It was just recently that I came home from DisneyWorld and decided to review The Princess & The Frog in the wake of my trip. Tiana and her story seemed to be everywhere down there, and I realized I would simply have to check that movie out for the first time when I got home.

Already being in a Disney kind of mood, it wasn’t going to take much to get me to want to check out another of their flicks I’d long-since passed over. So when the live action remake of the beloved Lilo & Stitch came on like a rocket to take over Memorial Day weekend recently, that drew more than enough curiosity out of me to want to invest in the original.

Of course, I’d read Jabroniville’s thoughts on Lilo And Stitch a few years back during his run of Disney reviews. So I had a little taste for what I was getting into, but not much more than that. I knew from others besides Jab that the picture had a relatively huge following and was way more popular than I expected. But I guess Memorial Day weekend also proved that with ease.

So sure, I thought today. Let’s see what all the hub-bub is about.

Lilo And Stitch is the story of its two titular protagonists and their relationship together. Stitch, originally known simply as Experiment 626 before Lilo names him, is an alien who was genetically created by a supposed evil scientist in a galaxy far away. When the creature is determined to be too dangerous to be allowed in society (or imprisoned there, either, I guess), he is punished with banishment to a lonely asteroid. And it’s not drawn attention to, but lifelong loneliness in space is a god damn harsh sentence for a Disney cartoon. The mischievous 626 gets loose, though, and ends up crash landing in the Hawaiian Islands on Earth.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, Lilo lives with her older sister Nani, with the latter desperately trying to hold down a job and care for Lilo well enough to maintain custody. Child Services Agent Ving Rhames (a double-dose of Memorial Day weekend Rhames for me after catching Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning in theaters) is coming down hard on Nani to maintain better control and parentage over Lilo.

For some reason, Nani and Lilo decide to adopt a pet, and this leads to Lilo finding 626 in the shelter. She adopts the beast of destruction, and her and Nani’s lives get a lot worse before they get any better!

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Okay, the “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind” stuff admittedly kicked my butt. This goofy, gross cartoon has some real heart. There are a lot of moments that will really tug at you, and they are all highly effective. Lilo says something like “I remember everyone who leaves me” while looking at a photo of her deceased parents! I was expecting this effort to be more along the lines of The Emperor’s New Groove and just be silly fun. I didn’t expect it to make me tear up.

The whole story with Lilo and Nani–the elder sister fighting so hard to keep custody of the younger one–it’s really potent stuff. And then you add in Stitch’s quest to find a family and be more than just his programming? Damn. Strong stuff. And not how the film was marketed! Good sneaky play there, Disney!

+ Stitch is a very entertaining character that has some solid growth and characterization. I mentioned a little of that above with his storyline, but the way the movie executes it? With his finding the Ugly Duckling book and then going out into the rain to cry out “I’m lost!”. It’s really not what I signed up for!

But yeah, he’s a fun goofball character, as well. His antics from when he first lands on Earth are zany and humorous. His training under Lilo to become an Elvis impersonator is fun (and lets this film have music without really worrying too much about original songs when one of its main characters basically growls all of his dialogue). Experiment 626 is a worthy addition to the Disney pantheon of legendary animated characters. No wonder this movie became so beloved.
 
– The evil scientist alien just kind of babyface turns out of nowhere. It’s jarring. He spends the first half of the movie trying to capture and/or blast Stitch to oblivion. He ends up getting into a scuffle with the heroic creature that destroys Nani and Lilo’s home. And then, he just… has a change of heart and decides to do the right thing. It’s a weak spot in the writing of an otherwise extremely well-put-together movie. I wish we had gotten a better impetus for his decision to side with the angels.

– The sci-fi stuff is so integral to the story, yet also the worst part. Especially at the beginning. I cared so much more about Lilo and Nani than I did the Galactic Federation Of Whatever. The movie open with some science fiction hoo-hah, and I just struggled to get interested right away. It felt like Disney doing something that they really don’t specialize in, and I was waiting for what they do well.

Luckily, the movie shifts to Hawaii within a couple of minutes, and that is what I wanted more of early on. It does shift around to the space/alien based stuff every so often, and at those points my interest would wane, but we do get more of the classic good stuff than it.

OVERALL

I was very impressed by this outing from the animation studio super giant. You kind of expect that by 2002, the second Disney Golden Age was all but over. But here they were, churning out this little picture that took the world by storm and kept them plugging away. I loved the soul of this picture, and I chuckled out loud a few times at the more fun bits. Great film.