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When Disney closed its Star Tours ride in 2010 to make way for the new 3D version, fans met the change with mixed emotions, both lamenting the loss of a classic attraction and excited for the long-anticipated update. Though Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the ride’s sequel, has been hugely popular at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, one fan found the need to keep the original alive in an impressive new format.
In time to help celebrate Star Tours’ 25th anniversary at Disneyland, independent filmmaker Gregory Noacco has recreated the original Star Tours ride in incredible detail, using 3-D computer graphics to make once again the attraction available for all to enjoy. It took more than 6 months of diligent labor to model and animate everything originally seen in the ride, including the loading area and Starspeeder 3000, Rex, the “first time” RX-24 pilot droid, and all the iconic scenes that were part of the ride’s film, such as the climactic Death Star battle, with R2-D2 helping to navigate throughout.
Produced independently from Disney and Lucasfilm, Star Tours Origins not only offers “Star Wars” fans a chance to once again embark on a hair-raising adventure past the Endor moon but also to do it for the first time in 3-D. Much like Disney’s new Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Noacco has used YouTube 3D to present his Star Tours Origins tribute with more depth than the original attraction.
So take the jump to light speed once more and enjoy Star Tours Origins:
Video: Star Tours Origins ultimate tribute (2-D version)
You can use the 3D button on the player below to cycle through different 3D options, including red/blue glasses, cross-eyed and side-by-side.
Video: Star Tours Origins ultimate tribute (3-D version)
(Did you catch our special thanks in the closing credits? I offered a little advice to Gregory as he neared completion of his project.)
To fully appreciate all the effort that Noacco made in creating Star Tours Origins, compare it to the actual ride by taking a virtual trip back to the real-life version of the original Star Tours in our own tribute video below, shot during its last flight at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Sept. 2010. (The ride starts at 2:26 into the video.)
Video: Star Tours final flight tribute at Walt Disney World with a full ride
Star Tours Origins features all the memorable scenes from the original “Star Wars”-based ride. Here are a few highlights that should seem quite familiar:
You can still experience the original Star Tours in person at both Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland. However, Tokyo has announced plans to close it on April 2, 2012, to be made over into the new Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, currently being enjoyed at Disneyland in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios Walt Disney World in Florida. No plans have been announced to change the ride in Paris, though it’s likely to happen within the next few years.
But the original ride, complete with iconic scenes, quotable lines, and classic characters, will now forever live online, not only through on-ride video but now even more enjoyably through the ultimate tribute, Star Tours Origins.
Related : Disney adds “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” to Star Tours attraction
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