written and photographed by Martin Palicki
Change is the only constant. That was the only reply I could give to one of my friends, who was complaining to me one night about Alien Encounter being closed down at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. He had worked at that attraction for some time and had felt a certain amount of kinship with the ride and its unusual storyline. For the few of you who hadn’t ridden Alien Encounter during its eight year run, here’s the brief rundown. Planet Earth had been selected as a new target market for an intergalactic company specializing in technology, most recently teleportation. After a short promotional video from the company president, we were ushered into a small demonstration of the new procedure, which resulted in a slightly singed test subject. One of us “willing participants” would be able to experience teleportation ourselves in the next room, and we were shuffled in. On a whim, the president of the company decided to teleport himself to us in Orlando instead, and a bewildered teleportation crew accidentally transported a hideous alien into our theater in the round. The hungry creature managed to escape from its bounds and in an extended dark sequence wrecked havoc on us guests. The alien was returned to the tube and a protective shield raised just as some kind of high-tech rays explode the carnivorous creature.
Fast forward 10 years. Disney’s parks are starting to return to their synergistic roots by cross promoting between Disney movies and attractions (i.e., Dreamflight becomes Buzz Lightyear, Swiss Family Treehouse becomes Tarzan, Enchanted Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion Holiday, and so on). Though purists might scoff, the strategy makes sense and allows the parks to continue to capitalize on the current body of cultural children’s narrative (and let’s be honest: Harry Potter aside, Disney has a decent corner on that market). So Alien Encounter had to go. Lilo and Stitch had enjoyed reasonable success in the theaters, and how easy would it be to retrofit Alien Encounter with that cute, adorable Stitch?
At least, that’s how I imagine it came about.
The actual ride building hasn’t changed much. Though it had been quite a while since I had seen Alien Encounter, just about everything in Stitch seemed oddly familiar. We find ourselves in an intergalactic detention center, where Martian misfits are teleported for safe keeping. The animatronic officer in the second show room explains the process to us as we watch a sample convict arrive. Supposedly, the next criminal needs a more powerful teleportation tube, and we are ushered into the main show room to observe.
Lo and behold, Stitch arrives in a cloud of fog. Things go a little haywire, and soon the little bugger is jumping around the room, bouncing on our seat harnesses, laughing, and causing other minor mayhem. Eventually, he ends up back in the tube and is teleported out into the Magic Kingdom, where we are released to find him.
Though I felt a little bit let down by the attraction, I imagine it is ideal for the 10-12 year old set. Kids younger than that would likely be scared by the extended dark sequences, and kids older than that (kids at heart too) will probably be bored by the lack of excitement.
Admittedly, it is a difficult task to appeal to a broad group of people, and certainly Alien Encounter before it had a somewhat limiting demographic. But since its inception, Disney had always been a place where kids and adults can have fun together, and with very few exceptions, they have been quite successful at producing attractions that do just that.
The biggest challenge for Stitch, however, will be how long its franchise will enjoy cultural success. It remains to be seen whether Lilo & Stitch will enter the venerable Disney canon, though the odds are certainly against it.
Let’s hope that when that time does come, the attraction receives a new burst of creativity and a complete overhaul to create an atmosphere children and adults can enjoy together.
