Starting off with some little things, WDW News Today said that there is a possibility that Disney is going to be putting the FastPasses for both millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Rise Of The Resistance on sale. Now, this would be perfect if you want to go on the ride, but don’t want to wait in a super long line. For Disneyland, they could be adding the FastPasses to their already existing MaxPass system.
WDW News Today also has another news piece, and that is we are getting an animatronic of Hondo for the Smuggler’s Run attraction. But he’s not the only animatronic we are getting in the area. We’re also going to be seeing animatronics of R-3X, Dok-Ondar, and Nien Nunb. An image of Hondo was released, and he looks amazing:
And here is the info for these 4 characters:
- Hondo Ohnaka: A Weequay pirate introduced in Clone Wars, Hondo is now the proprietor of Ohnaka Transport Solutions and has been loaned the Millennium Falcon by Chewie for some “deliveries”. The animatronic figure itself is around 7 feet tall and uses the latest in electric motors instead of hydraulics. Hondo’s figure includes around 50 functions (movement points) total and is the second most complicated animatronic in Disney parks. The most complicated, for the record, is the Na’vi Shaman, mentioned above, which has 40 functions in its face alone, not to mention the rest of the body. We had the Shaman at our robotics event a couple of years ago, it’s incredible to watch. Hondo isn’t far behind, with fluid movements, smooth facial contortions and believable interactions between himself and his R5 droid.
- DJ R-3X — You know him previously classified as RX-24, or Captain Rex, the pilot over at Star Tours. Now, he’s a DJ at Oga’s Cantina on Batuu. He plays music composed by the Imagineering team and a variety of artists from around the world. All of it is poppy and synth-ey and a bit 80’s, with some classic mixes of Cantina tunes gone by. His torso and arms move to work the controls and dance and he has a three-hour cycle of music and dialog to keep patrons entertained. Fun fact, Lucasfilm Creative Executive Matt Martin says he has many, many pages of backstory about how Rex ended up on Batuu.
- Dok-Ondar — An Ithorian trader, Don is renowned for his Jedi and Sith artifact collection. I was able to see Dok fully active in the Imagineering animation building and he looks incredible. The figure towers several feet above guests heads as he sits behind his counter and interacts with shop employees. The detail is lovely here, with a rich, smooth set of animations for hands and neck, his whole body rising up and down. The lips along his two mouths ripple as he speaks in a resonant stereophonic voice.
- Nien Nunb — A Sullustun pilot famous for copiloting the Millennium Falcon on its mission to destroy the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. On Batuu he will pilot the transport ship that you board during the Rise of the Resistance attraction.
And thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we also got more backstory to the land. To sum up what they wrote about, the area is basically occupied by both the First Order, and the Resistance. And Batuu’s story takes places after the events of The Last Jedi, and before the events of Episode 9.
And now, on to the rest of the news that has been released.
