Note: This article makes use of many “spoilers” by describing many aspects of the actual attraction. Extreme care will be taken to describe the attraction without giving away too much by giving clear warning for the section containing details some may wish to experience on their own. Thank you.

So, are you excited yet? It’s finally time to go inside the main Transport Chamber and see just what this alien, who we’re assuming is Stitch, will be up to. Ready? Okay, then let’s take a walk inside...

Okay, well in a second. First, here’s where I have to give warning to all of those wishing to NOT know details of the attraction so that they can experience it for themselves. I’ll give a generalized review after the “spoiler” section below, so that you can get a feel for this part of the new attraction without knowing too much. In that case, please skip this next section and rejoin us after the section ends. For all those who want to know everything, however, then please read on!

So, as we left off from last week, we were just informed that a Level Three alien was being transported to the facility and that we would have to accept the transport in the maximum security transport chamber. (Note: Correction from last week, as the aliens are classified by “Level”, not “Category” as I reported)

We walk out of the second pre-show area, where 90210 has “fainted” due to the news that he will have to join us in the next chamber, which in essence means going back into his old ending pose from Alien Encounter. We walk to the right and to the left towards the center of the two main show areas, following several Cast Members who stop us there. In what was a nice touch, the Cast Members made off comments to us while waiting a little bit there like “Man, first day and you get a Level Three!”. Other Cast Members added with heads shaking in a “too bad” sort of way.

Once the brief wait in the hallway was over, we were escorted into the Maximum Transport Chamber (really the right main show auditorium). We shuffled in, noticing the same type of dimly lit atmosphere inside as was found in the old Alien Encounter show. The center transport tube looked the same from the outside initially, and the view screens looked similar as well. The chairs looked identical enough to the old ones used in Alien Encounter, until we sat down that is. We noticed that the new seats felt different somehow, maybe just in the pattern used as the seat covering. They still were designed to keep your back upright in that “nice to sit down but not really comfortable” sort of way. The major difference in the auditorium noticed right away was the addition of red cannons to the sides of the center transport tube, similar to the ones found in the actual movie. However, it was extremely difficult to see that they were in fact cannons at all, since it looked more like a tightly closed red “V” shape hanging from the ceiling.

Once we were seated and rest of Guests had found seats, the entrance doors closed and the monitors came to life with an image of Captain Gantu and the voice of Agent Pleakley speaking to each other that the transport was about to begin, and that the “DNA scanners” should be lowered. Captain Gantu gives the order to lower them, and the harnesses begin to lower. As they do (slowly as in the old attraction), Agent Pleakley tells us to sit upright without obstructing their operation, and that they will stop once they reach your shoulders. Once they stopped and lifted off of our shoulders, they seemed to have lifted off by a much smaller height than they did in the old Alien Encounter attraction.

Once they were in place, a computer image showing the harnesses and a generic body form was displayed on the monitors. At the same time, Agent Pleakley explained to us that the “DNA scanners” were now examining our DNA structure and making a record of it, so that when the automatic plasma cannons are activated, they do not target us, but only the DNA of the incoming alien. The idea of explaining the harnesses as “DNA scanners” I thought was an extremely nice touch, and made use of the storyline well.

At that moment, the two cannons (at least I think there were only two) came to life, as the “V” shape ended up being one side attached to the ceiling, and the other with a three-barreled cannon attached.

The best way to describe them is to say that they were very similar to a human arm, in that they were attached with a pivot, had a solid section that came down to an “elbow” with another additional pivot, and then went down onto the “hand” section which had offset pivots at the “wrist”, and a cannon section at the end with three small barrels which all spun together on yet another pivot. What surprised me, however, was as compared to the movie, the cannon section was the same width as the other “arm” sections, and was only maybe a fifth of the length of the entire cannon animatronic.

The cannons came to life as I said, expanding the tightly closed “V” and then targeting on the center of the tube which was coming to life as the transport was beginning. The (mostly) normal lights, sounds, and effects during the beginning of the transport (as found in Alien Encounter) occurred, with a targeting image popping up on the monitors, showing the outline of an alien being “filled up” from his feet to his head. Once it was done, the outline hadn’t even made it past the center mark on the targeting display behind it, trying to emphasize that this alien was quite a bit smaller than what was expected. What I did notice, however, was that all of the armrests of the seats had three yellow bright lights installed, which cycled down in sequence from top to bottom. It created quite a nice visual effect, and wasn’t too much that it blinded those watching.

Once the transport was complete, the cannons began to move slightly, obviously targeting whatever was moving behind the tube’s solid cover. The tube lifted, as the cannons began to move even more now that they had a better “lock” onto the alien, which of course was Stitch in his orange jumpsuit.

As the tube lifted, if was very incredible being as close as we were to the new animatronic of Stitch, although the actual size of him did surprise me. Stitch was probably about four foot tall, but he was as wide as he was tall, with his head seeming to be very large. Of course, once he turned and I got a better look at him, his head seemed proportional to his body, but it seemed almost as big. To be sure, all of the pictures I have seen so far of the animatronic do not do his actual size justice.

Captain Gantu came back on the screen, saying something to the effect of “What? There must be some kind of mistake! What is this little guy doing here?” It seemed that this was not the type of alien they were expecting, and even that they had never seen Stitch before. The storyline must be set prior to the movie timeline.

Captain Gantu sounds aggravated, and tells us to watch him, but that he is going to get to the bottom of this mistake. With that, the clear tube lifts off, and some of the defenses seem to stand down. In replace of them, a very cool matrix of red laser light covered Stitch on his front and back, designed to look as a targeting display. Again, the cannons kept moving during this whole time, re-targeting for every move he made. At the same time, there were many large green laser lights shooting up from around the tube, simulating some sort of detention device. They go off quickly, however, with the red targeting matrix as well.

So, we have Stitch in the center, with no tube, mistaken for a Level One alien. The cannons continue to lock onto him, as Stitch continues to look around and take in his surroundings. He also notices the cannons, to which he moves a little to see if they follow, which they do. He makes some curious noises, and then turns around and looks at the other one.

At this point, I was amazed at the movement of the Stitch animatronic, for how fast the intricate it moved, but also for how controlled the stopping was, without any leftover “jiggle” from the momentum. These newer generation animatronics were indeed impressive.

However, I never expected what was to happen next, as Stitch started walking towards the other cannon! He took maybe five steps, but the tube area was large enough for him to do a sort of “wobble” walk, picking up his legs as he went. There was a small ledge at the base of the tube, which proved to be enough to cover his actual support structure, which enabled the effect to seem very believable.

Stitch continued to move around and mock the cannons, to which they responded by seemingly keeping a set distance away from him, always moving and re-targeting. At one point, he even turned and charged the other cannon, “running” towards it, to which it flinched backwards.

As in the movie, Stitch managed to escape his cell (with the same cannons) by spitting around the area, to which the cannons would lock on to the DNA in his spit and blast it whenever it lands. Inside the attraction, he does just that, as he actually spits (out of the animatronic’s mouth) to one side, not really hitting too many Guests (just maybe some seats in the first row). The cannons respond and fire at the spit, which is created by sound effects. Stitch then turns around and spits in the opposite direction, making that cannon fire as well.

We hear Captain Gantu and Agent Pleakley come back to which Captain Gantu asks what is going on in the chamber. Agent Pleakley responds that the alien is overloading the system, to which I really didn’t understand how the cannons doing their job would create an overload of some sort.

Eventually, the power goes out in the chamber, and Stitch is loose, as we see when the lights power back on for a second.

We hear Stitch going around the room talking, including once coming near us saying “Will you be my friend?”, as we hear a cell phone go off. We then hear Stitch cry out “I’ll get it!” as we hear Stitch go over and answer the phone. Then, Stitch comes close as he says “Stitch hungry.” We then hear him say “Ooo, Stitch smell food!”, as he makes his way to a “Guest” who yells out “Hey, that’s my Chilidog!”, to which Stitch answers “MY CHILIDOG!” Lucky for us, Stitch decides to eat his new chilidog next to our head, and also burps in our face as he moves along saying “Sorrrry!” Later on, we also get sneezed upon by Stitch, to which we get a small about of water sprayed upon us.

All the while, Captain Gantu and Agent Pleakley have been trying to get the power restored, to which they manage to do finally. The lights come back alive as the cannons do, and they begin to immediately point in every direction as they try and find their Stitch target. The lights remain on, but Stitch is apparently in other sections of the chamber, behind the exterior walls.

We hear him mocking the cannons as they start blasting parts of the exterior walls from where we can hear Stitch. Whenever a blast is made, there is a bright beam of white light that emanates from the center of the three barrels, and causes the whole arm of the cannon assembly to kick backwards. Wherever the cannons hit, there is a large about of smoke that pours out along with yellow light, indicating damage to the area. Stitch then starts being heard running from around where the Guests are seated, as the cannons begin to fire recklessly at the Guests seated down, to which wherever the cannons hit, yellow light and blasts of smoke emanate, often from the backs of the seats aimed upwards.

This continues for a while, until Stitch is heard in the top part of the transport tube, and mocks the cannons by saying something like “you can’t catch me!”. Both cannons rear back to get a lock, and fire towards the upper inside of the transport tube, to which they do a lot damage, as numerous large severed cables fling down from that area.

The chase continues around the room with the lights going dim for a few seconds at a time, until Captain Gantu and Agent Pleakley manage to catch Stitch back in the tube, to which the clear cover comes down and Captain Gantu orders that he be transported out of there immediately.

The transport begins, but Agent Pleakley states that he can’t control where the alien will be transported to, as Stitch has apparently hot-wired the transporter. In the meantime, we see Stitch again inside the tube, while another new effect occurs. The tube is made up of sections, maybe eight total. However, each one has a separate “electric blind” feature, which turns the glass an opaque gray once electricity is applied. It’s the same thing you may have seen on the Animation tour at the Disney-MGM Studios, as behind the animator that draws Mushu, flips a switch and the opaque windows behind him turn clear instantly which shows the interior of the old animation facilities there. Well, here they time the opaque sections to travel up the tube while the transport is occurring, making for a very effective effect.

In the meantime, the outer wall of the tube closes as the transport begins, to which Captain Gantu orders that the tracking radar be turned on to see where this alien is being transported to. The monitors show an image of some planets, and then an animated dotted arrow that travels to a bluish one, which Agent Pleakley tries to pronounce “Earth”. The screen then changes again to show an outline of the southeast of the United States, to which the animated dotted arrow lands in Central Florida. Agent Pleakley again tries to pronounce “Florida.”

We then see a “live” image of Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom, where Stitch has just jumped onto one of the outer rings of the Astro-Orbitor, and then jumps on a spinning rocket ship to steal a Mickey Ice Cream Bar from the lady riding the ride in the front of the rocket ship. He then jumps off of the rocket ship and out of our sight.

Agent Pleakley reluctantly suggests that they should release the current recruits as they don’t need them anymore, to which Captain Gantu responds that that is a good idea.

The harnesses lift up, and we exit out the opposite door into a small hallway which leads into the redone Stitch store. On the way to the store, however, we see a sign to the right which states something like “Days Without An Escape, Keep Up the Good Work!”, to which below is a large digital LED display in yellow which is rapidly resetting itself to zero from a very large number, like 87456798. Once outside the store, we notice that Stitch is greeting Guests in costume across from the attraction’s entrance, below the TTA track next to the old Timekeeper attraction entrance.

Although I have heard many other reports of this attraction being a “letdown” for what was expected, I must say that I fully enjoyed it. That’s with the knowledge and mindset that it wasn’t an attraction that lives up to what it could be, thanks to those same reviews.

Of course, I never really looked at this attraction from the standpoint of being a completely new attraction. I looked at it more of like the same attraction with a new theme overlay, trying to make it funnier and more kid friendly.

So, the question is, is it kid friendly? Well, of course there always has to be discretion with any attraction, since different folks have different tolerance levels, but I must say that I fell that Walt Disney Imagineering did a fantastic job of balancing thrill with fun. The lights did go off several times, but were not off very long. The overall sound effects and levels (as far as volume is concerned) were nothing to the level of Alien Encounter, and there wasn’t any time when air blasts were used in our faces as was done frequently in the old Alien Encounter.

As far as scary goes, if it’s any indication, I’ve heard more screams from Honey I Shrunk the Audience over at Epcot than I did during this attraction. Again with kids, however, discretion is the best policy.

The animatronic ability was what amazed me the most, and what really fired me up after I was out of the attraction. As advanced and great Stitch was, the cannons were the stars of the show (as far as animatronics were concerned). They moved so quickly and fluidly, that they almost were given a personality when interacting with Stitch at the beginning.

As far as Stitch himself, he moved just as effortlessly, but what amazed me more about him was his ability to walk in a lifelike manner, and to move as much as he did for his larger-than-expected size.

The best part about this attraction, however, is that no matter how much I’ve described in the spoiler section above, it really is no comparison to seeing it happen in front of you and all around you. That’s one of the reasons I decided not to have any pictures for these last two articles, as it’s the type of attraction you really have to experience to appreciate.

Overall, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by this attraction, and I’m glad that it now is the replacement for the old ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. While that old attraction was great in its old right, the new attraction just seems to be a better fit for the Magic Kingdom.

Thanks for stopping on by, and I’ll see you next week!