The first time Star Wars mania gripped fandom, I was 11 years old and was just learning what fandom was. My friends and I went to various theaters to see Star Wars over and over again, re-read the Marvel Comics, and dreamed about how cool it would be if somewhere in the world there was a Star Wars ride.
Even though years later Disney would make a deal with Lucasfilm and we would get Star Tours, that wasn’t quite the ride we imagined. Yes, in hindsight, Star Wars was meant to be fun for kids, but we just didn’t think of ourselves that way. Yes, we wanted fun, but we also wanted thrills. And now, as part of “Season of the Force” at Disneyland (opening in December at Walt Disney World), we have that ride we dreamed of back in 1977: Hyperspace Mountain.
But first, let’s talk Season of the Force, and what it means for people visiting Disneyland for the next couple of months — and perhaps beyond. It’s a “Celebration of Star Wars,” NOT the promised Star Wars Land. This is a taste, an overlay on Tomorrowland, not a fully immersive interactive experience built from the ground up. That’s not to knock it. It’s beautiful, it’s fun, and it really has something for pretty much everyone who ever wanted to get lost in a galaxy far, far way. It’s just that in a few years, Disney plans to top it by leaps and bounds.
It’s an event best experienced at both ends of the day. First, to ride Hyperspace Mountain, an overlay on Space Mountain similar to the Halloween transformation into Ghost Galaxy. Essentially, the projections and sound effects have changed, from swirling asteroids and pulsing music to the sights and sounds of a raid on an Imperial Star Destroyer. The track is the same, but to the guy who got in the seat behind me wearing an X-Wing Fighter Pilot hoodie, it’s the brand new ride we’ve been waiting for all our lives. And I do not judge that man; I only wish I’d thought of wearing one, too.
There are caution signs and announcements that this is “like a high-speed roller coaster ride,” but really, we know what it is — the space battle of our lives.
The overlay includes a few laser effects as well, as if you’re caught in a hail of laser fire. Some of the projections work extremely well. You can crane around and catch glimpses of that Star Destroyer looming over you, and almost run smack dab into a TIE Fighter. And all through it you’re hearing the subspace chatter of other pilots as they take out roaring TIE Fighters, exhorted by Admiral Ackbar who only once says “It’s a TRAP!”
It’s not a trap; it’s glorious.
Star Tours has also gotten a new addition, with a sequence taking the ship to Jakku and the environment from The Force Awakens. For the time being, rumor has it that every ride will include this sequence, at least until the Season of the Force ends. Purists will note that it combines concepts from different time periods, but let’s face it: the ride has always done that. But be warned — the new sequence contains a mild spoiler, which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.
Of course, you exit through the gift shop, aka the Star Trader, which has converted almost entirely to Star Wars themed merchandise. (All Marvel items have moved to the second floor of the Innoventions Building, now known as Superhero HQ.)
Between the two lies the Tomorrowland Theater, which features Path of the Jedi, a compilation film made of sequences from all seven Star Wars films (well, six and essentially a trailer).
Though you’ve seen it all, it’s edited well into a reminder of the saga’s themes, and possibly highlighting key moments that will echo in The Force Awakens. Since it’s in a theater equipped for it, there is some moderate “4D” enhancement done, but considering the possibilities and the way Disney has marketed Star Wars elsewhere, we can call these enhancements relatively understated and restrained.
Not so at the Galactic Grill — aka Tomorrowland Terrace — where breakfast, lunch, and dinner have all been redesigned to carry out a Star Wars theme. This means that the bread is blue in honor of Bantha milk, and the First Order has made everything spicy. The only item that seems not 100% thought through is a vegetarian sandwich named in honor of the Ewoks. Let’s please remember, as Bonnie Burton taught us, that Ewoks are savage carnivores who were going to roast and eat Han Solo until C-3PO intervened. They’re cute, but they’re dangerous.
As are Wookies, and you can meet the most famous Wookie of them all, Chewbacca, if you’re willing to stand in line at the Star Wars Launch Bay, which takes up the first floor of what was most recently the Innoventions Building and Stark Expo. Launch Bay currently has more limited hours than the rest of Season of the Force — opening at 10 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m. Just enough time to get a good look at all the props, prop replicas, and costumes, as well as gaze at the items in the high end gift shop. In addition to Chewbacca, you can meet Darth Vader, and if you’re really lucky, Boba Fett, who is supposed to frequent the Mos Eisley Cantina set, but appropriately enough for a Bounty Hunter, Fett does not keep to a set schedule.
We’ve got plenty of photos from Launch Bay to run, but for now, just take a gander at the Season of the Force at night. It’s what we dreamed, and it’s only going to get better.
