Alien Encounter Question?

[coastermaster83]

I was reading someones post about Alien Encounter and it got me thinking about this great attraction and I was trying to remember but my memory's are a little fuzzy but wasn't there something about Eisner riding it when it was first built and making them (imagineers) redo it because it wasn't scary enough? Also I could have sworn the first time I saw a promo for it on tv they showed cars with 4 seats back to back in a plus sign pattern and more of a ride then a theater. Maybe I'm all fuzzy but that what I seem to remember.

 

[erasure fan1]

I dont know about the redo part to make it more scary but it was the same theater. AE never moved or anything, just special effects.

 

[ScrapIron]

wasn't there something about Eisner riding it when it was first built and making them (imagineers) redo it because it wasn't scary enough?

I've seen this stated many times.

Cheers.

 

[Yen_Sid1]

Actually, they had to redo it to make it less scary.
Especially the audio, they had a pretty nasty background screaming and yelling like people were being killed.

 

[Mr Bill]

Also I could have sworn the first time I saw a promo for it on tv they showed cars with 4 seats back to back in a plus sign pattern and more of a ride then a theater. Maybe I'm all fuzzy but that what I seem to remember.

Could it be that you are thinking of Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios?

 

[marni1971]

Sounds like MIB.

AE was closed by Eisner to make it more scary, and also to rewrite the script to make the story flow better. The original sounded dull and boring, and the story structure was broken. Some visual effects were also enhanced. The original opened December 16th, 1994 but closed the following month. The second version opened June 20th 1995.

 

[rbrower]

I only went on AE one time and I was freaked out
I don't think that it ever moved because there was an attraction in there before and it had about the same theater. Just like the one that is in SGE now.

 

[dxwwf3]

AE was closed by Eisner to make it more scary, and also to rewrite the script to make the story flow better. The original sounded dull and boring, and the story structure was broken. Some visual effects were also enhanced. The original opened December 16th, 1994 but closed the following month. The second version opened June 20th 1995.

I believe I would have loved the original version if they had stuck with it, but I believe that the 2nd version was really better. All of the changes were for the best, IMO.

 

[Damien666]

Yeah, they changed a few things to make the 2nd preshow and main show better. In the 2nd preshow they used to have Phil Hartman do the voice of "TOM-2000" While his work was good it didn't set the right tone for the attraction. It was too comical, so they simple replaced him with SIR.

With the main show, they changed a few things with the audio and added effects and gave it a new ending. They added the catwalk death up above you and the blood drip effect as well as the tongue effect. For the ending they used to have it where they did end up teleporting Chairmen Clench to us, but the tube shield was down so we could only hear him pounding on the tube. So they put in the new ending of blowing the alien up.

 

[coastermaster83]

ya i thought it was just a theater ride but i swear that some ad i saw showed 4 kids back to back and they had the aliens arms all around and they were freaking out and no it wasnt MIB.

 

[CThaddeus]

I do remember an ad when it first came out where they did have alien arms lunging toward people, though they were sitting in the same way as they would if they actually had gone on it (theater in the round, so to speak). But, like the really impressive dragon in the Fantasmic! ads or the people standing up while riding the Tower of Terror, the attacking aliens were just marketing ploys to make the attraction look more exciting. If only they would actually use that dragon...

 

[Damien666]

EDIT:Oops, nevermind. The dragon is just for the tv ads.

 

[Disneyfanman]

There was a great completition among my kids to see how old they could be to sit through AE with their eyes open. My oldest did it at about 13, and my daughter when she was 14. My youngest never made it through and was very upset when they changed it prior to his "becoming a man"! It was my kids coming of age attraction I guess. They had the same competition with Dinosaur over at the AK.

For that reason alone, I will never forget AE. When we saw Stitch last year, my kids were disgusted and disappointed. My youngest (13 now) said that Disney had lost a little magic for him.

My wife, for the record, always hated AE. I think it scared her, but no matter.......we all have our favorites. She hates Stitch more.

If you are going to remove an attraction, you should put in something better. Most of the time I agree with Disney's choices. Boy they blew it with that change. It's the only attraction on all of Disney property that we absolutely agreed to never to waste our time on again.

 

[abian]

There was a great completition among my kids to see how old they could be to sit through AE with their eyes open. My oldest did it at about 13, and my daughter when she was 14. My youngest never made it through and was very upset when they changed it prior to his "becoming a man"! It was my kids coming of age attraction I guess. They had the same competition with Dinosaur over at the AK.

For that reason alone, I will never forget AE. When we saw Stitch last year, my kids were disgusted and disappointed. My youngest (13 now) said that Disney had lost a little magic for him.

My wife, for the record, always hated AE. I think it scared her, but no matter.......we all have our favorites. She hates Stitch more.

If you are going to remove an attraction, you should put in something better. Most of the time I agree with Disney's choices. Boy they blew it with that change. It's the only attraction on all of Disney property that we absolutely agreed to never to waste our time on again.

Is it really that bad? For me I wouldn't say Disney changed that much from AE. I am not sure the hatred about stitch being a lot wrose than AE. I think AE is also be hated by many back when it was still there.

 

[pintraderpayee]

I do remember an ad when it first came out where they did have alien arms lunging toward people, though they were sitting in the same way as they would if they actually had gone on it (theater in the round, so to speak). But, like the really impressive dragon in the Fantasmic! ads or the people standing up while riding the Tower of Terror, the attacking aliens were just marketing ploys to make the attraction look more exciting. If only they would actually use that dragon...

LOL! Every year I have several new WDW-bound students who watch the TOT clip on WDW's site and ask me why the people don't get hurt standing up on the ride!! I tell them the truth on this one so their parents don't freak and prevent them from going, but I have convinced several "gullibles" that they have to have one Disney song memorized to be admitted to the parks!! You should see them borrowing my DD(12)'s Disney CDs. I know I'm an evil teacher.....he,he..... Still missing AE

 

[MissM]

Is it really that bad? For me I wouldn't say Disney changed that much from AE. I am not sure the hatred about stitch being a lot wrose than AE. I think AE is also be hated by many back when it was still there.

It's just sooo watered down. They fail to achieve any real market segment with Stitch. It's too lame and boring for adults and STILL scary for most kids (mainly because of the darkness.) So who's it for? It's not and that's the problem.

AE wasn't scary. It just wasn't meant for the toddler set. Unforuntely, Stitch doesn't improve on that either.
-m

 

[CThaddeus]

I'm always one of the lone voices of dissent on this, but I feel Stitch's Great Escape is much better than the Alien Ecounter attraction. Having finally gone on Stitch after hearing so much bad-mouthing of it, I have to say the attacks on it seem really unwarranted. It has a Disney quality to it now that I feel it lacked before. Alien Encounter always felt supremely out-of-place to me in the Magic Kingdom. The violence and goriness of the whole thing made it seem like something I would expect in Disney-MGM more than a land where we're to be celebrating the promise of the future.
Now, on the whole, I have no problem with the Alien Encounter attraction. Seeing Jeffrey Jones and Kevin Pollak is always enjoyable, and the preshow video and the SIR and Skippy portions are great. I just always felt like the actual show was a letdown, and was unnecessarily violent. You can create an intense experience without including things like people getting their heads bitten off, or "blood" spurting all over you. It was overall an okay attraction, but it alienated (pun intended) large segments of Disney visitors. Disney-MGM is a place that seems more for mature audiences, and therefore seems a better fit, in my opinion.
Stitch, on the other hand, had no violence (Skippy didn't even suffer the indignity of getting fried), and had a more upbeat tone. The story really wasn't any different than the previous one - alien escapes into audience and wreaks havoc. The difference was kids and adults weren't screaming in terror. They were laughing, instead. A lot of people cite the chili dog thing as disgusting, but these are the same people who say they don't have a problem with the idea of the alien killling people in Alien Encounter. I'd rather a thousand chili dog scenes to one death scene. I also have to say that the audio-animatronics were vastly improved over that original alien. Stitch looks almost real (albeit too large).
Many have said they didn't improve on the attraction. I feel that to be an utterly false statement. I never would have suggested my friend take his kids into Alien Encounter. I had no problem recommending Stitch's Great Escape, and they loved it. To each his own, but I guess I just will never understand all the negativity to an attraction that seems much more in keeping with the Tomorrowland spirit.

 

[dxwwf3]

To each his own, but I guess I just will never understand all the negativity to an attraction that seems much more in keeping with the Tomorrowland spirit.

That's because SGE doesn't have any of that Tomorrowland spirit. The MK is NOT a kiddie park. I repeat, NOT a kiddie park. You talk about new attractions alienate certain segments, how about Pooh's Playful Spot? I'm alienated from that attraction because of my height and age. Nobody seems to have a problem with that. Many WDW fans liked AE and it wasn't completely about the attraction itself. It was all that the attraction represented: story is the most important thing and not everything near the castle has to have the little ones in mind.

And if you never saw AE without people laughing their heads off, you didn't see the show nearly as much as me. It was a dark comedy to begin with. Closer in tone to This Is Spinal Tap than Nightmare on Elm Street.

I also don't buy the "death" argument. There is death all the time in Disney animated features and it usually happens to good characters. Sure AE's was more graphic, but so what? That's the point. If you didn't "get" the attraction, you aren't going to enjoy it and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't really "get" Festival of the Lion King, but that doesn't make the many fans of the show wrong. In my opinion, AE fit Tomorrowland perfectly and was a real shot in the arm to the Magic Kingdom.

 

[imagineer boy]

That's because SGE doesn't have any of that Tomorrowland spirit. The MK is NOT a kiddie park. I repeat, NOT a kiddie park. You talk about new attractions alienate certain segments, how about Pooh's Playful Spot? I'm alienated from that attraction because of my height and age. Nobody seems to have a problem with that. Many WDW fans liked AE and it wasn't completely about the attraction itself. It was all that the attraction represented: story is the most important thing and not everything near the castle has to have the little ones in mind.

And if you never saw AE without people laughing their heads off, you didn't see the show nearly as much as me. It was a dark comedy to begin with. Closer in tone to This Is Spinal Tap than Nightmare on Elm Street.

I also don't buy the "death" argument. There is death all the time in Disney animated features and it usually happens to good characters. Sure AE's was more graphic, but so what? That's the point. If you didn't "get" the attraction, you aren't going to enjoy it and there's nothing wrong with that. I don't really "get" Festival of the Lion King, but that doesn't make the many fans of the show wrong. In my opinion, AE fit Tomorrowland perfectly and was a real shot in the arm to the Magic Kingdom.

Very, very well said. :wave:

 

[Disneyfanman]

Is it really that bad? For me I wouldn't say Disney changed that much from AE. I am not sure the hatred about stitch being a lot wrose than AE. I think AE is also be hated by many back when it was still there.

I can only quote my family. We think it's the worst attraction at WDW. Nobody likes it in my family, or in my brothers family. I can't say that about any other attraction. With AE, we all liked it except for my wife. It's the pacing (of Stitch), the awful smell of chilidog, and the (to us) pointless story. We are all fans of the movie, by the way. Maybe its partially because we mostly LIKED AE, and it pales by comparison. All I can tell you is that we saw it once. That's enough. Maybe others like it better. It was certainly crowded when we saw it last year over Thanksgiving break.