Leroy & Stitch

The final installment of the Lilo & Stitch franchise was released in the summer of 2006 as a Disney Channel and Toon Disney movie. Starring Chris Sanders, Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Tara Strong, Rob Paulsen, and Zoe Caldwell, Leroy & Stitch was nominated for the Golden Reel Award.

Lilo (Chase), Stitch (Sanders), Jumba (Stiers), and Pleakley (McDonald) are honored as heroes by the Galactic Alliance as their mission to capture and repurpose all 623 experiments. Jumba is given the key back to his lab, Pleakley is offered a post as Chairman of Earth Studies at Galactic Alliance Community College, Stitch is made Captain of the Galactic Armada, and Lilo is made ambassador to Earth However, Gantu (Richardson) has decided to break Dr. Hamsterviel (Bennett) out of prison and force Jumba to create an evil twin of Stitch named Leroy (Sanders). Who is then cloned.

This is one of those films that has a great idea on paper, but is terribly executed.

 For every Lilo & Stitch installment, it seems like references to Elvis keep getting greater and greater. For instance, Jumba played “Aloha Oe” while he activated Leroy. And guess what the key is to stopping the army of Leroys? That’s right, Stitch getting on stage and playing the song. Normally, it’d be a pretty good Chekhov’s Gun. But here, it really feels forced.

And speaking of forced, Lilo’s rival, Mertle, is picked up by a Leroy and she thinks she’s having a nightmare. But she’s quick to turn that around and realize it’s not and then makes peace with Lilo. This is also completely out of nowhere. Not once had Mertle expressed any softening of her hatred towards Lilo and all of a sudden, she’s being chummy. This is poor writing.

#99

Stitch! The Movie

Late 2003 saw the direct-to-video spinoff of Lilo & Stitch. Starring Chris Sanders, Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, and Kevin Michael Richardson, Stitch! The Movie serves as more of a pilot for the spinoff series more than an actual sequel

The disgraced and forcibly-retired Gantu (Richardson) meets with the career criminal, Dr. Jaques von Hamsterville (Jeff Bennett). He’s not after Stitch, but Jumba (Stiers) and his 625 other experiments all in dehydrated pods. Jumba is soon kidnapped with one of the pods, starting a race between Gantu and Lilo (Chase) and Stitch to find the others.

This sequel feels very similar to Return of Jafar, mainly because it’s a pilot of sorts for the oncoming sequel. And not only does it have its individual story, but sets up the series quite well.

The animation is cartoonier than the first film, but that can be attributed to being from Disney’s secondary animation studio and having a different art director. However, it still works very well and doesn’t distract. Cobra Bubbles also has a different voice actor and it’s noticeably different, but he’s not in the movie for very long.

Having the story center on Stitch and his issues with wanting cousins rather than the story between Nani and Lilois great too. Mainly because the conflict within that story ended and it would be stupid to force a new one onto viewers. It’s also really nice to have something that doesn’t involve three episodes from a series that didn’t air. 

#47