Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch!
It just occurred to me that the bulk of the late/post renaissance movies seem to represent an effort to move beyond the European Fairy Tale mold. Starting as far back as... Aladdin? Most of the movies take place in an exotic/non-Europe/America location and/or starring characters who are not white.
The opening to this movie is so different from every other Disney movie that I'm having a hard time analyzing it for plot and flow. The whole mad scientist thing is fun. Stitch is delightfully expressive using almost solely his animation, and I love that he's both a genius and a crude little troll, cursing and using his spit to escape. Also, Pleakley is quite the lovable dork, especially given his expertise in completely wrong information about Earth.
So, there was a whole lot of action and exposition in the opening-more of a prologue than anything-but it got the job done and doesn't seem too disconnected from the rest of the movie to me. It introduces all the important plots and like half the characters.
Alan Silvestri!
The design of this movie is really adorable. Also, I love that Lilo is all weird and messed up. She's an adorable child, and she has this great twisted imagination and she gets into fights and is also a little sweetheart and a brat. She's a real character, not just The Child, and she's a perfect match for Stitch.
Also, WOO NON-TRADITIONAL FAMILY. Obviously, that is the entire point of this movie. And Nani tries really really hard but she's not a mother/homemaker and they are super messed up.
Also, the badass social worker. And Lilo attempts to put a curse on the girls who wouldn't play with her.
I noticed this earlier and forgot to say-I think it's really awesome how Lilo is into photography. She's gonna grow up to be an awesome artist. Possibly a hipster artist, as she's already all about taking pictures of fat tourists and sticking them up on her wall.
Also, there's an awful lot of laser guns. And Stitch tries to hold a frog hostage or something.
I love how we can see Stitch's thought process as he decides to go undercover as a dog.
Stitch is like Nibbler, only more evil.
Also, I find it a teeny bit weird that movies and things in this movie are live-action. Obviously a desgin choice, but I don't know why.
“He will inevitable be draw to large city centers, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe.”
And Stitch is just sooooo frustrated and ragey over being disciplined and treated like a pet. He's not even trying very hard, he keeps walking upright and yelling at dogs and trying to escape. I love how cranky and/or evil he is.
Also, eeeee Nani's coworker David trying to ask her out, it's such a cool little normal thing.
Lol Stitch-zilla vs the little town!
Oh, and Pleakley is a crossdresser. It's played for laughs, but I read an article on someone's blog once that it actually became a character trait and a fairly serious plot in an episode of the series, which intrigues me, especially given that this movie is already about a non-traditional family. I somewhat doubt it was intentional from the start, though.
And then Stitch appears to actually be enjoying playing the guitar. He kinda rocks out on it. But then the tourists taking photos make him angry and then someone sprays him with water.
All the character development on Stitch happens in show, don't tell. He's clearly baffled by the concept of Lilo and Nani giving him a chance and making better of himself. And he's fascinated/perplexed by the concept of playing in the water, which also gets him vulnerable because water's his big weakness, but he finds it very exciting. And then when he's attacked he immediately goes back into self-centered self-defense, because he can't do water. And he feels bad about what he caused with the social worker.
I'm sorry, having trouble writing more things because it's heart-breaking and I'm about to burst into tears.
I have to say, the design and animation on Stitch is phenomenal. I mean, obviously his design is intended to be cute ultimately, but he's able to pull off both creepy/threatening and woobie adorable kawaii super-cute.
Gahhh Adult Fear: Nani leaves Lilo home alone for just a few minutes and the house is destroyed by aliens.
Also, Stitch has a foul mouth apparently.
All the aliens learned an awful lot of Earth culture in the two days they've been there...
And then the alien stuff parallels the real world stuff when Lilo is first taken away by social services and then by aliens.
Nani handles the alien stuff remarkably well. She screams once and she smacks Stitch with a stick. I guess the alien stuff is basically nothing compared to losing her sister. Also, she's been dealing with a psychotic little blue alien for a couple of days.
Lol “He is very persuasive.”
I just realized the backgrounds have this watercolor look to them. I generally prefer the beautiful realistic painted backgrounds, but it's neat and looks nice with the style.
Daw, Stitch saves the life of the frog, and then is worried about Lilo until he sees a truck and gets his crazy plan to get up to the spaceship.
Unfortunately, for the sake of cuteness, Stitch seems to lose a lot of IQ when he's talking near the end. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Maybe it's about how stunted his social skills are. I guess I should be impressed how quickly he learned English rather than nitpick that his grammar is carefully designed for maximum cuteness, but all the other aliens seem to be speaking flawless English for some reason, so...
The whole climax in some ways is a little bit too much, but it flows well, the emotional development is great, and the ending-especially the montage of adorable non-traditional family awesomeness-is all lovely and feel-good.
..what is this pop song? Whyyyy? How does it make sense to have a Disney Channel-style romance cover pop song during the end credits of this movie? IDEK.
Andreas Deja! Uhhh... and Mark Henn! I was looking down to write too much, though.
So, this movie is really high on adorableness, non-traditionalness, and emotional development, but kind of low on the 'magic' and awesomeness. It's a little less grounded than other movies that I like better. It has some great visuals, though, and fantastic storytelling-without-dialogue.
And I didn't notice this until later, and maybe it's just part of the design, but I realized that the characters use their bodies and actions to be expressive-there's very little facial expression, or at least it's small/subtle. Which is interesting, because absolutely everything is communicated and the movie feels very animated and expressive.
The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo & Stitch, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Oliver and Company, Mulan, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, The Great Mouse Detective, Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Hercules, Pocahontas, Robin Hood, 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Snow White, The Rescuers, The Rescuers Down Under, The Fox and the Hound, Dumbo, Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, The Sword in the Stone, Bambi, The Aristocats, The Black Cauldron, Saludos Amigos
It just occurred to me that the bulk of the late/post renaissance movies seem to represent an effort to move beyond the European Fairy Tale mold. Starting as far back as... Aladdin? Most of the movies take place in an exotic/non-Europe/America location and/or starring characters who are not white.
The opening to this movie is so different from every other Disney movie that I'm having a hard time analyzing it for plot and flow. The whole mad scientist thing is fun. Stitch is delightfully expressive using almost solely his animation, and I love that he's both a genius and a crude little troll, cursing and using his spit to escape. Also, Pleakley is quite the lovable dork, especially given his expertise in completely wrong information about Earth.
So, there was a whole lot of action and exposition in the opening-more of a prologue than anything-but it got the job done and doesn't seem too disconnected from the rest of the movie to me. It introduces all the important plots and like half the characters.
Alan Silvestri!
The design of this movie is really adorable. Also, I love that Lilo is all weird and messed up. She's an adorable child, and she has this great twisted imagination and she gets into fights and is also a little sweetheart and a brat. She's a real character, not just The Child, and she's a perfect match for Stitch.
Also, WOO NON-TRADITIONAL FAMILY. Obviously, that is the entire point of this movie. And Nani tries really really hard but she's not a mother/homemaker and they are super messed up.
Also, the badass social worker. And Lilo attempts to put a curse on the girls who wouldn't play with her.
I noticed this earlier and forgot to say-I think it's really awesome how Lilo is into photography. She's gonna grow up to be an awesome artist. Possibly a hipster artist, as she's already all about taking pictures of fat tourists and sticking them up on her wall.
Also, there's an awful lot of laser guns. And Stitch tries to hold a frog hostage or something.
I love how we can see Stitch's thought process as he decides to go undercover as a dog.
Stitch is like Nibbler, only more evil.
Also, I find it a teeny bit weird that movies and things in this movie are live-action. Obviously a desgin choice, but I don't know why.
“He will inevitable be draw to large city centers, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe.”
And Stitch is just sooooo frustrated and ragey over being disciplined and treated like a pet. He's not even trying very hard, he keeps walking upright and yelling at dogs and trying to escape. I love how cranky and/or evil he is.
Also, eeeee Nani's coworker David trying to ask her out, it's such a cool little normal thing.
Lol Stitch-zilla vs the little town!
Oh, and Pleakley is a crossdresser. It's played for laughs, but I read an article on someone's blog once that it actually became a character trait and a fairly serious plot in an episode of the series, which intrigues me, especially given that this movie is already about a non-traditional family. I somewhat doubt it was intentional from the start, though.
And then Stitch appears to actually be enjoying playing the guitar. He kinda rocks out on it. But then the tourists taking photos make him angry and then someone sprays him with water.
All the character development on Stitch happens in show, don't tell. He's clearly baffled by the concept of Lilo and Nani giving him a chance and making better of himself. And he's fascinated/perplexed by the concept of playing in the water, which also gets him vulnerable because water's his big weakness, but he finds it very exciting. And then when he's attacked he immediately goes back into self-centered self-defense, because he can't do water. And he feels bad about what he caused with the social worker.
I'm sorry, having trouble writing more things because it's heart-breaking and I'm about to burst into tears.
I have to say, the design and animation on Stitch is phenomenal. I mean, obviously his design is intended to be cute ultimately, but he's able to pull off both creepy/threatening and woobie adorable kawaii super-cute.
Gahhh Adult Fear: Nani leaves Lilo home alone for just a few minutes and the house is destroyed by aliens.
Also, Stitch has a foul mouth apparently.
All the aliens learned an awful lot of Earth culture in the two days they've been there...
And then the alien stuff parallels the real world stuff when Lilo is first taken away by social services and then by aliens.
Nani handles the alien stuff remarkably well. She screams once and she smacks Stitch with a stick. I guess the alien stuff is basically nothing compared to losing her sister. Also, she's been dealing with a psychotic little blue alien for a couple of days.
Lol “He is very persuasive.”
I just realized the backgrounds have this watercolor look to them. I generally prefer the beautiful realistic painted backgrounds, but it's neat and looks nice with the style.
Daw, Stitch saves the life of the frog, and then is worried about Lilo until he sees a truck and gets his crazy plan to get up to the spaceship.
Unfortunately, for the sake of cuteness, Stitch seems to lose a lot of IQ when he's talking near the end. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Maybe it's about how stunted his social skills are. I guess I should be impressed how quickly he learned English rather than nitpick that his grammar is carefully designed for maximum cuteness, but all the other aliens seem to be speaking flawless English for some reason, so...
The whole climax in some ways is a little bit too much, but it flows well, the emotional development is great, and the ending-especially the montage of adorable non-traditional family awesomeness-is all lovely and feel-good.
..what is this pop song? Whyyyy? How does it make sense to have a Disney Channel-style romance cover pop song during the end credits of this movie? IDEK.
Andreas Deja! Uhhh... and Mark Henn! I was looking down to write too much, though.
So, this movie is really high on adorableness, non-traditionalness, and emotional development, but kind of low on the 'magic' and awesomeness. It's a little less grounded than other movies that I like better. It has some great visuals, though, and fantastic storytelling-without-dialogue.
And I didn't notice this until later, and maybe it's just part of the design, but I realized that the characters use their bodies and actions to be expressive-there's very little facial expression, or at least it's small/subtle. Which is interesting, because absolutely everything is communicated and the movie feels very animated and expressive.
The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo & Stitch, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Oliver and Company, Mulan, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, The Great Mouse Detective, Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Hercules, Pocahontas, Robin Hood, 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Snow White, The Rescuers, The Rescuers Down Under, The Fox and the Hound, Dumbo, Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, The Sword in the Stone, Bambi, The Aristocats, The Black Cauldron, Saludos Amigos