Stitch's Great Escape!

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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 narrative character animation. Many of the animators who worked on Lilo & Stitch partnered with Walt Disney Imagineering for Stitch's Great Escape!

[edit] Synopsis

A picture of the attraction

A close-up of Stitch in the attraction

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 classification of prisoner hazard level by a sergeant 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, and is revealed to be Stitch. After a brief period of puzzlementitive talking over the communicator by other staff, Stitch uses the flaw of the armed laser cannons (the cannons follow and destroy any genetic material - including saliva) and disables all power to escape, causing mass (happy) chaos in the crowd. During this period, hydraulic pumps and small hoses in the shoulder restraints make it seem as if Stitch is jumping on your shoulders and tickling your head. 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] Attraction facts

Stitch toilet-papers Cinderella Castle for the grand opening of Stitch's Great Escape! on November 16, 2004

[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: 18:00
• Ride system: Seated presentation with Audio-Animatronics, video, and audio

[edit] External links

• Official page within disneyworld.com

Several parts of the attraction can be found on YouTube.

[edit] References

• Stitch's Great Escape. WDWHistory.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2006.

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 28.418589° -81.579744°
  • 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