Back in March, I wrote a Cinema Sunday post on what may well be may well be my favorite Disney animated film, The Emperor's New Groove.
Today's Cinema Sunday entry is about what I think is my second favorite Disney animated film, 2002's Lilo & Stitch.
Much like The Emperor's New Groove, Lilo & Stitch is distinctive from the rest of Disney's cartoon legacy.
There is a very different sort of protagonist in the form of an alien critter who seems to cause more problems than he solves.
There is no real villain. Yep, we have a mad scientist but he's more of a goofball than a villain.
There's no star crossed romance before said romance finds a happily ever after. OK, there is one tiny unrequited crush in the background but it does not impact the main narrative.
The traditional Alan Menken type score is upended here with home-grown Hawaiian songs and artists — and Elvis Presley.
Unlike other Disney animated films, Disney was reportedly hands-off the creative development and did not interfere with the story and director Chris Sanders' vision for the film. Sanders based the animation on his own drawing style. (Sanders also provided the voice of Stitch.)
Lilo & Stitch is centered around two individuals who are quirky and mischievous.
Lilo is a six-year-old Hawaiian girl who is under the care of her 19-year-old sister Nani after their parents died in a car accident. While they love each other, their relationship can be quite contentious with Lilo's eccentricities often clashing with Nani trying to lead a normal life, holding down a job and being a "mom" to Lilo. It is this emotionally tense situation that social worker Cobra Bubbles is keeping a skeptical eye on. If Nani cannot get her act together, Lilo will be placed with a foster family.
Stitch is a blue animal-like alien creature labeled "Experiment 626" by the mad scientist who created him, Dr. Jumba. Stitch is genetically engineered to cause chaos and destruction because hey, Jumba is a mad scientist and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The Galactic Federation arrests Jumba for mad sciencry and hauls Stitch off to be stored somewhere. Stitch has other plans, escapes and makes his way to Earth.
Specifically Hawaii. Stitch winds up in a animal shelter where Lilo adopts him as her dog and names him "Stitch".
The Galactic Federation council releases Jumba to go to Earth and recapture Stitch. The council also sends along Agent Pleakley, a reported expert on Earth. The Earth is a protected nature reserve to preserve the endangered species known as the mosquito.
Because Stitch is genetically engineered to cause chaos and destruction, he keeps falling into mishaps that keep hurting Nani's chances to find employment which she need to do so as to not lose Lilo to foster care.
Jumba and Pleakley are stalking Stitch. Jumba is confused. Although Stitch is genetically engineered to cause chaos and destruction, Stitch is relatively benign to Lilo and Nani. It seems that Stitch is forming a close bond with Lilo and Nani through the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, or extended family.
Efforts by Jumba and Pleakley to capture Stitch end abysmally with a great deal of destruction and mayhem but no Stitch. The council sends someone else to capture Stitch, Captain Gantu, an overly large brutish space soldier devoid of imagination or nuance. Gantu also fails to capture Stitch after much destruction and mayhem.
While Lilo & Stitch avoids the cliche of a romantic plotline, there is as noted earlier one tiny unrequited crush and that belongs to David, a totally chill surfer dude. He wants Nani to date him but she's just too darn busy. David has this really great line near the end of the movie that I still quote to this day.
The situation is a space ship has just fallen out of the sky into the ocean off the island shore. David is there because he's out surfing. He sees Nani, Lilo, that weird dog of theirs named Stitch and what looks like 3 aliens from outer space.
Nani asks for David's help to get them back to shore. David looks at his surfboard, then back to this group (1 of the aliens is quite large) and offers this cogent and understated observation: "Okay but it will take two trips."
I just love that line! All this stuff going on (crashed space ship, alien beings) and David's biggest concern is that "it will take two trips".)
The late David Ogden Stiers provides the voice of Dr. Jumba with a weird Russian inflection that sounds both menacing and warm at the same time. Kevin McDonald voices Pleakley in a constant state of... something: wonder, euphoria, fear, panic, confusion. Good or bad, Pleakley is in a constant state of... something.
Ving Rhames voices Cobra Bubbles, former CIA agent now social worker for Lilo. Here's a great way to annoy your family while watching Lilo Stitch. Whenever Cobra is speaking, interject with "WE HAVE THE MEATS!!!" (Ving Rhames is the "we have the meats" voice guy for Arby's commercials.)
The voice of Nani is Tia Carrere who is from Honolulu while and David is voiced by Jason Scott Lee, who is of Hawaiian descent and was raised in Hawaii. The voice actors assisted with the Hawaiian characters' dialogue including adding Hawaiian slang terms.
Lilo & Stitch is a lot of fun with irreverent humor, warm character moments, amazing action sequences and a bold, colorful and distinctive art style. The fam gathered to watch it again here in the Fortress of Ineptitude a couple of weeks ago.
After all these years and seeing this movie many, many times, Lilo & Stitch still brings joy to our family.
"ʻOhana means family.
Family means nobody gets left behind
— or forgotten."
No comments:
Post a Comment