English, Spanish, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired
Extras
Photo gallery
Animated menus
Music video
2 Interactive game
Stitch! The Movie
Disney/Buena Vista .
R4 . COLOR . 58 mins .
G . PAL
Feature
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(BLINK) Bugger! Missed it.
(BLINK) Damn! Missed it again.
(BLINK) Bugger-damn! Missed it once more.
(BLINK) Buggery-damn-damn-bugger-bugger-damnety-damn! Oh, this is getting ridiculous…
What the hell happened here?! Since when has a “movie” clocked in at a paltry 58 minutes including credits? I know they say the kids of today have short attention spans, but this is just ridiculous.
Another in the ever-so-predictable by now trail of straight-to-video sequels seemingly made to tromp all over the legacies of their cinematic brethren which Disney seems to pride itself on, Stitch! The Movie follows hot on the heels of the delightful Lilo & Stitch. Mercifully not just a crappy cash-in, it actually does take some of the beauty of its inspiration’s characters and settings, and comes up with a reasonably paced and decent enough story.
Actually, you look more like a bunny than a gerbil or hamster...
As hopefully most will recall, before Lilo named the little blue alien fella Stitch, he was known as Experiment 626. Now, naturally this implies the existence of 625 predecessors and, thanks to new character (and former associate of Dr Jumba) Dr Hämsterviel (voiced by somebody with an obvious love of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as he sounds just like John Cleese’s French knight), we get to meet some of them – bland as they are.
The Blues Ohana.
Ousted from the side of good, big dummy fish head Gantu takes on the job of minion for the diminutive doctor, kidnapping Jumba in order to get those pre-626 experiments by way of ransom. However, Stitch is really starting to dig on this whole ohana (family) thing, and doesn’t want to see a potential 625 cousins spirited away by a little hamster-like doctor. Cue lots of space stuff, the appearance of most every character that inhabited the original film (remember, nobody gets left behind) from Cobra Bubbles to Pleakley down to the chubby dude with an ice cream, and you can probably guess what goes down in the end. But it’s all done with a sense of fun mostly in keeping with the spirit of the original – just don’t blink, for you may miss it.
Video
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Stitch picks a winner...
Looking as if it was made as recently as last week – and that’s probably not too far from the truth - Stitch! The Movie is a veritable treat for the eyes. Whilst not possessing the same level of gorgeousness as its much bigger-budgeted cousin in the original cinematic adventures of Lilo & Stitch, it still looks superb; boasting glorious colour and detail in all its 1.66:1, 16:9-enhanced presentation.
Audio
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I'll have a borscht on rye thanks...
Fairly unadventurous Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are on offer in the flavours English, Spanish and Portuguese. So as to avoid 58 minutes of continued utterances of “que?” this particular reviewing-type person plumped for the English offering, to discover good, clear dialogue from those who voiced the theatrical release mixed in with some fun spacey sounds, although nothing that screamed “Hey! We’re all kind of spectacular like!” The subwoofwoof gets its teeth into a few whooshes here and there, and there is some surround activity, just don’t expect great things and all should be happy.
With a teensier budget, only one Elvis Presley song was licensed here, sharing time with some familiar Alan Silvestri compositions from the cinema release as well as new orchestral bits and bobs from Michael Tanera and a fun take on the always brilliant Peter Gunn Theme, as well as a head-poppingly annoying (but catchy nonetheless) Hawaiian-styled chart fodder ditty entitled Aloha, E Komo Mai from a bunch of poppets called Jump 5.
Extras
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A fun little menu system boasts a few kiddie-oriented extras, but nothing to keep them amused for any great length of time.
The first of two interactive games is Experiment Finder, where the player strives to become Jumba’s hero by seeking out four hidden experiments and plopping them where they can best let loose their own particular brand of mayhem. The second is a fairly standard three-strikes-and-you’re-out trivia thing, Dr Hämsterveil’s Trivia Challenge for Trivial Earthlings, whereby the gerbil-like – erm, hamster-like – one annoys us with his French knight-like voice to the point of insanity.
Next up is the Experiment Gallery, whereby 22 mostly averagely designed cousins of Stitch get the piccie and audio bio treatment. Finally, we can opt to endure the music video for that Jump 5 song, running for 2:34 and fighting to be heard over the audio from the various clips from the “movie” it is made up of.
Overall
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Boasting top notch presentation visually – not that 58 minutes would be much of an encoding challenge – decent audio and a so-so extras package, Stitch! The Movie is certainly still cute and fluffy, and ultimately an amusing little diversion. However, “little” is the operative word here, and as such value for money must be questioned.
Amazon Women on the Moon "...worth a look if you’ve never before had the pleasure. Bullshit, or not?"
Jack & Sarah "Proving that simplicity is no obstruction to brilliance, this is an ultimately sweet (but not sickeningly so) tale that gives all those bigger English films out there a more than respectable run for their money... "