An Early Look at Stitch's Great Escape
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I had the privilege to be a member of the first test audience of Stitch’s Great Escape at the Magic Kingdom. They did not allow any photography and video equipment but the following is my best recollection of the experience. This description contains spoilers, and it is important to remember that Imagineering is still working on the attraction and it is not yet complete.
The entrance has been rethemed from the Tomorrowland Intergalactic Convention Center to the Galactic Federation Prisoner Transportation Center. The lobby has been redressed with the intergalactic alphabet seen in the Lilo and Stitch movie. Pleakley welcomes you, the new prison guard recruits and introduces the Grand councilwoman of the galactic alliance. She tells you how throughout the galaxy there are nice beings and naughty beings. To tell you about how the alliance captures naughty beings she introduces Commander of the Galactic Alliance, Captain Gantu. Gantu shows the dangerous prisoners that have been captures, which viewers of the Lilo and Stitch TV series should recognize. He then opens the doors to the next stage of the experience.
The next room hasn’t changed much from Alien Encounter. S.I.R. has gained some weight and is now a Sergeant in the Galactic Alliance. Skippy remains in one prisoner chamber for jaywalking across two planets. The sergeant discusses how there are two levels of prisoners, level 1 and level 2. Just then the video monitor behind the sergeant shows a level 1 prisoner that sucked the jelly out of donuts. The sergeant teleports the prisoner to the second containment unit. Suddenly lights start blazing and sirens sound off as Gantu appears on the screen informing us that a level 3 prisoner has just been apprehended, and that all recruits should report to the level 3 containment chamber. Despite the sergeants protests that the new recruits can barley handle a level 1 prisoner everyone is ushered in to the main auditorium.
Pleakley instructs everyone to take their seats in the chamber which has been changed in a minor way from its Alien Encounter days. Once everyone is seated the commander lowers the restraints and does a DNA scan to make sure the plasma cannons don’t shoot at you. Then the teleportation of the prisoner is commences and Experiment 626 appears in the center of the room. Stitch is an impressive Audio Animatronic which is similar to Skippy in height and look, but defiantly more complex. The Galactic Alliance is not impressed with the little being and lowers the container leaving the invisible force field the only thing protecting you from the intergalactic menace. Then Stitch begins to spit causing the overhead plasma cannons to shoot at the force field generator causing it to lose power. This allows Stitch to roam free in the audience. This attraction uses all of Walt Disney Imagineering’s favorite sensory experiences including water, 3-D audio, smells, and tactile sensations. After Gantu orders the emergency power to be turned on, Stitch uses his saliva to trick the plasma cannons in to shooting up the auditorium as puffs of smoke emit from the audience. Finally, Stitch reenters the transportation chamber in the center of the room and sets the transporter to send him to Walt Disney World. He gets beamed to Florida and you can see him riding various Tomorrowland attractions on the overhead screens. Defeated, Gantu releases the recruits. As you exit, you see the sign that says how many days since a prisoner has escaped resetting back to zero since you have just witnessed Stitch’s Great Escape.
While I hate to judge a work in progress, I did enjoy the attraction. The Stitch figure was amazing, and the moments of humor were a lot of fun. The pacing of the show seemed a little off and the ending seems very anti-climatic. There are also a few minor continuity issues (Experiment 626 gets named Stitch by Lilo after this prequel attraction, but he calls himself Stitch now). Even with these minor complaints,. I feel this attraction is an improvement over Alien Encounter and look forward to experiencing the final version on November 16th, when Stitch escapes officially for the first time.
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-- Posted October 12, 2004
-- Story by Benji Breitbart