Do you believe in miracles?! One of the marquee effects in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance that has not worked in years at either Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World or Disneyland has been fixed. This post shares the official announcement along with our commentary.
Walt Disney World and Disneyland have long histories of opening brand-new attractions with jaw-dropping effects only to have these break and never be fixed. Imagineering is capable of making magic come to life, but sometimes its ambitions get the best of it. Effects that perform well in the Glendale offices can’t always withstand the rigors of daily operations in actual theme parks.
In fairness to Imagineers, it’s also often the case that Disney cheaps out on preventative maintenance and refurbishments. Attractions get big budgets when they’re in development, but OpEx is seldom commensurate with CapEx. Then there are the scenarios where no one is to blame. Tough choices have to be made about effects that are problematic and whether it’s worth the downtime, or if having the ride operate with certain features in B-mode is the better bet.
There are countless examples of this, but Indiana Jones Adventure is the biggest for me. This is probably because I never experienced the attraction in its full glory at Disneyland, so I’ve gone down the rabbit hole reading about its many long-lost effects, from the elusive ice machine to moving walls and so much more.
Then there are two attractions I have experienced in their full glory: DINOSAUR and Expedition Everest. I’m less interested in non-working effects on both of these attractions. Admittedly, I also hold two seemingly unpopular opinions when it comes to these Animal Kingdom headliners.
The first is that the Yeti Audio Animatronics was a colossal waste of money to begin with for something that can only be seen for a fraction of a second. In a park that has plenty of problems, is still underbuilt, and is in urgent need of a lot of help, the yeti should not be fixed anytime in at least the next decade. Budgets are finite and that’s a poor use of both (down)time and money. Sorry not sorry.
The second is that DINOSAUR isn’t great even with all of its effects working. It’s a good attraction, to be sure, but it’s not great. And it certainly doesn’t measure up to Indiana Jones Adventure. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I cannot wait for Walt Disney World fans to experience our version of the attraction (which I’ve heard fantastic things about) and see what we’ve been missing all these years. DINOSAUR will be quickly forgotten.
Then there’s Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. I experienced this during previews, opening day on both coasts, and extensively in the months that followed. I lost track of how many times we did this ride from December 2019 until March 2020, and again in Summer 2020 through 2021.
There was a time when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was the hot topic due to its ever-changing virtual queue policies and its “effects watch.” In fact, our original guide to the attraction strongly encouraged guests to jump through the hoops to experience Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance as soon as possible, as it’s a very effects-heavy attraction and it was possible–if not probable–that some of those would be permanently disabled over time.
And that’s exactly what happened with its cannon sequence. Or so we thought. (Warning: spoilers to follow.)
During the climactic battle/escape sequence during the ride-through portion of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, there are three cannons that are supposed to move back and forth as they recoil from firing shots through the ship’s windows. The prisoner transport vehicles likewise move back and forth as an evasive maneuver, dodging the cannons in between blasts.
When this effect is firing on all cylinders, it adds an incredible layer of immersion. It feels like you’re doing a chaotic dance, for lack of a better term, with the cannons amidst actual battle. It’s a frenzied and frenetic scene, and one that reminds me of the climax of Mystic Manor (totally different, but it feels similar).
Unfortunately, the cannons have not been working in years. (I want to say since around Summer 2021, but don’t quote me on that.) It’s my understanding that they were deactivated as they were plagued by problems, as the timing being off would trigger downtime for the entire attraction.
This was at a time when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was still plagued by frequent breakdowns and Disney was doing regular overnight maintenance on both coasts to improve reliability. And exactly that was achieved by Fall 2021, with the Galaxy’s Edge headliner still having issues, but within the realm of what’s reasonable for such a complicated attraction.
In short, the cannons haven’t moved in over 3 years, and we assumed that their deactivation was permanent. Or would last at least until Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance received a lengthy refurbishment that would give Imagineers a chance to spend time inside the attraction and figure out a fix for the underlying ride vehicle and cannon cadence issue.
So I was shocked when we received a statement from a Disneyland official informing us that, as of this morning, the cannons on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance are firing once again! According to Disney, its teams have done lots of hard work to restore this feature and they can’t wait for guests to experience this moment once more.
Honestly, I didn’t ever expect to experience this again.
Disney has spent a lot of money on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and I figured this is something they’d file under “throwing good money after bad.” Especially since it’s been so long, most guests probably forgot about the effect or never experienced it, and this creates the precedent for fixing it again if it breaks again. (Given the timing of when they were disabled at Walt Disney World and the lengthier closure of Disneyland, the cannons might have never been at Disneyland after March 2020.)
Suffice to say, Disneyland’s maintenance teams and Walt Disney Imagineering deserve a huge kudos for this. This scene is good even without the cannons moving, but the motion is one of those “little things” that puts it over the top. Just a top-tier, icing on the cake kind of effect.
No word yet on if or when this fix will be implemented on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Walt Disney World, but we’d assume so. Although Orlando management is notoriously allergic to ride refurbishments and plussings, this has two things going for it. First, it was accomplished after hours, without a ride refurbishment.
Second, Walt Disney World doesn’t have complete autonomy when it comes to Star Wars. If this were an effect on Pirates of the Caribbean, it might be a different story. But if Imagineering or Lucasfilm really want to push and force Walt Disney World’s hand, they could probably get this fix for the cannons implemented at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, too.
We also shouldn’t rule out the possibility that Walt Disney World will want its cannons working. There have been plenty of projects in the last ~6 months that evince an increased willingness to spend on maintenance and other little projects that aren’t necessarily marketable. Maybe this is one of them!
It’s also worth noting that, after a few years of roughness for reliability and ride breakdowns at Disneyland, things seem to be finally turning a corner. It used to be the case that maintenance was always better at Disneyland, but the gap has closed in recent years–and not because of anything Walt Disney World has done. (Quite the contrary…)
The good news is that Disneyland has made a bunch of little fixes in the last few months. They’ve also filed a flurry of permits lately, with the most recent being for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout during Spring Break. As discussed in the latest update to our 2025 Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar, this attraction badly needs it.
Hopefully this trend continues at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and not just in California. We’ve also seen an uptick in refurbishments in Florida since the start of the new fiscal year, which we’ve attributed to Burbank turning on the money spigot after a few years of underfunding the parks. There’s still a lot of deferred maintenance to be done, which is why we’ve warned of more refurbishments in 2025-2026 than the last few years.
This is why “Maintenance & Unexpected Downtime” made the list of Top 10 Guest Complaints About Walt Disney World! Some fans will undoubtedly bemoan more closures during their travel dates, expecting refurbishments to only happen during others’ vacations. In our view, it’s good news that many refurbishments are now being scheduled simultaneously, even if it does come with the short-term pain of multiple major rides down.
Anyway, kudos to Disneyland’s teams for getting this done–I never thought I’d see the day. We cannot wait to get out to the park to check it out. It’s been a while since we’ve seen either version of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance firing on all cylinders, which is a shame, as I truly believe this is the best modern marvel of Imagineering. That’s right, better than anything at Tokyo Disney Resort or any of the international parks!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of Disney and Imagineering finally fixing the cannons on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland? Surprised that this happened? Think the fix will be implemented at Walt Disney World? When, if ever, did you last see the cannons working on either coast? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of this effect? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
