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I have never seen the original animated version of this movie, so I went into this one cold, having only seen the trailer.
Story aside, this movie could have inspired a documentary on how some parents operate these days. In today's world, you are supposed to let kids (and animals) "express their feelings" and have no consequences for anything, apparently. Now, you must keep in mind that although I have worked with teenagers for nearly 50 years, and have a lot of "littles" in my extended family, most of whom are reasonably well-behaved, I am not a parent myself. So tell me, parents: Are the kids in charge in your house? Are you exercising your parental authority at all, or have you abdicated?
Anyway, all I can tell you is, if I had come home with a goofy-looking "dog" that immediately trashed my house, my mom would have instantly told me to take the dog back where I got it and then made me help clean up. That's not what happens in this movie.
For anyone who does not know, Stitch is an alien being known as "Experiment 626," who escaped from a lab on his home planet and winds up landing in Hawaii, and being adopted (and given the name "Stitch") by Lilo, a little girl who not only is an orphan, but has no friends and is being raised by her older sister, Nina. Two bumbling scientists, one of which was behind the creation of Stitch in the first place, are sent to Earth to disguise themselves as humans, chase "626" down and bring him home. They spend virtually the whole movie being one step away from being able to capture Stitch. I thought, how could this guy be smart enough to create this little guy but then be unable to catch up to him? I guess he's like any dude in America, right?
What none of the earthlings know is that Stitch is a being that is super-intelligent, indestructible and ruthless, and is "programmed" for destruction, so he literally wrecks everything in his path. Lilo wants to keep Stitch even though he literally ruins their house, almost crashes their car, and starts a fire at a luau, causing Nina to get fired from her latest job, all of which threatens to break up their happy li'l family.
There's a whole backdrop based on the Hawaiian word "Ohana," meaning "family," with the deeper meaning being that no family member gets left behind or ignored, and apparently can do whatever they want, or cause the destruction of anything they want, with no worries about it because, well, they're family and everything will be OK. This is the rationale for the young girl keeping her new best friend, despite the fact he has, you know, wrecked their house, nearly gotten them killed, and and cost them their livelihood and such.
Everything gets wrapped up neatly in the end, of course, including Stitch having a near death experience (and surviving, right on cue). The "authorities" from his home planet arrive to whisk him back home to be exiled, but they think better of it once they realize how he's finally found out a way to bring some good to the world. Or something like that. There are a lot of details I've left out, but you get the idea. And don't come at me with gripes about not providing spoiler alerts, you can see everything coming from a mile away so nobody is going to be surprised by the ending.
I thought the movie would have been a lot better if Stitch had been taken back home, in the grand tradition of "E.T." That would preclude sequels, though, and we can't have that happening, can we? I'm sure in the next few years we'll see a movie in which there are a hundred other Stitches that arrive and cause havoc, or something along those lines. I guess that already happened in "Gremlins 2" but most of the writers of today weren't born then, so....we'll see.
I shouldn't be so snarky, I guess. The movie was fun and entertaining, and we sold out of collectible Stitch popcorn buckets the first night, so they are obviously doing something right. Two out of four stars from me, though.
Story aside, this movie could have inspired a documentary on how some parents operate these days. In today's world, you are supposed to let kids (and animals) "express their feelings" and have no consequences for anything, apparently. Now, you must keep in mind that although I have worked with teenagers for nearly 50 years, and have a lot of "littles" in my extended family, most of whom are reasonably well-behaved, I am not a parent myself. So tell me, parents: Are the kids in charge in your house? Are you exercising your parental authority at all, or have you abdicated?
Anyway, all I can tell you is, if I had come home with a goofy-looking "dog" that immediately trashed my house, my mom would have instantly told me to take the dog back where I got it and then made me help clean up. That's not what happens in this movie.
For anyone who does not know, Stitch is an alien being known as "Experiment 626," who escaped from a lab on his home planet and winds up landing in Hawaii, and being adopted (and given the name "Stitch") by Lilo, a little girl who not only is an orphan, but has no friends and is being raised by her older sister, Nina. Two bumbling scientists, one of which was behind the creation of Stitch in the first place, are sent to Earth to disguise themselves as humans, chase "626" down and bring him home. They spend virtually the whole movie being one step away from being able to capture Stitch. I thought, how could this guy be smart enough to create this little guy but then be unable to catch up to him? I guess he's like any dude in America, right?
What none of the earthlings know is that Stitch is a being that is super-intelligent, indestructible and ruthless, and is "programmed" for destruction, so he literally wrecks everything in his path. Lilo wants to keep Stitch even though he literally ruins their house, almost crashes their car, and starts a fire at a luau, causing Nina to get fired from her latest job, all of which threatens to break up their happy li'l family.
There's a whole backdrop based on the Hawaiian word "Ohana," meaning "family," with the deeper meaning being that no family member gets left behind or ignored, and apparently can do whatever they want, or cause the destruction of anything they want, with no worries about it because, well, they're family and everything will be OK. This is the rationale for the young girl keeping her new best friend, despite the fact he has, you know, wrecked their house, nearly gotten them killed, and and cost them their livelihood and such.
Everything gets wrapped up neatly in the end, of course, including Stitch having a near death experience (and surviving, right on cue). The "authorities" from his home planet arrive to whisk him back home to be exiled, but they think better of it once they realize how he's finally found out a way to bring some good to the world. Or something like that. There are a lot of details I've left out, but you get the idea. And don't come at me with gripes about not providing spoiler alerts, you can see everything coming from a mile away so nobody is going to be surprised by the ending.
I thought the movie would have been a lot better if Stitch had been taken back home, in the grand tradition of "E.T." That would preclude sequels, though, and we can't have that happening, can we? I'm sure in the next few years we'll see a movie in which there are a hundred other Stitches that arrive and cause havoc, or something along those lines. I guess that already happened in "Gremlins 2" but most of the writers of today weren't born then, so....we'll see.
I shouldn't be so snarky, I guess. The movie was fun and entertaining, and we sold out of collectible Stitch popcorn buckets the first night, so they are obviously doing something right. Two out of four stars from me, though.
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