Our Star Wars correspondents (yes we have special correspondents), Brian and Dave, recently attended Star Wars Weekends 2009 in Orlando. Here is their report:

Welcome to Star Wars Weekends 2009!  I will be your host as we journey into the Clone Wars animated Star Wars romp that is Star Wars Weekends 2009.  Cue the cool Dancing with the Stars Star Wars themed music.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that only a handful of you have actually been to Disney Star Wars Weekends.  Well, sit back if you haven’t already and enjoy my rendition of what happened at this year’s event.

The Line

A typical day at Star Wars Weekends entails waking up at the crack of dawn and proceeding to Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park.  Once there, join the longest line.  Usually, the lines will form the night before as the locals of Orlando will camp out to get what is called the “Autograph Fast Pass.”  Make sure you are taking notes because this stuff is important if you ever want to attend the event in the future.  While waiting in line for about 3-4 hours, you have a great opportunity to hang out with your fellow Star Wars fans.  The “line” is my favorite part of the event, because it brings me back to when I stood in line to see the Star Wars Saga at the theater.  After the wait in the line is over, you can now attain those coveted autograph fast passes; a guarantee to meet with the guest stars for that weekend and get one item autographed.

Meeting the Guest Stars

The time is right and now I can meet some of my childhood heroes, Boba Fett and Darth Vader.  Not the actual characters, but the men behind the masks.  First up was Jeremy Bulloch, best known as Boba Fett.  What an interesting and truly genuine guy.  He told me a great story about how he received a handmade Boba Fett watch from a Japanese fan at Celebration Japan last year.  Next, I met with Darth Vader himself, David Prowse.  Prowse is not the most talkative but he loves meeting with Star Wars fans around the world and has attended Star Wars Weekends the last two years.  I was able to get Jeremy and David to sign the same black and white picture of them unmasked on the set of Empire Strikes Back.

The Shows

“Always two there are, no more, no less.”  Thanks for that quote Yoda.  Anyways, the first show is called the Stars of the Saga Talk Show involving the two guest stars and host Jay Laga’aia.  In short, the show was fantastic.  Jeremy and David were absolutely hilarious together, and who would have thought they were both singers. They even did a great skit where David put on Darth Vader’s gloves and started to force choke Jeremy, who played along brilliantly. As always, Jay was a great host and they ended the show with the time old tradition of the Mickey Mouse Club goodbye.

The second show is called Behind the Force.  This year’s show involved the beautiful Ashley Eckstein, voice of Ashoka Tano from the Clone Wars television series.  During the show, she explained what goes into making an animated television series.  They even had a small studio set-up on one side of the stage where they used fans out of the audience to voice characters from the Clone Wars.  At the end of the show, the audience was treated to a five minute preview of season two.

The Parade

The Legends of the Force Parade takes place every weekend during the month long event.  The parade was awesome as it is every year thanks to the fighting 501st and the Rebel Legion.  Two new editions to the parade this year were Captain Rex and Ashoka Tano from the Clone Wars television show.

Wicket’s Warehouse

The perfectly named Star Wars Weekends shop only open during the event offers great Star Wars merchandize for every type of collector.  From an action figure to a voice activated R2D2, you can find some cool stuff in Wicket’s Warehouse.  For those who love to collect pins, Wicket’s Warehouse offers limited edition pins numbered out of only a 1000 every weekend.  Let me just say I spent way too much money in there and we’ll leave it at that.

Character Encounters

The park is broken up between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.  Character from both light and dark can be found roaming around both sides of the park.  Naturally, the best side to catch unique encounters would be the Empire.  Stormtroopers and Tusken Raiders randomly join the crowd and interact with park guests and each other.  One Stormtrooper was trying to buy a Disney vacation home, asking for donations from the crowd while a Tusken Raider waited in line behind a couple buying ice cream.

Overall Rating for Star Wars Weekends 2009

I give it 4 stormtrooper helmets out of 5 this year.  The event was well put together and a lot of issues from the preview year’s events were finally remedied this year, including the autograph fast pass distribution.  Next year, I would love to see them utilize the American Idol Experience for a Star Wars themed event like the Hyperspace Hoopla.  Also, Disney needs to bring back the adult Star Wars trivia game.  If you are a Star Wars fan, you have to attend this event one year.  It is a lot of fun for one person or the whole family.  Until next time, may the force be with you all.

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