Stitch's Great Arrival

Earlier on the blog, we explored the construction sites of some of our favorite Disney Parks attractions. Often just as interesting are the construction walls, used to hide the work being done and tease the upcoming additions to the park.

In 2004, the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter closed at the Magic Kingdom, to make way for Stitch's Great Escape. Anyone visiting Tomorrowland during that time was treated to an intriguing blue wall covered in a star field. Newspaper clippings posted on the wall offered clues to the story being prepped inside.

I especially enjoy the details, especially the newspaper mastheads. There's the Galactic Gazette, Tri-Planet Tribune and Planet Turo Times (Turo is the home planet of Jumba, Pleakley and Co. from the 2002 film Lilo & Stitch). It's difficult to see in this picture, but even things like the date of publication and organizational slogans helped reinforce the story.

On November 16, 2004, the walls came down, and new recruits were invited for the first time into Tomorrowland's Prisoner Teleportation Center to contend with the arrival of a Level 3 captive. To anyone else there that day, it was clear things had not gone according to plan. Someone... or some thing... had TP'ed and spray-painted the castle.

Displaying some of the same irreverence used in marketing the Lilo & Stitch film, Stitch's arrival in the Magic Kingdom was heralded in a uniquely "626" way. Of course, the Fairy Godmother had Cinderella's Castle back to normal by the next morning, but Stitch could still be found weeks later, hitching rides on the Walt Disney World monorail.