DTV Wonders: Leroy and Stitch

This movie is the finale to the both the franchise and the TV show. Fittingly for a finale it is about the importance of saying good-bye.

It begins with a bright opening mirroring the opening of first film, as they get the happy ending they have been striving for.  All the experiments are caught (well they are ignoring 625). Lilo is given big praise and made their ambassador to Earth, Stitch is given a military job with the Galactic Alliance, Pleakley is given the job of head of Earth studies at their community college, and Jumba is given his old Evil Genius lab back.

They refuse to leave at first and then miss the idea of their happy ending and then all leave when Lilo tells them it is okay, as she knows that is what they want.  Kind of odd to do it this slowly, but I think it works. It feels more realistic, and the scene where Lilo realizes Aloha also means goodbye means she must be fine with letting them leave is a nice callback to the first movie and a nice message about accepting your friends having to move on to different locations.  I see why this appealed to me when so many people left my school when I was in 7^th grade.  I will not lie and say I did not tear up.  It is the same music from the first one when they will all stay, and now it plays when they leave.  I have not seen the show in years, but I really enjoyed the little montage of the experiments being happy.  It also only takes up a few minutes, but it then gets slow showing everybody but Stitch not being happy.

The first 25 minutes do get slow and then Hamsterviel joins Jumba.   Surprisingly that makes it slower, as developing Leroy takes a while. I hears dome fans are mad at the idea of Leroy being called “Experiment 628,” but I remember a commercial calling him that.  I am surprised Jumbaa just does what they want at gunpoint, and the next few minutes are very slow.  Jumbaa’s music failsafe is too obvious.  It oddly picks up when Hamsterviel names the new experiment, since Gantu keeps pointing out every name he suggests is taken and seems to have grown really attached to his prey.  I think that fits his character since Gantu is a professional who knows and respects his enemies. 

Stitch arrives and battles newly named Leroy, and this makes no sense.  Gantu and Stitch’s crew are there, so why are they battling one on one?  Also Stitch is a pro and should win easy.  Pleakley shows up to check on Jumba distracting Stitch resulting in a victory for Leroy and all three being captured.  At least it was a good fight.

Lilo has no problem recognizing Leroy is not Stitch in spite of his shape shifting powers, and she convinces Experiment 625 to help her.  Honestly naming him “Reuben” and getting him to become ambitious is surprisingly underwhelming.  However it is fun seeing him use all his powers and intelligence to fix the space ship. In the show Reuben is my favorite character, and this gives him the obvious, yet satisfying ending of joining the heroes and using his great powers when he now has something to actually motivate him.

Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley escape, which should have happened later to keep with the low point of Leroy capturing every experiment, Hamsterviel taking over the Galactic Alliance, capturing Lilo and Reuben, and him going to Earth to destroy them all. 

Gantu has really been the real brains lately pointing out their potential obstacles, which makes it a bigger deal when Hamsterviel fires him.  You probably get the drill, as this movie is predictable.  Rueben talks about Aloha, and Gantu switches sides.  Gantu is then amazed to see Reuben using his great powers.

With only one quarter of the movie left they reunite, and Lilo and Stitch are finally together again. On one hand this makes it really stick out. On the other hand them being together is such a key part of the franchise.

They save the experiments with the giant cannon on the college van. Why does college van have a giant cannon on it?  Maybe it is for space pirates or all the other dangers in space in this universe.

They have a good fight with Leroy and his seemingly endless hordes of clones Hamsterveil made, and it turns on them.  As a fan of the show this is really cool to see except when “Clyde” is called “Floyd.”  That really messes with it.  After that they play “Aloha Oe” the failsafe song.  Why not do that earlier?  This song feels both underwhelming but also very fitting for this franchise.  After all the first one ends the major plot by holding up a two dollar receipt.

They all want their old lives back except Gantu and Reuben who get a job together with the Galactic Alliance. As predictable as this movie overall was Gantu becoming a hero was not something I saw coming until around a 3rd of the way in.

It ends with a giant group picture and then all the Leroy clones dancing to “Jailhouse Rock” around angry Hamsterveil. Should have reversed when these happened.

It is hard to give this movie my usual rating. As a finale to a series it is great. It is much more lacking if you have not seen the show. I will give it Four Tree Stars. It is predictable, but a great way to end the franchise for its characterization, and I love the lesson. Part of aloha is “bye.” It is about both saying goodbye, but also bye to your old self. It might mean coming back, but like Gantu and Reuben it can also mean an entirely new and better life. They are the best characters this movie, as they are the ones who actually move on. Gantu, as he is forced to and does not try to force it back. Reueben, as he wants to be better than what he currently is.

Next time I will look at a movie that was made to be a huge deal and never caught on.

DTV Wonders: Lilo and Stitch 2

In my review of Stitch the Movie I praised the Lilo and Stitch franchise, but sadly that is in spite of this film.  It has the major flaws direct-to-video films are notorious for, new actors who are distractingly different and a mess of plots that do not go together.

The creators’ records are mixed.  The cast from the first film is back, except for Lilo’s actress.  Theo Leondis is the writer and his directorial debut is here.  He previously was an assistant writer on other DTV sequels. He wrote Kronk’s New Groove and directed and co-wrote …The Emoji Movie.  Writing and directing is expected to be a weakness.

It starts with a dream Stitch is having where he is flying and shooting the island.  Then Lilo tells… him to stop, and that is the first problem.  Lilo’s actress was too busy with the show to reprise her role, and Dakota Fanning took over. She sounds very much like an eighteen year old and nothing like Lilo.  It is just jarring hearing her voice from Lilo’s body.

Lilo convinces him that he is just worried about turning bad, and he is really good. She uses his chart to show it.

The chart is a plot device for showing how good or bad the characters view Stitch. When no one else is around Stitch’s eyes glow green and he breaks things to show the main plot. Then “Hawaiian Roller Coaster” plays. Some viewers prefer sequels reusing old songs, but I prefer new ones. It is a matter of preference.

Two new plots are then introduced. Lilo is in a hula competition involving making an original dance around a them showing “ohana.” She wants to win partly to beat Myrtle, and partly because her mom won it years ago. Another plot is Lilo is fighting and the hula teacher threatens to ban her from the competition if she does not control her violent behavior. Three plots is not too much, as two can easily mirror each other, but sadly the film keeps adding them.

Pleakley tells David that his romantic spark with Nani is gone. He plays Cyrano to try and get it back, and besides some bad whispering it is very bad comic relief. It is usually unfunny and it just interrupts the plot.   Another plot is added when Jumba realizes what is wrong with Stitch. He tells Pleakley, as they work on building the machine that will fix them. The logical choice is to tell the family. Stitch would volunteer to be locked up to not hurt anyone, as everyone helps them make it until the glitch kills Stitch (I think just turning him evil would be better). Instead they tell no one and hide from Nani why they are taking appliances to build the machine slowing them down. This happens as Pleakley spends more time working with David, whose life is not at risk, than saving Stitch’s life. They have some failures and then build the machine.

Lilo’s plot on not fighting is the worst done. At one point Stitch’s glitching gets her in trouble, and she is banned from the contest. Then she is in it. The actual contest plot has its own big issue. they already did it in the show, where it was done better, not good but better. Lilo being very mean is just not entertaining, and it ends with her leaving the contest to help the main plot anyway.

Stitch’s glitching is the only plot with any interest, and it has a problem in concept. He is evil by design, not free will. Jumba specially states “it is not his fault.” It should have been about old habits or something he had control over, meaning his problems are a result of his failures. I think the writer might be a hardcore determinist.

There are two good parts. One is a montage of Stitch doing good deeds to bring his goodness back up like feeding a bird worms from his mouth. The other is when he fights with Lilo. It is just good seeing him making mistakes by his own free will like he should have been all movie. Those small insults have more weight than all the glitching, because he has the ability to stop it.

At the end Jumba builts the magic device, but Stitch then tries to leave the planet in the ship, which has the device. The family just drops the other plots (why were they around in the first place then!) to save him. Stitch does not know the machine will save him, and he starts dying and the ship crashes. Lilo puts him in it, and the film expects us to believe he is dead (he looks asleep to me. He is alive of course, and the film ends.

This film is really, really bad. It is worse than Dragonheart II, and one of the worst films I have reviewed. Only one plot has any danger, and that makes the other four seem so insignificant. Some films like The Land Before Time VII have insignificant plots, but they work, because they are all the same level of importance making the whole film seem important. This films only has one plot that seems like anything important.

Worse off, this is only 68 minutes long, yet it is so padded. With a good TV series going on, these should have been episodes instead. It hardly feels like a movie.