What's up with the changes in Stitch's Great Escape?

[joel_maxwell]

this is freakin rediculous!!! from reports heard here and from friends, somebody better get their head out of their........ assuming they do throw some major jack at it, it will be hard to overcome this blooper.

 

[KevinPage]

I'm a bit confused. I was under the impression the recent re-hab was ordered to improve the attraction, not just add a bit of a voice over from some child and his mom? I'm sure I read, not only on this board, that due to a less than stellar reception by the public the attraction was to receive an upgrade and that the budget was increased.

Your guess is as good as anyone's. I think everyone assumed the same thing happened with AE. Eisner went on it, hated it and demanded a redworking. They fixed the problems with AE and made it a good atraction.

It appears that they at leaxt reworked the ending, while improved, it still to 'cheesey' in its attempt to be 'hip'.

I assume that having a kid yell remarks is cheaper than changing the animation to direct guests what is going on, like the characters in AE did.

It's a shame since SGE has potential to be a very good attraction, when it's so screwed up, especially on something that should cost so little to produce it makes it doubly frustrating.

 

[KevinPage]

You are preaching to the choir, Andy; unfortunately, no matter what you (or I) think about AE's superior script in comparison to Stitch's, AE's attendance numbers (and/or continued complaints concerning the intensity of its script) no longer justified its existence. Which leads us back to my premise...

I enjoyed AE but was glad they chose to replace it. SGE SHOULD be a quality attraction, it actually took some work to screw this up.

Stitch should be like he was in the movie, that's what made him popular. Apparently the script writer doesn't realize that bodily functions are not the only reason people adore the character.

I'm in favor of the spitting at its a neat trick. But the essence of the character is mayhem and his expressive eyes. Not hitting on princesses & burping bad smells.

WDI has to work within a basic framework of the existing theatre, no doubt. But that does not excuse the sorry attempt in its current state.

Also, if this is a prequel, why does Gantu & the Councilwoman not remember Stitch when he is with Jumba? Call it picky, but Disney has always paid attention to these details, no reason they shouldn't now.

 

[dox]

Also, if this is a prequel, why does Gantu & the Councilwoman not remember Stitch when he is with Jumba? Call it picky, but Disney has always paid attention to these details, no reason they shouldn't now.

I haven't been on the ride, but that can be forgiven. That is somewhat minor. Calling him 626 and Stitch during the ride, however, doesn't make any sense. Seems a better idea would be to have turned the Chamber into the lab. Story could have been about his creation. Have him escape into the audience and then captured. AT least that would be consistent with movie. He is an experiment after all?

Based on what i'm reading, they could have made this a bit more creative. Even added some AAs of Stitch around the room. They don't even need to be well done AAs. Just have him pop out now and then when the lights go on. Seems to me that might improve the storyline and would make kids less scared. I really had my hopes up when I heard they chose to refurbish the ride but these so called improvements are ridiculous.

On another note, and maybe Lee can help with this, why does Disney allow outside vendors to bid alongside it's own divisions? Is imagineering a separate company of it's own? Imagineering isn't a subsidiary of the company that i know of?? I can see Disney wanting to outsource to cut costs? But then why would imagineering bid alongside an outside vendor??

 

[MicBat]

The script definitely has major holes. For instance... I thought Stitch learned english once he got to Earth. He seemed to be doing pretty well when he was escaping. It's also very very cheesy at points. It's pretty bad when you hear 5 year olds coming out of the attraction saying it was "stupid" and "dumb." I guess that's expected from such an attraction with a line from the script being "coochie coochie coo."

 

[Shaman]

The whole prequel thing is shot down with the title of the attraction...Stitch wasn't named until he reaches Hawaii...

So maybe they should start on the name and work from there....maybe something along the lines of 626...or something else...

Why does it have to be kid friendly again?

:brick:

 

[MicBat]

Why does it have to be kid friendly again?

:brick:

They need to work on making it "everyone friendly," not just kid friendly.

 

[Shaman]

They need to work on making it "everyone friendly," not just kid friendly.

I agree...

The question is how can they do that...now?

 

[CTXRover]

Oy, this aren't the changes I was hoping for either. The basics for a great attraction are there. The animatronics are the best out there. The plasma tracking cannons are super cool. The effects and sound are still good from the AE days. Its just the story that is lacking. Now it sounds like adding these phrases from the headsets help your average guest understand the story that was there, but I'd rather a new approach to the story...not just attempts to better explain the weak storyline that was there. I don't buy the whole budget cutting thing as the reason for SGE's problems. The expensive elements are all there and in great order. $5-10 million dollars might have bought some other stuff to help explain the story (some Stitch heads popping down from the ceiling for instance) but it is NOT necessary to make SGE better with the elements they have there. $5-10 million won't buy a better storyline. That's all done with a little imagination. I'm hoping these are just a few of the changes to come, and not the end of the fixes.

 

[WiggleLights]

why does Disney allow outside vendors to bid alongside it's own divisions?

This is not a particularly unique thing for a corporation to do for anything ranging from accounting functions to creative development. Disney had in-house computer animators but they also outsourced to Pixar by distributing their films instead of creating their own department from scratch. Perhaps it seems more peculiar because of the unique nature of Imagineering, but even they are no longer a one-of-a-kind enterprise.

 

[thimblekisses]

Wow! I had no idea I'd open up such a can of worms. However I've been really interested in the things you all have said. All I know is that the little kid voice is REALLY super annoying and we weren't paying attention to what was happening in the so-called "story" anymore because we were so surprised and annoyed with the little kid voice. It took me a minute to realize that it was actually part of the voice-over and not actually the kid sitting next to me.
Sigh.
I liked Stitch, really, as a character, and Lilo, when I saw the movie. He's just been so worn out for me. I really am rooting for some major improvements in this attraction.
I agree with the many of you who said that it wasn't an issue of budget. The expensive elements all work perfectly, like the AA itself. They're great! It's the story that is poo.

 

[DisneyGal126]

Being a big fan of the charachter Stitch and was so excited for this ride and really disapointed when I was on it. I agree that this attraction needs a lot more work. I don't even think kids really enjoy it, my 7 year old cousin got off and acted unphased...


Jamie

 

[dxwwf3]

Why does it have to be kid friendly again?

:brick:

:lol:

You know why . If SGE didn't have to be kid friendly, then we would still have AE in that spot and Stitch would be elsewhere. I just think we are all going to have to accept that this is a kids attraction and just try to enjoy it for what it is. I guess most of us enjoy the Fantasyland dark rides, so I would have to say that all of those guests that are going to see SGE would have to go into it with that same mindset.

I honestly can't believe that they changed so little from the original version in this so called "rehab". Maybe it will be enough of a change for kids, but it sure doesn't seem like much to try and fix the problems for adults.

 

[dxwwf3]

how can anyone really criticize the story when, for all intents and purposes, it's the same story as AE?

I seriously hope that this was a joke. Comparing AE's story to SGE's story is like comparing Hamlet to The Cat in the Hat :lol: Of course they both have different target audiences, so of course SGE shouldn't have as much backstory and as many story elements as AE had and that is completely understandable. Maybe you are confusing story with room layout? I don't know.

 

[dxwwf3]

Maybe the true fault or blame should be on the imagineering team that came up with AE's story...or possibly the imagineers who decided to rework the Mission to Mars theatre in the first place instead of tearing it down in favor of a bright, new, clever imagineering concept.

Again, unless you are talking about the room layout instead of the storyline, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? What does Mission To Mars' and Alien Encounter's storylines have to do with SGE's storyline? Just because the attraction is in a certain show building doesn't mean that it can't have a decent story. They have nothing to do with each other :veryconfu

 

[KevinPage]

Steve (and others):

Although I completely agree that Stitch is an underperformer and mediocre at best, how can anyone really criticize the story when, for all intents and purposes, it's the same story as AE? .

It has nothing to do with being a "kids story". I LOVE children stories. It just so happens this "kids story" is a total turd.

Some people may think not like the fact that SGE is aimed at kids, but I just want a GOOD story/attraction, whether it is kid friendly or not.

A quality attraction is everyone friendly.

 

[dxwwf3]

It has nothing to do with being a "kids story". I LOVE children stories. It just so happens this "kids story" is a total turd.

Some people may think not like the fact that SGE is aimed at kids, but I just want a GOOD story/attraction, whether it is kid friendly or not.

A quality attraction is everyone friendly.

I agree with you and I hope where you see where I was coming from on my posts.

 

[Ned Brainard]

That whole story sounds pretty crazy to me. I just cant see how you can have outside companies bidding to do work on systems developed by others, and also I cant see how you can have one company bidding against another bid that they dont even know the creative and technical content of. If that is how things are being run right now, no wonder we have problems.

HAHAHAHA You should come work for the Fed Govt. I see this every day. Why do it in house when you can pay $150 for a hammer?

 

[imagineer boy]

Man, SGE if broken beyond repair. Its just a total mess right now. They should tear it out, bring back Alien Encounter and be done with it.

 

[General Grizz]

Man, SGE if broken beyond repair. Its just a total mess right now. They should tear it out, bring back Alien Encounter and be done with it.

Can say the same for Imagination...