#28 – Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Best Character: Nani
Worst Character: Stitch
More than any other film on this list I came into this one looking to change my opinion of it for the better. I know it has become one of Disney’s most popular films, and I wanted to be as open as possible to it. If you’ve ever participated in the SMDC contests, you probably know I’m not a very big fan of Lilo or Stitch. Given their popularity in those contests I was hoping I would like them more during this watch-through so I wouldn’t be annoyed every time they made a deep run in the SMDC contests. Unfortunately my opinions largely remained the same, and this is about where I would have placed it had I not re-watched it.
Lilo & Stitch is a great film that suffers in my eyes due to the very characters that make up its title. Lilo is a brat, and would be a nightmare to raise on your own. She doesn’t really fit in with anyone her age and she constantly acts like a wild child, which in turn complicates Nani’s life immensely. Stitch is just mean. I really didn’t remember him being as mean as he was, but after watching it again I found his antics were usually at the expense of others. Even after he develops feelings for Lilo and Nani he’s still super reckless and destroys their home. He takes advantage of Lilo’s loneliness and naivety, Nani’s hospitality, and is exceptionally gross basically throughout the entire film. He’s not even cute. Like, I remain entirely perplexed as to his continued popularity. Sorry Stitch fans. I just don’t get it. Despite not liking them as characters, I do appreciate the effort Disney put into developing them. Both Lilo & Stitch have clear arcs and develop quite a bit, Stitch especially. The scene where Stitch ventures out into the forest at night trying to copy the children’s book is legitimately sad. His desire for family is sweet, but his antics are obnoxious.
Annoying characters aside, this film is sentimentally brilliant and does a fantastic job developing its characters. Nani in particular is very sympathetic. She has to put up with Lilo & Stitch, but still remains caring, nurturing and understanding. She has a spirit to her that I enjoyed watching, and seeing her financially struggle to stay afloat all the while supporting Lilo was very endearing.
In stride with having an endearing character like Nani, the film has a couple of really sweet, enjoyable songs in Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride and He Mele No Lilo. Both of these were performed by a children’s choir and were perfect within the film. Unfortunately the rest of the songs don’t follow suit. I’m one of the few people who don’t like Elvis, and his presence in the film felt off to me. Or maybe I’m just looking for excuses because I don’t like Elvis. Whatever. The film should have stuck with the children’s choir and Hawaiian themed songs.
A few things in the plot irked me a little bit. Throughout the entire film we see Jumba trying to catch Stitch and trade him for his freedom. Immediately after he finally captures him however, Stitch simply asks to be let free and Jumba happily obliges. In fact, Jumba volunteers to lead a rescue mission to save Lilo. Uh, what? I thought Jumba was interested in his freedom. The ending was pretty weak as well. Stitch is made out to be some kind of ultra dangerous monster but the aliens just decide to leave him on earth at the end of the movie without any real punishment.. And this is just nitpicking, but in the very beginning of the film, when it’s revealed that Stitch has made contact with the earth, the aliens don’t seem to have any knowledge on the planet. They even go so far as to say the planet has no intelligent life forms. At the end of the movie however it’s revealed that the aliens and humans have already met before. A little nitpicky but it bothered me.