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Blu-ray Review Lilo & Stitch: 2 Movie Collection Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Lilo & Stitch: 2 Movie Collection Blu-ray Review

Disney’s animators accomplished something rather herculean with Lilo & Stitch: they managed to create a character that for much of the film is completely unlikable and irritating and yet by the end had worked their magic and made him affecting and lovable. Lilo & Stitch has proven to be the last really giant hit from Disney’s traditional animation wing (The Princess & the Frog didn’t quite earn that reputation), but despite its themes of the worth of individuals in spite of their peculiarities and the importance of family, Lilo & Stitch still doesn’t quite have the magic of the best of Disney’s late period classics. The made-for-home video sequel included in this new two movie set is a tolerable follow-up to the original feature.



Studio: Disney

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1, 1.78:1

Audio: English 2.0 DD, English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DD, French 5.1 DD, Other

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Other

Rating: PG

Run Time: 1 Hr. 25 Min., 1 Hr. 9 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, DVD

keep case with slipcover

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: ABC

Release Date: 06/11/2013

MSRP: $29.99




The Production Rating: 3.5/5

Lilo & Stitch – 3.5/5

 

Lonely and unliked Lilo (Daveigh Chase) has a short temper and is causing enough problems that the DSS has sent an inspector (Ving Rhames) to determine if she needs to be removed from the home where her older sister Nani (Tia Carrere) is the sole breadwinner after the deaths of both parents. Taking Lilo to pick out a pet as a companion, Lilo chooses a strange, aggressive animal that’s actually an escaped alien from another world who is hiding on Earth from his scientist-inventor Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) and his assistant Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) who are on Earth searching for him in Hawaii where he landed. She names her new pet Stitch (director Chris Sanders) whose sole purpose for creation was to destroy things, and that’s what Stitch does as soon as he gets home, causing enough damage and mayhem to make DSS agent Bubbles decide to remove Lilo from the topsy-turvy environment.

 

While the Hawaiian locale is a nice change of pace and there’s plenty of Elvis tunes on the soundtrack (for some reason that’s never explained, Lilo loves The King), the movie’s mix of slapstick destruction and sentimental paeans to ʻohana (Hawaiian for “family”) is rather predictable (but darned if the writers/animators don’t do their jobs and make that ending a tear jerking triumph). There’s a really funny moment when after watching Tarantula! (or something similar) on television, Stitch builds a model of San Francisco and plays a monster on the rampage, and some of the animation is tops (including a surfing sequence that’s beautifully executed). The amount of noisy destruction and disruption is rather excessive in the movie (for me, at any rate; kids love it) and prevents it from entering into the pantheon of great Disney classics, but it did score the studio an Oscar nomination for best animated feature. The voice actors all do their jobs to perfection including the eccentric comedy work of the film’s stumblebum alien stalkers: David Ogden Stiers and Kevin McDonald and their planet’s grand councilwoman played by the redoubtable Zoë Caldwell.

 

Lilo & Stitch 2 – 3/5

 

Two problems make up the plot of this made-for-home video sequel: Lilo (Dakota Fanning) is planning to enter an original hula contest for seven year olds and is depending on Stitch (Chris Sanders) to help her work out a routine they can do together. Stitch, however, is the other problem. His energy charge was never fully implemented when he was created, and now he’s running down and at the mercy of erratic surges which revert him to his previously destructive ways. Unless Dr. Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) and Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) can invent a recharging chamber for him, Stitch is going to cease to exist.

 

Though the film is barely more than an hour in length, it seems almost twice as long with its plodding plotting (screenplay by Tony Leondis, Michael LeBash, Alexa Junge, and Eddie Guzeilan) and the return (in fits and starts) of the angry Lilo and the destructive Stitch from the first film though with far less comic consistency. Most everyone is back and very welcome this time around (Dakota Fanning takes over as Lilo but sounds remarkably similar to the original voice work of Daveigh Chase), but there is far less emphasis on simple morals about family and friendship than before. Those who loved the first film will be happy to see their beloved characters again, and the animation is comparable to the original’s lush water color look despite an obviously lower budget with this home video sequel.



Video Rating: 5/5  3D Rating: NA

The two films are presented in their respective aspect ratios of 1.66:1 and 1.78:1, both offering 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. The transfers are both reference quality with strong, solid lines that never show any aliasing and colors that are quite beautifully saturated to accurately represent the water color look both films boast. Black levels are nice and deep, and there is no banding to be seen anywhere in either transfer. The original film has been divided into 30 chapters while the sequel has 12 chapters.



Audio Rating: 4.5/5

Lilo & Stitch – 4.5/5
Lilo & Stitch 2 – 5/5

 

Both transfers offer DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mixes (the original also has a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix available). The rich music scores of both films with their Elvis songs and other tunes (Wynonna offers her own impressive version of “Burning Love” in the original) get wonderful spread through both the fronts and rears. The original film doesn’t use the rear channels as much as it could have with the amount of destruction and noise that’s present on the soundtrack, but the spread across the front channels is strong. Both mixes feature clear and well recorded dialogue that’s in the center channel, but the sequel features fairly aggressive directionalized dialogue that’s always welcome. The LFE channel does get a nice workout in the original film.



Special Features Rating: 0/5

None of the bonus features from the original DVD release of Lilo & Stitch have been ported over to the Blu-ray package. For fans of the film, this will be most disappointing.

 

Promo Trailers: The Little Mermaid, Monsters University, Super Buddies, and Heroes United, among others.

 

DVD copies of both films are stacked on the same spindle in the package.



Overall Rating: 3/5

The Blu-ray transfers of Lilo & Stitch and its made-for-video sequel are all fans of the movies could ask for, but Disney once again disappoints by not porting over any of the bonus material previously available.


Reviewed By: Matt Hough


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Mark-W

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Fortunately, and unlike to 2 disc SEs of The Emperor's New Groove and Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo & Stitch's Big Wave edition is still in print and available for ~$13.00

I will replace the included DVD with the Big Wave version and hand out the bare bones DVD.
 

Jason_V

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You've got to be kidding me. Why do I feel like it's one step forward and three steps backward with Disney? Sure, we're getting a ton of material on BD this year, but the packages are half complete...with no appropriate reduction in price. Are we really back to the days of including "full color character art on disc" as an extra for Disney discs?
 

Ejanss

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Disney’s animators accomplished something rather herculean with Lilo & Stitch: they managed to create a character that for much of the film is completely unlikable and irritating and yet by the end had worked their magic and made him affecting and lovable.
TWO unlikable and irritating characters at the beginning of the film, actually:
Sanders & DeBlois were a little too close to their own "Triumph of the Weird" material, and forgot that we, the audience had never heard of these characters before--So, we end up following the one character who does have something A-B to accomplish, namely the big-sister trying to get a job and not lose custody, and start to resent this psychotic lil' force-of-nature drama-queen brat ruining it for her at every turn. I remember, during the big no-dry-eye-in-the-house moment when we think the big sister's going to lose custody, thinking "Now, y'see? If you had just OPENED THE DOOR when you were supposed to, none of this would be happening!"

I actually didn't warm to either character until the Disney Channel series--It might not have been up to the movie's huggy factor, but at least there was no question about whose slightly "Weird, which leads to creativity" head we were supposed to be in for the run of the story.
 

AaronMK

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I'm disappointed about the missing bonus features. This was very well received both critically and commercially, and deserved a true special edition release. I was really looking forward to at least getting the four "inter-Stitch'el" trailers in HD, but I guess they deemed the promo trailers more important. :(

However, I'm very happy about the top-notch presentation of the movie itself.
 

Ken_McAlinden

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FYI - The included SD DVD is the exact same disc as was authored for disc one of the 2009 "Big Wave" Edition and includes the following extras as previously detailed in Neil Middlemiss' HTF Review:

Audio Commentary - (00:00) – Co-directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois provide some revealing production history, notably the change the opening sequence went through from its original treatment and the finale. Their care in presenting the culture of Hawaii correctly and accurately, through step for step dance moves animated from videos they shared and the use of traditional chants, is discussed (and welcome) here. A good, valuable and full commentary.

“Your ‘Ohana’” Music Video Featuring the Hawaiian Chorus - (2:11)

Lilo & Stitch Island Adventure Games – Previous experiments (pre experiment 626) have been released across the island – to play, choose any of the three games samples to win and collect the escaped experiments.

DisneyPedia” Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha: Explore the Hawaiian Islands – An interactive feature that allows you to select any one of the Hawaiian Islands to learn more, or choose the select all feature for a full, uninterrupted tour.

Create You Own Alien Experiment Game – A cute game allowing you to build an Alien by answering questions that trigger the activation of solutions to be injected into your experiment then selecting the correct order to mix them. I got the questions right but the mixing order wrong. Go figure.

A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through The Disney Years – This is a cute feature, narrated by David Odgen Stiers (of M*A*S*H and The Dead Zone TV Show fame), who voices Jumba in the film that tells the fictional story of Stitch trying to break into Disney films, inserting the Stitch character into classic Disney films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through 101 Dalmatiansand more.

Hula Lessons - (3:36) – Learn how to Hula with this brief instructional extra.

“Burning Love” – Behind The Scenes with Wynonna - (1:31) – Country music singer Wynonna provides the song playing over the closing credits – this feature shows some footage of the recording of this track.

“I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” Music Video Performed by A-Teens- (1:02)

Animating the Hula - (3:04) – A respectful look at the cultural and spiritual significance of the Hula dance and the care and detail taken in the animation of that dance. Since none of the animation of the dancing was rotoscoped, the process was even more painstaking – but worth the effort.

“Inter-Stitch-ials” Theatrical Teaser Trailers – Trailers for Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and The Lion King
Additionally, the case includes two spindles that can accommodate two discs each. This means there is room for one additional disc. If you have the second bonus disc from the earlier special edition, you can add it to the case making it almost the special edition for which you were hoping.
 

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