Stitch's Great Escape!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Park | Magic Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Opened | 2004 | |
| Ride duration | 15 minutes | |
| Sponsor(s) | ||
| 2004- | none | |
Stitch's Great Escape! is a Tomorrowland attraction at the Magic Kingdom theme park within Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It is a "theater-in-the-round" experience starring the title alien from Walt Disney Pictures' 2002 animated comedy Lilo & Stitch.
It opened November 16, 2004 and is the fourth attraction to occupy the site in Tomorrowland. The space debuted as Flight to the Moon when the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, and later was replaced by Mission to Mars and the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, which closed October 12, 2003.
Walt Disney Feature Animation produced all of the attraction's character animation. Many of the animators who worked on Lilo & Stitch partnered with Walt Disney Imagineering for Stitch's Great Escape!
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
You have been recruited by The Grand Councilwoman to be guards for the Galactic Federation. After being taught the basic procedures of guard duty and the classifictaion of prisoners by a sergent robot (and a brief, but comical, reprisal of Skippy from ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter), Captain Gantu gives an alert of a level 3 prisioner being beamed to your location. You are told by Pleakly over communicator to assemble in the prison transport room. The prisoner is beamed to you in a large plume of smoke, which appears as Stitch (Lilo and Stitch). After a brief period of puzzlementitive talking over the communicator by other staff, Stitch uses the flaw of the armed laser cannons (when you spit, the cannons follow and destroy the spit because of it being your genetic DNA) and disables all power to escape, causing mass (happy) chaos in the crowd. Power comes back on and the laser cannons attempt to bring Stitch down. Again using the cannon's fatal flaw, he manages to fire the laser cannons into the crowd. Shortly after using the diversion, he escapes to Florida's Walt Disney World. Cameras capture him traversing Cinderella Castle. The audience is then released from their duty and are sent to the gift shop.
[edit] Technology
The attraction includes much of the technology and sets from its predecessor, the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, including the comical alien Skippy in the preshow area. The 39-inch Audio-Animatronic Stitch figure built by Imagineering reportedly is one of the most complex creations of its size. Other special effects include binaural sound, simulated laser cannons and a pungent smell (that of a chilidog, which lampoons the rule about bringing food and drink into the theatre).
[edit] Criticism
The attraction was designed to replace the more darkly themed ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, which proved to be too intense for many younger guests. However, the new attraction's special effects and prolonged periods of darkness continue to scare many children. Since opening, the height restriction has increased from 35 inches to 40 inches. The attraction also has drawn criticism for its tight-fitting shoulder restraints, which were not changed from the previous version.
[edit] Attraction facts
[edit] Magic Kingdom
- Grand opening: November 16, 2004
- Designer: Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Feature Animation
- Height requirement: 40"
- Previous attractions:
- ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter
- Mission to Mars
- Flight to the Moon
- Show length: 15:00
- Ride system: Seated presentation with Audio-Animatronics, video, and audio
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Stitch's Great Escape. WDWHistory.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2006.
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
