It has been almost 7 years since MiceChat first spilled the beans on a Star Wars land for Disneyland Park. The project moved, and changed, and changed again. It finally settled on a plot of land mostly backstage, displacing Festival Arena, Big Thunder BBQ and Circle D Ranch (where the horses lived backstage).  Now, after so many articles and photo updates, it’s finally here. Time flies. But we entered the land today with a great deal of anticipation, and yes, a bit of emotion as well. This is Star Wars we are talking about after all.  

The question on everyone’s mind is: “How is it, was it worth the wait?”

Well, for the vast majority of guests the land is going to seem like walking into a movie; it will be a smorgasbord of Star Wars goodies. But much like the new Star Wars films which have achieved massive financial success while at the same time befuddling critics and hardcore fans, the new land may have a similar critical reaction. 

This review is a collection of thoughts from MiceChat staff and friends who visited Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge during previews and on media day. This doesn’t mean that you’ll love or hate the epic new land. These are just our observations; you are welcome to disagree and we hope you will form your own opinions.    

Let’s start with the things we liked. . . 

The Art Direction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s EdgeGalaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

This is where SW:GE excels. The attention to every little visual detail, telling the story of the land, is simply extraordinary. Approaching Galaxy’s Edge from the Frontierland Trail, you really get the impression that you are entering a remote outpost. There are storage containers everywhere among the collection of sturdy, mostly round buildings. It’s a community of traders and smugglers forced to recycle and upcycle every spare part – animal and mechanical – out of sheer necessity. Extremely detailed and elegantly sculpted concrete makes up almost every exterior surface, from the buildings to the rocks and petrified trees.

This attention to detail extends to the interiors as well. Every square inch is jammed with props and detailing. Iconic Star Wars-style communication panels, with their square red, white and blue lights and buttons are affixed to every door and beyond. That juxtaposition of quasi-indigenous building styles with “Imperial” tech is just one example of the visual cues throughout the land that screams “STAR WARS!” Droids, ships and parts of droids and ships and other machinery are everywhere.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

The integration of this ride into the land is top-notch. The presentation of the iconic Millennium Falcon as the “weenie” (and Instagram photo-op) for this part of the land is a stroke of genius, and just the beginning of the wish-fulfillment this attraction provides. The queue for the attraction takes you through the repair garage for the outpost’s spaceport and winds you up and around the interior of the building surrounding the Falcon, giving you 360 degree framed views of the iconic ship from top to bottom.

The ride pretty effectively performs a magic trick to get you on board the Falcon you just saw parked outside. But once you’re “on board” any disbelief is effectively suspended. You’re on the ship and it’s amazing. Every detail has been lovingly recreated from the larger holding spaces all the way to the cockpits. The ride itself is thrilling and interactive.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

But it’s also essentially a big video game with a not-insignificant learning curve. Some people may struggle with this aspect of the attraction, getting frustrated at how fast things happen and how it affects the journey. Having the onboard character, Hondo, essentially berating you for your poor performance doesn’t really help either. A lot of people are going to want a more passive experience, be sure to let the cast members know if you’d rather put your station on autopilot.  

More on the ride on our upcoming Millennium Falcon review. 

Star Wars Food and Beverage

The food we ordered at Docking Bay 7 was quite good. The Asian-inspired short ribs and slaw were tangy and delicious. The restaurant had incredibly detailed theming like the rest of the land.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

The frozen Blue Milk was fine. Fruity and tangy. It reminded me of Neon Gummie Bears in flavor. We don’t think it’s the killer of the Wizarding World’s Butterbeer, although, Disney hopes it will be.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Of course, the highlight was Oga’s Cantina – despite the hour wait to get in. The drinks are predictably sweet and many inspired by popular classic and tiki cocktails . . . but with creative twists such as dry ice to create fog, pepper foam to numb your tongue, or boba pearls to create an alien look. The DJ-R3X (or DJ Rex) droid is a lot of fun and keeps the club-ish tunes coming! You’ll recognize him has Captain Rex from the original version of Star Tours.  

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Area Development/Cast Members

With the mandate for a fully immersive and realistic environment, we expected Black Spire to be much more heavily populated with citizen-characters, live musicians, and other actors similar to what you experience on Buena Vista Street at California Adventure or the interactive theater world of Ghost Town Live at Knott’s Berry Farm. Perhaps it was because we were there during previews, but these things haven’t come to life at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge yet. Instead, we saw non-actor castmembers struggling to remember the weird, cultish Black Spire lingo and their own backstories. And with Disney still not embracing even light cosplay like what is encouraged at Universal Studios’ Harry Potter themed developments with the sale of the Wizarding World robes and wands, any dramatic activation of the space will have to be provided by Disney. Soon we hope! 

Merchandise

Specialty merchandise is plentiful and expensive. The droid-building workshop looks like fun, but it has a starting price of $100 and the droid parts don’t look sturdy. The lightsaber experience as Savi’s Workshop will set you back $200, and you can’t enter the shop unless you pay.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

There are a lot of really great costumes pieces for sale, but if you’re over 14, you can’t wear the long ones… We didn’t buy anything, and boy, were we ready to. Which brings us to our next point:

Emotional Engagement

Really, it’s all down to one thing: Emotional Engagement. We are big Star Wars fans, some of us are old enough to have grown up on the original films and have lived our whole lives loving this franchise. To say we were ready to be moved to tears – among other things – at the sight of the actual full-size Millennium Falcon is an understatement. Dusty did cry during a preview when no other guests were around as he was emotionally overwhelmed by the first sight of the Falcon. But the rest of us didn’t feel the same when we visited with thousands of other guests. Why? . . . 

While all theme parks are amusement parks, not all amusement parks are theme parks. The difference is storytelling. The purpose of amusement parks is to do just that – amuse – provide brief thrills and mild distraction from everyday life. Theme parks are something else entirely. When done well, a themed space can be utterly transportative, transformative and emotionally cathartic. How? Why?

The why is easy: emotionally engaged guests spend more money. A lot more. In his book “The Themed Space”, Scott Lucas writes at length about the proliferation of themed restaurants and retail environments in the consumer space, both inside and outside theme parks. How that happens is a delicate magic trick related to the design and execution of the themed space. One of the ways to engage guests on a subconscious level is quality. Guests can sense and respond to quality in meaningful ways. In his seminal text “Designing Disney,” Imagineer John Hench relates the following story: 

“Walt had the idea that guests could feel perfection. I once complained to him about the construction of some new stagecoaches. Walt had asked that the cab be suspended by leather straps as early Western stagecoaches had been. I thought that this was too much and told Walt “People aren’t going to get this, it’s too much perfection.” “Yes they will,” He responded. “They will feel good about it. And they will understand that it’s all done for them.” He went on to lecture me, “If they don’t understand it, if you do something and people don’t respond to it, it’s because you’re a poor communicator. But if you really reach them and touch them, people will respond because people are OK.”

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Hench further elaborates on another important facet of the themed space: collective memory:

“Guests’ memories come into play in many ways in theme park design beyond their recollection of certain films, as with the Indiana Jones attraction. Guests’ spontaneous decision making – where they choose to go in the parks and what they choose to do – is influenced by all kinds of personal and collectively shared memories, as much as by the sensory stimuli around them.”

What does this all mean and how does it relate to SW:GE? There is definitely no shortage of perfection in terms of visual development. The new land is art directed to within an inch of its life. The sculpted and painted/stained concrete finishes are among the best in the world. The visual storytelling contained in the architecture and design of the spaces is of the highest quality.

The Soundscape of Galaxy’s Edge

So what’s missing? I’ll let Walt tell you. When discussing the WED – designed attractions for the 1964 World’s Fair, the corporate clients were unsure about all the music to be featured in for instance “It’s a Small World.” Walt responded: “People don’t come out of these places humming the architecture.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

In noted film music author and historian John Burlingame’s article in Variety about the music for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Matt Walker, executive in charge of music for Walt Disney Imagineering, has this to say about the use of music in SW:GE:

“We never wanted this to sound like background music,” Walker said. “We’ve done deconstructed versions, so you’re not suddenly saying, ‘Wow, there’s the 90-piece LSO playing this incredible piece of symphonic music.’ We tease you, and begin to set up his thematic material and weave that in as you enter. Then where you are in the land, and what needs to happen, begins to take over.” The idea, Walker explains, is to create an authentic-sounding exotic locale, “weaving in musical textures, being careful not to overuse John’s thematic material. It’s a very textural approach to the source music.” Adds (arranger William) Ross: “It’s going to be more like the small group of musicians you might hear in some exotic and faraway village marketplace. But John’s (new) theme informs the entire Galaxy’s Edge musical experience.”

This is where we feel an egregious creative misstep has occurred. With Galaxy’s Edge, we are introduced to a completely new environment that is not in any of the films, TV shows (yet) or (previous) comic books. We are told that this is Star Wars from the endless visual cues both subtle and major, but there is an emotional element that is missing that completes the Star Wars illusion: the music.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

Not using music to its full advantage to anchor this new space into the Star Wars universe is a shocking creative choice. The iconic symphonic themes of Williams’ scores for the Star Wars films are as much a part of the collective memory of Star Wars as the Millennium Falcon, TIE fighters and Astromech droids. It just doesn’t feel like Star Wars without the classic themes. Even John Powell and Michael Giacchino wisely included many of the memorable original themes in their own scores for Star Wars movies. They understood the importance of hitting those nostalgia buttons and that Star Wars isn’t Star Wars without them.

Divorcing Star Wars from its iconic orchestral music results in an unsettling incongruity as illustrated in the youtube clip below, featuring the opening sequence from Star Wars Episode IV:

To further illustrate the importance of music in a narrative, the presentation of a scene from JAWS both without and then with the score can be seen below. We encourage you to watch this clip as it’s a celebration of John Williams and how his music instantly connects you to what could otherwise be viewed as a long and somewhat boring scene:

Music is the emotional core of many popular visual narratives, even in theme parks. We have been conditioned by 100 years of film and television and 400 years of opera – to accept and expect non-diagetic music (music separate from the fictional setting). It gives us license and helps to tell us how to feel about what we’re seeing and experiencing.

In a theme park context, we see both diagetic and non-diagetic music existing side-by-side in ways that both complete and support the illusion of immersion. For instance, the area music on Main Street, USA features both music FROM the turn of the 20th century in the “Maple Leaf Rag” and music ABOUT the turn of the 20th century in “The Wells Fargo Wagon,” all arranged in the style of a small turn of the century ensembles. This music is faded out when live performances from period style groups such as The Firehouse Five Plus Two or the Dapper Dans emerge from “off stage” to entertain guests.

In Tomorrowland, Star Tours features the iconic symphonic themes from the moment you step into the building, in the actual ride and into the gift shop.  You don’t have to imagine what Star Tours would be like without the music, you can experience it for yourself on Smuggler’s Run. In the queue for Smuggler’s Run, you wind up and through the catwalks of a repair shop in the spaceport of Batuu. You occasionally hear the banter of mechanics over loudspeakers in the shop. Why not also hear some Outer Rim pirate radio broadcast of KDROID or something to help fill the space that is otherwise dead between quips? The silence is deafening.

The desire on the part of the Galaxy’s Edge designers and creative leads for fully immersive realism is understandable. The internal code name for the project was even “Delos” – the name of the fictitious company in the Film and TV series “WESTWORLD.” However, in Galaxy’s Edge, you know you’re in a theme park. You had to walk across the entire length of Disneyland to get there. You can hear the whistles of the trains and the Mark Twain. You can see Big Thunder Mountain. There are public bathrooms. You use cash and credit cards to buy things that are put in “Disney Parks” bags. You’re not a costumed character LARPing like one might at a Renaissance Faire (or Westworld). In fact, unless you’re under 14, you are expressly forbidden by Disneyland’s strictly enforced no-costumes policy from wearing costumes. You’re surrounded by day guests with Mickey ears, smartphones and strollers. A major narrative element of the Land will, in fact, rely on you using your “real world” smartphones. So why draw the line at symphonic area music? The glaring absence of this integral part of the Star Wars universe makes the entire Land feel like an empty film set. Yes, there is some excellent audio design throughout  – the sounds of ships taking off and landing just out of view so effective that they make you look up and around for them, clever “radio broadcasts” and creature sounds in the restrooms, the hum of engines and equipment and the chirping of droids and yes, a smattering of very subtle, exotic music around the restaurants and shops.

Galaxy's Edge Review, Opinion: First Impressions of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

But when you come around the corner and see the Millennium Falcon for the first time, it’s almost matter of fact; “Yup, there it is.” Sure it’s impressive and something that we never thought we’d see in person, but it still feels strangely hollow. It’s missing that character that is just as important as the visual icons – the score.

The scale of SW:GE is awe-inspiring and the artistry and detail is staggering. One is left wondering though, how they are supposed to FEEL about this place? Is it safe? Is it dangerous? Is it Star Wars?

Lest you think we were disappointed in Galaxy’s Edge, we were not, it’s the very height of Disney accomplishment. It will set a standard for future projects and what entertainment design can be for decades to come. But nothing in life is perfect, and we do hope that once the reality of daily theme park operation takes over Galaxy’s Edge the decision will be made to enhance the guest experience with the sort of music and area entertainment that tug at guests heartstrings and immerse them in the story of Star Wars.  


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