An eagle-eyed fan, or perhaps eagle-eared fan, caught a suprising reference to Star Tours — The Adventures Continue in an episode of the original series “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” on Disney+.
“Star Wars: Skeleton Crew”
In a post on the official Star Wars Instagram account, David W. Collins, the Sound Designer for the new Disney+ series, reacted to another post from a Disney parks fan.
User @disneydreaminghannah originally posted a video highlighting the distinctive jingle played by a vehicle during Episode 1, “This Could Be a Real Adventure.” During the scene, students are disembarking a futuristic-style school bus being driven by a droid. As the doors open, the bus repeats a few distinct musical notes she finds familiar. During her video, Hannah slows down the scene so the notes are more audible until it becomes a sound effect many Disney parks fans will recognize as the jingle played during the Star Tours attraction. The set of five notes plays several times throughout the attraction, including at the end of the recorded pre-show video before the doors open for guests to enter the StarSpeeder 1000 vehicle.
Star Tours — The Adventures Continue
In his response, David W. Collins admits, “Well Hannah, you caught me. When I was asked by Jon Watts and Chris Ford to make a chime as the sudents are exiting the bus on their way to school, I loaded up my synthesizer with a very chimy sounding patch, and I started playing things in it and eventually found myself going dee dum. Be-do-bum. De-da-da-da-dum. And I thought, well, that’s just me riding Star Tours a million times as a kid.”
Collins ends the short video by praising Hannah, “Very good ear. That is absolutely an homage to Star Tours.”
The bus is also driven by an RX-unit, the same style of droid that originally piloted the StarSpeeder (and now brings his DJ skills to Oga’s Cantina). Other parks references have been in the show, including a creature resembling Captain EO’s Fuzzball.
Though this isn’t a blatant representation of Star Tours as much as a homage, the travel company is canon in the Star Wars universe. It first appeared on a billboard in “The Clone Wars” animated series.
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue is an attraction currently operating at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, Disneyland Park in California, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” is a series currently streaming on Disney+, with new episodes arriving on Tuesdays. Are you excited to hear this fun hidden detail in the new series? Let us know in the comments.
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