Alien Encounter

[linklewtt]

i recently have obtained a live recording of alien encounter. this show was very very good. i think the only problem was its possibly too thrilling moments (the maintenance guy getting eaten) but, i think that could be fixed to be tamer (if another version ever opened).

anyways, i was listening to the second preshow with the transportation of Skippy. i was wondering if that Skippy is the same alien which is transported now in Stitch's Great Escape? i think they reused the SIR bot, but did they also reuse the alien? also is the transportation of the new alien the same as how it went with Skippy? or did they change some things?

oh yes, and i forget but is the SIR bot still called that? and did they do a rerecording with someone else's voice or is it still Tim Curry? thanks for answering my questions!

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Don't know about SIR, but Skippy is still Skippy. Not sure if he's still called Skippy in SGE though.

-- PMM :cool:

[Xanderick]

man i loved that ride...well, i would love that ride if i rode it today. last time i was too busy kicking, screaming, and trying to undo the safety restraints with all the strength a 9-year old boy could muster. i would love to ride it one more time to enjoy it as a more stable young adult. *eye twitches*

[linklewtt]

there's this part in the main show where the Chairman decides to be transported to earth. i only have the audio and it sounds like he possibly straps himself into something maybe? anyways the 2 scientists and the Chairman start yelling frantically and everything and then you hear the Chairman's voice fade away (i guess he gets transported at that time). can anyone please clarify this scene and perhaps describe it in a little more detail. i'd like to know what it looks like and what you see.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

^ The Chairman decides to teleport himself to earth, to the surprise of the 2 scientists presenting the technology to us. Dr. Femus, the female, is in charge of operating the teleporter, and franticly begins recalculating and adjusting the teleporter to accomodate Chairman Clench's wishes. Clench wants to go right now & Spinloc, her brown-nosing partner, rushes her to not look bad in front of the Chairman. They both lose patience with Dr. Femus, Spinloc hits the button himself but it's far too soon.

Without the trajectory locked, the signal is intercepted by another planet and lost for a moment. Femus & Spinloc then find a signal, but Femus isn't sure if its Clench or not. Spinloc doesn't believe it can't be Clench so he insists they send whatever the signal is to Earth. Unfortunately, it isn't Clench, and terror & calamity ensues.

Hope that helps linklewtt!

-- PMM :cool:

[Harrison Hightower III]

Man that ride was awesome!!

[Stitchon]

There Is A 3 Part Video On Youtube, With Both Preshows!

[linklewtt]

^ The Chairman decides to teleport himself to earth, to the surprise of the 2 scientists presenting the technology to us. Dr. Femus, the female, is in charge of operating the teleporter, and franticly begins recalculating and adjusting the teleporter to accomodate Chairman Clench's wishes. Clench wants to go right now & Spinloc, her brown-nosing partner, rushes her to not look bad in front of the Chairman. They both lose patience with Dr. Femus, Spinloc hits the button himself but it's far too soon.

Without the trajectory locked, the signal is intercepted by another planet and lost for a moment. Femus & Spinloc then find a signal, but Femus isn't sure if its Clench or not. Spinloc doesn't believe it can't be Clench so he insists they send whatever the signal is to Earth. Unfortunately, it isn't Clench, and terror & calamity ensues.

Hope that helps linklewtt!

-- PMM :cool:

that helps so much PMM! the scene was kinda vague from listening to just the audio. it sounded like he was being attacked or something. but now i can form a mental picture in my head.

sorry for all the questions, but i gotta know this stuff. when the repairman shows up to fix the power, how is that presented? do you ever see him or do you just hear him? and please someone explain the death of this guy in detail.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

please someone explain the death of this guy in detail.

Piercing scream, crunch, slurp. Something like that. :smile:

-- PMM :cool:

[dust2dust]

I just found this thread on a search for an appropriate place to vent my frustration after the shock tonight of finding out the attraction has closed !! Is there a reason it closed ...?? Because I couldn't imagine anything more boring than going to see something Lilo and Stitch related !! I have zero interest in those characters. Why why why must everything have a brand link there now ? The really cool thing about Alien Encounter was that you had to have seen NOTHING to enjoy the experience. Not only was the main part excellent but the pre-show stuff with the alien presentations and then the robot was also never tiresome to me. I'm sad, I'm really sad. But I'd like please an answer at least to why this first class attraction was terminated.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Most common explanation I've heard for the removal of Alien Encounter was that it was simply too frightening for most guests. Not just talking about kids here, but folks of all ages seemed to have been complaining about the intensity of the fright generated by the show.

AE was fairly embattled for a while, and got toned down a bit from what I remember reading. Then someone came up with the idea for a Stitch-themed attraction & the rest is history.

Thanks for using the search feature dust2dust & welcome to VF. Though since it now exists, this thread's place is the Magic Kingdom forum. So I'll take this XS-brand teleporter, switch it on, lock the trajectory, and off we go!

...and there's no Spinloc or Chairman Clench to mess things up this time. :smile:

-- PMM :cool:

[dust2dust]

Well that is a crying shame. I'm very puzzled that adults were complaining about the intensity. I was under the impression Disney was trying to encourage a more adult audience with it's development of the Downtown Disney place with the nightclubs etc etc. This was a real stand-out experience (yes can you tell I'm bitter !!) The robot animatronics too were stunning to me, I was in the front row a few times. Waste waste waste ! :frown:

Thank you for the welcome, and yeah I try these days to use the search on forums - clunky as it often is ! But that's inherent on any forum anywhere.

[LoehnWolf]

Well it just wouldnt be Disney though if every attraction wasnt based on one of their animated movies. I mean they took The Living Seas at Epcot and just HAD to throw "with Nemo and friends" in it. I liked the old look better with the seabase aqualator effect instead of CLAMBUGGIES blechhh. But soon it will be Test Track featuring Lightning McQueen or who knows what else.

[dust2dust]

Haha, yeah I used to love the Living Seas at Epcot I was rather appalled by how they messed that one up. I mean Epcot's entire purpose was, surely, to go beyond linking every single thing you look at back to a Disney character.
I'd also liken the scare-factor toning-down on Alien Encounter to me going into KFC and being given a duck leg - because people had been complaining the food was too chickeny. :icon_conf
Bizarrely whilst searching around last night I read an article from 1994/5 that Eisner ordered the attraction shut down and reworked to make it more intense.

[chelsealela]

Piercing scream, crunch, slurp. Something like that. :smile:

-- PMM :cool:

eeww!! Ok, I never been on the attraction, but thats just about enough to send me running!

[DisneyParksFan]

Bizarrely whilst searching around last night I read an article from 1994/5 that Eisner ordered the attraction shut down and reworked to make it more intense.

That is true. That also confused me when they closed the attraction. It said Eisner had viewed the show and found it a bit too gentle. He had them close it down to create a more frightful/intense version.
Whenever I went, the area was almost always crowded with people. So weird. And now Stitch is barely taking in the people...

[snowwhite-4ever]

I've never seen, or went on it. But for me, it sound a little to scary for a Disney Park. But I love the new Stitch ride, so I'm happy that they removed it.

[mmfan]

I got to see Alien Encounter, it was kinda weird!! But i liked it! Why'd they replace it!!

[CaptainSpalding]

AE was absolutely better (IMO) than Stitch. Although, I must confess, the AA movements in Stitch (Stitch himself and the laser gun guards) were fantastic. But oh to have AE back!

The repair guy in AE that gets gobbled up, the only thing you see of him is his flashlight above on the maintanance catwalk. On the TV monitors around the room you see a live feed from a video camera that the repairman has attached to his hat (or whatever he was supposed to be wearing). When Dr. Femus says "Can you see the problem?" you see on the monitors the alien staring at the camera and the guy replies "I..can..see..the..problem."

[DisneyParksFan]

The repair guy in AE that gets gobbled up, the only thing you see of him is his flashlight above on the maintanance catwalk. On the TV monitors around the room you see a live feed from a video camera that the repairman has attached to his hat (or whatever he was supposed to be wearing). When Dr. Femus says "Can you see the problem?" you see on the monitors the alien staring at the camera and the guy replies "I..can..see..the..problem."

That part was so awesome because you would never expect that to be part of a Disney attraction. For me, Alien Encounter gave off a sort of spooky feeling where you weren't really sure what you were in for when you would be waiting outside and then later on it the lobby/preshow area. The preshow and waiting did create a pretty convincing atmosphere, especially when at night. ;)
Maybe some day in the future, AE will resurface again.

~DisneyParksFan

[Xadllas]

As said before about the feeling. Even though I never experienced AE I always got this dark and mysterious feeling from the "Tomorrowland Inter-Planetary Convention Center". But ever since SGE was put in its gone. I would rather have AE back over SGE bc SGE never has over a 9 min wait anymore. While AE had a huge queue time almost every day.

[GreenLantern13]

Stitch has absolutely no repeat-ride appeal to me at all. One time and I was set to ignore that whole section of tomorrowland all together.

[CaptainSpalding]

Stitch has absolutely no repeat-ride appeal to me at all. One time and I was set to ignore that whole section of tomorrowland all together.

Same here.

[Fantasmic!kid]

Same here.

Ashamedly..... me three...


~F!kid

[Figfriend]

Despite AE's long lines and amazing, yet somewhat terrifying presentation, Disney likely decided to follow these options:

1. the complaints from guests concerning the scariness of the show. Many people thought it would be only "Disney-scary" and not "scary-scary", and therefore brought their children or others onto the ride who had the living daylights scared out of them. :eek:

2. the marketing aspect of SGE versus AE. While Disney could only manufacture such items as AE T-shirts and stuffed Skippys, along with other things, with Stitch, he has enough merchandise to fill the Emporium. In accordance, SGE now exits guests into a gift shop filled to the brim with Stitch T-shirts, bags, plushes, hats, key chains, ornaments, figurines, pins, pencils and pens, gloves, and many other accessories and items.

Having never seen either show, I cannot properly compare them with one another, but it should be known that I think Stitch is a good character and I liked the movie a lot and that AE looked like an interesting and one-of-a-kind ride that was ahead of its time.
--------------------------------------Double post added here.
oh yes, and i forget but is the SIR bot still called that? and did they do a rerecording with someone else's voice or is it still Tim Curry? thanks for answering my questions!

I believe they may have reused the Animatronic from SIR, Simulated Intelligence Robotics, and made him the policeman you see in the preshow now. I also heard that for tributes to AE, Imagineers put Skippy in somewhere and that in the queue/preshow area, some of the equipment has the X-S Tech logo and name on it. At first, Phil Hartman's voice did SIR, but as his voice is lighter and more humorous and the preshow was more funny at that time, it did not match AE's theme and overall setting, so they had Tim Curry record his voice instead, which was a better fit.

One final note: There are is a great 4-part article on Jim Hill that describes the original plans for AE, which included everything from using the alien from "Alien" to placing more humorous and later scary parts in the preshow and ride.

[stevo505]

I have read that Alien Encounter was not replaced due to intensity, but because Jeffrey Jones (Chairman Clench) Was charged by something I should not say on VF. It was the same that they did with Captain EO When Michael Jackson was charged with something I don't want to say. Disney just wanted to keep it's good image.

[forgottenrelic]

omg. i went on that when i was in 5th grade and it scared the living crap out of me. my cousin's screams didn't help either. LOL.

[Figfriend]

I have read that Alien Encounter was not replaced due to intensity, but because Jeffrey Jones (Chairman Clench) Was charged by something I should not say on VF. It was the same that they did with Captain EO When Michael Jackson was charged with something I don't want to say. Disney just wanted to keep it's good image.

As I understand, Pee Wee Herman was charged for the same case. Disney had many reasons for replacing AE. It's a shame that it couln't be adapted in a different way.

[stevo505]

^ Yeah.. It really is a shame they couldn't just replace Chairman Clench with another guy.

[disneyboy]

I loved this ride. It was one of the most imaginative and most effective pieces of ride based storytelling I had ever seen. And it was a change of pace from all of the other Magic Kingdom rides with their continous G rating system. I've got nothing against Stitch, but he seems like the kind of character who will quickly fade from exsistense once his popularity goes down leaving disney to find something new to put in the building. This new Stitch ride is alright, but I still love the Alien Encounter better. Even though Skippy is still there, it just not the same. And to all of you people out there who sent in those nasty complaints saying it was too scary which lead to the closing of the Alien Encounter...

WHAT PART OF "WARNING: THIS RIDE IS TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNGER VIWERS!!" DIDN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!

[LoehnWolf]

I remember there was a HUGE debate going on some boards as to whether the "flashlight" that shines down on the audience from above from the maintenance man was a real person on a catwalk or if it was just an light

[albino_pygmy]

Well that is a crying shame. I'm very puzzled that adults were complaining about the intensity. I was under the impression Disney was trying to encourage a more adult audience with it's development of the Downtown Disney place with the nightclubs etc etc. This was a real stand-out experience (yes can you tell I'm bitter !!) The robot animatronics too were stunning to me, I was in the front row a few times. Waste waste waste ! :frown:


People complain on just about anything. I'm just surprised that they haven't decided to 'tone down' TOT or RNR because they're 'too thrilling.' When I was working in the jungle cruise, I've had several people complain to me in my face that they cannot stand how 'sarcastic' we all are, and how it's 'un-disney like'. I wouldn't really call it sarcasm that makes the ride, we're just doing our job, telling bad jokes and and attempting to get laughs and entertain people as they're waiting in line or waiting for a boat. I'm sorry that this guest to skipper interaction didn't float your boat sir, I would advise that you would just wait for your family to ride without you if you're going to spoil the ride for the entire boat if you're going to keep this up. He finally came to his senses after his wife knocked some sense into him, literally :biggrin:

The other thing that gets under my skin is how people seem to lose their brains when they pass through the main gate's turnstyles and don't read warning signs or even bother with the park map even though they grab one for each family member. I'm pretty sure there was a warning that children 9 (or was it 12?) and under were not recommended to experience AE in the park map and infront of the attraction, and still there are screaming kids that make their way in. This happens anywhere, it's the same deal at Universal too with their T2:3D which is PG-13 rated for a reason, and yet I've seen strollers parked outside of this attraction and it just ruins the experience when you see bright light coming out from the exit doors during a cyborg attack, but yet thankfully that ear-piercing screaming stopped :)

[albino_pygmy]

I remember there was a HUGE debate going on some boards as to whether the "flashlight" that shines down on the audience from above from the maintenance man was a real person on a catwalk or if it was just an light

I'm sure it had to have been an intelligent light so that way it's all automated and don't have to depend on someone having to be upstairs to wave a flashlight around.