Stitch! The Movie

''Stitch! The Movie'' is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Rough Draft Korea, released on August 26, 2003. It is produced by Tony Craig, Jess Winfield, and Roberts "Bobs" Gannaway; Gannaway also co-wrote and co-directed with Winfield and Craig, respectively. It is the second film released in the ''Lilo & Stitch'' franchise and the third film chronologically, taking place after the 2002 first film and (by later extension) the 2005 direct-to-video sequel '' Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch''. The film also serves as the backdoor pilot of the spin-off sequel series '' Lilo & Stitch: The Series'', which Craig, Winfield and Gannaway executive produced and debuted the following month. The story is an introduction to Jumba Jookiba's other experiments (made prior to Stitch) that he created via the financing of Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel.

Plot

Stitch has been trying to adapt to life with Lilo in Hawaii, but has a hard time fitting in without causing more disasters. Lilo tries to encourage him by saying he is one-of-a-kind, which just makes him feel worse, as he desires others who he could consider his "cousins". Meanwhile, ex-captain Gantu is hired by Dr. Jumba Jookiba's former partner, the diminutive and rodent-like Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, to retrieve his other experiments. Gantu goes to Earth and abducts Jumba, finding and taking a dehydrated pod containing Experiment 625; Stitch and Lilo take Jumba's spaceship and engage Gantu in battle, only to be defeated and fall back to Earth.

Back at their house, Lilo, Stitch, and Pleakley find the container Jumba was hiding. Pleakley realizes that it contains the other experiments, also in pods, and warns them not to tell anyone or reactivate the experiments, aware of how dangerous they are. Deliberately disobeying his orders, Stitch and Lilo retrieve the container and reactivate the electricity-based Experiment 221, who promptly escapes into the night. Jumba is being held captive by Hämsterviel, who requests that the experiments be turned over to him, believing its where they belong. Unable to intimidate Jumba, Hämsterviel activates Experiment 625 to assault him. However, despite 625 having all of Stitch's abilities (along with increased intelligence allowing him to speak proper English), he is incredibly lazy and cowardly, prioritizing making sandwiches above all else. Meanwhile, Pleakley is able to make contact with Hämsterviel's ship via telephone, who proceeds to demand a ransom of the other experiments in return for Jumba. Nani calls Cobra Bubbles to seek his assistance while Lilo and Stitch go out to find 221. They manage to track down 221 at a nearby hotel and successfully catch him with a glass vase; Stitch soon befriends him, realizing he has finally found a "cousin" of his own.

The rendezvous time arrives and Pleakley and Cobra show up to trade the container for Jumba, but Hämsterviel is annoyed to find one is missing. Lilo and Stitch soon arrive with 221, announced she has named it "Sparky", and declares that it and all the experiments are a part of their ''ohana''. They release Sparky and break Jumba from his bonds, just as Cobra signals the Grand Councilwoman's ship to rise out of the nearby ocean to blast Hämsterviel. Lilo protests, since he still has the other experiments, so Sparky uses his electrical abilities to disrupt the power on the ship, allowing Hämsterviel and Gantu to escape on their ship with the experiments, as Lilo, Stitch and Sparky stow away.

Inside the ship, Lilo and Stitch manage to seize the container and in the ensuing struggle, it ends up releasing the dehydrated pods, which rain down and scatter all throughout Hawaii. Having captured the duo, Hämsterviel reveals his plans to clone Stitch a thousand times over, as he is strapped to a weight he cannot lift, while Gantu puts Lilo in a teleportation pod to send her to an intergalactic zoo. Before Stitch is vivisected by a laser for the cloning process, Sparky sabotages the machine, releasing him as the duo to strap Hämsterviel to the device before they rescue Lilo.

Lilo, Stitch and Sparky then sabotage Gantu's ship, causing it to crash near a waterfall on Kauai. Landing Hämsterviel's ship back at the rendezvous point, they give Sparky a new home at the Kīlauea Lighthouse, where he can resume its operations. They then persuade the Grand Councilwoman to let them rehabilitate the other experiments. The Councilwoman has Hämsterviel apprehended and grants Lilo and Stitch the task of tracking down the other experiments. At that moment, several experiments are activated by various means and Lilo and Stitch drive off in Jumba's dune buggy, putting the events of the series in motion.

After the credits, Jumba and Pleakley hope to go home with the Grand Councilwoman this time, but they are left stranded on Earth once again.

Voice cast

* Chris Sanders as Stitch / Experiment 626
* Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai
* Tia Carrere as Nani Pelekai, Lilo's older sister and legal guardian
* Dee Bradley Baker as David Kawena
* David Ogden Stiers as Dr. Jumba Jookiba, Stitch's creator
* Kevin McDonald as Pleakley
* Frank Welker as Sparky / Experiment 221
* Jeff Bennett as Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel
* Kevin Michael Richardson as Gantu
* Rob Paulsen as Reuben / Experiment 625
* Ving Rhames as Cobra Bubbles

Other voices, listed as "With the Voice Talents of":
* Corey Burton as a Hawaiian Man
* Zoe Caldwell as the Grand Councilwoman
* Tress MacNeille as Hämsterviel's Ship Computer
* Kunewa Mook as Moses Puloki
* Liliana Mumy as Mertle Edmonds
* Jess Winfield as Various Voices
* Lili Ishida as Yuki (uncredited)
* Jillian Henry as Elena (uncredited)
* Kali Whitehurst as Teresa (uncredited)

Production

Presented by Walt Disney Pictures and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, ''Stitch! The Movie'' is the lead-in to '' Lilo & Stitch: The Series''.

At some point, there was a decision to only have Stitch's name in the titles of both the film and the subsequent series, which was planned to be called ''Stitch! The TV Series''. Eventually, this was abolished, resulting in both this film and ''The Series'' having mismatched names. The ''Stitch!'' name (with exclamation point) was used as the title for an anime series five years after this film's release.

Critical reception

In a 2019 list of direct-to-video sequels, prequels, and "mid-quels" to Disney animated films, Petrana Radulovic of ''Polygon'' ranked ''Stitch! The Movie'' tenth out of twenty-six films, the lowest of the ''Lilo & Stitch'' sequel films on her list. Radulovic wrote that she liked the message of Stitch finding his family, but criticized it for not being as funny as the original ''Lilo & Stitch'' film, stating that "some of the undanecharm of ''Lilo & Stitch'' ..s lost in favor of chasing a new alien parkyand introducing the rabbitlike villain ämstervielwho just wants world domination."

In a similar list in 2020, Lisa Wehrstedt of ''Insider'' ranked ''Stitch! The Movie'' seventeenth out of twenty-five films, which was also the lowest of the ''Lilo & Stitch'' sequels on her list. Wehrstedt wrote that she believed the film's premise did not warrant a full feature film, and its finale was too "open-ended" to have ''Stitch! The Movie'' "work as a stand-alone film like the rest of the ''Lilo & Stitch'' sequels." However, she nonetheless claimed that "everything in the ''Lilo & Stitch'' world has an irresistible charm that propels it up many ranks considering what its plot and animation quality would be able to achieve without a bunch of cute little monsters."

At the 31st Annie Awards, ''Stitch! The Movie'' was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment Production but lost to ''The Animatrix''.

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stitch! The Movie
2003 films
2003 American animated direct-to-video films
2003 children's films
2000s science fiction comedy films
American children's animated comic science fiction films
American sequel films
American television series premieres
Direct-to-video sequel films
Disney direct-to-video animated films
Animated films about children
Animated films set in Hawaii
Lilo & Stitch (franchise) films
Television films as pilots
Films scored by Michael Tavera
Films scored by Alan Silvestri
Rough Draft Studios films
Disney Television Animation films
2000s children's animated films
Films directed by Bobs Gannaway
Films directed by Tony Craig (director)
2000s English-language films
American animated films about revenge