Stitch’s Great Escape is leaving Tomorrowland. After 11 years, it’s time we say goodbye. While others will write about the failures of the attraction itself, its inferiority to what came before it, or the fact that cartoons probably do not belong in Tomorrowland (and by probably I mean definitely) I want to focus on something else…
Looking back on Stitch’s time in Tomorrowland, the most astounding thing is not how bad the attraction was, or even how long it lasted. The most amazing thing about Stitch’s Great Escape was the pomp and circumstance that surrounded its arrival and the version of Stitch that was presented.
In the movie Lilo and Stitch, part of the appeal that Stitch had as a character, was his mischievous streak. He was up to no good, but when push came to shove, the alien was likeable. These character traits are something that Disney has utilized throughout the company’s history. Mickey Mouse was Disney’s original troublemaker (see: 1929’s The Karnival Kid or even Thru The Mirror), and it would be at least a decade before the mouse began to evolve into the quintessential cartoon model. With Mickey now the upstanding citizen, Disney turned to Donald Duck as their resident miscreant. As he developed, Donald became the closest thing Disney had to an antihero. He may not have always been in the right, but at the end of the day, it was easy to identify with, and root for, Donald. In short, the lovable mischief- maker was not anything new to Disney by the time Stitch arrived on the scene in the year 2002.
When it came to promoting Stitch’s Great Escape, however, Disney played up Stitch’s mischievous nature to an unnecessary level. The impish, blue alien became almost malicious and the irreverence that Disney showed to Walt Disney World (and especially the Magic Kingdom) ended up being a foreshadowing of things to come. The most glaring example of this was the TPing of Cinderella Castle in “celebration” of Stitch’s Great Escape’s Grand Opening. Guests who arrived at the Magic Kingdom on November 16, 2004, were greeted with a large blow up Stitch sitting outside the train station. As they continued their way down Main Street (past a series of Stitch “wanted posters”) and towards the Hub, they were greeted with this:
Yep. Stitch had TPed and vandalized Cinderella Castle because he’s “playful” (right?!)… Oh how no one laughed.
If guests thought that the vandalized Cinderella Castle would be all the Stitch nonsense that they had to endure, they were sadly mistaken. Over at Downtown Disney, guests could find a crashed Magic Kingdom van that Stitch had stolen. On the monorail, Stitch had hijacked the narration and welcomed guests to “Stitch Kingdom”. Finally, even the bathrooms of Adventureland and Tomorrowland were no safe havens, as the background music at these locations was replaced by audio of Stitch searching through the bathroom stalls, looking for Lilo. Not only was this Stitch overkill, but the Stitch that was being represented wasn’t even the character that audiences had fallen in love with. He was however, the character that would eventually belch chili dog on them in Stitch’s Great Escape’s penultimate moment.
At its essence, Lilo and Stitch is a film about a six- year old girl’s redemption of an intergalactic criminal. Early in the film Stitch isn’t likeable. In fact, for the first half of the film the audience is left wondering whether or not Stitch is really the movie’s villain. Through a newfound understanding of family however, Stitch transforms into a lovable (albeit still rough around the edges) hero. By the end of the film his antics strike us as charming, and even those whose mission it had been to capture the little blue alien, fall for his charisma. The character that audiences loved (and bought a ton of merchandise of) was not the tactless psychopath presented at the films beginning, but the well-meaning, loveable, family member that was presented to the audience at the films conclusion.
Ultimately, what Disney seemed to forget in all of their Stitch advertising, is that the character is supposed to be likeable — wild, playful, maybe even anti-social, but in the end, likeable. This characteristic was not only missing in the lead-up to Stitch’s Great Escape’s opening, but Stitch’s lack of likeability in the show itself, is one of the factors that led to it being the lowest rated attraction in the Magic Kingdom. While Stitch’s Great Escape was not a perfect attraction (or even a particularly good one), its greatest flaw was that it failed to deliver the character that guests had fallen in love with. By doing this, Disney not only alienated those who were predisposed to not like the attraction, but also those guests who were waiting to love it.
Justin Hermes is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times. He also is the creator of themickeywiki.com
