Run, Stitch! Recycled ride to be your fate

Yen_Sid1

New Member
Original Poster
Here's a column in today's Orlando Sentinel :

Poor Stitch.

Instead of giving him a ride worthy of his comic genius, Disney sent its mischievous space alien on a desperate mission to rescue one of the company's biggest gaffes.

If Stitch truly were alive, he would get his revenge for this. He would snarl, stick his tongue up his nose and then wrap his jaws firmly around Michael Eisner's head. His sad tale is a microcosm of what is going on at Disney, where prices are up and creativity is down.

This story begins in 1995 when Disney gambled on a new kind of ride at the Magic Kingdom. Called the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, it was meant to terrify visitors with a space monster stalking them in a dark room. There was only one problem. Horror conflicted with Disney's prime directive of not offending the sensibilities of Disney's family audience. That's ABC's job (how about a Desperate Housewives ride!).

This is why Disney, which has no qualms about stealing moneymaking ideas, never ripped off Universal's wildly successful Halloween Horror Nights. Main Street USA simply is no place for men wielding chain saws.

Nor was the Magic Kingdom a place for Alien Encounter. To make it an acceptable fit, the Disney "Imagineers" toned the ride down so much that Eisner ordered them to jack up the intensity.

Here was the format: People sat in seats with bars lowered over their shoulders. The Alien was "teleported" onto a small stage in front of them. The lights went out. Various sounds, rattles and other special effects began, designed to simulate a prowling alien.

Even with all that, the Alien was not nearly as terrifying as those little singing droids at It's a Small World.

Once envisioned as the premier ride at Tomorrowland, Alien Encounter became a forgotten third fiddle to Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. In an unprecedented admission of failure, Disney announced it was dumping the ride before its 10th birthday. Even Mr. Toad lasted 27 years in his Wild Ride before he was ousted by Winnie the Pooh.

At least Winnie got his own format. Stitch isn't so fortunate. It seems that tightfisted Disney could not bear losing its investment in the Alien Encounter hardware, so it tinkered a bit and swapped out the Alien animatron with a Stitch animatron. The result is Stitch's Great Escape.

Disney seems to hope it can attract a younger audience by replacing horror with high jinks, but on the Internet, Disney-goers have reported several instances of screaming and crying kids. They are scared of the dark room and loud noises. Or maybe they're just commenting on the ride.

You know Stitch is going to be lame when a robot that serves as an opening act gets frightened, makes a squirting sound, looks down and says, "I think I oiled myself."

The highlight of the show is a warm blast of air shot into your face, scented to smell like a Stitch chili-dog belch. A press release actually makes this boast: "Stitch is the first Audio-Animatronics figure to spit."

Now there's a giant leap in technology -- stick a hose in a stuffed animatron's mouth and squirt water out of it.

Disney has wasted its last memorable movie creation in a tired format. Disney used to invent and create. Now it pulls things off the shelf.

It's too bad Stitch can't really escape from the Great Escape.

Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.
 

Stitchfan712

New Member
It's unwinnable I fear. Disney may have no choice but to rehab it now. It's gotten too popular to dislike the attraction.

A shame. I will miss the original show, unless Disney actually pulls a better and more entertaining script out of the bag. But somehow, I doubt that. I think Stitch MKII will be more disappointing. But I hope I am wrong, for Stitch's sake.
 

mkt

When a paradise is lost go straight to Disney™
Premium Member
hmm.. I like Mike Thomas better than Sean Mussenden ;)
 

Shaman

Well-Known Member
After riding SGE I really miss AE....

That being said I think their hearts were in the right place with SGE (even perhaps the budget was there), they got a cool looking AA and those cool cannons, but for the most part I think they fell short on execution...maybe they should rethink the story behind the attraction....
 

PurpleDragon

Well-Known Member
Wow, its harsh, but its the absolute truth. Another Disney character suffers at the hands of the penny pinching approval commities.

When will this vicious cycle of half-assed attractions ever end? When Disney goes bankrupt?
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
SGE is a cute attraction at best. I hope a rehab and rewrite will help. As far as the article goes it is pretty much correct.
 

Dizknee_Phreek

Well-Known Member
That's one of the best Disney articles I've read in a while! I especially love this part: "If Stitch truly were alive, he would get his revenge for this. He would snarl, stick his tongue up his nose and then wrap his jaws firmly around Michael Eisner's head." Thanks for sharing! :)
Though it IS harsh, and though I've yet to see the attraction, I'd say it's probably all true. That is, if everything Mike said about the attraction is true (and I can't imagine him making that stuff up without anyone on the forums saying otherwise) then I agree with him completely. Somehow I imagined that Disney was going to do lots of updating when transforming AE to SGE. But it doesn't sound like they did. If that's the case, then I say they should refurb it and make it something no one has ever experienced before like they should have in the first place.
 

disgolfer

New Member
Look at it this way. At least something is going to be done to hopefully improve this whole thing.

I will say it again. If some of the big budget on this thing would have been put into actual thoought of an original attraction, we would not be having this discussion.

I still think that Disney has what it takes to create truely amazing attractions.
 

Stitchfan712

New Member
Disney will not be changing out the AE techonology.


This rehab will be a re-script, nothing more. To do otherwise would mean lots of lost revenue after such heavy promotion of the ride, and more expenses in investing in new equipment.

Agree that the shoulder bars need to be changed. I hope that happens, but don't count on it.
 

ct00000

New Member
I completely agree with this article. My first time to ride the ride was last Sat. I was very dissapointed. I kept waiting for the "big finale" that never happened. We weren't even able to watch a "preshow" movie (maybe there isn't one?). I was dissapointed in the "new robot" in the teleportation room. Did they really think that adding a hat and a vest would make a new robot?

The "Stitch" part of the attraction was not entertaining at all. I sincerely hope that there is a revamp of the revamp, and Disney shells out some more of our increased admission price money.
 

akorny1

New Member
Stitch must make his "Great Escape"

I had the pleasure or displeasure of experiencing this latest Disney attraction. We wasted 45 minutes in line to try out the latest the imagineers had to offer. Should have pitched this one in the trash and left AE. A waste of space and a poor attempt to market another Disney film. Maybe they should have rebuilt 20.000 Leagues instead. I love Disney, but this is rediculous.
 

MeTa

Member
I would have to agree as well, I was just on it this past Thanksgiving and was dissappointed in the ride. However the robotics used were amazing, but the ride itself was not what I thought it would be.
 

Stitch79

New Member
If Stitch truly were alive, he would get his revenge for this. He would snarl, stick his tongue up his nose and then wrap his jaws firmly around Michael Eisner's head. His sad tale is a microcosm of what is going on at Disney, where prices are up and creativity is down.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the ride, the only thing I was really impressed with was the AA figure.
 

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
I am glad that the sentiments of many were summed up in an article Disney would have to read, and published in an area serving the WDW Resort, as opposed to "unknowns" in cyberspace.
 

dxwwf3

Well-Known Member
The only part of the article I didn't agree with was that AE was a failure. I don't think that AE was ever supposed to be as big as Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, or things of that sort. AE was a "show" and shows will never be as big as thrill rides. And it's not like AE was a complete walk on all the time. You would usually run into 15 to 30 minute waits during most days. Sure it's not terrific, but it's not a complete disaster either.

Maybe the only thing SGE was put in place for was to get people to appreciate AE more and then they would "magically" bring AE back to everyone's delight and take the Stitch attraction elsewhere........ :lookaroun . At least it sounded good.
 

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