Jabber Pack
Two lovers discuss and debate questions about movies, mental health and more. We may not always find the answers, but we sure will have fun trying. We are big fans of all things wolves, dogs and Disney, so you'll probably hear a lot of that entering the fray.
Jabber Pack
Episode 09 - Lilo & Stitch Animated vs Live Action
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Welcome to Jabber Pack! The podcast of 2 lovers discussing a wide variety of things. If you want to check out the video version of this on YouTube, you can also watch us playing, Halo Reach (Well, Rogue playing and me trying not to die constantly).
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Lilo & Stitch, the first of many movies we’ll be comparing the live action to the original animated film. Whether you think the live action brought some new and exciting additions, or butchered the meaning of “Ohana”, it definitely deserves a watch. What do you think about it? What is your favorite or least favorite live action remake?
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How is everybody doing, and welcome to Jabber Pack. I am Alex. And I am Rug. And today we're gonna do uh the start of a series of podcasts where we're comparing live-action movies to their animated counterparts. Now, in large part, these are gonna be Disney movies, but there is exception here and there. So today's topic is none other than Lilo and Stitch. Now, uh there were definitely a lot of mixed feelings when the live action came out, as is with most of these. Uh but uh for me I was definitely nervous about it because uh Lilo and Stitch came out at a very pivotal pivotal pivotal Pivotal? I can't say that word. Pivotal time in my life. Uh there were a lot of things going wrong, and um my family and I were in a uh kind of a desperate living situation. And so the movie's always really connected with me, especially with the notion of Lilo really wanting a friend. Um, and when you feel the world's against you as a kid, it um you can sympathize with that a lot. So I definitely had apprehensions of them remaking this thing because it's one that's always been so near and dear to my heart. Um now, how much of that is rose glasses versus uh intrinsically the film itself is debatable. But regardless, we're gonna give it a little bit of a look-see here. Um what about you? When you were a kid, did you have any specific impressions of Lelo and Stitch?
SPEAKER_03Honestly, it's Lelo and Stitch is always just one of those Disney movies that's always been there. I couldn't tell you when I first saw it or anything like that. It's just always kind of been there and part of my life. I've always enjoyed Lelo and Stitch. And yes, I was one of those weirdos who didn't mind the series either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, see, I was unaware of the series until later in my life. Because uh, like I said, at the time I saw the original movie, my living situation was kind of desperate and uh, you know, wasn't super different moving forward the next few years, so um I didn't have anything resembling cable till maybe ten years after that, so because I'm pretty sure it was a Disney Channel thing.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Yeah, it was a Disney Channel original series. I I guess I was spoiled. I grew up with Disney Channel. So I I got to watch the whole thing the the whole series as it was airing, and some episodes weren't bad, others you just especially as an adult, you question why. Well, I mean and again that that I guess that's how it is with any Disney show from like the 90s, early 2000s.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you know, and the main motivation is money, let's be honest. The only reason they they they go off and make these series and stuff is when they have something as successful, especially surprisingly successful as Lelo and Stitch was, um merchandise goes crazy, and Stitch merchandise to this day is a huge seller. And I have a Stitch on my desk, so I'm part of the problem, I guess. Um not that merchandise is, you know, bad or whatever, but uh it's just weird that this movie came out of left field and has just uh swept the aisles of Walmart, Hot Topics, Spencer's, you name it. You know. You can find stitch hats, shirts, mugs, um pointlessly expensive figurines of him reading a book.
SPEAKER_03Um not that we know anything about that.
SPEAKER_01Where did we get that?
SPEAKER_03Box lunch.
SPEAKER_01Oh. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it it's the uh the the uh more teen-targeted version of uh Hot Topic.
SPEAKER_01Oh, interesting way to word it.
SPEAKER_03Well, when you think about it, Hot Topic is more for like I would say older teens, younger young adults. Where box lunch is more catered to, I feel like, younger teens and older kids. Or those who are just very nostalgic.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough, fair enough. But now, onto the movies themselves, uh so uh the approach they took to both of these films was decidedly d different. And not quite as drastically different as some. Uh like I think the probably the s most drastic difference in live action versus animated would probably be Mulan. Um I mean it's it's debatable.
SPEAKER_03I no, I'd agree. Well, actually, I say it was a toss-up. Between, in my opinion, Mulan and Dumbo.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough, fair enough.
SPEAKER_03Because the story they the the way they did Dumbo, again, topic for another discussion, but I I think the way they did Dumbo was really, really good. The way they did Mulan, not so much.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. But but we figured uh we were talking about this a little bit before, and there's kind of no better way to talk about the differences without just talking about the differences. Um because, you know, you could talk about overall tone and um things, but I'm not a movie scholar, so I couldn't sit there and nitpick some of the artistry of it. Now, it it you know the the there's something to be said about the style of the original was really, really cool. They had mostly watercolor uh backgrounds um that they uh you know did and put all their characters in front of. And the creation of that whole film was uh bonker story in itself because it's something that the uh higher-ups basically just let them run with, you know, nervously, but they're like, trust us, we got an idea. And in large part they had no idea what they were doing at first, but um they ran with it, and they uh most of the if I recall, it wasn't even animated at the main studio for Disney. I mean, now defunct, they don't have a hand-drawn animation studio anymore, but but it was just this one-off project done uh uh just off kilter. And uh they ran with it and they made something that's been endearing for years. Um obviously in Disney fashion they're gonna do live-action remake. I mean, that's what they do. It's Disney. Um so for those of you who haven't seen the film, Lilo and Stitch both is about a genetic experiment who's created um and it's uh determined that he needs to be exiled because it's a kid's movie and they can't just kill him. And uh so, but in the process of trying to transport him to some point of exhalation, he escapes, lands on Earth, and uh becomes entwined in the lives of uh Lilo, obviously, and her older sister Nani, who recently lost their parents and are just trying to get through life together, and so he makes that more complicated, but in the end, they're all family. Yay.
SPEAKER_03Didn't have to sound so thrilled about it. Jeez, I thought you liked the movie.
SPEAKER_01I do like the movie. Um I'm just not good at summarizing. So um so one of the first some of the more minor differences between live action and animated are uh the there's a villain in the animated version. Uh his name's Captain Gantu. He's kind of this sharkhead, sharkhead looking guy. And um so he's the one who is charged with uh when I say charged with um assigned to go and capture Stitch.
SPEAKER_03He's he's the one who is responsible for initially transporting Stitch from the Council planet to an exile planet, which then of course Stitch probably escapes, and he is then charged with going to hunt Stitch down and bring him back.
SPEAKER_01Yes, indeed. Well put. Um now, of course, the uh the original ones who were supposed to go get him were uh Dr. Jumba. Um don't ask me his last name, like Jukiba or something.
SPEAKER_03It's Jumba Jukiba.
SPEAKER_01Uh who is Stitch's creator, and um somebody named Agent Pleakley, who is the expert on Earth Culture, who um convinces them initially to not nuke the planet anyway, um, which was their first uh well, they said gas the planet, not nuke it, but same thing really. Um so they're the ones who were supposed to go get him, but because they failed, they send Captain Gantu. So, but that's in the animated. In the uh live action, he's nowhere to be seen. Um there's rumors that the animation process was just getting too expensive, so they thought they needed to axe him, but I can't speak to that. I do think it's a weird choice, and we'll go into what they did instead a little later, but um it's a shame, because uh Well I is it a unique choice yet?
SPEAKER_03I don't know that it was a weird choice, because for me personally, I I think the axing of Gantu it didn't really affect it too much in my book. Because Gantu you see throughout the animated movie trying to after jumbo and completely fail at capturing Stitch. You see him show up almost immediately, he almost immediately captures Stitch.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, when he lands on the planet.
SPEAKER_03And then goes to him and take it back. So the only time you're really seeing Gantu is at the beginning of the movie when he's there for the trial of Stitch and then to transport him to an exile planet, and then at the end of the movie, when he actually captures Stitch and you know, whole rescue climax movie thing begins.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So, yeah, I mean, uh, I can creatively see why why they got rid of him. And I can't say he was like one of my favorite characters anyway. So, um because one of the roles I think Gantu served in the original film was they needed a uh through and through villain, which calling him a villain is weird because his motivations are understandable. He's a military man, he's just trying to complete his mission. He's doing what he's been told. So, uh, you know, I mean he's kind of a dick. Uh, so that doesn't help. Um, but you know, it's it's hard to say like he's a villain in the most traditional sense. It's not like he's doing anything deliberately sinister. Um he's just doing his job. His job just happens to be at odds with all of our protagonists. So it makes him, you know.
SPEAKER_03I can see if you don't like if you don't like Gantu in the first Leo and Sitch movie, don't watch the animated series. He plays a more predominant role in the animated series and flips from being the good guy following orders by from the councilwoman to literally being a like four-higher mercenary type individual. Because for those who haven't seen it or are unfamiliar with it, the basic premise of the Leo and Stitch series since Stit Stitch is experiment 626, all the rest of the experiments end up getting loose all over the island. So 625 other experiments end up getting loose on the island. And the series is basically Lilo and Stitch trying to hunt down all of Stitch's quote-unquote brothers and sisters to figure out where they quote unquote belong. Yes, there's a lot of quotes in there because doesn't he call them cousins, though? Yeah, you're right. They are technically cousins, I guess, is how he considers them. But I mean, let's be honest, there's brothers and sisters. It makes it weird, but so in in the series, Gantu is no longer part of the police force for the Federation Which is, I guess, how he's portrayed in the movie. He gets fired from his job because of the whole incident through the original movie. So then he becomes a far higher individual by this evil hamster rabbit thing called Dr. Hamsterveal. Yes, that's his actual evil villain name. I don't know why. And he is exactly. And Gantu is hired by this by evil Dr. Hamsterveal to try and capture all these other experiments before Lilo and Stitch find them. And throughout the process ends up adopting question mark, one of the experiments because it likes to make sandwiches.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, doesn't his name end up becoming Ruben?
SPEAKER_03Yes, his name ends up ends up becoming Reuben. And for some reason he is then teamed up with Gantu to try and stop Willow and Stitch from gathering the other cousins. And it it it's weird and stupid, but stupidly entertaining for some reason.
SPEAKER_01I also believe Ruben was voiced by um Rob Paulson.
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Uh you know, and for somebody who hasn't seen the series, I seem to know a lot about it. I mean, I actually do think I saw a couple episodes um that we threw on one day just for funsies. Um, so uh that's probably where I get some of my knowledge from it. I also think some of the characters from uh the series appeared in Leroy and Stitch, which was the Most of the characters. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Most of the cousins appeared in Leroy and Stitch because it's basically a climax of all of the experiments that Gantu cre or that sorry, that Jumba created, versus the clones of Leroy, which is experiment 627. Because he's supposed to be Stitch's better version, but it's all the copies of Leroy versus all of the other 600 plus experiments.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's uh the the Lelo and Stitch uh movie line can be a little difficult to follow. Now, especially if you look at them in production order, because I didn't know this, but Lilo and Stitch 2 uh came out, I believe, after Leroy and Stitch. Believe it or not. But I need to research that, because that could be very wrong. Either way, I know it didn't come out second. Something else came out first. Maybe it was the series. I'm not uh I'm trying, I'm not quite sure. Because um uh, it's confusing. Because I know that they they launched a movie that I think was just called Stitch, and that's the one that launched the series, because it brought in the idea of, oh, here's all these other experiments, and uh and then Leroy and Stitch was the other uh bookend to the series. So, you know, they had movie, series, movie. Kinda like with Stargate, but less messy. Um but and then like Lelo and Stitch 2 somewhere in that mix got released. But I remember it was not immediately next. But if you want to watch it in uh story order, you would watch Lelo and Stitch, Lelo and Stitch 2, Stitch, the series, Leroy and Stitch. And then whatever the heck they did with it after that. Because Stitch, being a very licensable character, uh went on to be in I think two other series. I know at least there was one in Japan where uh supposedly he just turns his back on the whole Ohana thing and uh just finds a new one in Japan because I guess Lilo was getting older and starting to get interested in guys or something, and so he got jealous and sad and mad and ran away. So, yay for Ohana. And then I think they did it one more time, uh, the brief series run in China as well. So, you know, it's kind of mudding the whole uh moral lessons of family when you get down to it. Especially when uh it was either in Lilo and Stitch 2 or Leroy and Stitch, where Stitch is basically turning down a big promotion for the sake of just being at home and being a part of a family, and they kind of play it up to a point of like, oh, that's maybe not so great. So, uh I don't know. Their definition of family can and family loyalty can be a little bit mixed up, which they do kind of address in the live-action one.
SPEAKER_03And for the record, uh if you look at if you actually look it up on the Wikipedia page, Lilo and Stitch was the first was the first film releasing in 2002. And then you have Um apparently in 2005 is when Lilo and Stitch 2, Stitch as a Glitch came out. So it was Lilo and Stitch, Lilo actually there was sorry, Lilo and Stitch, Stitch the Movie, which is what sp was the original the spin-off the TV show. Right. Then Lilo and Stitch 2, then Leroy and Stitch.
SPEAKER_01Everybody got that?
SPEAKER_03And then that's not even counting all the television shows, because apparently there were three total animated series, uh, including Lilo and Stitch the series, uh Stitch, which is the Japanese animated television series, which is a spin-off from the original, and then apparently there was a Stitch and AI. I don't know. And then they have a couple television specials, including Stitch in the Planet of Sand, and then Stitch Perfect Memory. And that's not even counting the Stitch Meets High School Musical.
SPEAKER_01The fudge.
SPEAKER_03There's no information, I don't want to look it up.
SPEAKER_01Well. Either way, that definitely speaks to the pervasiveness of Stitch's marketability. Um, but what can you do? I mean, Stitch is cute, and um, you know, he goes through what a lot of people like to see in a character, which is a redemption arc. He starts off essentially purely evil and chaotic, and then through uh his own uh loneliness and curiosity, becomes a part of a family that he becomes endeared to and um has to overcome his evil thoughts in order to be a good member of the family. Which they make look really easy in the first film, but when they do Lilo on Stitch 2, they you know, his brain starts to go haywire, and um fighting his uh destructive tendencies becomes really, really difficult. Which I thought was an interesting take on it.
SPEAKER_02And it's Stitch and A, I'm sorry. Oh, it's Wang A Ling.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Wang A Ling, of course, of course. Well, I told you there was like a Japanese and then a Chinese series. Every few years, Stitch gets a new Ohana. But you know, I I don't think he's going away anytime soon. It wouldn't surprise me if they make another live action one, because apparently this one made a butt ton of money. Regardless of whether or not people liked it, it made a butt ton of money. So to Disney, they're gonna do it again.
SPEAKER_03It's Lilo and Stitch. Everybody who's in their 30s now has adult money. Oh, let's be honest. Late 20s, is early 30s, they're the ones who grew up with the original anime Lilo and Stitch, and now they've got adult money. They're gonna take their kids to go see it. If not just go see it for themselves. That's the reason we saw it in theaters.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one of the few movies we actually did see in theaters. But I mean because who didn't want Stitch growing up? I mean, I had a Stitch doll. Don't know whatever happened to it. Now I've got a few. Um. But my original one that I had when the movie came out, uh, I'm hoping is in storage somewhere or something, because uh I'd hate to think I lost it. But like I said, it was a very turbulent time in my life when I saw this original film. Um but, you know. But back to the differences between them.
SPEAKER_03I think we got just a little bit off topic there.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I think we're on topic, but not uh on what the paper says we're supposed to talk about. And the paper knows all. A tree died to make this outline, Dan. That's like saying the internet is truthful.
SPEAKER_03I mean, come on. The paper doesn't know all. The paper is filled with whatever you put on the paper.
SPEAKER_01So Well, it's it's what we talked about, so don't pin it on me entirely.
SPEAKER_03You're the one who typed it up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's because I always like typing practice. I gotta get better. Uh. So now uh so we talked about that they got rid of Gantu and that he was kind of like your through and through villainous character, in the sense that he was a character that was okay to hate. Uh, you know, because almost every other character in the movie goes through some sort of likability arc where there's times where you're not as fond of them or confused by them or mad at them for making certain decisions, but they all come through in the end and are better for it. So I think they needed a character that was just, okay, it's alright to hate this guy. Again, even though he's just doing his job, uh he is against what our main characters are for, so you can just point a finger at him. So what they did in the live-action one was take some of the take all of the charm and redeemability out of the character of Jumba, his creator, um, to turn him instead to the third act villain. Now, I don't know if they did that because Disney's addicted to twist villains, and they felt they had to have one. Um, but I can see from a storytelling standpoint why it might be simpler or more uh I can't think of the right word for it. Uh better for story flow to just have a singular character adopt the third act villain role. Because, like you said, with Gantu, he's kind of there and gone again, uh, kind of at the beginning, mentioned a little bit in the middle, and then shows up at the end for the climax. Um instead of having a character we've been with the whole movie jump up as the villain, I can see narratively making sense. I could also see it making sense from an animation standpoint of, you know, why have a character just show up a couple times and we have to create this whole animation model and get a voice actor for it when we sort of already have this mad scientist who uh you know calls himself evil in both versions of the movie. So why not just have him go ahead and jump into what would be more likely, you know, for somebody who uh has evil intentions in what they're creating. I mean, Stitch was created to be an unstoppable destructive monster, so I can see why it can be a little hard to swallow the pill of, okay, he would turn around and be a good guy by the end of the film.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, I mean I never, if I'm being honest, I never understood why Jumba in the animated turned around so quickly from wanting to capture 626 and take it back and continue his experience to siding with Stitch to save Lila.
SPEAKER_00Orhana.
SPEAKER_03But that's not an excuse! Stitch doesn't believe in Ohana. He replaces his Ohana constantly. He he doesn't know the term he doesn't understand what the term Ohana means.
SPEAKER_00Right. Uh you want to be a part of Nur Ohana? No. Nur Ohana.
SPEAKER_03You don't need one. No! Anyway. But no, it that was one of the things that bother uh bothered me a little bit with the animated is the excuse is oh, Stitch is very convincing.
SPEAKER_01Persuasive is the word he uses. He is very conversation.
SPEAKER_03Very persuasive, my bad. But to to go from wanting to capture him and all of that to all of a sudden in a split second, being okay, yeah, we're on the good we're we're good guys now. We're gonna go help this random little girl who the whole entire movie we didn't care really what happened to her. But now just because Stitch said two or three things, all of a sudden now you're gonna help him? It doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01It makes sense only from a comedy standpoint. Because, I mean, that is a very funny line in the movie. Stitch just makes a single syllable and boom he changes his mind. Uh it could also be Yeah. I I know uh you're saying an animated cartoon about aliens and genetic experiments is unrealistic, uh, you know.
SPEAKER_03Okay, be a smart ale uh Alec. Smart Alex. But honestly, yes, it's an animated cartoon movie about aliens. But at least make it make a little more sense than that. Come on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I don't know how much his turn if it was always there, because there were several revisions to the movie. Um like uh, you know, there was an original scene where Pudge the Fish gets killed.
SPEAKER_03Um and uh Yeah, doesn't he get like eaten by seagulls?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Dark. Um but there was the the entire climax in large part of the film had to be redone because of 9-11.
SPEAKER_00Uh awkward.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And also, if you think about it, why they had to redo it, it logically wouldn't have made sense. Because the main reason they redid they if I recall correctly, please correct me if I am wrong about this. The main reason they had to redo it is because they had the ships flying through New York.
SPEAKER_01No, that's um they they were flying down they were flying through the big uh skyscrapers of I think Whatever island it is. Yeah, so uh which Hawaii has some big, tall hotels and buildings. Um uh but yeah, they they they pretty much steal an airplane and use that in their rescue of Lilo, and having people steal an airplane and fly it awfully close to a bunch of big buildings and do damage to those buildings as well. So close after 9-11, they rightfully decided was a little distasteful.
SPEAKER_03There would have been a lot of bad, bad, bad decisions if they had done that. So bad, bad decisions.
SPEAKER_01It's one of the things that drummed up the cost of the original, uh, but uh, I still think it probably made them a ton of money, otherwise we wouldn't have the franchise we have today. But you know, and then that's when they got that uh the signature red ship that Jumba has. Uh because the film uh they did that I mean the plane they had in the original film was a 747, and if you're familiar with uh 747, it's probably one of the most iconic airliners of all time. It has that uh iconic hump on top of it, um, which you know for cargo planes is where the crew is, but for uh passenger planes it's like first-class fancy stuff up there. Uh so if you look at the front of his plane, the nose um is very reminiscent of a 747, because you know, they had to redo a lot of shots, but they at least, you know, like traced over and modified the originals so they didn't have to completely from scratch redo absolutely everything. So, you know, a lot of people uh like the design of that ship, but it's uh because it was inspired by the original plane that they, well, stole.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that was one thing they did actually uh just re realize they did take out of live action.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_03Because well, because they didn't have Gantu as part of it, there was no reason to have the ships ch a ship chasing the other, or a plane chasing the other, whatever. So because they didn't have Gantu, they didn't have a ship chasing.
SPEAKER_00True.
SPEAKER_03It was in live action it ended up being um everybody was in there were like what, two or three cars that were trying to follow after the ship, which again makes no logical sense.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, what can you do?
SPEAKER_03So it ended up being a couple of cars trying to keep up and chase this ship that was just flying out over the ocean. There wasn't any flying through buildings or anything that they did in live action.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's easier to film. It's just over ocean. Easier to animate, right?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I guess to an extent, but at the same time, you're still gotta you still gotta deal with all the water and such, so Yeah, but you know, water simulation's getting better in animation all the time, so you know, it's easy, right?
SPEAKER_01Uh that's uh for anybody who uh actually works in uh VFX and stuff, they uh will scoff at the notion that, oh, they just do it with CG, so that must make it easier. In some senses, yes, but in a lot of senses, no, because the m i it puts a lot more burden of work into the fix-it-in post team, if you will. Uh and in a lot of senses, it's not easier, it's just different. Because instead of filming an elaborate set, they have to film uh in, you know, green screen studios, but instead of just doing it against a blank green screen, more and more they ha they actually still build sets that have platforms and um even ones that imitate motions of animals and stuff. So if people are writing mythical animals, it uh works out a little better. So, you know, don't knock on CG too much. Is it overused? Yes. Uh which I think we talked about in Jurassic Park as well, at least a little bit. That uh sometimes too much uh, you know, CG takes a little bit of that tactile realism out of the film.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think we touched base on it a little bit, but that's something we can even discuss further later on if we so desire.
SPEAKER_01Yes. But you know, um, so i in regards to, you know, the the two films, that whole third act is very, very different, because in, you know, again, for those who haven't seen, in the animated one, Gantu captures Lilo and Stitch at the same time, but Stitch escapes because, well, he can squeeze himself through the cracks of the little vessel where Lilo's being kept. And uh then uh then Jumba finally captures him, and Stitch convinces them to go rescue Lilo after Nani encounters them as well. And then Q rescue sequence. Uh in the live-action one, uh Lilo actively chooses to go try and rescue Stitch. So both films start with, I guess you could call it uh Revelation of Betrayal, if you will, where um in the animated film, after uh Jumba is trying to catch Stitch and tears apart Nani and Lilo's entire house, um, which culminates in the house blowing up, neat. Um that's another thing they changed was in that scene they toned down the violence. Apparently in the original, there was a lot more uh violence. Like yeah, him shooting a whole lot of things and like the scene where he's throwing plates through the ceiling, which makes no sense. That was a cover-up for the original of him shooting a gun a whole bunch. I guess they thought violence would be um not very tactful. Uh but anyway, not important. In the live-action one I mean, sorry, animated one, it's revealed only after all of that does Lilo find out that Stitch is in fact an alien. And when she figures that out, she's mad at him and wants nothing to do with him, and that's happens to be when they get captured. And I think you were the one who pointed out earlier that uh uh Lilo has to like beg Stitch to not leave her behind, or something like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because in the in the in the original animated, when Stitch is able to somehow worm-like we weasel his way out of the containment capsule that again to put him and Lilo in, Stitch is trying to break open the capsule from the outside while the ship is in the air, which again logic why did he break it from the inside if you why did he try to break it from the inside instead of just squeezing his way out? But but during that scene, when Stitch is on the outside of the capsule, Lilo is begging him by saying, Don't leave me, okay? Please don't leave me, promise you won't leave me in order to get him to make sure she gets out, come back for her, whatever it is. But she's literally sitting there ha feeling I guess feeling like she has to beg him to help her when supposedly they're these great friends, these great close friends, they're they're ohana, they're family now. But she's still begging him not to leave her behind. That I'm sorry, but that's what she that's what the girl desperate girls usually do in a bad relationship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and so in the live action version, the quote unquote betrayal line happens when Jumba points out to Lilo that, oh, Stitch only chose to be your friend at the animal shelter to be adopted for his own protection, for his own self-interests. And I think Lelo says something like, oh, is that true, Stitch? And um Jumba leverages Stitch's want to protect Lilo now to take him away. So Stitch goes with him willingly to save Lilo. And even after this revelation, Lilo actively decides to risk her life to try and help Stitch. Uh, because uh one of the gimmicks they have in the live action is a portal gun. Um so hooray for anybody who's played any of the portal games, it uh probably just drung up memories of that. But, you know, so he portal guns to the ship, and I guess Lilo must have jumped through the portal before it closed, um, from her house to the ship. So uh it's just a different dynamic when you get down to the motivations of the characters. Because one of the things I liked in the live-action movie was they fostered the relationship between Lilo and Stitch a little bit more. In the animated movie, it takes them a long time to go from being the chaos-causing destructive stitch to uh the soft, cute, and fluffy, loving stitch um, you know, for their family. And I guess the live action is a longer runtime, so maybe it takes them just as long in the live action. I don't know. But from a narrative standpoint, uh Lilo and Stitch start to bond sooner in the live action one, because they actually play together. Uh, cause some chaos together, I suppose, if you will.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, when you look at it, I don't know that it technically takes them longer um to actually create that bond. I think more it's in the live action they show it better.
SPEAKER_00Right. They they demonstrate that. They show it more.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they demonstrate that bond more and better because I would say they kinda come to the same because they do hit it about the same time because it comes down to the surfing scene. Is where uh one of the biggest biggest indicators of that bond being there.
SPEAKER_01Right, or a Stitch wanting to be a part of a family, but in the Luau scene, their uh Lilo and Stitch have this whole uh uh fight, I guess.
SPEAKER_03The fight with the uh carbonated water games with the carbonated water guns.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's that is true.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, uh like you said, I don't know if it necessarily happens sooner, but it does they do more to demonstrate it in the live-action one. So I I I I feel their bond a little closer. Like in the animated one, I I was under the impression that a lot of Lilo's like of Stitch did come out of the desperation for wanting a friend, wanting a pet, wanting this dog. Um it grew out of that and it evolved into a true friendship, but I I I you know I felt more genuine friendship grow organically in the live-action one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because for me, in the in the animated one, you don't really see that the the actual friendship honestly until the end. Because even even when you look at the the scene where they're on they've been in the animated where they were captured by Gantu, that is more out of the to me, that bond is more a desperation bond than an actual friendship bond or even family bond. It's more solely out of desperation than anything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh definitely, and like I said, it did evolve into more than that, but it I I do think uh Lilo is an interesting psychological case in both films. Um but uh a lot of her actions are uh desperate, I guess, is the proper word for it in the animated version.
SPEAKER_03I'm I'm glad you added in the animated version, because in the in the live action, to me, she is just very much a kid who is who has no friends, who is grieving the loss of her parents, and doesn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she's more lost than she is uh she's lost and she's lonely, um, and you know, a bit of a social outcast, probably uh partially, I think, because of her poverty situation, which again I sympathize with immensely, because boy was I bullied for being the poor kid at my school. Uh but uh which school, might you ask? Yes. Um but while we're on the topic of grieving, another one of there's a few points of contention people have with the live-action movie. And one of the first big ones is there's a big phrase that comes out, and it's on half the merchandise. If Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. And in the animated version, when Nani's trying to uh take Stitch out of the house on the first night they bring him home, Lilo uses that line and it stops Nani dead in her tracks. And it could be argued that, you know, in the animated version, it was a teaching of her parents, and because she misses her parents and wants to honor them so much, it stops her dead in her tracks. But in the live-action version, and this is what a lot of people get mad at, she basically says, Oh, that's just fairy tale nonsense, because if nobody gets left behind, why were we left behind? Which, um, you know, a lot of people got mad at it for uh kind of crapping on this um popular phrase, but I thought it was an interesting take from a grief standpoint because to me it was a good show of somebody who was grieving, and sometimes you do get mad at the people who leave you behind when you're grieving. And so I don't think it was a horrible thing for them to put that in there because sure she turns around later um and Ohana gets complicated, but uh but I didn't hate that they took a different take on that because clearly that would be the action of somebody who was younger, because they you know Nani is uh what 19 or something? I'm not sure. 16. Oh, dang it.
SPEAKER_03And if you actually because I actually have the the cast list pulled up on the on the Wikipedia page. Um but Nani is actually supposed to be about 16 years old, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Well, that would make sense in the animated one, but in the uh live-action one, they're constantly talk about her going to a college, so True. But regardless, that's still young. And um she uh either way, the a lot of the heart of the film in regards to Lilo and Nani comes from their coping with the loss of their parents.
SPEAKER_03And I stand corrected it actually doesn't say Ray John's looking at the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, very good. Um but so they just lost their parents, and so that's part of the reason why Lilo's having some of her emotional issues. Um and then with Nani, and this is where there's a good divide, um, in the animated version, her whole life is basically to take over as the parent figure of the household to take care of Lilo.
SPEAKER_03And um that's understandable, because you could see it from estimated to be about 18, just because she couldn't technically become Lilo's legal guardian if she was below the age of eighteen.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Fair enough. But so animated Nani. Um again, I think it comes down to how they're choosing to grief. For her, um, her life um was being a part of a family and losing her parents. She doesn't want to lose the last uh fringes of family she has left, which is Lilo. Now, she doesn't necessarily get along with Lilo 100%, but she wants to hang on to that family with everything she's got. And, you know, her struggles and trying to keep the family together and maintain a job, and everything is uh you know, where most of her character interest comes from. But in the live action one, and again, people get mad at this, they point out something that would be realistic, which is uh Nani had prospects to build her life elsewhere. You you know, I mean, people love their family, they love staying with their family, but people do grow up and they have dreams that they want to follow. And so, in this case, she wants to be a marine biologist. Thankfully, she's in Hawaii, where the world's best marine biology colleges are. Plus, if you're native, they have a lot of scholarships. So thankfully they don't have any pointless conflict like her needing to move away, because that would make no sense whatsoever. Anyway, um I'm lying. Um, but uh but so people were mad about that. Um because they're like, well, how can Nani have anything she wants in her life except trying to take care of Lilo? But, and that worked in the animated one, but you know, and trying to make it a little quote unquote more realistic, um, again, I don't totally hate that angle on it, because it's a lot to put on the shoulders of somebody who's still a teenager, to say, oh, well, your priorities in life need to be to forget all of that and just focus on raising your sister now, like she was your daughter. And they kind of uh, you know, poke into how that probably would feel unfair, but at the same time, she doesn't know what else to do. She feels trapped, like this is what she has to do. She does love her sister, she wants to take care of her sister, she's doing the best she can, but there's also this second layer of grief that not only has she lost her parents, but now she's also lost this dream of hers. Um, especially since apparently she was accepted into this school with some kind of scholarship. So she had this opportunity, and it was killed from her life the same time her parents were killed. And so um, it's kind of an interesting form of depression that sometimes new mothers have as well when they realize, oh, my life has now been fundamentally altered and my focus has shifted. And it's not unhealthy to feel that. Even if you're a mother who really wants kids and looks forward to raising them and having them be part of your life, there are times where there's gonna be those feelings where what have I got myself into? Now I'm trapped, this is my life, um, and you can kind of see other dreams and possibilities you may have had kind of fade away. So, being somebody who is seasonally depressed, only four seasons out of the year, I can very much appreciate what it must be like for her to be going through that. So, I don't know if you want to have this lead into the biggest thing people hate about the live-action film.
SPEAKER_03Are you referring to the end?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03The end the ending where Nani quote unquote gives away Lilo. That's the one more or less uh in a lot of people's opinion it just completely uh as you put it re rejects Ohana.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Which let's be honest, that's not that's not how that works. Come on, people! That's not how that works.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, not being a native islander, I can't speak to how Ohana is supposed to work. But I can speak to families being complicated. And especially families where people are growing up. And it's a beautiful picture to have in your mind, great for postcards, to say, okay, here's my you know, perfect family, you know, mother, father, kids, whatever, father, father, kids, mother, non-binary parent, kids, whatever. Um, you know, but you can make this perfect picture, but it is just that, it's a picture because people grow, people change, and that's not a bad thing. Um, you know, kids grow up, they start to gain interests, and those interests might not always be close to home, and that's not a bad thing. So sometimes family doesn't mean let's keep everybody together at all costs. Sometimes loving your family means what do I do to support the hopes and dreams of other people in my family, realistically speaking, you know, because that can be taken advantage of. You know.
SPEAKER_03Well, um I guess with with all that, one of the biggest things that I think people overlook when it comes to Naughty making the choice to uh quote unquote quote give up Lilo. Honestly, she doesn't give up Lilo. She never had full custody of her sister. Let's make that clear. She never had full custody ever of her sister. It was a temporary situation from the start. And the decision that was made to uh give custody of Lilo to their neighbor who had been like family to them, especially since their parents died, to give cut official custody to her instead of having Nani have full custody because Nani is 18. To be able to not only have to support yourself, but have enough money to support your little sister as well as make sure all your bills are paid and everything else is taken care of. At the age of 18, most people don't even know how to take care of themselves, let alone anyone else or bills at the age of eighteen. Heck, I didn't move out of from my parents' place until I was in my twenties.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, with uh living costs always going up, that age of, you know, people quote unquote leaving the nest gets higher and higher as costs get higher and higher. So yeah, that's a lot to put on somebody at that age. Without doubt. So the question becomes did Nani like reject Lilo to just go off and have some fanciful dream to say, hooray, now you're out of my hair, I don't care about you, I don't love you. I don't think so. And that's how most people interpret it is, you know, Nani just um said, okay, forget family, forget Ohana, I'm off doing my own thing. Audio, Sayanara, bye-bye, au revoir.
SPEAKER_03Which to those people I'd say you didn't pay too much attention to the movie.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Because it wasn't Nani's first choice to immediately leave for college when it was decided that the neighbor was gonna take custody. Nani had every intention of staying with Lilo, with them, to keep the Ohana together. She had every intention of not going to college, even after the whole custody thing was figured out. She was going to still stay. By the way, for the record, I'm going to dismiss what you said about Hawaii having some of the best marine institutes, because if you look on websites like College Advisor, uh, the college that Nani wanted to go that Nani wanted to go to is actually listed in the top five, where ones in Hawaii aren't even listed in the top ten. Just saying.
SPEAKER_00Alright.
SPEAKER_03But I digress. That e even after it was decided that the neighbor was going to take custody of Lilo, that way Nani didn't have to worry as much. Lilo would still be close by, they basically all still live together, that it wouldn't be a problem. Lelo is the one who pushed Nani to go to school.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03It wasn't Nani who said, okay, that's figured out, you're gonna live with them, I'm leaving. It was Lilo convincing Nani that it was okay for her to pursue her dreams and go to this school.
SPEAKER_01You said that all I could think of was Maui saying, Alright, I'm out. Jumping off the boat.
SPEAKER_03Fair.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I like it because it shows, like I said, that families are complicated. Families are dynamic, they go through changes. And family doesn't have to be blood relatives. You know, like you said, in the animated one, they don't even have neighbors. They're just kind of off in the middle of nowhere. And so the fact that they even have a neighbor, to me, helped bolster this interesting sense of community, because they they talk about community in later animated ones, because you know, like how, oh, everybody calls each other cousin and stuff, and um, which alludes to the fact that Ohana family can be more than just okay, who's, you know, behind your house closed doors. Um so they have this character, her name's Tutu, and um she's, I guess, their next door neighbor, and she's, you know, essentially taking Nani and Lilo under her wing as best she can while uh in the wake of the loss of their parents. And so it makes good logical sense that, you know, if Nani's barely getting by, and there's a loving neighbor who's willing to take that burden of custody and caring for somebody off of Nani's plate, off of somebody who's so young, but still, um, you know, it's their neighbor, so it's not like, oh, she's never gonna see Lilo again. It's not like she just tossed her into the foster system and said, Good luck, kid, which is the way a lot of people interpret it. It's oh they're legally solving the problem and logistically solving a problem in a way that is preserving this sense of family and not having anybody uh have to make an enormous sacrifice of their own life, which again is one of those nuances of a family, is it shouldn't be up to one person in the family to sacrifice everything for the sake of everyone else. Now there's plenty of situations where people don't have any choice, and Nani, to be fair, didn't think she had any choice. So the fact that they're able to find a solution that can keep Lilo from going directly into the foster system and allow Nani to still pursue her dreams and still see her sister, um, to me, that is good, and it shows community and it shows the broader feeling of family, not just, oh, it's just up to us, it's us against the world and no one else. And so I again, if you pay attention to the movie, it's not an easy decision for Nani to make. It's not like she's like, yes, bye, Lilo. Um there's there's resistance in that. Even when Lilo brings up the idea of, no, you know, if if they're gonna, you know, take care of me, you go and live your dream. You know, it's uh it it shows that loving somebody um understands it means understanding that there's gonna be decisions that are tough, uh but you, you know, do what you can to support everybody. And that is more family than just keeping everybody under one roof. Because sometimes the sake of keeping everybody on under one roof leads to tragic and abusive situations, so you know, where is the sense of family in that?
SPEAKER_03Well, and yes, I sit here and do research while we're doing these. And please, if there's any native Hawaiian listeners who correct me if this information is wrong that I've looked up, but I'm in several things, including on Oxford, according to Oxford Dictionary, even.
SPEAKER_01Oxford never lies.
SPEAKER_03In Hawaiian culture, Ohana doesn't mean just blood relation. It means anybody who is close, friends, f actual blood relatives. Anybody you consider as part of your family is your Ohana. So it does encompass that wide range of people who have l especially in the case of Lilo and Stitch, with Lilo and Nani and their neighbors, because I how did you pronounce your name?
SPEAKER_01Uh Tutu, I think.
SPEAKER_03Tutu, I I don't Could be wrong. I apologize if that's incorrect pronunciation. But even when Even in terms when it comes to the relationship they have, they consider her because of how close she is with Lilo and Nani. Both Lilo and Nani do consider her Ohana.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And they're not blood related at all. So the the live action definitely takes the definition, the the what I'm understanding to be the true definition of Ohana, which is those who are close to you, friends, family, not just blood relations, or it's extended family, blood relatives, close friends, are you your actual Hana. So it does take and actually shows the full extent of that. Where in the live action, or not I'm sorry, in the animated, you get the sense of Ohana just means those who are part of your household. Part of your close that close group is your Ohana. And Stitch only became Ohana in the animated because Lilo adopted it. Where, again, in live action, it it's more than that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he is um being part of the family feels like it grew naturally from their relationship. I mean, there was a lot of friction at first, but uh um but it wasn't just, oh well, I signed a paper, so now you're officially part of our family. It's you know, family's something deeper than that. It's not just a legal definition, it's uh, you know, emotional uh definition. It's a community definition of who you really um lean on, who you really trust um in the good times and the bad times. And so I appreciate that because uh you know there's plenty of people I know who I consider family, who except for maybe way distantly, aren't related to me at all. And there's people who are related to me that I'm like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think everybody at least to some extent, I'm sure 90% of people can agree with that, where there are there's some some blood relatives they'd rather push away and hide in a closet and not open that door for a million years versus those who have been such integral parts of their either childhood or adulthood or whatever that you couldn't imagine them not being in your life.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03And that sp that to me is definitely more of a definition of Ohana of you couldn't imagine your life without that person in it, to some extent, versus, you know, the ones you'd rather push away in a closet and leave there for eternity.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's interesting because one of my favorite Pixar movies is Coco, but one of the main problems I have with Coco is the notion of family literally being blood relatives, and that there has to be a sense of loyalty to that inherently. Like, oh well, these are your blood relatives, so you need to love them, cherish them, um, adore them, remember them. And there's nothing wrong with some of that, but um I like more the notion that family is more than blood. And you know, that blood doesn't even make family necessarily. Um you do have parts of family, you you're always gonna you can't pick and choose, you know, who your parents are and stuff, um, to a degree. But as you grow older, the people who you consider family, um, often have nothing to do with that. So, it's my only issue with Coco. It still is my favorite Pixar film, but it's like, uh, you know, family loyalty is great to a degree, but somebody should also be allowed to say, like, oh, this person belongs to my family, even if they're not, you know, in the family by blood or marriage. Um because they're just that important to me and I care about them that much. So Hooray for community. Hooray for family. Hooray for Ohana! Oh. So, I think that was the biggest elephant of the live-action one, in regards to what people who hated the movie hated the most about it. Um. And I didn't hate the live-action movie. Which, you know, there are some, you know, live actions that we'll get to down the road that maybe didn't quite uh hold up as much as some other ones. Now, um, you know, that being said, uh, if I had to say what I liked the least about the live action, Lilo and Stitch, compared to the original, it's petty, but it's Jumba's voice. I'm sorry. Jumbo was this lovable s uh pseudo-Russian sounding scientist, and the guy that got to play him didn't even try. I mean, I'm no great voice actor myself, but even I can try a little bit of Russian accent to sound comical and interesting. But I don't know if it's because they thought, oh well, maybe because he's a bad guy through and through, we don't want to offend the Russians. Or uh or what, but uh But yeah, every time he talks, I just wish he would at least try. I mean, I get they were trying to go for something a little less cartoonish, I suppose. Um and again, maybe because he doesn't have a redemption arc, that he just ends up going the full villain around, which again makes more sense with the character's origins, but um that doesn't mean I enjoy watching him. Like every time Jumba's on screen, I'm like, oh it's a jumba scene. Whereas in the animated one, Jumba and Pleakly are um kind of lovable idiots, and um Pleakly in particular in the live-action one is just an idiot. I don't think he ever hits the lovable uh note there. So it's unfortunate. Um, and it uh makes me feel like, well, they cut out Gantu, maybe they could have cut out them as well, and just had the movie been about uh Nani and Lilo, because it was enough to hold the movie, and sometimes it's uh distracting. I mean, I like some of the other aliens, the uh, you know, the councilwoman's uh, you know, always towing the line between uh uh dignified but um also getting annoyed and trying to handle this situation. You know, she has some personality come through. Then of course they have the little uh what do they call it?
SPEAKER_03It's adorable psycho.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03You gotta count you gotta you can't forget Adorable Psycho. The the little Axlotal-like alien who is very, very, very gung-ho to blow up anything.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um which their their character on IMDB is listed as Adorable Psycho.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if it is in the credits, but it's it's listed uh on even on the Disney wiki, the regular wiki, everywhere I've looked, it is listed as adorable psycho.
SPEAKER_01That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_03And and on the wiki page is listed as a um the gives the uh actress's name, um, who voices adorable psycho, the axolotto-like alien. Who uh is very, very uh trigger happy ink.
SPEAKER_01So hooray for them making a memorable. I I love it when there's a memorable character made out of nothing. Like someone who would have otherwise been a background character, and they turn them into something. So I feel like that's something the live action definitely did right. Even though that's a such a little part of the film, it's uh it's a nice touch that I liked. Um and I think the last big difference, which people are, you know, plus or e minus e on, is in the animated movie there's the character of Cobra Bubbles, voiced by the guy who does the Arby's commercials. Um and uh that's why I always imagine him saying, Arby's, we have the meats when you first uh when they first opened the door to him. Um but uh but he's uh a social worker, and he's the one micro-evaluating Nani's care of Lilo. And uh also apparently used to be in the CIA. Uh and funnily enough, and I don't think they said this in the live action one, but in the uh animated one they said he was responsible for convincing the aliens that mosquitoes were an endangered species, and that's apparently the only reason they didn't uh destroy our planet. And I think that's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, in the in the animated one, that that was the o that was the main reason that they um decided to send Jung bleakly because they couldn't just blow up the planet because of the mosquito population, which how you can convince anybody, even if it's an alien species, that mosquitoes are an endangered species on the planet is beyond me, because could go with them being an endangered species at this point.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, I'm not one for genocide, but I'd be hard pressed to find anybody who would be sad if all the mosquitoes were eradicated. Because I mean some other bug would take their place. You know, bats aren't gonna starve, fish aren't gonna starve, you're just gonna have like more flies, which are annoying, but at least they're not gonna give you malaria.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well why why do you think there's been uh uh there's been so many efforts to like introduce um different male mosquitoes that cannot rep that can't repopulate. There's female mosquitoes being introduced that can't repopulate to try and kill down some of the mosquito species in places.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, incel mosquitoes.
SPEAKER_03Indeed. But no, there's a reason that mosquitoes should be dead. Anyway, off topic. But no, in the in the animated one, yes, Cobra Bowles was responsible for convincing the aliens that mosquitoes are an endangered species and therefore Earth is a protected planet, which Q Pleakly's existence, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But in the live action that wasn't anything that was addressed. There wasn't any reason that they I mean, they I think they still used the same reasoning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they still mentioned the mosquito thing.
SPEAKER_03Didn't give uh explanation as to like who did the convincing, who was what they dealt with the aliens. None of that was addressed. It was kind of left ambiguous.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so they essentially split the character of Cobra Bubbles up into two characters. Um so instead of having a former CIA operative and a social worker in the same character, they had a CIA operative and a social worker. And interestingly enough, the social worker is played by the same person who voiced Nani in the cartoon version. You know, random trivia fact there. Uh, and so some people have issue with this, but from a narrative standpoint, I have no problem with it. You know, because uh his origins are a little weird in the animated one. Like, okay, they're sending in this hyper tough social worker. I mean, maybe they're implying that Nani's already been through a few, which I think they've mentioned that maybe. Um, and so maybe her case is elevated to a point where now they need some sort of expert um uh, you know, which speaks to Nani being on the last straw in this situation. So I don't have a problem with it in the animated film, but I also don't have a problem with them just separating it and making it a little more realistic. I definitely felt like the social worker in the live-action film felt more like a social worker than uh Cobra Bubbles did in the animated film, and so they allowed Cobra to just be his own character, um, which brings up the point of the ship crash.
SPEAKER_03Well, to backpedal for just a second before getting into the ship crash, um, but no, one of the things that was stated in the animated film that lean lends credence to Nani and Leo having dealt with several other social workers is Cobra says the line, he's the ones they he's the one they call in when things go wrong.
SPEAKER_01And reiterating have indeed gone wrong.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. But reiterating that there are massive problems, so he's been called in to evaluate the situation. Where in the live action, as you said, there was the social worker, and then there was Cobra Bubbles as two separate people, Cobra Bubbles being a strictly a CIA agent, and the only reason he big plays a big part in it is because him and his CIA team are the ones who are called in when the ship that uh Stitch stole in the beginning of the film, when it was found, the CIA was then called in, with Cobra Bubbles being the lead operative on the assignment. And he only went undercover as a social worker to get closer to Stitch.
SPEAKER_01Right, which, you know, maybe that could have been uh um some backstory in the original film of uh, you know, maybe that was why he was there, because it um could have been uh you know, he could have been an under undercover social worker in that case, investigating Stitch, but it's not expressly said, so I'm actually kind of all for that uh interesting take on it to say, like, oh, well, he's pretending to be a social worker um to get closer to the alien. Because they kind of just brush it off of oh, Stitch ship crashed and nothing ever comes of that. But uh in the live actual one, they're like, oh yeah, they they found a ship, and so they call the CIA, um, which makes more sense. I mean, it could be argued based on the crater from the original one, maybe it completely disintegrated and there's nothing left. But I find that unlikely. But, you know, it's an animated movie. What can you do? It's one of the changes they made that uh I don't love, I don't hate. It's just like, oh, that's an interesting take on the story, and I'm perfectly fine with it. Um I don't know whether it makes the story better or worse, it's just makes the story slightly different. It just makes me nod my head and say, hmm, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03I'll buy it. Makes it a little more believable and realistic. Well impropriable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and as somebody who grew up with a single parent, um, I was no stranger to social workers. So um uh I definitely got social worker vibes from the live action one, but not from uh not from uh Cobra in the uh animated one. I mean he's still one of my favorite characters from the animated film, but uh, you know, from a real life experience standpoint, um I definitely felt the live-action social worker a lot more close to home from my personal experience. But anyway, um I think we've gone over most of the uh chief differences between the films and kind of our feelings on them, what we think, and um overall the question comes, is the live action better than the original, or is the original better than the live action? Which is a question I think needs an asterisk, because I don't necessarily like the term better. It's um kind of looking at it in the wrong spirit. Cause I know sometimes when I see uh a live-action rendition, um there's it gives a feeling like you're watching a play version of it. You know, it's not as good, but it's in front of your face and it's with real people, so you give it some slack. Um but the animated ones better, um, more endearing, I guess. And this one, um, I felt there were a lot more points that hit me personally, maybe because I grew up in a single family in a struggling situation. Um, I mean, both films speak to me for that reason, but there's a lot more in the live-action one that, you know, brings up subconscious parts of my uh past life that the animated one didn't necessarily well, I guess the better way of of thinking about it is not necessarily thinking is which one's better, live action or animated.
SPEAKER_03But more of does the live-action version live up to or surpass what you would expect for a live-action remake of an animated classic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think that's a good way to look at it, because it did what I would want for most animated films done correctly, and that's they took a lot of pieces of the original and they added little pieces in there, uh, little tidbits, little uh bonus information. You know, they showed more bonding between Lilo and Stitch. Um, they kind of tied uh uh character arcs a little closer together, like um giving a reason for there to be a Cobra Bubbles, intimidating uh social worker, but also have him just be an active CIA operative, but also have a normal social worker, by having more community, by having a better sense of what family means. Um, you know, to me, those are expansions I would have wanted to see in a live-action film, and I'm glad that they're there. So, um I wouldn't say it's better than the animated one, it's just a different experience on the same story. I don't think anything could ever take the place in my heart of the original animated film, mostly because of when I saw it in my life, and it's so intrinsically tied to um pivotal I still can't say that word. Pivotal? Pivotal time in my life, um, where my family and I were struggling to get by, and family is all we had. Um and I was the weird social outcast at school and stuff, and so having been a kid, I think it cements itself in my heart in a way that no newer film really can. But that doesn't mean I hate it, and that doesn't mean I think it's worse. I enjoy it. I will gladly put it on and watch it. It's not one I avoid or roll my eyes at. Now there's aspects about it that I don't appreciate. Like I said, I think they just royally messed up the character of Jumba. Even you know, him being the villain, I feel like they could have won. Worked it okay. Uh, but if he wasn't such an unlikable character, they could have made him a lovable villain. Where, like, okay, I understand his motivations, and I still like to hate him, and it's still good to see him fail, um, but I still enjoyed seeing him on screen. Whether it was the voice they chose or the CG on him, there's just something about whenever Jumba and even Pleakly most of the time were on screen, uh, it just drew me out of the film, like 110%. So to me, that's my main gif. It's probably not everybody's, but because like some of the main points that people hated about the live-action film, I actually appreciated because I think they speak to deeper truths about family, community, and um normal friendships growing and stuff like that. Uh the thing that gets me is just uh scenes with those particular aliens. You know, swap it out, you know, swap out uh pleakly for the Axolotl alien, and then uh give Jumba his original voice back, boom. Perfect film.
SPEAKER_03Or even just give pleakly in the live action more of a personality of the animated.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03Because they they try it's like they tried to give him some of that personality, but still wanted to make it more serious, so it just kind of falls flat. And on that topic, look one thing we did forget to mention is why the heck did they have those stupid camouflage things? In the live action, they were trying to camouflage themselves as human, which how did nobody notice when one of them is supposed to be an employee of the hotel they were staying at?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That makes no sense.
SPEAKER_01But again, that well, I think uh a lot of people chalk that one up to the animation budget again. To um it it it takes a lot of work to put a fully digital character into a live-action shot, and so I think they tried to minimize that as much as possible, and so their solution from a narrative standpoint and from a cost-cutting standpoint, they're like, oh, you know, these are advanced aliens, they're gonna have technology that can disguise them as uh anything they want, so that could have been clever, but um, it also made it harder to remember that these characters were these aliens, and it made Pleagley a lot less likable, I guess, too. Because I mean there's a lot of comedy, and I understand it might not have translated to live action to have the um uh you know, them try to have human-like disguises to blend in. You know, a lot of comedy comes from that in the live action, and I d I don't know that it would have worked, but it it could have, you know, uh give animators credit. I'm sure they could have found a way to make it um work. Would it have been believable? Probably not, but I I think it would have been easier to swallow than the the camouflage they went with, which by the way is a very hard word to spell. I couldn't even spell it right enough for Word to give it as a suggestion, so. But you know, yeah, uh so I guess that just further shows that Jumbo and Pleagle are my least favorite part of the live action.
SPEAKER_03No, I I I would I I would agree. I mean, they weren't my favorite. I I understand them needed to be major players of the plot, but they honestly were my least favorite too. Um other than that, th that's l literally the only qualms I have with with it is how they portrayed Jumpin' Blickly. The rest of it I really enjoy the rest of the live action I really enjoyed. Um I guess my biggest my question for you is you you said you wouldn't say either neither of it neither one is better than the other. Which would be the first one you'd put on if you had to choose between the two?
SPEAKER_01Animated.
SPEAKER_03Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Nostalgia wins on that one.
SPEAKER_01Well, um it it's nostalgia. Um also combined with the animated one's shorter. Um I only have so much time to watch movies.
SPEAKER_03Um only by about 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh, but it also comes with like um I like the emotional places the live-action one goes, but because it does go a few more emotional places that touch my own personal life a little more, I have to be more in the right mood for it. Whereas the animated one um has some goofier aspects to it, and I guess it's mentally quote unquote safer, if you will. So it's one that I could throw on and enjoy in most moods I'm in. Whereas, you know, I have to be um in the right mood to want to watch the live-action one. That's not to say I won't gladly watch it fairly often, um, overall, but um, like nine more often than not, I'm gonna be uh in a proper mood to throw on an animated Disney movie that I can enjoy um than uh you know one that's a little more complex. Even you know, that complexity is a good thing for most of it, and I appreciate it. Um but you know, it's like uh a book that's intense. You're less likely to read than a book that's super enjoyable. I mean, again and again, if you will, I suppose.
SPEAKER_03Okay, fair enough, fair enough.
SPEAKER_01So, what about you?
SPEAKER_03As controversial as it would be, I would honestly take the live action over the animated. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the animated. Oh, there's no need to pat about it. It's just my opinion. I absolutely love the animated. I will always am always and will always be a fan of classic Disney animated movies. I'm a Disney I'm a Disney adult. Get over it. But I would honestly rather take because of how much emotion there is in the live action, I would honestly pick it over the animated, unless I'm more looking for something on the goofier side.
SPEAKER_01And that's fair. I will say, as controversial as it might be, uh I I actually like live action Lilo herself more than Cartoon Lilo, which is saying a lot because Cartoon Lilo is iconic, but um, and you know, being somebody who's not a big fan of like Cartoon Lilo is manipulative. Yeah. Um but you know, I I don't know. There's something about live-action Lilo that um just struck me as more more authentic and relatable. I mean, I I do like that Cartoon Lilo is a goofball and um is weird, and doing a weird character right can be difficult, and I think they did a great job. But I think she's probably one of the only standout characters I can think of that uh when comparing live action versus animated, I'm like, you know what? Overall, I think I enjoyed the Lilo from live action more than the Lilo from the animated.
SPEAKER_03And that's fair.
SPEAKER_01But with that, I don't know that I have much else left to say.
SPEAKER_03Nor do I.
SPEAKER_01Hooray. Well, that being the case, um, I'm sure many people m may or may not agree with some of what we had to say, but that's the beauty of being different, you know, being individuals, as we all have our own opinions. So I'd be curious to hear what other people have to say about their experience. Were you around when the original came uh out? What did you think of it? It was definitely an off-kilter film uh compared to what Disney usually does, and probably not so much as Emperor's New Groove, but not far off.
SPEAKER_03Uh topic for a different day.
SPEAKER_01And did you give the live action a chance? Um, or did you uh you know group it in with, oh, it's a Disney live action film, I'm not gonna waste my time with it. Um or uh did you were you swayed from watching it by negative reactions to it? Um because I try not to be. Uh I work really hard to be like, okay, even if a movie has like terrible reviews and stuff, if it's one that I was intrinsically interested to see before hearing any reviews, I'm probably still gonna see it and judge for myself. And I would um suggest uh you do the same with this one, because there's a lot in there as long as you know you're looking for it. If you're just looking for those choice, cherry-picked scenes that justify why you should hate this film, then don't give it a watch. But if you're willing to actually listen to all the dialogue and take it for what it is, then I think there's a lot to enjoy in it.
SPEAKER_03Excuse me. No, I fully agree though. I it it's definitely worth taking the time to watch. Again, available on Disney Plus. Um but it is definitely one of the live-action remakes that Disney has done that it isn't the s it it won't it isn't the same as the anime. That's a given. There's several things that they changed that they did different. But they did it in a good way in my book. They did it in a a very fulfilling type of way. That's the best term I could come up with. Um, so it is a really good watch for a live action remake.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because that's the tricky part with these live actions, is if you if you carbon copy the original, people get mad at that. If you change it too much, people get mad at that, so they've gotta find a balance in between. And although not all the points they did hit home for me, for w the ones that did, they did really well, so I liked it, and um I'd recommend it. But with all that having been said, this has been another lovely discussion. Um, we're gonna be doing these comparisons of live action versus animated for the next little while, I think.
SPEAKER_03I think we've got about two months lined up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so just a couple. But until we hit our next one next week, we hope you join us m bark then. And we hope you take care of yourselves and have a beautiful week out there.
SPEAKER_03Enjoy.