Lilo & Stitch makes its 4K UHD physical media debut to help promote this summer’s live action remake.
The Production: 4/5
Since its release in 2002, Lilo & Stitch has been an animated favorite in the Erwin household. Its offbeat humor and animation style, particularly the watercolor backgrounds, give it a children’s storybook look and feel. At the time, my wife and I had a cat named Domino who was very much like Stitch in personality, at times extremely naughty but could then become most charming and sweet.
Matt Hough reviewed the 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray release back in 2013 (which included this film and the direct-to-video sequel) and didn’t like the film quite as much as I still do to this day, but his synopsis is dead on.
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.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Disney’s 2160p HEVC encode retains the film’s intended aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and includes both Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range. Hand-drawn character lines get a nice boost in detail while the colors, thanks to the HDR grade, have a nice pop to them without appearing overly saturated. Black levels are excellent with deep shadow details. The included Blu-ray disc is likely the same disc included with the more recently re-issued 2-movie collection 4-disc set from October 2022 (the disc has an author date of May 2022 and includes the same bonus features as that release).
Audio: 4.5/5
Default audio on the UHD disc is a nice Dolby Atmos remix that adds some additional depth to the original 5.1 mix, more noticeable in the opening prologue and third act finale. Surrounds are active where needed, LFE adds some nice emphasis on explosions, and dialogue is clear and understandable throughout.
Special Features: 3/5
Surprisingly, there are no new special features on either disc, not even a teaser trailer for the live action remake. As usual, the UHD disc contains no bonus material (not even the commentary track). Special features can be accessed on the Blu-ray edition, most of which have been ported from the 2009 Big Wave 2-disc DVD release.
Hula Lesson (480i; 3:36): Learn to do the Hula.
Animating the Hula (480i; 3:04): A look at the research the directors did to animate the opening hula dance as realistic as possible.
DisneyPedia: Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha (480i; 8:46): The voices of Nani and Lilo take us on a brief tour of the Hawaiian islands.
“Burning Love”: Behind the Scenes with Wynona(480i; 1:32): A quick look at Wynona recording the end title song for the movie.
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” A*Teens Music Video (480i; 1:02)
“Your ‘Ohana” Music Video (480i; 2:11)
Audio Commentary with Directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders: The two long-time collaborators discuss various changes the storyline took during development and other aspects of the production.
A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years (480i; 3:31): David Ogden Stiers narrates a rather silly look at fake easter eggs of Stitch in other Disney films.
“Inter-Stitch-ials”: Theatrical Teaser Trailers (480i; 4:21): Stitch invades scenes from four different then-recent Disney animated films that was part of the theatrical marketing for the film.
Digital Copy: A Movies Anywhere code is included to redeem a 4K digital copy.
Overall: 4.5/5
Lilo & Stitch finally arrives on UHD Blu-ray so viewers can compare it to the live action remake this summer. This is a worthy upgrade from Blu-ray.
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