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Lilo & Stitch/Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (3-Disc Special Edition)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (12th September 2013). |
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The Film
 “Is little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.” “Lilo & Stitch” isn't just adorable; it’s absolutely precious. Though I’ve surely lost what little assumed masculinity I might have had left with the readership in saying so, “Lilo & Stitch’s” preciousness is nonetheless a point-of-fact in my mind. No arguing—it just is. And when I say it's precious, I mean both in the sense that the film is sweet, cute, charming, and delightfully clever—if it were a tangible beastie, it’d be as cuddly and huggable, and ultimately lovable, as Lilo’s pint-sized dog-alien sidekick at the film’s center is faux-ferocious—and that the film is an ought-to-be-prized picture in the pantheon of Disney animation, which should be treated with the utmost care. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I forgot “Lilo & Stitch” was as good as it is. And it seems—at least, looking the barebones nature of this so-called Blu-ray "Special Edition", which lugs along a so-so direct-to-video sequel, and two lame special features laden DVD's to jazz up an otherwise pitiful package—someone at Disney forgot, too. Mind you, it’s entirely understandable to have forgotten “Lilo & Stitch”. The film was just one of many released during an onslaught of atrociousness in animation (not just at Disney; this was also the era of DreamWorks at its most groan inducingly insolent). Specifically in my case, “Lilo” was lost in the vagaries of viewer apathy. Disney’s output in early 2000's—almost the entire decade, in hindsight—is so middling to outright morosely miserable, it’s easy to forget that “Stitch”, and its sequels were the exception to the repeatedly established rule of ruination, and not another prime examples of everything that was wrong with the company at the time like pretty much everything else. The CG dud “Dinosaur” (2000) was a bomb. “The Emperor’s New Groove” (2000) was a poorly pieced together patchwork of another film that fell apart late in production, and for my money, proves painfully unfunny for the straight comedy it portends to be. The articulately animated and action-packed “Atlantis: The Lost Empire” (2001) is fun, but frivolous, and like its predecessor, remains a sort of “What if?” within the moviedom of the Magic Kingdom, rather than the outright masterpiece it might have been. And although I think John Musker and Ron Clements’ “Treasure Planet” (2002) is a little underrated, its also somewhat understandably derided for being perhaps too angst-ridden an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, which is why I suppose some don’t find it enjoyable (I like it, but many others do not, proven by the fact it bombed at the box office upon release). The less said about the horrific “Home on the Range” (2004), and the proliferation of both CG-animated Pixar knock-offs like “Chicken Little” (2005), and the increasingly deplorable direct-to-video sequels that all came to fruition in the latter part of the Eisner era, the better. Altogether, Disney’s lamentable output in the new early part of the 21st century, “Lilo & Stitch” aside, is bad enough to want to wipe the entire era from memory; and it probably will be in the long run. And so, sadly, “Lilo & Stitch” often gets lost in the mess of mediocrity and outright awfulness as just another of the Mouse House’s middling movies of that era. But it isn’t middling, mediocre or miserable in the slightest—a fact that is made all the more clear when one views it back-to-back with the likes of “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”, “The Emperor’s New Groove” and those pictures’ direct-to-video sequels like I have. Frankly, I think "Lilo" is a luminous beacon of hope in that dark time, and easily one of the best things the studio ever put its name to, especially in the era it was made. If there’s a Mouse-House masterpiece of the early 2000's, “Lilo & Stitch” is it. Okay. Masterpiece is perhaps too strong of praise… but it is truly terrific. More so because its so singularly special. Most Disney features—indeed most films in general—are massive collaborations between dozens upon dozens of artists. The writers, directors, designers and animators, among many others, all work together to make something hopefully not horrible; this is how all the great movies of the Disney Renaissance came together. Collaboration is not a bad thing in itself. But it can weaken a vision, as much as it can strengthen it. Rarely would you ever be able to apply auteur theory to something from Disney, but “Lilo” is not most movies. It’s almost entirely unlike anything to ever come out of Disney, barring the earliest days when the company was just a few people. In visual terms, “Lilo & Stitch” is the result of singular creative force, a sort of animation auteur: visualist/character designer/background and storyboard artist/screenwriter and eventual director Chris Sanders. Sanders was one of many to contribute to the Renaissance’s greatest pictures—he was part of the committee credited for the story of “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), “Aladdin” (1992) and the “Lion King” (1994), and also penned the screenplay for "Mulan" (1998). He designed and storyboarded most of those too, at least in part. Amidst, and shortly after, the series of misfires at Disney, which were the result of executives, artists and sometimes other artist's utter failure to collaborate—the dark side of creating by committee—and away from the prying eyes of Michael Eisner, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, with whom he later made “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010), brought together a very small team to make a movie Sander’s had conceived years earlier. The director thought up the grotesquely adorable 4-armed creature named Stitch years before the film in which he finally appeared was made. He dusted off his designs—which made it into the film, in its radically different style from that of traditional Disney at the time—and set about working on a small budget feature in Florida, with his team, some of whom were refugees from “Kingdom in the Sun”. For ultimately being such a small picture, “Lilo & Stitch’s” story sure starts on a grand, intergalactic scale, before getting considerably more intimate and character driven. A mad scientist, Dr. Jamba Jokiba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers), has captured the essence of dangerously durable evil in a tiny creature dubbed Experiment 626. A tribunal has been convened to deal with this dodgy doctor and his corrupt creation. Jamba is convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. 626 is sent away to be dealt with in a similar fashion. While in transit to whatever terrible fate he is meant to meet, 626 escapes, but warps through space only to crash land on Earth. He lands improbably not in the ocean that would surely have meant the water-weary creature's doom, but on the small Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. When they discover his location, the tribunal decides they want the experiment exterminated, but quietly and carefully as to not make them look even more foolish than they already do. Jamba, who, as its creator, has the most intimate understanding of the creature, is freed temporarily, and goes in search for 626 on earth, with sniffling pushover science officer Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) in tow. Stitch must be caught at all cost, even if that means killing him. Jamba really has no interest in hurting him, but simply wants to see what 626 will do in a life or death situation. Ultimately, the results are not what he expects. Meanwhile, in more mundane matters on Earth, a lonely opinionated orphan named Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who lives with her 19-year-old sister Nani (Tia Carrere), has decided she wants a dog. Nani agrees, under the assumption that perhaps a dog will make Lilo happy, and considerably more agreeable. See, Lilo’s a troubled child, obviously unadjusted to a world without her parents, who died suddenly in an accident when she was even younger than she is now. Lilo is constantly getting into fights with girls from school, and proves generally unruly, to the point that a social worker named Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames) has come knocking, threatening to take Lilo away if she and Nani can't get their act together. Through a series of events, some spurious and others not, 626 becomes Lilo’s new pet. She immediately names him Stitch. The alien—who has altered his appearance to appear more dog-like, and loveable as a result—plays along because Lilo and Nani provide a safety net, something he increasingly needs with Jamba and Pleakley on the hunt. Stitch is injured and equally unadjusted to his life in hiding on Earth, and begins to slowly bond with Lilo, the cute child who repeatedly attempts to minimize his “badness level”, because she believes with training she can bring out the hidden goodness in him, while pouring out her soul and spilling all her secrets to (this little wo)mans best friend. Set to a medley of Elvis Presley music—Lilo, a darling hula-dancing diva in her spare time, loves the hip-swinging antics and sound of The King—Sander’s story meshes a sort of 50's retro-future sci-fi aesthetic with the sights and sounds of local Island life, which proves to be an incredibly colorful combination. The film is at once both a very funny alien-invasion adventure, and a more mindful movie; a film focused on the inner-workings of a non-traditional family. By centering on characters, and in particular the dynamic between the similarly lost souls of Lilo and Stitch, and their burgeoning best-friendship, this delightful Disney feature is something slightly more than simple entertainment. Indeed, it is entertaining; the picture possesses a surface-level lightness that makes it repeatedly rewatchable for the pure joy of mild polynesian flare. But underneath, there’s something both sweet and somewhat serious. “Lilo & Stitch” is a deceptively simple film, and this simplicity extends to the unassuming art style that’s less showy than the incredibly articulate and stagey musicals of the Renaissance. Simple though it may be, Sander’s style is as charming as his characters eventually prove to be. Contrivance and cliché seep in to the plot. There’s even a requisite love story for Nani, who begins courting David (Jason Scott Lee), a local surfer dude with a heart of gold. Dramatic tension takes form in the constant appearance of case worker Bubbles, who conveniently seems to always be there just after everything—usually some massive disaster set about by either a bout of mischievous meanness from Stitch, or his hunting captor/killers—goes wrong; he nearly takes Lilo away because she’s being raised in an "unsafe" environment, blind to what's really going on but somehow also completely clued in at the end. But “Lilo & Stitch” is greater than the some of its somewhat overused and broken individual parts. For all the predictability, there’s a palatable playfulness that keeps things on the right track, just left of the anticipated arc. And the soul and sprit that courses through the picture bursts forth with unexpected poignancy in the end, making any possibly eroding element irrelevant. "Lilo" is a little film, but it has a heart much bigger than its meagre budget and superficial scope. And, in the end, that’s what makes the picture so close to perfect. Even “Lilo’s” sequel, “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” is pretty decent. It suffers from some of the usual ills of low-budget Disney DTV productions—namely, the obvious cost cutting, and episodic plot structure someone once decided was the de facto format for direct-to-video kiddie fare. But even then, the cost cutting isn’t that detrimental; the simplistic art style of the original makes the transition to another animation house smoother than that seen in most other Disney sequels. And the episodic plot is at least palatable, with the characters exuding the same energetic playfulness, emotional earnestness and heart hurting broken-cuteness—all of which is what makes the original so special. “Stitch Has a Glitch” seems more like a continuation of the story for these characters rather than a pointless rehash for profit; a true sequel. And in point of fact, it actually is the first film’s true sequel, meant to bridge the events of “Stitch: The Movie” (2003) and the “Lilo & Stitch” TV series (2003-2006) that chronologically come much later in the timeline, despite being made before “Lilo & Stitch 2”. Perhaps its because the sequel was produced within a reasonable amount of time after the first—Disney’s worst offending sequels do seem to be the one’s that came 50 years too late, not 3—or because the creative crew, although different than the one behind the first (“Glitch” was written and directed by Michael LaBash and Anthony Leondis, of DisneyToon; although Sanders continued to provide the "voice" of Stitch), totally understood the flick’s familial focus is what made the original film work, and would need to be retained to make any other sequel serviceable too. The story is actually four-fold to fit the somewhat episodic form. The story lines are as follows: 1) Lilo (voiced here by Dakota Fanning, reportedly because Daveigh Chase was busy on the TV series) and Stitch are preparing to perform a hula dance for the annual May Day festival. Lilo wants everything to be perfect because she’s chosen to do her routine in honor of Hiʻiaka, the patron goddess of hula. But… 2) … Stitch has a glitch. And he keeps messing up, jeopardizing his friendship with Lilo and upsetting the calm harmony of his “ohana”. It seems something went wrong in his creation, corrupting his DNA, which is only now coming to light. Stitch’s “goodness level” is plummeting back to his original “badness” again. Unfortunately, no one besides Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) seems to realize this. So… 3) … Jumba attempts to build a new regeneration chamber to "recharge" Stitch, fix the glitch, and restore his goodness. But the task proves more difficult without space-tech and the help of his assistant Pleakley (Kevin McDonald), who’s… 4) … helping David (Jason Scott Lee) reignite his supposedly stale months-old relationship with Nani (Tia Carrere), even though it needn’t need it, nor has it actually gone sour. Amazingly, and somewhat unusually for the fractured format beset most direct-to-video Disney efforts, “Stitch Has a Glitch” takes each separate element of its story and weaves it together and to make a somewhat singular whole. Not that every piece fits into a bigger puzzle with twice-measured precision, but there’s a connecting commonality that links the characters and their separate stories, the same thing that ultimately makes the film feel like an extension of its predecessor: an obvious care for characters and family, for the ohana we came to love by the first film’s end. At just 68 minutes the sequel is slight, considerably smaller even than the scaled-down original, but perhaps that is part of the reason it succeed where so many of the direct-to-video features fail. "Stitch 2" simply tells it's story, and doesn't feel a need to pad the runtime with inane musical numbers that grate and grind any sense of enjoyment to a halt. - “Lilo & Stitch”: A - “Stitch Has a Glitch”: C+
Video
“Lilo & Stitch” and “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch” both look pretty good, despite the fact that they have to share a dual layered BD-50. I take that back; “Lilo & Stitch” looks great. And the sequel looks near as, save for some banding. Neither feature is particularly long, and even the bigger budgeted original uses a simplistic sort of animation style. The simplicity pays off—“Lilo & Stitch 2” is perhaps the most similar in art style to its predecessor of all the direct-to-video sequels because DisneyToon was able to emulate it with their limited resources; the sequel is just a little less polished when it comes to the integration of CGI. “Lilo & Stitch” is presented in 1080p 24/fps high definition via an AVC MPEG-4 encode, and is framed in its original 1.66:1 widescreen ratio. The film was transferred directly from the original digital files, which means the spotless source is free of flaws, and film grain. The Hawaiian setting does wonders for colors. The palette is are mix of lush, vibrant primaries and muted but still magnificent pastels. The black level and overall image detail are both excellent. Line art is crisp and distinct, and otherwise outstandingly sharp, with even the fine texture in the crosshatch pencil patterns of the curiously flat backdrops clearly evident. There’s some faint artifacting in a few spots, and few instances aliasing in others, but the first film has a fantastic transfer overall. Its few minor issues aren't even noticeable unless you pull a Jamba and go looking for trouble. “Stitch Has a Glitch” looks near as good, despite its slightly cheaper animation. Like its predecessor, the film has a 1080p 24/fps high definition AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer (presented in the original ratio of 1.78:1), and is a delight of detail and color. Like the first film, faint artifacts are detectable if you put the film under a microscope. A much more obvious issue is some blatant banding and aggressive aliasing, which is worst when it comes to the integration of CG elements—including Lilo's hover-car, and the climax with Jamba's spaceship. - “Lilo & Stitch”: A - “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch”: B+
Audio
“Lilo & Stitch” offers several audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian Dolby Digital 5.1. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track is the stuff of pure sonic satisfaction. “Lilo” is not as action-oriented as, say, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”, so I won't give it a perfect score (the track just doesn't have the low-end bass of that film). But Elvis Presley has never sounded so good. The music (including an energetic score supplied by Alan Silvestri), dialogue, ambient surround effects, and other elements—the film does have a few explosions, and warping space ships, so its not exactly a slouch, even if it is a little more reserved than some big budget spectacles—are all intelligently balanced so that no one element overwhelms. Optional English, French, Spanish and Russian subtitles are included. “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” offers the same set of audio and subtitle options as its predecessor: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian Dolby Digital 5.1, with optional subtitles in English, French, Spanish and Russian. The sequel’s an even small production than the not exactly massive “Lilo & Stitch”, and the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track on “Stitch Has a Glitch” makes this perfectly clear, both in the sense that dialogue and effects are intelligible, and the increased transparency reveals a less immersive source. “Stitch” cannot escape its less bombastic sound design, but still sounds surprisingly good for what amounts to a made for TV movie. - “Lilo & Stitch”: A- - “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch”: B
Extras
Disney’s original single disc release of “Lilo & Stitch” crash landed in 2003, with an announcement that a 2-disc "Special Edition" would soon follow. Proving that soon is a relative, and decidedly undefined term in PR speak, that dual disc "Special Edition" finally materialized in Region 2 in 2005, but it wasn't until 2009 that the same discs were packed together in the “Big Wave Edition" for US shores. The various 2-disc DVD releases of the film included an audio commentary, deleted scenes, image galleries, a 2-hour making-of documentary and more than 90 minutes of additional featurettes. Unbelievably, Disney’s new Blu-ray edition has nearly none of that. A few of the older featurettes and other special features appear on the second and third discs—repackaged DVD's, with new, gray, disc art, but file creation dates that point back several years—and part of me can't doesn't want to grade any of that content purely on principle. The Blu-ray should be stacked with supplements. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY Much like “The Emperor’s New Groove” double feature, aside from a few space-hogging bonus trailers, there are no extras on the actual Blu-ray disc. The bonus trailers are: - “The Little Mermaid: Diamond Edition” coming soon to Blu-ray (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 1 minute 32 seconds). - “Monster’s University” (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 1 minute 28 seconds). - “Super Buddies” on blu-ray and DVD (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 40 seconds). - “Marvel’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United” (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 30 seconds). - "Disney Movie Rewards" promo (1080p, 24 seconds). - "Disney Infinity" videogame trailer (1080p, 30 seconds). - "Disney Radio" promo (1080p, 30 seconds). - “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” (1.66:1 widescreen 1080p, 58 seconds) coming soon to Blu-ray. DISC TWO: DVD (“Lilo & Stitch”) “Lilo & Stitch” is presented in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen with English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The DVD also includes the following special features: Why the audio commentary with producer Clark Spencer, and writer/directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois is relegated to the DVD—or, rather, not ported to the blu-ray—is a mystery, and an unfortunate oversight. This track, which has the commentators charting production from the first draft to release, is a good listen, and one of the few special features in the set that can be enjoyed by adults, albeit exclusively so. A music video for “Your Ohana” (1.33:1, 2 minutes 17 seconds) is comprised of clips from the film. “Lilo & Stitch’s Island of Adventure of Games” includes three interactive games, geared towards the kiddies, incredibly simplistic, and like all set top DVD features of this sort, mind numbing after even a few seconds. The games are: - “Gecko Race” - “Hamsterviel’s Coconut Shell Game” - “Hamsterviel’s Experiment Match Game” “DisneyPedia: Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha” (1.33:1, 8 minutes 35 seconds) is a featurette packed with facts about Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Lana’I and Moloka’I. “Create Your Own Alien Experiment” is yet another interactive game. “A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 33 seconds) is a funny featurette that pretends Stitch has been part of the Disney family since the company’s inception, showing the character on the fringes of the frames of films like “Snow White” (1937). A forgettable featurette titled “Hula Lesson” (3 minutes 37 seconds) has hula consultant and Hawaiian music composer Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu guiding viewers—who, considering the way he addresses the camera, are presumably meant to be kids about Lilo’s age—through the history and steps of Hula dancing. “Burning Love: Behind the Scenes with Wynonna” (1.33:1, 1 minute 32 seconds) is a featurette/music video hybrid with the Judd sisters recording her song for the film. Yet another music video is included; this one for “I Can’t Help Falling In Love with You” by some awful adolescent pop group called the A-Teens (1.33:1, 1 minute 3 seconds). “Animating the Hula” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 5 seconds) is a brief featurette with Sanders and DeBlois talking about the difficulties of animating the complex dance form. Finally, four of the “Inter-Stitch-ials”, theatrical trailers in which Stitch interrupts the original preview, are included, for: - “Beauty & The Beast” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 7 seconds). - “Aladdin” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 6 seconds). - “The Little Mermaid” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 3 seconds). - “The Lion King” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 8 seconds). Pre-menu bonus trailer is included for: - "Disney Movie Magic" promo (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 54 seconds). DISC THREE: DVD (“Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch”) “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with English DTS 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The DVD also includes the following special features: A music video for “Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 17 seconds) by Jump5 has been included. “The Origin of Stitch” (1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, 4 minutes 38 seconds) is a cute bonus short film, which was actually intended to bridging "Lilo & Stitch 2" with “Lilo & Stitch: The Series” (2003-2006) and "Stitch: The Movie" (2003). The short has the most noticeable drop off in quality and style of the entire franchise, but still not as much of a disconnect as… shudder… “Milo’s Return” had with its predecessor. Finally, “Where’s Pleakley” and “Jumba’s Experiment Profiler” are two interactive games.
Packaging
Disney’s original single disc release of “Lilo & Stitch” crash landed in 2003, with an announcement that a 2-disc "Special Edition" would soon follow. Proving that soon is a relative, and decidedly undefined term in PR speak, that dual disc "Special Edition" finally materialized in Region 2 in 2005, but it wasn't until 2009 that the same discs were packed together in the “Big Wave Edition" for US shores. The various 2-disc DVD releases of the film included an audio commentary, deleted scenes, image galleries, a 2-hour making-of documentary and more than 90 minutes of additional featurettes. Unbelievably, Disney’s new Blu-ray edition has nearly none of that. A few of the older featurettes and other special features appear on the second and third discs—repackaged DVD's, with new, gray, disc art, but file creation dates that point back several years—and part of me can't doesn't want to grade any of that content purely on principle. The Blu-ray should be stacked with supplements. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY Much like “The Emperor’s New Groove” double feature, aside from a few space-hogging bonus trailers, there are no extras on the actual Blu-ray disc. The bonus trailers are: - “The Little Mermaid: Diamond Edition” coming soon to Blu-ray (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 1 minute 32 seconds). - “Monster’s University” (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 1 minute 28 seconds). - “Super Buddies” on blu-ray and DVD (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 40 seconds). - “Marvel’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United” (1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, 30 seconds). - "Disney Movie Rewards" promo (1080p, 24 seconds). - "Disney Infinity" videogame trailer (1080p, 30 seconds). - "Disney Radio" promo (1080p, 30 seconds). - “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” (1.66:1 widescreen 1080p, 58 seconds) coming soon to Blu-ray. DISC TWO: DVD (“Lilo & Stitch”) “Lilo & Stitch” is presented in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen with English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The DVD also includes the following special features: Why the audio commentary with producer Clark Spencer, and writer/directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois is relegated to the DVD—or, rather, not ported to the blu-ray—is a mystery, and an unfortunate oversight. This track, which has the commentators charting production from the first draft to release, is a good listen, and one of the few special features in the set that can be enjoyed by adults, albeit exclusively so. A music video for “Your Ohana” (1.33:1, 2 minutes 17 seconds) is comprised of clips from the film. “Lilo & Stitch’s Island of Adventure of Games” includes three interactive games, geared towards the kiddies, incredibly simplistic, and like all set top DVD features of this sort, mind numbing after even a few seconds. The games are: - “Gecko Race” - “Hamsterviel’s Coconut Shell Game” - “Hamsterviel’s Experiment Match Game” “DisneyPedia: Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha” (1.33:1, 8 minutes 35 seconds) is a featurette packed with facts about Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Lana’I and Moloka’I. “Create Your Own Alien Experiment” is yet another interactive game. “A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 33 seconds) is a funny featurette that pretends Stitch has been part of the Disney family since the company’s inception, showing the character on the fringes of the frames of films like “Snow White” (1937). A forgettable featurette titled “Hula Lesson” (3 minutes 37 seconds) has hula consultant and Hawaiian music composer Mark Keali’i Ho’omalu guiding viewers—who, considering the way he addresses the camera, are presumably meant to be kids about Lilo’s age—through the history and steps of Hula dancing. “Burning Love: Behind the Scenes with Wynonna” (1.33:1, 1 minute 32 seconds) is a featurette/music video hybrid with the Judd sisters recording her song for the film. Yet another music video is included; this one for “I Can’t Help Falling In Love with You” by some awful adolescent pop group called the A-Teens (1.33:1, 1 minute 3 seconds). “Animating the Hula” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 5 seconds) is a brief featurette with Sanders and DeBlois talking about the difficulties of animating the complex dance form. Finally, four of the “Inter-Stitch-ials”, theatrical trailers in which Stitch interrupts the original preview, are included, for: - “Beauty & The Beast” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 7 seconds). - “Aladdin” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 6 seconds). - “The Little Mermaid” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 3 seconds). - “The Lion King” (1.66:1 non-anamorphic widescreen, 1 minute 8 seconds). Pre-menu bonus trailer is included for: - "Disney Movie Magic" promo (1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, 54 seconds). DISC THREE: DVD (“Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch”) “Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch” is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with English DTS 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The DVD also includes the following special features: A music video for “Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride” (1.33:1, 3 minutes 17 seconds) by Jump5 has been included. “The Origin of Stitch” (1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, 4 minutes 38 seconds) is a cute bonus short film, which was actually intended to bridging "Lilo & Stitch 2" with “Lilo & Stitch: The Series” (2003-2006) and "Stitch: The Movie" (2003). The short has the most noticeable drop off in quality and style of the entire franchise, but still not as much of a disconnect as… shudder… “Milo’s Return” had with its predecessor. Finally, “Where’s Pleakley” and “Jumba’s Experiment Profiler” are two interactive games.
Overall
“Lilo & Stitch” is befitting a better Blu-ray release. Not that this release's A/V isn’t satisfactory—it’s more than, really, considering the space-sharing sequel. And even the inclusion of said sequel isn’t much of a factor. At least “Stitch Has a Glitch” is watchable, which isn’t something that can be said for many a DTV Disney production. Where this is a real let down is the lack of extras, despite the fact there's house of content to be ported from a stacked 2-Disc DVD that was released a few years back. “Lilo & Stitch” is one of the rare gems in the Disney catalog; a forgotten treasure—clever, cute, and one of the clearest singular artistic visions this side of the early days of Disney—and it really should’ve gotten a 10th anniversary release all its own, complete with all the old bonus material and some new stuff, too. I still say the “Lilo & Stitch” double pack is still recommended; the films are worth it. I just think the sequel should’ve been saved for a double or triple feature with the other follow ups, and that fictitious release could’ve been as compromised as was needed. The original “Lilo” deserves as much dotting deluxe treatment as a Diamond Edition classic.
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