After watching "Lilo & Stitch" and "Minority Report" yesterday, I visited a couple of friends. Everyone gathered at one house, and there were four young kids there, varying in age between 2 and 8 years old, and these are kids I've known since they were newborns. I spent the evening getting punched, kicked and stomped on. I endured one of them sloppily painting my left thumbnail with pink nail polish, and I patiently sat there as they all spread a huge dollop of hair gel into my hair. I was fine with all that, though, because I adore kids, these kids, in particular, and I had a blast that night. Anyone who saw me with them would know that I'm very patient and understanding when it comes to small children...
...unless those same people saw me at the movie theater trying to watch "Lilo & Stitch." I sat most of my time there with my arms folded and a furious look on my face because I was in a theater packed with the noisiest bunch of little bastards to walk the face of the Earth. Screaming, crying, talking loudly... I don't blame the kids, though, I blame the inconsiderate parents who allow their kids to carry on like that during a movie. Towards the end, I couldn't take it any more, and after I heard yet another kid screaming, I said, way too loudly, "Jesus f***ing Christ!" I got a lotta dirty looks from parents, but I didn't care. Look, I know that when I go see a kids' movie, I gotta expect some noise. Fine, I'm cool with that, I accept that. But what I heard yesterday during "Lilo & Stitch" was unreasonable. I clearly remember instances going to the movies when I was a small child, and I sat there like an angel. I was four years old when the original "Star Wars" came out, and I vividly recall being in the theater not making a single sound during the entire movie. Same for "Grease." I was only four, and I was totally silent from beginning to end. Of course, much of the screaming and crying during "Lilo & Stitch" came from kids who were much younger, but if they're too young to appreciate the movie, DON'T BRING 'EM!!! What's the point?
Because of the bad experience at the movie theater, I don't think I was able to enjoy the movie as much as I normally would have, but I still liked it a lot. I'll buy the DVD when it comes out. Actually, from this point forward, when it comes to kids' movies, I should probably not go to the movies, and just wait for the DVD. It's gotten really bad. Parents today are a lot more disrespectful than they used to be. And what's sad is that it's my generation, Generation X, that has the kids today. My generation is filled with shitty parents.
But let's get to the review.
In my review of Disney's animated film, "Tarzan," I ripped on them for producing yet another animated film that followed the same pattern that all their animated films follow. I said that they needed to change that, or the competition would eventually take over. Though it's certainly not because of my review, I'm happy to say that with "Lilo & Stitch," they made a clear departure from the usual Disney formula.
The movie isn't typical Disney at all. In fact, the story is more adult than usual (though not nearly as dark or as mature as their masterpiece, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"). Don't get me wrong, it's certainly a kids' movie, but it doesn't treat the viewer like a kid, it doesn't pander to them. There's no big opening music number, there's no "money shot" where they combined high-tech computer animation with the cell animation, and the story is completely original. also, because of the nature of the story, it must have been very hard to market. Disney tried something different, though. Instead of marketing the story, they marketed one of the characters, and created some of the most clever movie trailers they've ever come up with. I'm sure you've seen them. "Stitch" causing the chandelier to fall during the ballroom scene in "Beauty and the Beast," Stitch taking the place of "Simba" during the "Circle of Life" opening of "The Lion King," and a couple of other ones. Pure genius.
"Lilo & Stitch" was based on an idea by Chris Sanders (one of the many writers of "Mulan"), and it was written and directed by Sanders (his debut as director) and Dean Deblois (his debut, as well). Usually, a Disney animated film has a ton of writers and several directors. This one only has two people doing the writing and directing, and I like the finished product a lot. I'm sure I'da liked it more if the theater was empty, and there's no doubt that I'll like the movie better when I see it on DVD, but despite the noise in the movie theater, I did enjoy the movie.
The voice of "Lilo" was provided by Daveigh Chase, who was the cute little girl who played "Samantha Darko" in "Donnie Darko." That was a great movie, by the way. The voice of "Stitch" was provided by Chris Sanders, the guy who helped write and direct the movie. Tia Carrere ("Sydney Fox" in the TV series, "Relic Hunter"... she was a mean chickie in "True Lies"... played "Cassandra Wong" in the two "Wayne's World" movies) was the voice of "Nani," the older sister of "Lilo," and Jason Scott Lee (starred as "Aladdin" in the TV-Movie, "Arabian Nights"... was in the live-action version of "The Jungle Book" as "Mowgli"... starred in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" as "Bruce Lee") was the voice of "David," who has the hots for "Nani." It's important to note that Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee, both of whom are from Hawaii, helped the writers with the dialogue and accents. Oh, and Ving Rhames (George Clooney's partner in "Out of Sight"... "Luther Stickell" in the "Mission: Impossible" movies) does the voice for the strangely named "Cobra Bubbles." It's kinda cool that the character looks a lot like his "Marsellus Wallace" character in "Pulp Fiction."
It's a shame that I had to watch this movie in such a raucous theater, because I think it was really good. It was a unique animated film from Disney, and I hope that it's a sign that they're not gonna always stick to their old formula. But yeah, from now on, if there's a kids' movie I wanna see, I'll probably just wait for the DVD.
Scale of 1-10: 8