LILO AND STICH

[MARCBLEE]

I'll post my review after I've stopped laughing!!!

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[gbsweetie]

It was that great?

[Raziel]

Or it was that silly?

[MARCBLEE]

LILO AND STICH

Synopsis: Lilo is a lonely Hawaiian girl who adopts a small ugly 'dog,' whom she names Stitch. Stitch would be the perfect pet if he weren't in reality a genetic experiment (known as "Experiment 636") that has escaped from the alien planet Turo and crash-landed on Earth. Stitch is abnormally strong and programmed to cause chaos. He's also afraid of water, which makes being located on Hawaii pretty difficult for him to handle. But through her love, faith and unwavering belief in "ohana" (the Hawaiian concept of family), Lilo helps unlock Stitch’s heart and gives him the ability to care for someone else.

Cute as a little girl in a hula skirt and sunny as a watercolor wet on the easel, Lilo & Stitch is an old-fashioned cartoon in the best sense of the phrase. It's sweet. It's funny and the first movie since DUMBO that’s has backgrounds painted in watercolors.  It’s a beautiful landscape to see.

And, thanks to the presence of "the King," also known as Elvis Presley, it also rocks.

Alien experiment 626 is the latest project to come from mad scientist Jumba, who is given a wacky Russian accent by David Ogden Stiers. Mutant 626 is a six-legged terror machine, all teeth and growls, intelligent, resourceful, ferocious and the attitude of a guy who just spilled his beer.

So he is exiled. But on the way to an exile asteroid, 626 breaks free and heads for Earth. Hawaii to be exact. He's run over by a truck, confused for a dog and taken to an animal shelter. That's where Lilo (pronounced Lee-lo) finds him. She's a spirited little misfit who lives with her sister, Nani, because she has just lost her parents.  They are tpical sisters who fight, argue, and play horrible tricks on each other…or at least Lilo does.

Lilo is into Elvis.  I mean she’s “REALLY “ into Elvis!  The King is THE KING to her.  You’ll see.

"This is the face of romance," she says of the King.

OK, back to the alien.  She names the critter "Stitch."  Why? I don’t know…don’t ask me stupid questions.  

The movie is about Lilo's attempts to tame this feral fido (American slang for dog) and teach him the ways of Elvis, and an intergalactic council's efforts to retrieve their lost mutant. But it's also about a broken family, about Lilo and Nani's efforts to fend off Mr. Bubbles, a very tough-looking social worker voiced by Ving Rhames who thinks the little girl needs a more stable home life.

There's your typical Disney message, in Hawaiian this time, -- "Ohana means 'family,' " Lilo keeps reminding us. And family is where you make it.

A new Disney directing team brought this one to the screen, and it's an auspicious debut for Chris Sanders (co-director, writer and voice of Stitch) and writer-director Dean DeBlois. There's a lot of fun stuff going on, but, like Mulan, the last Disney film to come out of its Orlando studio, the real emphasis is on emotion, the heart of the piece.

This is a cartoon that may make you tear up, and that's a good thing. When Lilo tells Stitch how she lost her parents, grief was never put more simply.

"It was raining. They went for a drive."

The story is derivative, stealing plotlines from Gremlins and Critters and characters from Star Trek and Winnie the Pooh. And despite their best efforts at making Stitch a villain who becomes a sweetie, he's just too darned cute to ever seem like a bad guy.

This is the first Disney cartoon to have watercolor backgrounds since the 1940s, and that gives the animation a sunny, tropical palette to go with a softer, retro look. This movie tastes like Hawaii.

It's not that the dialogue is packed with zingers, but there are plenty, and lots of splendid sight gags too.   I hope the German translations work well because there are a lot of Americana in the jokes tossed around.

But it's the performances, the voices and the animators who put across those jokes, that are spot-on and hilarious. Daveigh Chase, who voices Lilo, sounds a little like the optimistic but put-upon Sally, Charlie Brown's sister, in those old Peanuts specials.

Tia Carrere, as Nani; Jason Scott Lee, who voices her would-be boyfriend, David; legendary stage actress Zoe Caldwell (Grand Councilwoman); Rhames; and Kevin Michael Richardson do swell work.

And as Stitch, a squeaking, muttering, fussing and cussing (in alien lingo) little grump, Sanders is just a hoot, a Ninja yippy dog with a bad attitude.

There are a couple of cool space chase scenes, some funny moments with Nani, and an overall feeling that you don't need major special effects or a complicated storyline to just sit back and enjoy simplicity.  It's not SPIDER-MAN, LOTR, nor ATOTC..........it's relaxation. Pure and unadulturated.

Enjoy him now, before he's on every lunchbox in the world.

My score: 8 out of 10.

[gbsweetie]

Thanks for this review.

I guess that's another movie on my huge list of movies I have to see in cinema this summer.

[Apogee]

I'll post my review after I've stopped laughing

you' re quite funny man!

[CaptainNuss]

After having read Marc's review (and having seen a trailer), I went to see Lilo & Stitch yesterday afternoon (6pm, to be exact). Three words: Oh... my... god... Uhm... another two words, perhaps: Awesome!!! Well, alright, that was one word, but anyway, this movie is definitely one of the funniest cartoons ever!

As Marc said, Stitch is supposed to be a mean, evil monster at the beginning of the movie. Well, instead he's a sweet and funny monster...

By the way, I've noticed some classic elements of comedy classics such as Naked Gun: While Lilo and her sister (whatever her name is) have a conversation, Stitch, in the background, eats his feat to become... Globe-Stitch... and rolls around the floor, out of the screen. Go see the movie and you'll know how funny that can be. And that's a common thing in the movie, Stitch often does something stupid in the background.

I'd like to thank my family for making this post possible. Thanks.

[MARCBLEE]

ROFL...Captain Nuss,

You are awesome yourself.  I'm glad you enjoyed that movie.  I really did and have been thinking about some of the scenes in my head.

Elvis fans will LOVE this flick!!!

I'd like to thank my Mother for birth!  lol

[CaptainNuss]

You are awesome yourself.

Well, no offence, but I kinda hoped, the first one saying that would be a girl... :D

[Daniel Räbiger]

*rotfl*

i've heard that AC / DC is playing in the movie! That true?

I gonna watch it tomorrow in the cinema