Lilo and Stitch

     Ahhh Disney... what has happened to your 2D animation department? For decades you were regarded as the #1 in animation. Then you made Home on the Range.
     But, one year before Disney's 2D animation department disappeared into the void (for about 5 years) they made Lilo and Stitch.
     Lilo and Stitch tells the story of Stitch, a genetic experiment created by an evil genius, who lands in Hawaii and finds a family in Lilo and her sister Nani, who are in trouble with Child Services. The movie is fantastic. It is sad, funny, well animated, and quite well written. It has it's flaws, just like any other film, but they can be overlooked fairly easily. It ranks up there with many other Disney classics, and is one of my favorite Disney films.



     However, this blog isn't about overlooking the problems... It is about addressing them and fixing them.
While the film is great as-is, it isn't perfect. But the problems it does have, can easily be repaired...

Aliens and Poor Memory

     The first scene in the film introduces us to the galactic federation, and they are holding a trial for Professor Jumba, who is the head of their science division. They are accusing him of Genetic Experimentation... I'll come back to genetic experimentation in a bit. They introduce Stitch as evidence to his crime, and Jumba lists off how he is super strong and super smart.

     Naturally, the Galactic Counsel locks Jumba up, and is taking Stitch to be exiled. However, Stitch escapes, and crash lands on Earth.

     This is where the aliens start to not make as much sense. When they find out Stitch is going to land on Earth, the counsel woman calls for an expert on the planet... The problem is, by the end, not only does the counsel woman know about Earth, she actually had dealings in the past with a CIA agent that convinced her that Earth needed to live because Mosquitoes are an endangered species...

     First off, we have a lot of endangered species. The Mosquito is a very poor choice for an argument to save the planet. Second, while they outlaw genetic experimentation, it is a reality to them... Which also means that they likely have cloning, so they could just take one sample of the endangered race, clone it, and the species is no longer endangered.

     But, because a tiny bug that is a complete annoyance and also spreads disease is "endangered" the aliens can't destroy the planet to get rid of the experiment. (They weer going to exile it, why would being on a populated (or at the very least habitable) planet make them decide that the planet needs to die?)

     They also decide that going in in-force would cause a panic, so they decide on a stealth extraction team... Made up of an expert on the planet and the scientist that made the monster. The two would be better off as advisers to the actual extraction team, not as the people actually going to extract Stitch.

     Thus Jumba and the earth expert, Pleakly, go to Earth to capture Stitch... And are forced into stealth by Stitch being adopted by Lilo, a little human girl, who is a part of the mosquito food chain...

     There are a lot of humans on earth. Mosquitoes don't need one little girl. If the experiment isn't worth the loss of one human, then it isn't worth it at all.

     But, later, when a stealth extraction proves to be too slow for the counsel woman, she sends a giant land-shark guy to take Stitch by force... Yeah, that won't cause a violent panic among the humans...

     Thus the problem with the Aliens: their motivations for a stealth mission make no sense, and they have poor memory of events. (The counsel woman forgot that she actually talked with a CIA agent about endangered mosquitoes, she forgot that she sent a stealth extraction team to be stealthy...) So the aliens need a different motivation for not going all out in capturing Stitch.

     My recommendation: Make them choose to go with a stealth mission because humans are dangerous. Make it so that they are afraid of the humans going to war with them. Make them weak to lead, or afraid of our weapons (nuclear bombs are not something to sneeze at, even if they don't shoot plasma). This works two fold: one, they need to be stealthy so the humans don't try to kill them, and two, it gives them a reason to get stitch (so he doesn't reveal the existence of aliens.)

     The next idea brought up would be: Contact the humans, inform them that they exist, and that they are coming down peacefully to extract a dangerous monster from the planet. Sure the humans will freak out a little, but they won't declare war. Of course, the problem that would arise form this would be that humans try even harder to find habitable planets (or make them) to get out into space. They'd start to spread like wildfire and become a massive threat (think Halo, similar to how the story started there).

     As for gassing the planet... It could be stated (hell, it could even be a joke) that the gas won't affect them. It could go like this:

"Can't we just gas the planet?"

"That won't have any effect you grace."

"Why not?"

"Because everything living down there breathes the gas! They need it to live!"

"Really? They breath oxygen (says oxygen in disgust)?"

"Yeah! I know, crazy right?!"

     That would make more sense, and would also give more power to the idea that the aliens would be afraid of us.

The Stealth Team

     Now that the reasoning behind a stealth team is better, the stealth team itself needs to be better. Jumba and Pleakly are nice and all, but a galactic federation that has raptors for guards would send an actual team to remove Stitch. This team could be made up of it's own personalities, and they too could decide to help Nani retrieve Lilo near the end, but they need to be competent. They need to decide when to go after him based on how many humans are around him, not on whether or not they are fired. Jumba and Pleakly work more as advisers to them, Jumba giving hidden insight into Stitch, like that he can be knocked out with a quick blow to the head, or that scratching his back puts him to sleep. And Pleakly would be serving mostly as the guide, and captain of the team.

     Second, since the counsel woman sent in an elite team, she wouldn't need to send Gantu when Jumba and Pleakly fail... So instead have it be that Gantu thinks it is taking too long, and goes in himself. That way Gantu is a more clear villain, and not just a guy doing his job.

     On a less related note, they could decide that, even though Lilo and Nani are few enough humans that they could kill them and remove Stitch without causing a panic, they are high profile targets because of Cobra Bubbles (their Child Services guy, and former CIA agent. The one the grand counsel woman spoke with before) being attached to them. Thus they only go after Stitch when he is no longer with them, and continue pursuing him into the house (police style, checking every room and hallway) when they realize their window of opportunity is closing.

But, aside from the Aliens being incompetent and not making much sense in the film proper, Lilo and Stitch is a great film, with excellent themes of Belonging, Family, and Purpose. I fully recommend the film to animation fans and families.

Maybe not the TV series and the direct to DVD special that come after the movie, since they make the aliens even more incompetent and lay the themes of family on very thick with an extra dosage of daily Aesop (lesson) on top. The movie is great, don't bother with the auxiliary. 

This has been Fixer Sue. Have a good day. ^^