New News on Stitch's Great Escape!

[FourFourSeven]

Haven't experienced Stitch yet, but from all I hear, the problems are in the script, not the effects. But they're adding more effect...

It reminds me of the old Hollywood expression - "No matter how hard you try, you just can't polish a turd."

 

[marni1971]

I think it comes down to wanting to cash in on Stitch's success more then anything. Morons aside, it probably just gave them a better excuse to do so.

Sad but true..

 

[General Grizz]

OMG! ...
1) AE was FAR MORE FRIGHTENING than SGE. When my family went to Disney for the first time in'94, my brother was 8, and he CLIMBED OUT OF THE SHOULDER RESTRAINT AND CLIMED ONTO MY MOTHER'S LAP. I've been on SGE several times and I haven't seen that violent of a reaction yet. With AE it was common.

Welcome to WDWMagic, aloha. But also understand that Alien Encounter was built with warning signs, advising guests that the attraction was - like it was described in the attraction's title - scary. Stitch opened without such warning and appealed to all children at the Magic Kingdom.

Essentially, Disney took a scary attraction set up and made it more attractive - and definitely available - to kids.

 

[General Grizz]

someone tell me??? Why is the scrit so poorly written?

I wrote an article on D-Troops (http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=348) outlining my thoughts based on what I heard happened "behind the scenes."

I'm not sure how much marketing had an influence over the attraction, but WDI Florida wasn't that stable. The bidding war, lost animation, and job instability led to a generally weak attraction.

 

[dxwwf3]

I think it comes down to wanting to cash in on Stitch's success more then anything. Morons aside, it probably just gave them a better excuse to do so.

I agree with you and Martin here.

And yes in case you didn't notice, I was also referring to MK as being the original WDW park too. I think sometimes people either get confused or they thoughtfully believe that the MK is a park for kids and that's who every attractions should appeal too. I think that tone of thought could potentially be very dangerous to the future of our Magic Kingdom. Currently WDW's MK is probably the worst one in the world. I hate to sound negative, but that's just the way it is. And if we keep on losing attractions like AE, Timekeeper, Carousel of Progress, and Hall of Presidents, and they are replaced with more kid geared attractions, it will only get worse. The Magic Kingdom is not a kids park. It's a park for the kid in all of us and some of us like to be thrilled ro scared.

That's just my opinion on it.

 

[brresler]

And if we keep on losing attractions like AE, Timekeeper, Carousel of Progress, and Hall of Presidents, and they are replaced with more kid geared attractions, it will only get worse. The Magic Kingdom is not a kids park. It's a park for the kid in all of us and some of us like to be thrilled ro scared.

That's just my opinion on it.

The Hall of Presidents is gone? I never went on it, so it probably just disappeared years ago without me noticing. And Carousel? What's the status on that?
Also, we can assume that Stitch is getting a new story along with the new effects. They have to be incorporated somehow, right?

 

[CTXRover]

^^COP and Hall of Presidents are still open as far as I know. I may just be out of the loop, but I've never heard talk of closing HOP, ever (perhaps it was just hypothetical scenarios dxwwf was mentioning). And despite AE being gone and Timekeeper always in a questionable state, there is still quite a lot for adults to do. Really, the MK should try not to have "kiddie" rides per say, but attractions that kids and parents can both do, as was the goal of a MK style park. Most attractions at MK fit that bill in some form, even recent additions like Philharmagic and Wishes live up to that. Stitch MAY eventually even fit into that category as well if they fix it.

 

[General Grizz]

Hall of Presidents is open. It may have been down for rehab when you went in order to install President Bush.

Carousel is open right now. Not sure when it's going down for "rehab," perhaps in a few days. Nothing major as far as I know.

 

[gboiler1]

I enjoyed AE the one and only time I got to experience it, but my wife didn't care for it much. Kind of spooky to her I guess, but it would be nice to be able to take our 6 year old to the attraction. We have certainly enjoyed the Lilo & Stitch movie and the cartoon is a favorite of our daughter. Here's hoping the Imagineers are able to come through with the fix to make SGE one we'll look forward to visiting!

 

[tirian]

Well, to be fair, the attraction IS called "Stitch's Great Escape," so the "Stitch escaping" ending should not have come at a surprise. It's still no excuse for a poorly written script, however.

Yeah, I thought about that as I typed the post.

My point is that during the show, the over-hyped escape seems to be that Stitch escapes custody and wreaks havoc. Then after Stitch does a few cute, and a few not-so-cute, antics, he leaves the building and the show ends. If his "Great Escape" is to escape into Tomorrowland, shouldn't we try to track him down there, too? Or should we just exit the building and say, "Oh well, I guess now he's going to take over Walt Disney World and toilet paper the castle"?

Oh, wait. That already happened.

 

[dxwwf3]

^^COP and Hall of Presidents are still open as far as I know. I may just be out of the loop, but I've never heard talk of closing HOP, ever (perhaps it was just hypothetical scenarios dxwwf was mentioning).

I was just listing adult based attractions.

 

[KevinPage]

I'd be shocked if they didn't address the script problems and only "lessened" the dark parts.

Granted both of those areas need major work, so I have some faith

 

[tinkatpotc]

Boring!!!

I went on S:GE last December for the first time and I HATED it!!! My boyfriend was with me (his first trip to Disney) and from all the things we had heard we were expecting a let down...and boy was it! But I also didn't really like the movie...What really made me disappointed was that it seems like all they did was remove AE and put in Stich, no new Disney Flare...trying to save money perhaps? All I know is that I will not be disappointed if I never go on S:GE again!!

 

[zone15int]

Most probably now this, but right now, one of the two chambers isn't being used at all. Part of the reason is a refurb of the Merchants of Venus shop that the one chamber empties into. I imagine though that they would take this time to start tweaking that show chamber while its closed.

FYI: Both chambers are in operation at Stitch. There is an alternate route exit. The doors open up right in front of the Alien breakroom door and you hang a left, go through a gate next door to merchants of venus.

 

[Slipknot]

What really made me disappointed was that it seems like all they did was remove AE and put in Stich, no new Disney Flare...

Well, basically that IS all they did.

 

[Snapper Bean]

FYI: Both chambers are in operation at Stitch. There is an alternate route exit. The doors open up right in front of the Alien breakroom door and you hang a left, go through a gate next door to merchants of venus.

Does that mean that there is NO rehab? I'm confused.

 

[zone15int]

Does that mean that there is NO rehab? I'm confused.

Well it's going to get a rehab. Also, they can tweak things overnight. Just yesterday I noticed that Sarge's telephone mouthpiece was replaced after a couple of months.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Grizz, that was a great article (found on page 3 of this thread). Not long ago, someone suggested changing Stitch's great escape into something like Turtle Talk - except with an interactive animatronic. I don't see this type of overhaul happening at all, but definite improvements should be in store. The ride does have good aspects to it. The Stitch animatronic is amazing, and the cannons could be useful in the entertaining of the guests. I'm not quite sure how they'll elongate the amount of time Stitch spends in the chamber (And in turn, in our eye sight) because he does have to escape at some point.

 

[fjm777]

I went on SGE in December and my whole family hates it. To make matters worse I was one of the lucky ones who got spit on. It was a little much and didn't appear to be water exactly. Anyway it was very cold that morning and I was freezing when I went out. I don't care what they do to "fix" the attraction, I won't be going on it again - ever.

 

[yoyoflamingo]

I was just in the Magic Kingdom this week, and can confirm that the two chambers were open on Stitch. My girfriend and I went on this, after reading all the posts here about it and reading the reviews on various websites. We thought we were prepared for the disappointment, but we were wrong. I think that bad is not the word to use to descirbe this attraction, but underwhelming is much more appropriate. This really has great potential, similar to Alien Encounter, but it just falls short on so many levels. I agree the animatronics are amazing, but something really needs to be done to enhance the experience. Hopefully they're working on it after park hours, but when I was there on Wed., we saw the show twice, and went into a different chamber for each show.