That skinless Stitch animatronic genuinely looks like the Mohawk Gremlin's death scene in the movie of the same name. Jesus Christ.
I liked that ride...
I love how he put that sonic cosplayer eating a chili dog over when he described how the place smelled. Great shit.
I wish more companies would put videos their rides on on YouTube or Blu-Ray so I can at least see it to some degree.
Hey, my parents were some of the illiterates who took me on the Extraterrorestrial ride when I was a kid.
I wasn't a toddler, but I also wasn't quite at the point where I could tell it was all fiction.
and did I mention I was also scared of literally everything as a kid
Although, according to my mom, she and my dad DID notice. I distinctly remember being in the huge line to get to it, because we mistakenly thought it was the Buzz Lightyear attraction.
By the time they could read the signs saying "this ain't Buzz Lightyear, kids", mom wanted to leave, but dad was fully in the sunken cost fallacy. "We've been here too long, come on it can't be that bad, if it is scary it'll toughen them up", etc, bullying my mom into taking me on it.
Afterwards they told me that my face was red the rest of the day because I tried desperately to scrunch into as tight as a fetal position as possible.
I remember as a kid loving the alien ride just cause I was into aliens, and then I came the next year and instead I was traumatized from that god awful chili dog burp smell. I'd say that smell and Space Mountain defined my Magic Kingdom experience.
I'm surprised Great Escape lasted as long as it did
I just remember queuing up for it only for it to break down during the ride and being given free quickpass tickets.
I really feel like the hate for this ride is EXTREMELY blown out of proportion. But then again I never had the chance to go ride it.
It truly was deserved. It wasn't a good attraction for kids or adults. Alien Encounter at least could be enjoyed by one group of guests (adults obviously). Stitch was too scary for most kids and boring/crap to adults. Having a harness come down and apply consistent pressure on your shoulders for what should be a fun filled show isn't right (if you slumped down, they would lower down slowly), a extended period of darkness with very convincing sound effects isn't good for small kids, and it just wasn't fun in any regard. The Stitch AA and Kuka arm "guns" were the best parts of it by far. They missed their targets by a long shot with this abomination.
I did it once against my wishes on a trip a couple years ago. They miscounted the group going into one of the theaters so by the time I go into there, there were no seats left for me and a friend. A CM came over and took us into the holding area between the theaters. I said, "You know, I can skip this" and they replied with "No, you need to experience the true pinnacle of Imagineering" with a massive eye roll.
Fun fact: The Magic Kingdoms scores were lower when the ride was operating (internal guest score/survey, not those clickbait sites). And on the days it was closed (prior to its apparently permanent closure), the scores were higher. That should say everything about it.
It's a situation where 100% of the fault really lies on the concept itself, rather than the people who brought it to life. The themeing is great, the animatronics are impressive, the preshow is cute, and it's an overall solid example of re-using pieces of a defunct attraction effectively without it looking cheap.
But then you've got all the things people have mentioned so far; it's too scary for kids and too boring for adults, the genuinely impressive elements (like the animatronics) are only a fraction of the overall experience, and that chili dog smell is fucking horrid. Gross-out humor should never be used in a theme park, at least not in a way we can smell or taste, and that chili dog smell was real enough to be disgusting on its own, but just artificial enough to conjure up all manner of horrid mental images as to what they actually used to make that smell.
After I rode it, I felt bad for the crying kids, I felt bad for the bored/concerned parents, I felt bad for the poor cast members who had to smile through it all, I felt bad for the Imagineers who were given a flawed concept and forced to make do, I felt bad for Chris Sanders and everyone else who made the movie since this was the primary theme park representation Lilo and Stitch had in the US; it's just a feel-bad experience all around. Literally everyone involved, including the characters, deserved better.
I've actually got a concept for an Alien Encounter revival they could implement in Hollywood Studios, maybe I'll make a short video about that at some point.
fuck man, i loved the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground, so damn cool
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