Yesterworld: The Tragic Fate of Stitch’s Great Escape - Disney’s Most Divisive Attraction

Hey man, I've thought about this a lot and I think your next video should be about a really classic Disney

attraction

like the Skyway rocket to the moon or the original version of Star Tours. Well I was actually thinking about covering one of my favorite

attraction

s

stitch

es Great Escape I loved Lilo and Stitch growing up and I always thought that ride was cool not to mention the story and drama surrounding that ride is fascinating. I'm probably in the minority, but I've always really enjoyed that attraction. and the character of Stitch, so I would love to explore that Quinn, you can't say Stitch's name three times and one sentence are also the zoster world, hey, that's not Simba, when you think about Disney animation from the beginning of the decade The first film that comes to mind is 2002's Lilo and Stitch, a film that managed to connect with audiences of all ages due in part to its fairly mature themes for an animated film in that moment that showed a young woman affected by the death of her parents. struggling sister tries her best to meet the standards of a well-meaning social worker and of course our main character, Stitch, aka experiment six on six, a creature who finds himself in a situation he doesn't understand while trying make some sense of what it means.

Being part of a family and for a movie primarily about an alien Lilo and Stitch was Disney's

most

personal and human story, but the movie was also a box office hit that tripled its budget and became one of Abell's

most

successful properties. sold by Disney in years. And with that combination in mind, it seemed like only a matter of time before the franchise hit the theme parks, but what no one expected was for it to happen so quickly in November 2002, just a few months after the release of During the Movie Rumors began to surface that Stitch would soon be taking over the Magic Kingdom's Alien Encounter, an attraction that had proven too intense for young children, and although the attraction had many die-hard fans, Disney had been looking for an opportunity to replace Alien Encounter. with something a little more familiar and on October 10, 2003 Disney officially announced that Alien Encounter would be replaced by the upcoming Great Escape Points and just two days later Alien Encounter was permanently closed, reactions to the announcement were mixed saying that at least, In addition to upsetting fans of the original alien encounter, many fans of the park did not believe that Lilo and Stitch was a franchise with the longevity of other Disney classics, regardless of whether Disney moved forward with the concept of blocking access to the show building. while the attraction was under construction during this time.

The Imagineers faced the challenge of creating an attraction under very strict development restrictions. Disney wanted the attraction up and running in less than a year and had already publicly scheduled Stitches Great Escape to open in the summer of 2004. Even before construction began, not only that, due to a very limited budget, the Imagineers they were forced to reuse as many assets from the original alien encounter as possible. Faced with these challenges, the attraction ended up missing its summer opening date entirely and work on the attraction continued well. On October 12, 2004, an email was sent to Walt Disney World passholders inviting them to special, exclusive previews of Stitches.

Great Escape during the first week of November before the attraction opened to the public on November 16, during which Disney announced it would be hosting a very special event to celebrate the attraction's grand opening and while many didn't know what to expect from the grand opening ceremony. It was without a doubt one of Disney's most interesting creative decisions. Guests arriving at the Magic Kingdom on opening morning were greeted by a large inflatable dot, and as they made their way down Main Street, they passed signs warning them of a certain blue menace that was wreaking havoc in the park, too.

They could detect groups of law enforcement officers searching everywhere for the little boy as they approached the castle on the morning of the inauguration. The guests would have a hard time not instantly noticing that something wasn't quite right, since Stitch had evidently covered the entire castle with the toilet. paper, as well as having put his graffiti skills to good use, spray painting King Stitches to the left of the castle arch, the castle would only remain like this for a single day, but despite its very short lifespan, it is something of which Disney fans like to talk about almost as much as the attraction the castle was decorated for during the morning opening ceremony.

Cobra bubbles making their only appearance as they walk. The character to date warns the crowd that the

stitch

is loose and that any sightings should be immediately reported to United Galactic. After this, the standard opening celebration began, although keen-eyed park-goers could see Stitch bouncing from turret to turret atop the castle before the celebration concluded. Stitch crashed the ceremony bringing with him a massive group of Elvis impersonators before being captured by authorities and escorted off stage, although he was apparently not held for long as Stitch could be seen in the castle at various times during the ceremony. rest of the day, as well as giving interviews for local news in an alternate outfit immediately after the ceremony.

With the opening celebration over, guests were now free to head to Tomorrowland and experience Stitches Great Escape for the first time. Stitches is made much better, so get ready to see Disney's most experienced stitches, Great Escape, new to the OMG, that's not yours, upon entering the show building, passengers will receive a brief safety briefing and will be will inform them that they were now Galactic Federation guards and that their job was to protect the prisoners until they had reformed after this brief pre. -Guests to the show would move on to the next area of ​​the tour, where it quickly became apparent how much of the alien encounter had been repurposed for sutures.

Great Escape, the alien encounter pre-show featured an animatronic robot on a central desk with two teleportation tubes. to his left and right, as well as two animatronics of the character Skippy inside teleportation tubes, the Stitches Great Escape pre-show also featured an animatronic robot on a central desk with two teleportation tubes to his left and right, as well as two skippy animatronics inside. teleportation tubes, however the pre-show narrative was of course completely different with the central animatronic quickly introducing himself as sergeants e-470 three bk-27 0 4 - 9 o - 100, explaining to the audience that there are two types of prisoners that That day we would be dealing with low threat level 1 prisoners and moderately threatening level 2 prisoners.

We are then introduced to the original Skippy who has been jailed for jaywalking poor Skippy. After this, an alert appears on the screen above informing the audience that another Level 1 prisoner would be teleported down, although this one was going to commit a much more heinous crime. This is followed by an admittedly cool special effect, as this so-called donut guy is teleported off the TV screen and into the physical teleportation tube. in front of the guests, revealing himself to be actually none other than the other deformed Skippy animatronic from the alien encounter, although this time he is covered in green gelatin, things go horribly wrong when Gantu warns the audience that the prison has an incoming prisoner. level 3.

The guests, who are described as highly dangerous, are then directed to the high-security teleportation center, which was the same circular theater used in the alien encounter, before being seated as the countdown begins and being locked into their place by the descending shoulder bars. After this, the main show began as high security prisoner experiment 626 was teleported away to reveal what was by far the most impressive part of the attraction. The 39-inch-tall animatronic was one of the most complex in the world at the time and was accompanied by two plasma cannons that would follow Stitch as he moved and each cannon weighed more than 1,600 pounds.

The story of the main show was very simple as after teleporting, Stitch immediately starts spitting at the audience to confuse the plasma cannons, which like in the original film has the fatal flaw of tracking the DNA of any of them. points, including his saliva, this causes the plasma cannons to fire wildly, killing the power and plunging the feeder into total darkness, allowing Stitch to

escape

during this relatively brief period in total darkness. Guess what the rigids sneak around here? around the feeder through the speakers in their headrests and felt stitches jumping on their shoulders, an effect achieved when the shoulder bar of the seat shook rapidly and here too he sat steel and ate a chili dog before letting out a big belch that would cause a hidden sin.

Spritzers to launch a very unpleasant smell in the faces of the guests. Stitch onions could also tickle guests' heads during darkness, which was done using small air hoses. Emergency power is then restored and Stitch continues to strain the cannons, causing them to fire randomly again. in all directions before they shut down for good, shortly after this point he manages to hijack the teleportation system with his animatronic reappearing for a short time before teleporting out of the theater and showing himself landing back on earth, more specifically, he shows the Magic Kingdom riding. in the Astro Orbiter, this original ending had two separate variants and would show stitches in the Astral Orbiter during the day if you went to the attraction during the day or would show it on the same ride at night if you went during the night, the show would then come . until the end and as guests exited the theater they passed several wanted signs for different aliens before exiting towards either the Mickey Star Merchants or the Venus Merchants, the attraction did not do very well for the vast majority of park goers. with some publications going so far as to call the attraction the worst attraction Disney had ever created.

Common complaints included the disgusting chili cheeseburger that made many guests nauseous. Very obvious reuse of many of the main set pieces from the alien encounter. These bars and shoulder seats proved to be very uncomfortable and overall just due to the lack of standard Disney care in not being included in the project, some guests felt that the plot of the ride was also very weak and many aspects of the show simply They didn't align with the plot of the film, although that could of course be attributed to the creative liberties taken when creating a standalone experience like Stitches Great Escape.

Overall, very few people had anything positive to say about the ride when it was first released and most felt that it was vastly inferior to what had preceded it, the Orlando Sentinel. an absolutely brutal version of the trip that says that if Stitch were really alive, he would get revenge for this, growl, stick his tongue up his nose, and then wrap his jaw tightly around Michael Eisner's head. His sad story is a microcosm of what he is. It's happening at Disney, where prices are up and creativity is down. These complaints were never addressed and remained a very common guest relations issue during the tour.

Disney made some minor changes to the Great Escape points in March 2005, adding artificial dialogue from various gases in periods of darkness just to help the audience better follow what was happening and changing the ending of the ride entirely in this ending instead shows him riding the Astro orbiter that lands at Cinderella's castle, leading to a pretty interesting interaction on the ride. It remained unchanged for the rest of the decade, and as the parks reached the 2010s, park-goers began to wonder why Stitches Great Escape remained open. The attraction had been unpopular from the beginning, and as the years went by, the attraction became one of the least populated.

At the park, guests also began to notice that the attraction was not receiving maintenance as many of the speakers had stopped working over the years and by 2010 the attraction had begun to frequently fail mid-show. Finally, on October 2, 2016, Disney announced that Stitches GreatEscape would go into seasonal operation only opening during select dates during the park's busiest times, the attraction remained in seasonal operation until January 6, 2018 when, without warning, Stitches Great Escape played what would become its final show. . Disney officials had stated that the attraction remains in scheduled seasonal operation throughout 2018, but in October of the same year images emerged online showing that the entire attraction, including the pre-show area, had been completely dismantled, seemingly signaling the end of an attraction that few would miss come 2019.

The gathering of characters from the encounter inhabits the pre-show area of ​​what was once Stitches Great Escape. This cruel greeting has been in place since 2017, when the attraction was still operating on a seasonal schedule, but has now outlived the main attraction that will permanently take Stitches' place. Great Escape is unknown and with no official word from Disney, the future of the show building remains unclear, as always, thank you all so much for watching and if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the channel before you leave and we'll see. are you here next time in yesterday's world