Lilo and... Yuna... and also Ai Ling!

4:29 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "jumba: your cooking sucks
pleakley: why do you hate queer people"

TW: This post contains brief mentions of incest and pedophilia, both while discussing Angel.

I accidentally skipped Stitch I am SO SORRY. And it's been quite a while since the last post because I've been in LA trying to find a lot of things to do, people to see, work to finish up. And then I caught covid. It's been a wild trip. I've been finishing up Higglytown Heroes slowly and watching HBOMax and finding out about some Disney inspired things that may be worth discussion.

But right now let's talk about Lilo and Stitch.

This was childhood. I won't deny it. I actually have some vivid memories of seeing Lilo and Stitch in theaters. Particularly, the sound went out at the end of the movie, which made everyone in the theater pissed. 

But it was a good movie still, and Disney knew it because they cashed the hell out of it. We got Stitch the movie, which told us there were 625 whole experiments, and served as a pilot for Lilo and Stitch: The Series. Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch, which I remember being weirded by hearing Dakota Fanning's voice out of Lilo's mouth and not much else about. Leroy and Stitch, which I definitely haven't seen, and the Disneyworld attraction, which fucking sucks, man.

I think the best way to describe Lilo and Stitch: The Series is "feel good." You see all the main characters from the film sort of enjoying their happily ever after. It's kind of like what happened with Tangled, except it maintains that feeling of happily ever after. We get a sort of found family with all the aliens who show up, along with David, and even if things go south, which is usually Gantu or Myrtle having their way by the end, they still have each other.

Speaking of Gantu, I think the biggest difference between Lilo and Stitch The Series and Lilo and Stitch the movie is probably its villains. You see a lot of people talking around about how the movie doesn't really have a villain except... Gantu kindaaaa? Everyone's sort of iffy on it, but in the show, he's definitely the recurring villain, along with Jumba's ex former lab partner, the Monty Python-esque Hamsterviel. And honestly, it... makes sense? Like it becomes clear that Gantu is just some dude looking for work and trying to do a good job at it. I have to commend Lilo and Stitch for that, especially considering that it's a pet peeve of mine when characters who have interesting previously established motivations sort of become evil for the sake of being evil (looking at you, Ducktales 2017).

Lilo and Stitch also had four crossovers, three from shows I've discussed here prior (Kim Possible, Proud Family, and Recess), and one I have not (American Dragon). Discussing the American Dragon crossover first, it specifically focuses on season 1, which everyone prefers for the art style but I hate for the protagonist and dialogue, and I think it does a good job with it. Jake's a lot more likeable here than he usually is. Proud Family one is pretty fun too. It's more focused on Penny than the family itself, but it makes for a sweet story. Kim Possible may be one of the weaker ones, but that may also be because I ranked Kim Possible a lot higher than Lilo and Stitch The Series in my rank. It sort of comes off as middling. And finally Recess is... Interesting. I like that Galileo was an important plot point, so it came off pretty knowledgeable, but otherwise, I'm kind of in the same boat. Essentially yeah going into the crossovers, you'll probably like them if you like the show more than or about as much as you like Lilo and Stitch the Series, which I think is a solid cartoon.

Also worth noting, a lot of characters introduced in The Series become part of the franchise canon. Hamsterviel is a costume character at Disney Parks. Sparky is in Kingdom Hearts.

Angel.

 

That's as good as any a segue into the Stitch anime, considering she was my least favorite aspect of it. Both her episode and what she represented.

2:24 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "oh i KNOW the angel ep is gonna make me wanna die"
2:30 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "i wanna dropkick someone so bad"
2:30 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "this is not a fucking love triangle i hate it here"
2:33 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "stop being weird this is worse than i thought"
2:44 PM · Mar 14, 2021 " i was already uncomfortable with like. stitch and angel as a couple but they really did like. try to add onto it by making angel think stitch and yuna were a couple ...... >:-("

So Angel is kind of the pink girl female Stitch that Stitch likes. (We'll ignore the cousin thing for a moment since almost everyone does.) "Angel's Flight" gives us an episode where Angel comes by to visit Stitch who is currently living with Yuna, a young girl who studies karate and is for all intents and purposes, the Lilo of this series. So what they essentially do is have the two of them get jealous at one another with Yuna wondering who the hell this pink bitch is and Angel thinking "Yeah, Stitch is clearly romantically interested in a human elementary school student." (This takes place years after Lilo and Stitch. It really does get worse the more you think about it.)

Even besides every nasty thing about the episode, the show kind of makes all of its girl characters hate each other, and Yuna is at the center of it all.

5:30 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "oh i absolutely abhor the girl hate in this show like every girl hates each other and it makes my skin crawl"

Besides Angel, there's also Penny (the anime's Myrtle for the first two seasons), Jessica (the anime's Myrtle for season 3), and Tigerlily (I'm not really sure if Tigerlily is supposed to be like Nani?). Hell, even Lilo's Nanny treats Lilo's daughter lousily.

4:57 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "skipped to the lilo ep and already we're being mean."
5:04 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "lilo hired a mean nanny?"

It's really weird how antagonistic they are. Like the relationship between Myrtle and Lilo is one you can understand. Myrtle's a nasty little bully who thinks Lilo is a freak, and Lilo mostly wants to be friends because that's the main person she's around, but isn't above biting back when Myrtle bites first.

Yuna is just... a normal kid who seems very vindictive and Penny is your stereotypical mean child. Though I'll be honest she's so over the top it does get funny sometimes

4:45 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "kenny dressed up as a homestuck reject and penny dressed up as a lwa reject"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly I don't know as much about Jessica (The 13 episodes I watched were primarily from the first two seasons), but the dynamic seems similar, with Jessica more likely to be the butt of a joke.

5:49 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "season 3 really seems like a different show. like they tried to do lilo and stitch the series All Over Again."

At the very least, what little of season 3 I saw was better than the first two seasons.. I didn't get to see much of new characters like Jessica or Dalia. If I were to ever go back (drugged and unwilling), I might check those out. Also they aged Yuna up a year in the third season

5:47 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "lookin like steven universe future"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First two seasons though. Unpleasant. Like they even ruined Pleakley. How do you do that he's the best character!!!!

1:49 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "this feels like a fucking abridged series"
2:02 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "kijimunaa is the strongest yokai on the island but to me he is a little bitch i hate this"
3:01 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "the fact that i hate pleakley in the stitch anime is like. awful bc he was a favorite before.... right now it's a toss up between penny shitgirl and reuben"
3:46 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "Stitch anime just hurts"
3:46 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "It’s like the stitch alien escape at magic kingdom it fucking sucks"
3:47 PM · Mar 14, 2021 "And you wanna like it bc stitch is there. Funny alien"

At least it had like... a funny Gamera joke in it. That's really all I can say.

If Lilo and Stitch: The Series is a quality follow up to the film and Stitch! is a dogshit follow up to the series, Stitch and Ai is.... kind of middle of the road? It's not bad by any means, but most everything it does has already been done by Lilo and Stitch.

The one thing I will give them is the new rival, Meiying.

9:59 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "finally we have them all"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10:18 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "i rlly like the animation of stitch and ai, but i also genuinely enjoy what little interaction i've seen between ai and meiying. ai believes meiying can be a good person, which feels like a breath of fresh air after the girlhate in stitch!"

While our "Lilo" of this show, Ai Ling definitely tries too hard to be friendly with Meiying, Meiying plays more of the role of a hesitant friend, held back by Ai's weird behavior and how others around her view her. It's an interesting take on the rival character and gives some originality to this show that doesn't have it.

10:19 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "i dont like how much of a lilo ripoff ai is though. like with yuna they gave her a personality separate from lilo but ai is a bit of a lilo copy, with a similar home life and is a weirdo, except it doesn't delve into that. (bully problem)"
10:19 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "my hot take: ai is a doug character"
2:58 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "this is EXACTLY how i feel about ai. she's much better than yuna but she's still a carbon copy of lilo"

 

Another issue I have with this series is that they kind of drained Pleakley of everything that made him loveable and just made him a mosquito obsessed nerd...

8:31 AM · Jun 10, 2021 "they could have gotten the money for kevin mcdonald im JUST SAYING."
3:15 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "[slams fists on table] pleakley is TOO gender conforming"
4:46 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "like pleakley has one personality trait and it's loving mosquitos"

However, it seems all the sauce that was taken from Pleakley was given to Jumba. He's usually pretty fun, but in this series in particular, he steals the show.

2:50 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "stitch and ai is kind of funny bc jumba is even more uncle warcrimes here than in any of the other adaptations"
3:15 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "i think if i had to pick a favorite it would be jumba, who pretty consistently makes me laugh"
4:43 PM · Jun 10, 2021 "god jumba really does steal the show compared to the rest of the cast (blandies)"

Despite the series having somewhat bland characters other than Meiying and Jumba, it is really fun in a way meant for little kids, so it at least does that job properly.

8:17 AM · Jun 10, 2021 "today ai ling gives an alien a seizure"
8:38 AM · Jun 10, 2021 "you can't just eat animal crackers any old way. you have to do it right. first you make the sound of the animal. [blood curdling scream]"
8:57 AM · Jun 10, 2021 "three eps into stitch and ai and it's funny....not much else going for it."
8:58 AM · Jun 10, 2021 "it's a very childish show, not in that it's a baby show but the characters feel like genuine little kids"

The plot is also pretty interesting. It takes more from the original movie than the the American animated series or anime. Instead of focusing on experiments it seems like more of a broken family sci-fi romp.

9:32 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "the aliens in this show give off the implication that mighty ducks takes place in a similar universe?? or parallel universes????"
9:34 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "stitch is acting like he's being deadnamed... is stitch a trans icon?"
9:45 AM · Jun 9, 2021 "stitch in lilo and stitch the series: i want to find a home for all my cousins
stitch in stitch!: i want to be the strongest
stitch in stitch and ai: i want to go to a shrine so i can be protected from SPACE PIRATES"

 Also. There's a lot of fun cameos.

Really who could go wrong with the ice cream dude?

Overall Rating For Lilo and Stitch The Series: A Tier

Overall Rating For Stitch!: F Tier

Overall Rating For Stitch and Ai: C Tier