Here is Disney’s problem with Star Wars. It’s the same problem that any corporation which owns a 50-year IP faces. Do you produce new content because your creators have a new story to tell, or because your business managers want a new product to ship?
A lot of what Disney has been doing with Star Wars – and Marvel, if we are being frank here – feels like the second reason rather than the first. In that context, Disney this week is dropping its first new Star Wars movie in nearly seven years – “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
To celebrate/hype that, Disney has added a new mission to its Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run rides in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios. At Disney’s invitation, I previewed the new attraction in Florida this morning.
The first season of “The Mandalorian” felt like the new story to tell. Jon Favreau’s series played like a loving callback to old TV westerns, where the hero would ride into town and help solve someone’s problem. Once settled, they’d head back on the road to the next town and a new problem in the next episode.
The Mandalorian lost some of that flavor in following seasons as focus shifted to Grogu – the adorable “baby Yoda” who captured so much public attention in season one. To that end, Grogu now enjoys title billing in the feature that debuts in theaters this week.
But what about the theme park ride? This change feels a bit like the second reason I listed above. Din Djarin has teamed up with smuggler Hondo Ohnaka and his “Ohnaka Transport Solutions” with the result of roping us into flying a bounty hunting mission. We are off to Tatooine to help Mando capture “two Imperials and a pirate”… and to steal their crates of loot for Hondo, too.
The Mandalorian and Grogu don’t actually join us in the cockpit, but instead appear on cockpit screens from the Razor Crest, which raised the question in my mind why the two don’t just go grab these bounties themselves? If they have the time to babysit us through this mission, surely these notorious loners have the time to handle something this important on their own, right?
The answer is that only Hondo knew where the wanted Imperials were, since (I assume) he was the one buying their loot. So he cut a deal to have us grab the loot for him while Mando gets the bad guys. I guess that works to set up the ride, but it doesn’t seem like a hassle that Mando would have patience for in his world. Or the type of double-cross that would not soon see Hondo, uh, eliminated from the smuggling business.
If this version fails to provide a compelling and coherent narrative, it does provide a fun excuse for a new mission on Smugglers Run, which debuted in 2019. Perhaps a new mission is more needed at the locals-driven Disneyland in California than the tourist-driven Walt Disney World in Florida, where one presumes a higher percentage of the crowd is experiencing Smugglers Run for the first time. But for fans of the ride, like me, it’s nice to have a different goal and different scenes to navigate.
Disney also has upgraded the game software that drives the ride, to Unreal Engine 5. New hardware from Nvidia also helps improve the show.
The new version also attempts to improve the gameplay for the two unlucky riders who get stuck with the engineer positions on the Falcon. Now, they get the opportunity to call Grogu during the mission, and one of the engineers gets to pick the second destination for the ride.
Just like on Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, we now get a double-dose of Star Wars destinations on Smugglers Run. Once it all goes wrong on Tatooine and we have to hyperspace it out of there, our choices are the clouds of Bespin, the Uscru Entertainment District on Coruscant, or the wreckage of the second Death Star above the forest moon of Endor. A wanted bounty has escaped to each location… and we’re off to catch them.
After the mission, it’s time to head back to Batuu and find out what’s in those crates the engineers captured with their tractor beam while the pilots were flying us and the gunners were blowing up stuff. Potential loot includes galactic credits, Kyber crystals and even baby Rancors. Hondo does the math, and we get a score. The best score might even get an Employee of the Month award.
Ultimately, the gameplay here is relatively simple, which makes sense since the majority of Disney visitors will not be gamers. If a light flashes, hit it. Listen to Hondo and Din and do what they tell your assigned flight deck role (pilot, gunner or engineer) to do. Then enjoy the adventure.
Flying solo for the media preview, I did not come close to earning any elite status. But with the help of The Mandalorian and Grogu, I got a reminder why Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is not just the most technologically advanced gameplay-driven theme park attraction, it also can be one of the most fun.
The new version of the ride opens officially on Friday at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the same day as the new movie hits theaters.
