Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I’ll be wrapping up my look at how the Disney Parks helped young ones everywhere become Jedi.
Season of the Force began at Disneyland today and will continue for the next two months, exclusively at Disneyland. The event continues the nearly four decade relationship between the Disney Parks and Star Wars, made especially evident with the addition of some of the new television show characters to Star Tours. Ahsoka, who bridges that gap between live-action and animation, is one of the highlights of the new Star Tours scenes, which bring back memories of the animated shows having a park presence in the mid 2010s.
For today’s attraction, the animated Star Wars shows did play a small role, but they came along after The Clone Wars initial run had ended, and the Disney Parks always love to be timely. In this case, that meant drawing from Star Wars Rebels as Disney looked to upgrade the original Jedi Training Academy that I discussed last time. The show had originally been created in 2000, well before Disney was even thinking about purchasing Lucasfilm, so it was very much in need of a facelift to help bring it into modern times.
With that, the shows in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland changed their name to Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple and reopened with this brand-new show on December 1 and December 8 of 2015, respectively. But this time around, Hong Kong Disneyland wanted to get in on the fun as well, so they closed down the UFO Zone in Tomorrowland to add their own version starting on June 25, 2016.
With The Force Awakens grossing $2 billion around the world, it was quickly apparent that there needed to be some representation from the movie in the parks as soon as possible. With the Trials of the Temple, there was the perfect opportunity to simply add Kylo Ren into the show, so early in 2016, Kylo was added into the show that we’re about to check out.
This new version of the show started out much smoother because parents had to sign their children up for the show earlier in the day, so the entire element of being chosen from the crowd had been completely removed. This helped them move right into the meat of the show, which was a good move because this version functioned a lot more like an actual show with the relationship between a Jedi Master and her apprentice forming the crux of the story. While teaching the Younglings what they knew, the apprentice also grew within herself, as she started the show afraid of nearly everything.
But she stuck around as they needed to very quickly teach the new Padawans their best Jedi moves as danger could be lurking around any corner. Luckily, these lightsabers had been upgraded to ones that were permanently engaged to help save the trouble of figuring out how to open the thing.
With the training complete, the master and apprentice worked together to open the doors to the temple with Darth Vader and the Seventh Sister (from Rebels, see it all connects!) immediately emerging from the mist to try and convert the Younglings to join them on the Dark Side. Luckily, the little Padawans had been well trained and were able to withstand and take down the evil Sith, though not all of the danger had yet been vanquished.
Kylo Ren then made his triumphant appearance with a more focused goal, getting information from the apprentice that was vital to his cause. (Oh, and also conducting a hysterical temper tantrum). The apprentice grew in her courage and utilized the help of the Younglings to force push Kylo Ren away, only for him to pop his ugly head back in one time, requiring a gigantic, unified Force Push that also sealed him away in the Temple. Of course, Yoda’s voice then came over the speakers to remind the Padawans of how well they did and how much they still needed to learn.
In 2017, the Trials of the Temple went all in on Kylo Ren, giving him the part of the Seventh Sister in terms of fighting the Younglings, while also still allowing him to serve as the major antagonist who helps the Apprentice grow. I did like that they added in that element of growth to help provide them a moral compass in the story, unlike the original that was more of an experience than a true show.
There were pros and cons to both as it lost a lot of the camp that connected it to Star Wars Weekends, but it did help it feel more cohesive with the updated Star Wars brand. Personally, I preferred the camp, but it was time to move on and ultimately time for all of them to move on with Disneyland’s version closing first on March 4, 2018, followed by Hollywood Studios on March 16, 2020 and Hong Kong’s on May 31, 2021. It was a nice diversion, but it was definitely more than time to move and it will be interesting to see if anything more permanent ever takes over any of the spaces. With such small footprints, I would imagine they continue to function as general entertainment spaces for the foreseeable future.
Via Pinterest
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!