Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

And I am underway!  Sorry for the delay.

It may seem like an odd choice to start a Disney movie marathon, but since the movie opens this weekend, it just made sense.  Also, Star Wars has long had a presence in the parks, predating Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012.

The Movie:

Solo is the second in Disney's Star Wars "Anthology" series, movies that take place outside the main "episodes" of the Skywalker saga.  This movie tells the story of a young Han Solo, showing how he first meets the established characters of Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian.  It also introduces a variety of new characters, including his childhood flame Qi'ra and the smuggler Tobias Beckett.

Owing to reports over the last year, I came into this movie with really low expectations.  And as a result, I was pleasantly surprised.  Was anyone really asking for this movie?  No, not really.  But what we got was actually a fun war/western/heist movie with some nice nods to the other Star Wars movies.

As a musician and music teacher, I always take special note of the score to a movie.  Whereas the iconic John Williams has continued his work in the primary saga, the anthology films have passed the torch to other composers.  The previous anthology film, Rogue One, utilized the omnipresent and frequently Disney collaborator Michael Giacchino, who pulled off a very nice impersonation of Williams for that film.  This movie uses John Powell, who had previous worked for Disney on Bolt, but is best known for his Oscar-nominated and IFMCA-winning work on How to Train Your Dragon.  At times, Powell manages to channel Williams, and at other times he cleverly quotes or reuses some original Star Wars themes.  At other times, his music skews more in the vein of Jerry Goldsmith or his own HTTYD work.

Presence in the Parks:

The Star Wars franchise was the first (at the time) non-Disney IP to be the basis of an attraction at the Disney parks, when the original Star Tours opened in Disneyland in 1986.  However, the history of Star Tours can go back even further.  The ride itself was originally proposed based on Disney's 1979 movie Black Hole.  (The cost and unpopularity led to the idea being shelved at the time.)

Disney first worked with George Lucas on the film/attraction Captain EO, which replaced the EPCOT opening day attraction (and later Disneyland attraction) Magic Journeys in 1986.  That same year, Star Tours opened in Disneyland, and in 1989 it came to Florida at MGM Studios 7 months after the park's opening.

While in other parks the show building was themed to Tomorrowland, where the ride was located, in MGM Studios it was themed like a movie set, with the back of some of the external elements incomplete, like it was only meant to be viewed from the front.  The setting of the theme was the Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi, with a massive AT-AT looming over the entrance.

April 1999

March 2007

May 2015

Star Tours was a simulator ride themed around a fictional travel company that was to take guest on a tour of the galaxy on a Starspeeder 3000.  The ship was piloted by RX-24 (called Rex) and assisted by R2-D2.  During the ride, the ship is accidentally caught in a battle against the Empire and assists in an assault on a Death Star a la A New Hope.

In 2010, the attraction closed on both coasts.  It reopened the following year as Star Tours - The Adventure Continues.  In the new version, the ship is captained by C-3PO, and assisted by R2-D2.  Instead of having the same ride every time, the attraction randomly generates a sequence of four scenes based on characters and planets from the original and prequel trilogies.  The Force Awakens added several characters plus the planet Jakku to the mix, and The Last Jedi prompted a Crait sequence.  So far, I have not seen any reports that Solo has prompted any additions to the ride possibilities.

Line queue, May 2015

Both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios are set to have a Star Wars themed land starting in 2019 called Galaxy's Edge.  It remains to be seen what comes of Star Tours once this land opens.

In addition, at WDW, Hollywood Studios has become the de facto home of all things Star Wars.  From 1997-2015, the park was home to Star Wars weekends in May and June.  (During my last visit in May 2015, we intentionally, to the objection of some in our family, visited Hollywood Studios on the weekend to be there for some of the Star Wars events, including the parade.)  Some events from this event continue in the par.  The Jedi Training Academy, an activity for children, is now Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple, and the night time show Symphony of the Stars is now A Galactic Spectacular.

Star Wars Parade, May 2015

Symphony of the Stars, May 2015

I'll include a few more Star Wars pics on future posts with Star Wars movies.