If They Should Bar Tours… Please Let the Star Tours… Stay

?The new and improved Star Tours ride opens in Disneyland this Friday. Topless Roboteer Quixotico alerted me to some developments regarding it, and since a great many of you guys care deeply about the ride — readers and writers — I figured you’d want to know. In summary:

? It’s set before the original trilogy.
? There are 54 different possible “rides.”
? As Quixocitco points out, that probably ends up as three 3-way forks and one 2-way fork.
? Planets include Tatooine, Hoth, Naboo, Coruscant, Kashyyyk and an under construction Death Star.
? Besides planets, there will also be “a desert pod race, underwater travel, sliding on ice, and careening through forests while smashing into trees”
? Guest stars include Darth Vader, Admiral Ackbar, Princess Leia, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Yoda, C-3PO and Jar Jar Binks. How Princess Leia is in here I have no idea. If anyone’s been on a preview of the ride and wants to let us know, that would be awesome.
? Also awesome: Frank Oz actually came back to voice Yoda. Anthony Daniels also voiced C-3PO, but that’s not nearly as much of a surprise, is it?
? Apparently one of the new characters is a “spokesbot” voiced by veteran actress Allison Janney. Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald explains her name: “we couldn’t think of anything and knew George [Lucas] was amazing with
names. When we told him actress Allison Janney was doing the voiceover
work, he instantly said, ‘Aly San San.'” Yup. (Via Disney Fans)