Lilo & Stitch

Space is big. Really big.

But unlike the masterful Douglas Adams, who I just shamelessly ripped off, I’m not speaking of that vastly hippopotamic galactic thingy that’s dotted with all manner of planets and stars and stuff so much in the literal sense, rather I’m referring to the popularity of all things spacey amongst the munchkin community. Just look at the myriad of miniscule Buzz Lightyears’ gallantly protecting our kindies, our schools, our shopping centres – yes, space sells, and oh do Disney know it.

Which kind of neatly brings us to Lilo & Stitch, their latest animated blockbuster. It sure knows what it’s doing, melding quite the traditional Disneyesque tale with decent lashings of space stuff – right from the outset, no less – to get those little tykes with their sub-two-minute attention spans dragged in hook line and sinker. However, as much as it may sound cynical it works like an absolute charm, for it’s a simply gorgeous tale to behold.

Engage!

It all starts at the Galactic Federation Headquarters, somewhere in a galaxy far, far away... Well, actually it’s the planet Turo. One four-eyed (and he don’t wear glasses honey) Dr Jumba, a mad scientist – or “evil genius� if you prefer – is facing the music over his latest illegal genetic creation, Experiment 6-2-6. Rather than something with four wheels emanating from a Japanese car company, Experiment 6-2-6 is a being whose only instinct is to destroy everything it touches – and the little fella makes the Warner Brothers Tasmanian Devil look positively chilled by comparison. Condemned to servitude, 6-2-6 escapes his prison transport – in the red police cruiser no less – and with a little H-jump to the left finds him – erm – itself on a collision course with one watery planet which goes by the name of Earth. Now the Federation could simply gas the planet into oblivion and rid themselves of this little menace once and for all save for one tiny detail, it’s a protected wildlife reserve - for once we should be thankful for mosquitoes. So an alternative plan is put into effect, with Jumba being sent to clean up the mess he created, with the promise of a “freedom swap� should he be successful.

Meanwhile, on said little planet called Earth, or more precisely in Hawaii, we meet quite the complex firebrand of a little girl in Lilo. Having lost her parents she lives with her sister Nani, proving quite the handful as her sibling juggles jobs with varying lacks of success on top of raising an anything but helpful child. Then things get worse – with the appearance of one human eclipse in the form of a social worker named Mr Bubbles, Cobra Bubbles. He’s the one they call when things go wrong – and sadly for Nani and Lilo he’s on their case. While Lilo prays for the heavens to send her an angel, Nani is at a loss how to deal with this whole ohana thing – for ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten...

"I hate it when you use ohana against me!"

Meanwhile, Experiment 6-2-6 crashes to Earth, and after a disagreement with a truck winds up in the pound – well, he (we’ve decided on a pronoun, let’s stick with it) kind of looks a little bit doglike... So when Nani decides that perhaps a pet may help Lilo calm down a bit – well, you can see where things are heading. Lilo feels an instant empathy with 6-2-6, adopts him, names him “Stitch� and then essentially all hell breaks loose as the alien outcast uses his newfound friend as a shield from Jumba’s attempts at neutralisation.

The way it was first advertised, Lilo & Stitch gave an impression of being quite an out-there kind of tale, which is decidedly un-Disney. As such, under the weight of understandably skewed expectation it came as a bit of a disappointment on first viewing, with thoughts along the lines of “Agh! Not another Disney schmaltz-fest!� But with that all dispensed with, a second viewing helped in realising the simple beauty of the tale – not to mention a subtle but pleasingly irreverent line in humour more akin to the Pixar stable of works than traditional, cutesy-pie Disney animated fare. It manages to weave said humour, fabulous characterisation and superb visual flair (everything is gorgeously rounded, and Lilo & Stitch is also the first Disney animated film since Dumbo to feature the magic of watercoloured backgrounds) with decent doses of action and a pure-at-heart story that anybody who’s alive should be able to identify with – the basic premise of which is a simple wish to belong - into 80 minutes of unadulterated escapist enjoyment. Hopefully this signals a move away from the overblown, over-majestic, over-pious mush that Walt’s underlings have been dishing out since the late ‘80s, in favour of focussing on more traditional, simpler but in the end infinitely more effective and heartfelt stories.

Blue punch buggy!

In the wonderfully traditional animated ratio of 1.66:1 (so there are slight black bars to the left and right, although most won’t see them anyway), and anamorphically enhanced, Lilo & Stitch is as gorgeous visually as it is story-wise. Completely free of unwanted nasties save for the tiniest spots of extremely rare aliasing, the sumptuous look of the film loses nothing in its translation to DVD. The vivid, watercoloured backgrounds come up a treat, sitting perfectly with the computer generated bits, delivering a gloriously colourful visual treat which never disappoints. There isn’t even a layer change to interrupt proceedings – in all it is simply beautiful.

Three Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are featured, Danish, Norwegian and, luckily for this reviewer who is completely bereft of any ability to understand Scandinavian languages, English. Those who feel the need to justify the purchase of all those little speakers will be in heaven with this disc – surround usage is almost constant, from big noise to subtle ambience, whilst the subwoofwoof has plenty to get its teeth into from rocket rumbles to crashing waves and much more besides. Obviously the usual caveats for synch apply as it’s all animated, dialogue is never difficult to understand, and in all this is an exciting and very immersive sound mix.

All that Stitching is making me atch!

Music plays a big part in Lilo & Stitch, which features a combination of Alan Silvestri’s score work – running the gamut from fabulously overblown space epics to variations on classic Hawaiian themes to six original Elvis tunes including Heartbreak Hotel, Suspicious Minds, Hound Dog and, needless to say, Blue Hawaii. Intriguingly this actually features more songs by “The King� than any of his own films. Oh, there’s also a so-so cover of Burning Love from country chick Wynonna, and a simply hideous assault on I Can’t Help Falling in Love by one of those teeny puppet foursomes going under the silly name of A*Teens.

Aloha Lilo & Stitch...

Stroll about the lovely floral-tinged menus, pop into the ‘Special Features’ menu, and get down to a decent selection of bonus goodies. We are missing a couple of things the R1 release contained, but most should find these nothing of great consequence.

First up is a remarkably informative interactive featurette entitled Disneypedia – Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha. Narrated by Lilo and Nani, we are able to learn more about each of the islands that make up Hawaii, from volcanoes to luaus, surfing to leis and whales to pineapples. In all there are almost eight and a half minutes to discover, complete with a handy ‘play all’ option.

Continuing the interactive vibe is a simple game, Create Your Own Alien Experiment. Definitely one for the kiddies, the aim is to help Jumba create after losing his schematics, by answering trivia questions about the movie then randomly mixing some colours until a suitably odd beastie is successfully created. This must be done three times to complete the game.

Next up is a tidal wave of brief featurettes. The first, A Stitch in Time (3:33), is simply precious – the tongue-in-cheek story, consisting mainly of cleverly constructed stills with voiceover, of how Stitch has actually been hanging about the Disney studios for years, getting his head into every classic from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Lady and the Tramp (and some of those later, overblown things), but being cruelly cut from the finished product. Next up is Hula Lesson (3:37), offering a brief history of the native Hawaiian dance. Burning Love – Behind the Scenes With Wynonna is simply 1:31 of fluff with interview snippets and studio footage – “that’s rock’n’roll baby�...

And they keep on coming, with The Look of Lilo & Stitch (4:06), featuring all manner of director, producer and arty types discussing the distinctly rounded look of the whole film, complete with all manner of character sketches and other bits and bobs which animation junkies just love. Heaps more of these feature in the only really meaty featurette on offer, On Location With the Directors (19:07). Featuring some often fascinating peeks behind the scenes of such things as storyboarding, layout pitching, voice recording and scoring sessions this is highly entertaining and not at all one of those hideous love-fests we’re so used to in such features. Winding things up is Animating the Hula, running for 3:06 it’s pretty self-explanatory, delving into the creators’ desire to be both accurate and respectful to the great Hawaiian tradition.

Three deleted scenes follow, all combinations of animated sketches, stills and finished animation with brief introductions from one or other of the writer/directors explaining the reasons for their absence from the finished film. Stitch’s Trial (3:00) sees Experiment 6-2-6 taking all the heat for Jumba’s excesses; Gantu Challenges offers up more Galactic Federation HQ stuff and finally Bedtime Story offers a bit of a twist on the same scene in the film, which was eventually tweaked as audiences were too dumb to work out that Nani and Lilo were sister and sister, rather than mother and daughter.

The final bonus section is priceless, four teaser trailers – or “Inter-Stitch-ials� if you prefer – whereby Stitch, in his inimitable manic style, invades in turn Beauty & the Beast (1:06), Aladdin (1:05), The Little Mermaid (1:02) and The Lion King (1:07), and all to the strains of AC/DC’s Back in Black to boot!

Lilo & Stitch is a simply wonderful little animated film which only gets better with repeated viewings. Featuring essentially flawless video and audio, as well as a decent selection of extras, it deserves to ride high on your DVD shopping list, and if you have kids (of any age) then it’s simply a must-own.

Hey, has anybody seen my left shoe?