Lilo and Stitch Review: Celebrating Kev's birthday and My Childhood Trauma!
In Loving Memory of Daveleigh Chase
Happy super belated birthday to Kev, my biggest comissioner and the one who keeps this blog afloat. And as all my patrons and substackers do, he gets one free review for his birthday. If you'd like this perk please consider joining my patreon or substack. For just one dollar you get acess to new series movie monday, a new weekly series allegedly every monday but at least every week with this week's delayed entry being the syndergy friendly "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and last's that on there now is "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender"> 5 dollar subscribers get to vote on a film at least once a month so if you join now you can pick between Evil Dead Burn or the Odessy. Times are hard and I really could use the extra money if you have it and if not I completely understand, enjoy the review regardless.
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So plugging done, LIlo and Stich was a big part of my childhood: For the mmonths leading up to it I read the prequels in Disney Adventures, a digest magazine I wish I had some copies of that I mostly got for the comics as each issue had a passel in it's Comic Zone. I covered some of it's oldest entries back in my Legend of the Chaos God Review that crossed over the disney afternoon and it was still there and splendeferous by the time I was a child.
So I had a lot of hype leading into the movie and loved it as a kid, playing the soundtrack a lot even into middle school, adoring the elvis music as my first exposure to him, the beautiful scenery. So if this was such a big favorite why didn't I go back. Well this is what the filmm did to me
Lilo and Stitch was alwasy a good film.. but watching a girl get ripped from her sister always stung. Tia Carre moved me so much with her song in the film. It was one of those films I avoided because parts of it hurt me as a kid and like A Goofy Movie before it revisiting it was WELL worth it. I never hated it like I did A Goofy Movie, which for the record I don't anymore easy masterpiece, but I still avoided it despite loving the rest of the franchise.
Okay not you. NEVER YOU. And since I sat through this thing last year to be ready for this review this year a quick bonus review of LIlo and Stitch THe LIve Action
Lilo and Stitch 2025 is a bland flavorless immitation of the original, the vibrant colors not as present despite having the beautiful and very real canvas of Hawaii to work with and the themes watered the hell down to just "Ohana amirite". Jumba is taken from an entertaining yet still meanacing and engaging bad guy to a two dimensional jerk who dosen't get his face turn. Pleakly is waasted with his cross dressing takena way to avoid loosing money from Bigots, Cobra bubbles is just shoved in there and the infamous "Nani has to leave ending and Lilo is taken in by David's grandma" ending is while well meaning so incredibly tone deaf it acccidently ends up being raccist by virtue of implying Hawaii has no marine biiology schools good enough for her to go to. The fact this is getting a theatrical sequel and the originall never did is frustrating.
Okay now we're done with that waste of time, where were we. Ah yes... the film crushed me as a kid so while it had a happy ending, I didn't revist it as an adult because I have a bad habit of not facing things from my childhood I didn't ike and seeing if their not as bad as I thought. And honestly I don't kknow why as both Goofy Movie and "Last Exit to Springfield' ended up being way better and way more worth my time than I ever realized and this is no exception.
Did Lilo and Stitch make me less sad?
The film hits harder as I finally figured out why younger me related so much to Lilo, why he saw himself in this spunky little outsider who has emotinal outbursts the adults around her don't understand, feels alone and is mocked by some of her peers but finds at least one person who understands her. Lilo is likely on the autisim spectrum: she is young but the way she just flips out and starts justifably pummeling the shit out of myrtle, hyperfixates on thingsl ike feeding a fish so no one elses parents die, or locks up the whole house to be sad while not remotely reading the roomm... it hit. I didn't go this far, but I had an older sister.. who I also hada difficult relationship with but thankfully did not have to raise me. Lilo only has her sister and her dance teacher seeming to look after her. SHe's alone in the world. And whie I found my people ventually it did often feel that way and sometimes still does
It's paralleled by her soon to be new best friend Stitch: Like Lilo stitch dosen't fit in because he was created not to: he was created to destroy everything in his path and laugh manically, an engine of destruction never considered a person by his creator who while delighted by his final sucessful experiment after the last one just made sandwiches and made fun of him, only saw him as a killing machine. The Grand Gallactic Councillady TRIES to get him to speak and give him grace.. but only gives him one chance because he apparenty says the intergalacctic version of your mother sucks cocks in hell. She does EXILE him, but everyonen else treats him like a monstrosity instead of asking why their like that.
It's the duos problem: no one bothers to think about WHY their acting out, they just write them off. The only real exception is Nani with Lilo: Nani is Lilo's sister and has the unevinble task of having to raise a chid alone in her 20's with the goverment breathing down her neck to possibly take her away instead fo you know, offering any form of support or understanding MAYBE dragging an autistic 6 year old away from the only family she has left will traumatize her. Cobra Bubbles, the agent in question IS right things are untenable: Lilo has no one watching her some of the time, has the ablility to lock the house and is accting out. But he never shows any empathy or sympathy with the two. Never gets that maybe this is hard on Nani to try and do all this herself. It's a problem with a lot of goverment orginzations: just checking off a box on how not to help you instead of having the resources or depending on the person care to dig deeper. Giving a stressed out 20 something three days to figure this out is impossible and even if Id idn't know where the film went, you can just feel that Nani's task is near immpossibe: Sure ana lien dog sabotages her interviews and her job at times, but your still asking someone to get a job in three goddamn days. I've been unempoyed, shockingly writing about how cartoons gave me the sads was not always my job. It's a long grinding process especially when your trying to support two people.
Stitch meanwhile is just treated as a monster because he was born, because he said something to provke people with no one asking how he feels. His own creator even laments
" 626 was designed to be a monster, but now he has nothing to destroy. You see, I never gave him a greater purpose. What must it be like to have nothing, not even memories to look back on in the middle of the night?"
Even Jumba brushes this off after.. but it's the truth. Stitch is a fun chaos gremlin sure.. but it's only because it's all he has. He has to learn to be kind, to be good, to care for others, all things omst of us are taught right away because he was never told to, never given any orders but KILL MY CREATION KILL KILL.
It's what makes the two a perfect Pair: Lilo needs someone in her corner to protect her from that bitch Myrtle. I wouldn't normally call a 6 year old a bitch but you show me a child more punchable than this. Go on, try. Lilo needs someone who gets her and Stitch needs someone whose genuinely patient with him, who loves him unconditionally and keeps trying to help him be better against his worst instincts... she has Nani whoe ven if they fight does love her little sister enough to try and do the impossible while Stitch has Lilo, who tries t save him from himself, from his tendency to just smash wantonly and the same instincts that made him choose her as a human shield. Sure he settled into hide from Jumbaa, tasked by the federation with bringing him in and Pleakly, tasked with keeping Jumbaa from making first contact by making earth into a smouldering crater. Both are fantastic with Jumbaabeing hammy and trigger happy and playing well off the more nerutoic but resonable pleakly who despite beingn an earth expert has no idea what he's doing and thinks misquitos are endagerned because that's the lie Cobra Bubbles sold to spare earth once.
It's a simple message the two's relationship has: Anyone can be loved, anyone can be family and no one is lost. Stitch starts as just a smashing machine but grows to care simply because someone, somewhere cared for him. Lilo tries her best because while she preferred her sister as her sister and not her parent, she does understand Nani cares. People don't get better by hating them for being diffrent or trying to steamroll over their diffrences; We get better by understanding. Ive made good friends and have a loving famiy who while they may not always understand how messed up my head is... try to. All you need is to try and give some understanding and in a time this poisoned with hatred and fuck you get mine, we need more films like this.. and not remakes like this that are hollowed out.
Ultimately Bubbles decides fuck your three days after Lilo nearly drowns.. It hink it'd only been maybe one , two tops, and the councilwoman also decided three days was all it took for this project and fires Jumbaa. Stitch plans to leave but ends up having to go back as Jumba is now untehtered. Jummba is a delight, being proudly evil and mad.. but still a clever antagonist: theo nlyr eason he can't get stitch sooner is he picked a chid as a human shield and the second the one person telling him "Hey wait don't hit the children" looses any and all power over him Jummba goes sickhouse on him.
The film is genuinely funny and charming despite being soul crushingly moving: we get a lot of nice little bits and stitch is a marvel of physical comedy, just a little gremlin of destruction nad chaos. The designs are impeccable as is the animaiton, utterly smooth and witha nice tubey texture to the design: Lilo and Stitch has a very unique charming style to it, its no wonder this became a franchise and no wonder disney forgot this style was half the reason it was so popular.
Ultimately while they have your standard "you lied to me" fallinig out which.. fair Lilo did find out "Oh crap I was a human shield" but i'ts very telling the second she hears Stitch ind anger she bolts from the government to go save him and ends up kidnapped instead. Stitch's persuers are easily convinced to give up to go save Lilo from Stitch's other persuer. Well Jumbaa is.. Pleakly is scarily willing to ignore a kidnapped child and the desperate pleas of her sister , both of whom he'll be living with.
The finale is awesome: Il ove how spidery stitch's movements are and him hurling a fuckcing truck at gantu. God I love thisl ittle guy. So Stitchc when and Gantu, the cold unaccepting face of everything our heroes face is fired. I used to think the councilwoman was a bit rough on him as a kid: Sure he turns to evil after this but he was fired and all and maybe the series just exagerated how much he sucked. But nope Gantu was a bigoted, petty hate filled big ole man and even ignoring his perosnallity he botched the job hard in exactly TEN MINUTES on earth. No really he kidnaps an indgious life form.. and not by accident: Llilo sees him and he brings her along just to fuck with Stitch then dosen't check to see if Stitch escaped despite you know... cleverly escaping from a galactic prison ship. it's why your here cleaning up your mess Gantu. Jumbaa and Pleakly were failing sure, but they did get clcose and ultimately succeeded, only letting Stitch go to clean up the mess Gantu made.
So naturally instead fo Stitch getting arrested, he get exiled: I love the counciler reaisling stitch. has indeed evolved and her first instinct was the correct one and playfully allowing lilo's ownership of him to lead toa sentence of exile. Cobra bubbles is forced to you know, not yank the child away or put this burden on a whole new family, and somehow becomes friends with everyone after this. Pleakly and Jumbaa are also exiled though really.. I get it. The former wasn't really bad but he is ccompletely inept at his job and the only thing he did right was preventing them from just blowing up Hawaii to get rid of stitch and keep Jummbaa at bay and as seen in the series he's GENUINELY happier here on earth and loves the planet so while i'ts techincally a punishment, it's not really the sentence it is to Jumbaa. And with Jumbaa.. he created 626 bio weapons, the one he knew about escaped and he tried murdering a chid he now lives with. He's very lucky they don't take him back to prison. Being on hand to help his creation actually live and grummble about being stranded on earth once in a while seems light.
So a family is born, elvis covers areplayed and this film is fantastic. I probably didn't need to tel you that but it's a film that's about being the best version of yourself but done in a way that isn't too on the nose: Lilo is better having someone who lieks her for who she is and dosen't judge her and Stitch isb etter for having someone who helps him learn empathy. Neither change completely, Stitch is still wild and Lilo is still her, autisim is just part of you... but they've got each other now. And sometimes tha'ts all you need. Just one person to make you see how special you are. And sometimes a special person makes a movie that makes you feel seen.. thanks Chris.