Episode 586 - A Stitch In Time

Authored by: chopsva on Friday, July 03 2009 @ 07:53 AM CDT

I think Chris has it 100% correct. They don't know what they want of Stitch and they never seem to use the Stitch we all love - the misfit who wants to protect his ohana not the Experiment 626 that is out to cause problems.

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Authored by: SortaGrumpy on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 10:07 AM CDT

The stage show was a colossal failure of imagineering. Who green lighted this? What ever happened to original scoring? Would Walt just throw together tired old songs in such a lame format? This thing was hard to watch on Youtube. I couldn't imagine standing in the sun to watch it. Unlike a few of the other dogs (Sounds Dangerous), guests are not trapped in a closed theater. At least they had air conditioning and a comfortable seat. Guests were free to walk, dare I say run, from the stage show and they did.

I'm not much of a Stitch fan. I agree with your analysis of the character. Seems like they are forcing him into the space theme into TL. Forget Stitch and do something with the Incredibles. Why haven't these characters been put to better use. They are heroes among us for goodness sake. Save the future (world). Is that such a hard concept?

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Authored by: venny on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 10:19 AM CDT

I haven't listened to the 'cast yet (getting ready to as I cut the grass), but from the posted title, I can tell you that one particular family in Ohio would be disappointed. After I've listened to it, I may need to come back and revise my comments, but for now I'd like to chime in...

Liam, our eight year old son, *adores* Stitch. To the point we've had to decorate his room in the Stitch/Polynesian theme. We haven't seen the discontinued show (Supersonic Celebration), and I'd agree the attraction in Tomorrowland isn't great, but there is a segment of their audience that responds to this beloved character. In fact, we stay at the Poly *in large part* to the Lilo & Stitch characters. We've got many photos with lil' ol' Stitch... http://bit.ly/jZKfT

Hey Disney: wanna keep me coming, and staying, at this deluxe resort, don't make a silly move. Stitch fits quite well with much of the Disney values. More than the Power Rangers, or many other characters that I see roaming around.

Now, if we're nominating characters for the axe: Kim Possible in the Studios... never see a line forming for autographs with Kim. I'm just sayin'.

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Authored by: venny on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 10:22 AM CDT

I do however completely agree with SortaGrumpy... would LOVE to see The Incredibles in the parks. Umm... especially Mrs. Incredible!

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Authored by: andrewilley on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 01:03 PM CDT

I couldn't understand why they got rid of a perfectly good seated auditorium and built this new open-air venue. Surely they could have put the new show into the existing Tomorrowland Theater at far less cost and keeping a useful venue for other things? What a waste.

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Authored by: venny on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 01:41 PM CDT

So, I listened to the podcast, and then watch the YouTube video of the ill-fated live action attraction... have to agree that show was doomed. Horribly written, and missed a lot of opportunity to engage the audience. Sad, really.

I'd really have to agree with Chris' commentary about the character Stitch... Disney isn't focusing on the right elements of him: the end of the movie "good dog" traits that endears us to him.

Likewise, the Great Escape attraction isn't really what I'd call kid-friendly, and our family is keen on Stitch. Love to see them use that space for the Incredibles, or maybe even (and this might be a stretch) a Wall-E attraction of sorts.

I just hope they keep Stitch at the Poly... that's all I'm asking ;-)

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Authored by: captainbarbossa6 on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 02:55 PM CDT

Good show. I personally have never seen Stitch's Great Escape because I've always heard it is a bit scary. Plus, I don't even really like the It's Tough to be a Bug attraction what with things poking you and stuff, so I don't think I'd like Stitch's Great Escape. Sounds like the stage show was horrible, so I'm glad I didn't see it.
Talking about the movie, though. I saw the movie with some friends when it first came out in theaters. I really had no interest in seeing it, but since I was invited I just went along. It was a different type of Disney movie for me, but it still had that Disney feel what with the stress on family and sticking together. I didn't really know if I liked the movie. It was just different. I think that Stitch kind of weirded me out, to be honest. I really do feel that if Disney ever does an attraction with Stitch, they should get Lilo in there and show the nice side of Stitch.

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Authored by: piwackitt on Saturday, July 04 2009 @ 07:16 PM CDT

Al Capp?

That's all I'm sayin'

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Authored by: LudwigVonDrake on Sunday, July 05 2009 @ 07:06 PM CDT

Great show and I agree for the most part about your commentary about the Stitch character.

However, I am surprised Scopa got made fun of for his "Al Capp" reference. Al Capp was the cartoonist who drew the "Lil' Abner" comic strip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capp

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Authored by: cgessner on Monday, July 06 2009 @ 07:35 AM CDT

Great episode. The Stitch attraction is a disaster that my family won't even go close to in Tomorrowland. It seems that Stitch is being shoved down our throats, and if Stitch sells merchandise (as brought up in the episode), I guess it will continue. I'd like to see Disney completely gut this attraction and go to something completely different. I don't get how Disney can nail an attraction like Toy Story Mania and then deliver a dud like this attraction and show. How about using classic Disney characters for a ride in this area of the park???

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Authored by: Jul on Monday, July 06 2009 @ 02:01 PM CDT

...Is that Stitch fiinds a place for himself in a "broken family". With so many families being single parent households or kids being raised by folks who aren't mom or dad, it's nice to see a character who is able to blend into a family that isn't the mom, dad, and 2.5 kids. What Disney needs to put forward is more "Ohana Stitch" and less "Experiment 626 Stitch."

Is it possible that Stitch is not able to stand alone as a character and that the minute you take Lilo out of the picture, Stitch is a character that no one wants to be around?

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Authored by: Erock on Tuesday, July 07 2009 @ 10:48 PM CDT

Wow, honestly what a great episode. I am glad that the guys admitted that they missed Alien Encounter. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss Alien Encounter.

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Authored by: Kfischler on Wednesday, July 08 2009 @ 12:13 PM CDT

My son is 8 and loves Stitch. I think the Stitch fan club is made up of mostly 5 to 10 year old boys. Stitch is naughty, gets in trouble, and is someone they can identify with. While my son may love Stitch's Great Escape and the Stitch's Supersonic show, my teenage daughters, wife, and I do not. We only ride Escape for my son. I saw the Stitch show a few weeks ago and it burned my butt... literally. They had a sitting mat for the kids, but my eldest daughter and I sat on the pavement and it was so hot, it left scorch marks. The show was horrible, thank goodness it was terminated. How can they have money to invest in a turkey like this, but claim that a regular Fantasmic schedule costs too much?

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Authored by: Rayman on Wednesday, July 08 2009 @ 02:09 PM CDT

The problem is that the people that created the movie...the character that we love no longer are at Disney. So no one that's got a clue how to handle him is there.

What bothers me after all of these years...they still haven't figured him out.

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Authored by: YoPaulie on Thursday, July 16 2009 @ 01:18 PM CDT

Good episode.

I think they can make Great Escape REALLY good with a minor rewrite. I agree with Chris when he said that Disney is focusing on 626, which is not loved. Well, if they retooled Great Escape to follow the animated series, using the storyline that Captain Gantu (the large shark/elephant alien) is trying to round up the other 625 experiments. He catches Stitch by mistake with his transporter... or maybe even Lilo. Stitch gets inventive, escapes, and sets the other experiments (and himself/Lilo) free in the process.

That way, it uses the existing show, refreshes it to be family-friendly, and uses the lovable Stitch instead of the monster 626.

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Authored by: Ham on Wednesday, July 22 2009 @ 01:28 PM CDT

For what it's worth I thought Stitch at the Disney Studios in Paris is his best appearance in a park and his probably more towards the Stitch from the film.

Here's a video I found if you haven't seen it...

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=M...IYr-GyAfzw

I think they used parts of this in Supersonic Celebration just not much of it and padded it out with a whole lot of nothing making any kind of sense

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Authored by: wildgrits on Friday, December 04 2009 @ 12:24 AM CST

I think Chris opinion was right one the money when it came to the Stitch ride.

Stitch is my Ohana's favorite character. We love to go to Ohanas every time we visit to have breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. The Stitch they use for the meal is the one I wish they would portray at the parks.

What fails in the ride to me is the fact that the animatronic is HUGE *in movie he is dog size*, he is spitting, and it feels thrown together.

In my opinion Stitch's popularity comes from his personality. In the movie he was someone who Lilo loved and felt loved back in a life where she is not "girlie" enough to fit in. I think that spoke to many people out there who don't feel they fit the mold set for them.

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