THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you gain a best friend, they enter your lives at the most unexpected. This was pretty clear to me when I watched Lilo & Stitch.
PLOT
The film shows alien scientist Jumba Jookiba being put on trial by the Galactic Federation for illegal genetic experimentation, evidenced of his creation he calls 'Experiment 626', who appears small but has unparalleled strength and intelligence, designed to be indestructible. When the Federation does not believe it to be capable of being a tamed creature, it is sentenced to exile on a desert asteroid. However, the live experiment breaks out on its own and steals a spaceship. When he summons a hyperdrive, it causes its guidance systems to malfunctin and randomly set course for Earth. Particularly, he is set to crash land on Kauai, Hawaii. The Grand Councilwoman (Zoe Caldwell) dispatches Jumba to capture in exchange to be pardoned of his crime. He is also accompanied Agent Pleakley for his expertise of Planet Earth. On Kauai lives a young girl named Lilo, who lives with her adult sister Nani after their parents died in a tragic car accident. This tragedy makes it harder for her to fit in with her hula classmates and the concern of social worker Cobra Bubbles is high as he does not believe her sister can take care of her, giving her only three days to prove him wrong. By night, 626 crash lands on the island and its attempt to cause chaos is halted when getting hit by multiple trucks. He would then be sent to an animal shelter, mistaken to be an actual dog. Despite that the adults are frightened, Lilo likes him and adopts him when visiting the shelter, naming him 'Stitch'. He blends in by hiding his antennas, three spines and second set of arms. By then, Jumba and Pleakey have arrived as well and intend to keep a low profile as they tend to capture him. Their first attempt occurs at a restaurant where Nani works. They fail, but Nani loses her job due to the chaos being blamed on Stitch. When she tends to search for a new one, Lilo educates him of Elvis Presley who she identifies as a model citizen. However, their antics unintentionally ruin her chances of finding work. Her friend David cheers them up by going out surfing. That doesn't go well when Jumba & Pleakley try again with capturing Stitch. It backfires again, but Cobra partially saw what happened, meaning that he will take away Lilo the next day after seeing her in danger. Nani is unable to tell her sister what will happen to her, making her believe they'll move. Stitch decides to run away, realizing that caused too much trouble. Jumba & Pleakley are relieved from the task, which gives the former the opportunity to capture his creation in a less covert manner. He does find Stitch in the forest, but he runs back to Lilo's house. Their conflict goes so wrong that it causes the house to be destroyed. Cobra picks up Lilo to take her away, blaming Nani for the destrcution as she left to get a new job (both were unaware of what really happened). When Lilo realizes that she'll be away from her sister, she runs away. Just when she reunites with Stitch, who reveals that he is also alien, both get captured by Captain Gantu of the Federation. Stitch is able to break free from capture, but is unable to free Lilo in time before takeoff. He does get captured by Jumba & Pleakley, but he convinces them to rescue Lilo out of respect he has for Nani. They do give chase in Jumba's own spaceship and Stitch is able to rescue his friend once overpowering Gantu. When they return to land, Grand Councilwoman attempts to capture Stitch and force Gantu into retirement for failing just like Jumba & Pleakley. However, when noticing the alien's newfound civility towards Lilo and Nani, she decrees for his exile to be on Earth into the care of both sisters. And due to her respect towards Cobra, who she previously met in 1973 as a CIA agent, the family will be under the care of the Federation. Once she leaves, the likes of David, Cobra, Jumba and Pleakley help rebuild and remodel the house, which makes the family bigger than it already was. The film ends with Stitch being in a montage of photos taken by Lilo, which further accepts him as part of the family.
THOUGHTS
As a kid, I binged through the Renaissance Era very quickly, which only excited me to see what was in store in the era I grew up in, Post Renaissance. And getting through this one was an absolute blast. The animation is holding up very well as everything is incredibly designed in what is Disney's first animated perspective of the sci fi genre. Now what always makes me come back to this one and loving it all over again is that Writers/Directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBois gave an entertaining yet bold perspective on how one must always surround themselves with people who will always spread nothing but love and care towards one another and with that unconditional love, you will be able to find your place. I strongly felt that through the colorful array of characters, voiced by a great cast who add more depth and teach more than anticipated. Obviously, Stitch, whose played spectacularly by Sanders, is the selling point of this movie because he is a vicious figure whose curiosity makes him intelligent and downright adorable in the process. He was designed to be a weapon of mass destruction, only to unexpectedly become a guardian angel to those in need. He became that when he entered the life of equally eccentric Lilo, who's played greatly by Daveigh Chase. Her tragedy made her feel lost and he unintentionally helped her regain confidence in getting by. She quickly took a liking to him because she felt the energy and adventure that was missing in her life. Their names translate to 'Lost' and 'Put back together', the latter of which is what they do to each other in the process. And from that alone, their bond becomes untouchable. Their bond alone reminds me how valuable family is no matter how big or small it is. If they were to separate, I don't think either would emotionally recover from that, which is what makes it all the more important for Stitch to stay. Now that he was able to, it is great to see their happiness continue from then on. Aside from the titular duo, the supporting cast definitely were a delight to see as well. It does become easy to love Tia Carrere's Nani because she is one of the only ones trying to be mature in her predicament. Stepping in to take care of a sibling when the parents are out of the picture is not an easy responsibility and she makes clear of it, but you love her for not giving up no matter how difficult things got. It would be a lot to digest knowing you adopted an alien for a pet, but at that point, that is how far she'll go to make her sister happy. I think the bond she has with Lilo is very special because it again makes clear to appreciate family as you'll never know when it'll be the last time to see them. It was a relief for Lilo to stay with her because they don't deserve anymore pain. Now it's easy to hate on Cobra because he pressures Nani to be perfect, but Ving Rhames reminds viewers that he is a guy doing his job, looking out for Lilo as he would for other kids. The red flags he sees are legit because he doesn't want her to grow up troubled. Luckily, the connection to Stitch helped him understand that no one can control everything that happens in life. It was even cute for him to stick around in their lives as he all wanted was to look out for them. While this was not the end of their shenanigans, it's good to know that he wouldn't negatively interfere anymore. Even Jason Scott Lee made it easy to love just for portraying him as the most good natured of shown characters, while still being clumsy in the process. Some would call his timing off when he offers the girls to surf during their crisis, but I don't think there is any such thing as bad timing when you need a break from stress. So when they surf together, you can't help but smile when even he helps the sisters regain happiness. The scene even gets better when Stitch gains that feeling for the first time when joining him. David Ogden Stiers was a bigger treat than expected for making Jumba an unexpectedly likable character. At first, he enjoys being obsessive with his work, only to show that he is trying to be endearing. He did design Stitch as a weapon, but that does not mean he does not care about what he makes. He is basically his father for giving him life. Aside from being easily persuaded, he chooses to help him save Lilo because he owes it to him for making him the way he is. And aside from being abandoned by the Grand Councilwoman, he sticks around because it gives him an opportunity to be on good terms with the family for the damage he caused. I think it goes without saying that if you like Jumba, you like Pleakley as well and that is the case for me. Kevin McDonald makes him a delightful character for portraying him as one who has his own fascination of Earth, only for it to ironically crumble when he sees the flaws of the planet. I honestly see myself questioning life if I were to be stung by a swarm of mosquitoes. He only becomes more interesting of a character when you realize he's the only alien who has no vendetta and and just wants to be a peacekeeper. It's even neat to see him express his fashion as it doesn't seem like something he had the chance to do in space. It makes sense for him to stay alongside Jumba because even he never tended for things to get out of hand. So seeing the two stick around only makes things more exciting in Hawaii. Last but not least, it goes without saying that Gantu is the true villain of the story. Thanks to an exquisite performance from Kevin Michael Richardson, he is easy to dislike for being the most gruff of characters that is only satisfied with success, no matter how cruel he has to be. Unlike his superior, he only sees the worse in Stitch and does not believe he can adapt. It becomes ironic to see him be forced into retirement because he is the one who is unable to do what others can, thus would began an ongoing rivalry that progressed in the follow up series. My love for this movie will never disappear, but it won't excuse the many issues I noticed when re watching. Like first off, I get that the story gets going when Stitch breaks out, but it looks pretty clear that it would've not happened had the Federation not taken him out of the indestructible jar they used during the trial. And did he really take out the power grid? I don't think he did because Gantu was the one shooting at him, so he could've done it by so accident and chose to blame it on Stitch. It does make sense for the Councilwoman to assign Jumba track him down because he understands his creation, but you are making a big gamble on also granting him a plasma cannon to someone who prefers to be called an evil genius and would likely continue illegal genetic experimentation, if he succeeded with the capture. I do understand that we need to see how Lilo is a loner like Stitch, but I think they overdid it after she beats up her bully Mertle. I feel this way because there is no way she bit her when she wailing on her with a lot of hits. I don't even blame the girl for giving Nani a hard time because that's how much she misses her parents, but I have a hard time believing she had enough time to get home and the nail the door shut. That's more wild than the fact that Nani didn't even have a goddamn house key. There is no excuse to not have that. It is funny that the employee from the animal shelter thought that Stitch was dead, but if you thought that, I don't think it's appropriate to bring a dead animal to a cage. If you had a second guess that he was still alive, I'm pretty thrown off we didn't see a veterinarian. I even thought it was funny for Jumba & Pleakley to dress in drag in order for them to blend in, but come on. These are aliens and I'm not the brightest but I'm sure I would've known the difference between human and alien off of the eyes. It was even pretty intense when Nani gets caught off guard seeing Stitch at the fridge, but how did she not his extra arms? If we saw them in the shadow, it gets harder for me to believe he hid them in time for her to not see them. Trust me when I say laugh of the 'Model Citizen' segment of the movie, but I feel baffled that no one really reacts of Stitch rocking the acoustics, especially since they think he's a dog. That is basically worse than Nani choosing to let them tag along after the first interview backfires. Stitch would even be famous for his own existence, especially since he shows off his second set of arms when dancing with David in the end. Also, I understand having the prison capsule outside Gantu's ship is an excuse for Stitch to break out and later free Lilo, but why would that be outside? You would make a challenge for Stitch if the capsule was in the ship. Ignore these flaws and you'll still be having a blast for what it is. In conclusion, Lilo & Stitch is one of Disney's best films of the 21st century for being such fun while having such heart as well. If you're just getting started with the ongoing yet entertaining filmography from Walt Disney Pictures, you're in for a treat when you get to this one.
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