INTRODUCTION
I am a fan of Disney myself, so when my seven-year-old daughter had a birthday recently, I was only too happy to order her Lilo and Stitch on DVD from Amazon. We hadn’t managed to see it when it was on at the cinema, but she had watched the DVD at her friend’s house and had been enthusiastic then.
Since its arrival here, the DVD has been watched several times by my daughter and her siblings. Last night, it was my turn. After The Bill finished at 9pm, I sat down for a bit of child-free time and immersed myself in the film. I then watched all the extras, only getting to bed at half midnight.
So Lilo and Stitch – a huge ‘loving it’ favourite like Monsters Inc. or an old yawn like Pinocchio?
Read on.
PLOT
A mad scientist called Dr. Jumba has created something known as Genetic Experiment 626. Although the creature looks harmless enough at first glance, it is soon established how fierce and strong it really is.
The United Galactic Federation hold a trial, where it is decided to imprison the scientist and dispose of Stitch. However, Stitch escapes and crashes down to Earth – specifically to an island of Hawaii.
There he ends up adopted by a little girl called Lilo, who lives with her sister Nani. Their new ‘puppy’ (He has retracted his extra paws and spiky bits to make himself more presentable!) is bound to cause trouble and Nani already has the sinister Mr. Cobra Bubbles checking up on her, to ensure Lilo is adequately looked after.
Meanwhile, the Grand Councilwoman of the United Galactic Federation sends Dr. Jumba and Agent Pleakley down to Earth on a mission. They must capture Stitch and return him back to where he came from, to serve his punishment as intended.
FILM REVIEW
Lilo and Stitch wasn’t what I was expecting. It begins in an almost Star Trek way and is fairly low on Disney-esque sickly sweetness. It seemed more like a modern space cartoon than a Disney film and the style of animation added to this image. After the stunning techniques used in Monsters Inc., the animation in Lilo and Stitch looks rather basic at first, but then you notice the detail – rotting woodwork on the stairs to Lilo and Nani’s house, for example – and you can see the beauty.
Hawaii is not a setting I was particularly interested in, but the scenes were often breathtakingly beautiful. The deep blue seas and lush greenery are idyllic and the night-time views are stunning.
This film is full of interesting characters and non-traditional ones. Lilo isn’t a stereotypical Disney heroine. She is unpopular, lonely, loves ugly dolls, voodoo and is rather weird. But she is hugely familiar to every parent of a young daughter. I recognised several elements in her character that are identical to my seven-year-old! Similarly, Nani reminded me of my twelve-year-old, with her impulsive and often irresponsible behaviour, her eye for hunky surfer David and her impatience with Lilo.
The relationship between the two sisters also comes across as very realistic – a mixture of love and annoyance, as they try to co-exist but never achieve harmony for long. While Nani is regularly irritated by her little sister’s naughtiness, the core of their relationship is based
on love and this shines through in times of crisis.
Stitch is just the sort of cute alien monster that kids will love. He resembles a mutant koala with big ears and big spiky teeth. He is essentially disgusting – he spits, picks his nose and vomits goo at every opportunity – but Lilo sees him as much more than this and so do the children watching. They empathise with his mischievous exploits and see him as being tremendous fun and very exciting to have around.
The voices are a brilliant match and amongst the cast, you will find several star names with Tia Carrere as Nani, Ving Rhames as Mr. Cobra Bubbles (reminding me of his role in Pulp Fiction) and Jason Scott Lee as love interest David.
The film is rated U and is rarely frightening, although the youngest children might need the odd word of reassurance. The violence is done in a very cartoony way, which makes it comical - in a similar style to Tom and Jerry. Arachnophobics should be warned there is a spider scene about 27 minutes into the film.
Alan Silvestri’s musical score is an odd mixture of the traditional Hawaiian sound and the music of Elvis Presley, but it works somehow and while it is not a soundtrack I would buy, it is catchy. The song performed by the children’s choir is particularly memorable.
The film is a contrast of rather sad and hilariously funny. The themes are often quite upsetting, if you dwell on them – Lilo and Nani are orphans, Stitch is on the run and alone. There is common ground here between the two main characters, they feel rejected, outsiders, as if they don’t belong. The theme of the ‘family’ recurs throughout, as does the Ugly Duckling story and the idea of “I’m lost.”
But the overall feel of Lilo and Stitch is one of great humour. There are some brilliant scenes, which I am sure will become classics over time. I love the part where Stitch recreates San Francisco in Lilo’s bedroom – then proceeds to storm through it Godzilla-like – with the excellent punchline from a dismayed Lilo!
There are many slapstick-like situations too, with a particularly memorable game of ‘Pass the Explosive’ between Stitch and Dr. Jumba, which would look at home in any 1950s Hanna Barbera cartoon. This also must surely be the only movie to feature a one-eyed monster in drag! (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
For the adults, there are cultural nods to Star Wars, Men In Black and Roswell. For the children, there’s a good story, cute characters and feelings they can relate to. The film is also bright, colourful, uptempo and non-stop.
Overall, I found the film to be great fun and one you could happily watch with all members of your family, from young babies to Great Grans. It is engaging, warm and something a bit different. It is very funny and very clever.
It is sweet, but not too sweet. There’s a happy ending, which is always satisfying and I was pleased to see the inclusion of the end scenes where their family life is illustrated. The message of the movie is a good one too - that a family doesn’t have to follow a conventional formula to be happy.
DVD DETAILS
The DVD and video were released on March 17th, 2003.
This was the first Disney DVD we have bought and I was very impressed with it. Obviously you would expect this DVD to be appealing to children, but Disney have excelled themselves here.
The disc itself is very attractive with a colourful picture of Lilo, Stitch and Cobra Bubbles on it. This makes it easily identifiable and even if children are too young to read the names, they will be able to recognise the disc by the illustrations of the characters.
The menu is stored inside the case. It is written clearly on a two page pull-out section, explaining how to access each feature with a colour coded diagram. The only criticism I have is that the glossy paper would be quite easy for children to tear.
ON SCREEN MENU
The on-screen menu is ideal for children. It is bright, colourful, simple and easy to follow. The font used is clear to read – evidence that simplicity is often the best way. The menus have little clips of the film and the background is a gentle, but interesting, light blue with white swirls and flowers.
The scene selection is also very well done with clear numbering and little pictures to illustrate each scene, making it easy for children to watch their favourites again and again. (Oh joy!)
BONUS MATERIAL
When I initially saw how many bonus features were on this DVD, I assumed they would all be adverts and sneaky product placements. Although some do admittedly have that “Mum, can I have…?” allure, they are all done very well and are enjoyable.
The extras here includes something for everyone, as the youngsters will enjoy the music videos, the slightly older kids will appreciate the dance class and the deleted scenes, while the adults will prefer the behind the scenes documentary.
Lilo and Stitch is a perfect family film, which everyone will get something out of and this is matched by the impressive array of features on the disc.
DISNEY PEDIA: HAWAII – THE ISLANDS OF ALOHA
This is ostensibly the most educational extra on the disc – which means, of course, that very few children will want to sit through it! Although Disney have tried to make it as accessible as possible by using Lilo and Nani’s voices and a series of colourful postcard views, the whole thing still comes across as fact heavy and rather dull.
The idea is that you click on an image of a Hawaiian island and are then taken on a virtual tour of that island’s history and attractions. Although well intentioned, I found my mind drifting and I am sure children would also. However, any child with an interest in volcanoes might want to watch the Big Island of Hawaii segment.
CREATE YOUR OWN ALIEN EXPERIMENT GAME
This is one of my seven-year-old daughter’s favourite sections, although my older children tired of it quickly. The idea is that you are in the mad scientist’s laboratory and he needs your help to create a new monster.
You answer three multiple choice questions about the film, then if you get them all right (which I did!), you move onto the second part where you need to guess the combination of lights correctly. I couldn’t manage to do this, but my children inform me that the correct sequence leads to a new monster appearing on the screen.
A nice touch is that everything is read out by the mad scientist, so young children can join in without needing to be able to read.
Limited appeal to older children, but might hold the attention of younger ones slightly longer.
A STITCH IN TIME: FOLLOW STITCH THROUGH THE DISNEY YEARS
This is a 3 ½ minute review of Disney’s movie history, but rewritten to include Stitch, so he pops up in several old favourite film scenes! This is rather sweet and I enjoyed it too, as well as it being appealing to children. The Dalmatian Stitch is especially cute!
HULA LESSON
Another 3 ½ minute feature, this time on the hula dance. I found this interesting enough to watch once, but wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again. I am sure my ten and twelve year old daughters will have a go at learning the steps, but there is little of interest here for young children.
BURNING LOVE – BEHIND THE SCENES WITH WYNONNA
It seems ironic to me that the two main songs of this film are sang by a woman with a deep, masculine voice (Wynonna) and a man with a high-pitched girlie voice (Gareth Gates). Anyway, this section features a mere 1 ½ minutes of Wynonna talking and recording her song. We didn’t even know who she was, but apparently she’s big in the USA.
I CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU – THE A-TEENS
This is the music video by The A-Teens, a manufactured plastic-looking group who make Hear’say look like The Sex Pistols. This is an awful, squeaky version of the song and the video for it is similarly bland, but I am sure any of the group’s pre-pubescent fans will love it.
THE LOOK OF LILO AND STITCH
This is a four-minute segment, which will appeal much more to the adults. It features the producer, writer, director and artists explaining how the animation was developed to get the specific look of the film. I enjoyed this and found it very interesting and it was fascinating to watch the original drawings come to life.
ANIMATING THE HULA
This shows how the film researched and portrayed the hula dance. They aimed to treat the traditionally important Hawaiian dance with respect and to reproduce it accurately in the movie. It was impressive to see how much care they took with this and it was great to watch the real dancers performing, then watch the animated version. However, this is not a feature you would want to watch repeatedly and again, it’s not very exciting for children. Come to think of it, I wasn’t very excited either.
ON LOCATION WITH THE DIRECTORS
This is one of the longest features running for nearly twenty minutes and it was also my favourite, as I found it very informative and entertaining. This is really a behind the scenes documentary about how all the aspects of the film come together to create the finished product.
You get to view the storyboards, hear the team discussing their ideas, see how they designed the spaceships and follow the recording of the musical score. (But yes, unfortunately, there’s even more hula!) This feature shows the beauty of the artwork and the talent of everyone involved, as well as the complicated and time-consuming process of attaining the high standards they are aiming for.
Everyone involved comes across as friendly and interesting, without anyone imparting too much technical information, which would be too complex for many viewers to understand.
My favourite parts were watching the actors recording the voice work, especially as they often bore an uncanny resemblance to their animated characters! Mention must be made here of the wonderful multi-talented Chris Sanders who wrote the film, directed it and provided the unique voice of Stitch.
DELETED SCENES
There are three deleted scenes and each one is preceded by an explanation of why it was changed in the way it was, which makes this section much more interesting than just including the scenes by themselves.
The scenes are Stitch’s Trial, Gantu’s Challenge and Bedtime Story. While I enjoyed this feature and would re-watch two of these (Gantu’s Challenge was rather uninspiring), they are shown as a mixture of colour footage, black and white, line drawings and stills which would be off-putting for most children.
Personally though, I really liked this feature and hope this is a regular section on Disney DVDs.
THEATRICAL TEASER TRAILERS
This isn’t as boring or predictable as it sounds! Although there are four trailers for Lilo and Stitch here, they all begin as recognisable classic Disney films – Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid and The Lion King. Just as you begin to get absorbed in each clip, Stitch appears! They are very funny and the Lion King one is great, a real ‘laugh out loud’ trailer.
Well worth watching and all ages will enjoy them.
GARETH GATES – SUSPICIOUS MINDS
Well, for all Gareth fans, this will be a highlight of the extras, but for me, it was simply a pleasant enough – but bland – reworking of an Elvis song and a nice enough video. If you get bored of watching Gareth’s spiky hair and gappy teeth, at least there are clips from the film here, so you can admire the contrasting beauty of the gorgeous Stitch ;-)
SNEAK PEEKS
Nothing special here, just preview trailers for four future Disney releases – Jungle Book 2, Pinocchio (again), Atlantis: Milo’s Return and Treasure Planet. None of these appealed to me.
PRICE DETAILS
Lilo and Stitch is available on video for £11.99 and DVD for £14.99. If you order using this code - DVD (ASIN B000063W2O) or video (ASIN B000063W2N) - you will receive a free Stitch cuddly toy.
There is also the DVD Gift Set available for £22.49, which comprises of the DVD, a cuddly Stitch and the Lilo and Stitch storybook.
The CD soundtrack is available for £11.99.
(All prices quoted from Amazon.)
DVD SPECIFICATIONS
Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles in English and English for the hearing impaired
Widescreen format 1.85:1
Running time 82 minutes
Rated U
WEBSITES
www.liloandstitch.co.uk
www.disney.co.uk/disneydvds
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by (2%):
13.06.2007 18:47
A great review
14.03.2005 00:47
its all about disney, I love disney films there just incredible, great review
14.12.2004 23:45
Wow - huge review!!! I saw it in the cinema when I was pregnant (a 22 year old watching Lilo and Stitch in a cinema), and hormones got the better of me... sat sobbing over "I'm Lost". I now have an 18 month old daughter who is addicted. She won't say "Mummy", yet "Lilo" and "Stitch" she can master. It can calm her from tears, and make her happy when she is poorly. Disney deserve every penny they make from it.