I have fond nostalgic childhood memories of Lilo & Stitch. It told the tale of the escaped alien experiment Stitch and the alienated Hawaiian girl Lilo, who form a bond as unlikely as it is heartwarming. Everything about this classic was top-notch: stellar animation, impressive voice-acting & soundtrack, colorful and relatable characters, and some badass action scenes to boot.
And yet, this film left me bizarrely frustrated. Not an extreme anger, just a slight and wistful frustration that persisted in me for years. I hardly even noticed I felt it. It wasn't till two decades later, when I watched Encanto, that I was finally able to pinpoint my frustration in a problem that both Disney films shared.
This movie is too short.
Lilo & Stitch has a surprisingly deep and mature story that puts you through a turbulent emotional rollercoaster: Nani struggles to raise her sister Lilo after the death of their parents, a social worker threatens to take away Lilo, Stitch forms bonds with them and feels remorse as their situation exacerbates, aliens blow up their house, the social worker DOES take away Lilo, who runs away, and her friendship with Stitch is shattered, then an alien shark freaking kidnaps Lilo, but Stitch makes a thrilling and explosive effort to rescue her, as smoke obscures them and Nani cries out Lilo's name...
...and then, a low-key scene quickly resolves the entire conflict, and the movie is shunted to the musical credits before you can say "Wait."
This film left me with a frustrated craving that the spinoff movies and series couldn't satisfy. I wanted more closure than that! After all these deep and heartfelt character interactions, it just feels anticlimactic and wrong for it to end so abruptly. It feels like Disney is afraid that if their movies get too deep and pensive, the audience will get uncomfortable and tune out, so they just cut to another musical number first. For me, 85 minutes just wasn't enough to finish this story properly.
Lilo & Stitch is like eating a single s'more: sure it's good, but you're just left with an aggravated craving for more of what the title promised! And I guess the spinoff material is like store-bought s'more products: they can't match the original authentic fire-roasted stuff.
Burning, Wistful, Painfully Short Love
I have fond nostalgic childhood memories of Lilo & Stitch. It told the tale of the escaped alien experiment Stitch and the alienated Hawaiian girl Lilo, who form a bond as unlikely as it is heartwarming. Everything about this classic was top-notch: stellar animation, impressive voice-acting & soundtrack, colorful and relatable characters, and some badass action scenes to boot.
And yet, this film left me bizarrely frustrated. Not an extreme anger, just a slight and wistful frustration that persisted in me for years. I hardly even noticed I felt it. It wasn't till two decades later, when I watched Encanto, that I was finally able to pinpoint my frustration in a problem that both Disney films shared.
This movie is too short.
Lilo & Stitch has a surprisingly deep and mature story that puts you through a turbulent emotional rollercoaster: Nani struggles to raise her sister Lilo after the death of their parents, a social worker threatens to take away Lilo, Stitch forms bonds with them and feels remorse as their situation exacerbates, aliens blow up their house, the social worker DOES take away Lilo, who runs away, and her friendship with Stitch is shattered, then an alien shark freaking kidnaps Lilo, but Stitch makes a thrilling and explosive effort to rescue her, as smoke obscures them and Nani cries out Lilo's name...
...and then, a low-key scene quickly resolves the entire conflict, and the movie is shunted to the musical credits before you can say "Wait."
This film left me with a frustrated craving that the spinoff movies and series couldn't satisfy. I wanted more closure than that! After all these deep and heartfelt character interactions, it just feels anticlimactic and wrong for it to end so abruptly. It feels like Disney is afraid that if their movies get too deep and pensive, the audience will get uncomfortable and tune out, so they just cut to another musical number first. For me, 85 minutes just wasn't enough to finish this story properly.
Lilo & Stitch is like eating a single s'more: sure it's good, but you're just left with an aggravated craving for more of what the title promised! And I guess the spinoff material is like store-bought s'more products: they can't match the original authentic fire-roasted stuff.