and the first 4D attraction in a theme park. Most expensive at the time. He inspired all these things to come into the parks, which I think is, you know, incredibly iconic, iconic. Some of the honourable mentions to Lucas was brought in to try and make Tomorrowland, uh, even more teen friendly. And he was an early contributor to Extraterrorestrial when it comes to the ideas. Apparently, he helped pioneer some of the ideas for the Round Studio to make it more, um, sensory scary as opposed to, uh, you know, just looking, I guess. But his original ideas, uh, weren't utilized in the end, his, you know, his creation of making ILM. Definitely. If it wasn't for ILM, there wouldn't be, uh, Marvel films because they contributed to that and pretty much every other film. So, you know, he had a big stake in that. And then also he had to sell off a couple of different areas, one of which he sold to Steve Jobs and it was renamed Pixar. So if it wasn't for George Lucas, we wouldn't have Pixar Studios. Uh, so he is very much connected to a lot of different things. So you know what? I'm gonna raise a glass. Cheers to George Lucas. Raise your sabers, everyone. Oh, yeah. Raise your sabers. Meow meow meow meow. And your whips. Here's the whips. Do. You raise your ye. He's um. And yeah. No thank you, George Lucas for contributing all that you have and just being an influence on the theme parks. There a better place because of you. Thank you George we know you're listening. Did you um you mentioned the the Indian drones, right. In Disneyland Paris. Logan, did you know that Raging spirits in Disney Sea is the exact same ride? Is it? Apparently it is. Yeah. So Logan and I can kind of say that we've ridden every single Indiana Jones attraction in the world. It is very Indiana Jones. Wait, did you go upside down, Logan? Yes we did. Oh, wow. Okay. It's small. It is small. It's a compact ride, but padded. The seats were very comfortable. Very comfortable. But I jumped up because I was like. People were saying, like Indiana Jones ride in Disney. I was like, this is not. It's a very. Yeah. But it's very Indiana Jones vibe. I was gonna say they can literally just slap his name on it and I would believe it. That seems like what they did. Yeah. Thank you for that fun fact. And with that, we say adieu. Goodbye. Good night. Good morning, good evening. Whenever you're listening to this. And thank you for listening to this episode of Park Goers Go. And we will see you at the parks and we'll see Lucas in the parks and happy Star Wars Day. Wow wow wow. Thanks for listening to this episode of Park Goers. Go catch our new episodes every week and catch up on our older episodes on Spotify. For any updates or new information on the theme parks or podcasts, follow us on Instagram at parkgoers. Go or visit our website at w w w dot dot com. This episode was produced by Dustin Logan and Nathaniel and edited by Dustin. Our theme song was created by John Riedel. You can follow myself and Nathaniel's theme park adventures on Instagram at the park goers, and you can follow Dustin at Mr. Parkgoers. If you want to reach out to us, visit our website or Instagram and send us a message. We'd love to hear from you. And until then, we'll see you at the park.