REVIEW:
Lilo and Stitch, the live action version, was an okay movie. It was a movie aimed at a kid audience, which is obvious considering that 1) it is based on a Disney cartoon and 2) the protagonist is a little girl. But even still, Disney movies about young people often work well for adults too. Whether it’s Ana and Elsa from Frozen or Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The difference is that these “young people,” are generally either teenagers or young adults. Here the main character is a little girl and the story is about her friendship and an alien.
That’s fine enough. But the alien does all sorts of things that causes destruction all around her to the point where her entire life and family are at risk, You see, this little girl, Lilo, lives with her sister, Nani. Their parents have passed away (no explanation of how, but boy do these parents die a lot in Disney movies.) Now Lilo and Nani live together in Hawaii where social services is constantly sending representatives out to check on them and make sure that the older sister is providing a stable enough home environment for her younger sister. And once Stitch enters the picture, things really go to hell in that department. Every job the older sister goes in for an interview for, Stitch sabotages. Not intentionally, but just by causing disasters at the interview location. Every home visit by the social services representative (Tia Carera) turns into s giant catastrophe. It becomes very repetitive after a while.
The best things about this movie are the alien story. The opening sequence, involving Stitch on another planet, and the scientist who made him, and Stitch being banished to earth, is pretty cool. Sending two aliens out after Stitch is also pretty neat. And even watching these aliens take on the form of humans, (p[layed by Zach Galifanakus and the guy from Game Night,) but have no idea how to walk, move, or act is funny. But that’s about the only thing that really works in the movie. Otherwise, it’s pretty routine and predictable. And it also bears way too much resemblance to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, with cute cuddly alien creatures on earth who take it up with regular average Joe humans, while government agencies trying to target them. Obviously the Lilo and Stitch animated movie came before those Sonic ones, but even still, sometimes changed need to be made. Considering the aliens are the best part of the movie, I would have found a way to do even more with them.