SPECIAL EFFECTS TAKE FLIGHT IN ‘STAR TOURS’

“Star Tours,” the new ride that opened Friday at Disneyland, is as close as you can come to flying the Millenium Falcon. And it’s the one place in Southern California where you won’t hear the ads for it.

A cross between a roller-coaster ride and a science-fiction movie, “Star Tours” features characters, vehicles and even scenes from George Lucas’ “Star Wars” trilogy: It’s the first time a Disneyland attraction has used imagery from a non-Disney film.

The ride has been the subject of a media campaign designed to make Neil Armstrong’s moon walk seem like a neighborhood stroll. Probably nothing could live up to those ecstatic ads, but if you can forget the hype and take the ride on its own terms--as the crowd did at Thursday night’s press preview--it can be a lot of fun.

R2D2 and the fussy C3PO preside over a simulated space port. Broadcast messages (in English and Ewok) spoof the standard airport announcements: “Attention please. All droids leaving the system must be cleared by customs control; proof of ownership is required of all droid passengers.” An unctuous announcer hawks tour packages to various planets, from the films, including a ski tour of Hoth. Chewbacca the Wookie turns up in a film explaining how to fasten the seat belts. We see the future, and it has many of the day-to-day problems of the present.

After passing through “Droidnostics,” a robot repair station run by wisecracking machines, visitors arrive at a Starspeeder, a flight simulator fitted out to resemble the passenger compartment of a small space ship. (It should have been modeled after the Millenium Falcon--so many fans have dreamed of piloting that disreputable crate.) Great care went into every detail: The artificial heating ducts have simulated stains, to give the impression of long wear.

The announced destination of the tour is the Moon of Endor, the planetoid inhabited by the fuzzy little Ewoks in “The Return of the Jedi.” Endor seems like the perfect subject for an old-fashioned Disneyland ride of motorized cars moving past dioramas of cute little automaton Ewoks. But Lucas wanted to play against the traditional, “safe” image of Disneyland rides, so navigator R2D2 and the addled pilot droid, RX-24, take their passengers on a very different journey.

RX all but crashes the ship through a repair bay door in a daredevil maneuver worthy of Han Solo, then inadvertently steers the ship on a crazy voyage through the chunks of ice that make up a comet. The motorized passenger compartment moves in conjunction with the images appearing on a movie screen to produce a heightened illusion of motion. The viewer feels the ship turn as he sees it happen, and the bouncing, twisting trip through the comet’s core is as exhilarating as a bobsled run through an Imax film.

As soon as RX gets the Starspeeder out of the comet, he stumbles into a pitched space battle between the Rebel Alliance and the forces of the evil Empire. The ship jolts and bucks, darting amid the familiar X-Wing and Imperial TIE fighters. Pilots fire laser guns and ships explode just off the Starspeeder’s bow. Science-fiction fans dream of this kind of experience.

The climax of the ride is a breakneck flight through the trench of the Death Star, similar to the one Luke Skywalker took at the end of “Star Wars,” but seen from the co-pilot’s seat. Ominous-looking machinery and gun turrets whip past at alarming speed: You may catch yourself ducking when the ship darts under the looming bulk of a huge mechanical bridge.

“Star Tours” suggests a new approach to amusement-park rides, one that combines physical movement and motion-picture special-effects technology. The illusion of careening through space produced by the motions of the flight simulator intensifies Lucas’ visual pyrotechnics: Watching a cassette of “Star Wars” from a stable living room couch will seem much tamer after “Star Tours.”