Ohana Means Family: Exploring the Changes in Lilo and Stitch

Joshua Noel: 00:01:13

Ohana means family. But does that mean we can't let our loved ones go to become their own person?

We're going to be asking that question a lot more on this special episode as we compare the new live action adaption of Lilo and Stitch to the original animated. I am Joshua Nol, a big dis nerd, if you didn't know. Here with another dis nerd, the one and only Evan Garcia. How's it going, Evan?

Evan Garcia: 00:01:37

What's up, guys? Ohana means family. And a really good restaurant at the Polynesian resort.

Joshua Noel: 00:01:43

So true. Maybe Disney's best. Perhaps. Although you can't get Tonga toast in Ohana. You have to go to.

Evan Garcia: 00:01:51

Yeah, you have to go to the.

Joshua Noel: 00:01:52

Kona Cafe, one of the other ones there. Or the bar down below.

Evan Garcia: 00:01:55

Funny story about the Tonga toast. Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:02:00

Yeah. I have a funny story about Pog Juice, where TJ and I had a drinking competition with Pog Juice.

No alcohol, and we didn't make a rule about throwing up.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:08

We just kept going.

Joshua Noel: 00:02:10

We were just miserable for a full day of Disney after that. And now I need to go back because they do have the bar in the bottom of that resort has the. The Pog Juice with dole whip and rum.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:21

Amen.

Joshua Noel: 00:02:22

And I'm like, man, that. That sounds like a match made in heaven. Gotta try that at some point. Oh, man. Guys, so what, am I geeking out? I'm out. You know, I'll cheat.

I'm geeking out on Kingdom Hearts. Surprise everybody, right? Yeah. A lot of times, you know, when I play through the Game of Heart franchise, I like to skip Dream Drop Distance.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:46

What's that? Dream Draw.

Joshua Noel: 00:02:48

Not good. Yeah, Dream Drop Distance. It was the Nintendo DS version. Oh, one of the. One of the side games, I guess.

But it's not really a side game because the story kind of depends on it, which is annoying, but whatever.

Evan Garcia: 00:02:59

One of those things.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:01

Yeah, but I'm playing it, and at first I was like, I'm gonna play it and just ignore the spirits part, which is the most annoying part of the game, and it makes the game dumb. But instead I was like, you know what? What if. What if I just indulge it?

I'm like, you know, I'm gonna pretend like I like this and see if I can have fun with it and find the good in it. Not. Not the. The flagship series this year. And I am actually enjoying it. All I had to do is convince myself that, you know what?

I want to sit here and pet some dream animal thing in the middle of my Kingdom Hearts game.

Evan Garcia: 00:03:32

Is that what that was? I think I know you're talking about that.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:34

It is definitely a huge part of the game. Yeah. But anyway, I'm having fun with it because I've convinced myself I gaslit myself into it and now I'm enjoying it.

And then what you mean what you've been geeking out on?

Evan Garcia: 00:03:45

I've been geeking out on something that has a connection to Kingdom Hearts, but not really, but it kind of does. So I'm going to see.

Joshua Noel: 00:03:53

Don't worry about it.

Evan Garcia: 00:03:54

And it's. So Disneyland just started their 70th anniversary celebration.

And the main thing that they did for this, for this celebration is you can get a big, big Disney key and then you can go on this hunt around to go get the different. The different portals almost, and then you get a free pin. But a lot of people, they made the connection between the key and the Kingdom Hearts.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:26

Oh, yeah. I was incredibly aggravated because the key is absolutely not a Kingdom Hearts key.

But what it does is you go from world to world within the land of Disney and unlock the world. And I'm like, so you're real life doing Kingdom Hearts, but you're not with the wrong key for some reason and.

Evan Garcia: 00:04:43

A bunch of bubbles.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:44

Why not just look at that? But like, why not just make it? You don't have to tell people that's where it came from.

Evan Garcia: 00:04:49

Exactly. Exactly.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:52

It's okay. It's okay. Just like I enjoy the live action Lilo and Stitch, even though it doesn't have Gant 2. We're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about that, too. Things that we wish were there that aren't.

But before that, if you're on laptops, Rate, review our show on podcasts or GoodPunts can help our show gain recognition, make it easier to find on like Google, Yahoo, those kind of things. If you're on your phone, rate, review, comment on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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So if you want to shout out like Tripp, start your own podcast called Homebrew Theology or Homebrew Christianity something. Or you could just sponsor our show for $3 a month, which probably a lot easier on Apple Podcast, Captivate or Patreon.

So either become a podcast legend or $3 a month, one of the two, or both if you're like, tripp, it's fine. All right. And with that, we're going to jump right into this, talking about Lilo and Stitch. Evan, first things first.

What's your history with this franchise? It's not just a movie at this point. It's like a movie. Several TV shows, several follow up movies.

There was a ride, multiple appearances in Kingdom Hearts. Ride. Yeah, it's a whole thing. A hotel.

Evan Garcia: 00:06:05

Hotel.

Joshua Noel: 00:06:05

Yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:06:06

No. While we were waiting to watch the new movie here just a few weeks ago with my family, I was reminded. Or not reminded. I didn't know.

I never saw the first one. It was just always. Yeah, I guess it came out when I was starting to get away from. From the kid movies and stuff, but.

And I just assumed that I watched it this whole time and I was like thinking I was kind of racking my brain. No, I've seen this movie. I've seen. And she was like, dad, I don't think you've seen this movie. I was just like, hey, you're right. Oh my gosh. So.

So, So I love the whole story. And I. I remember getting really pissed off when it replaced at Disney World. Not Tower Terror.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:05

Yeah, what is it? What it was called the Stitch attraction.

Evan Garcia: 00:07:10

Yeah, but it. It was so watered down. And Alien Encounter. Yeah, Alien Encounter was the one.

And where they replaced a big giant cockroach, Men in Black looking alien with Stitch. And it was just like, oh, come on.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. I. I remember when they first TP'd the Magic Kingdom castle. I remember seeing for that ride and they said Stitch did it. And I was like, man, I wish.

What I would've give to be one of the employees paid to TP the.

Evan Garcia: 00:07:42

Castle and to write.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:44

Be like, hey, I need you to TP the Magic Kingdom. Like someone like what you got paid TP Cinderella's castle. That's not even fair. That was someone's job at one point. Yeah, that's funny, man. Yeah.

No, I. I grew up with the. This movie, the show. I loved the show. All the sequel films. Loved it.

I think Leroy and Stitch, honestly, it's like Marvel's Endgame, but better. And it came out first. Just gotta say. Yeah, all of it. I love even a little bit of the Stitch anime I watched.

They had a Lilo and Stitch comic release last year. Loved it. Great stuff. I've always loved the franchise. Always had a good time with it.

Since you watched it recently, did you want to maybe summarize this real quick?

Evan Garcia: 00:08:29

Actually, I never did see it. I haven't had the time to see it yet. So I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that.

Joshua Noel: 00:08:40

I'll take a stab. I'll take a stab at it. Jamba, Russian scientist who's not Russian because he's an alien. Anyway, evil scientist creates experiment.

He's called Experiment626, which later we find out in the show that it's because he's made that many experiments. But anyway, experiment 626 in him. @ the very beginning of the movie, they're on trial, they're like, oh, is this experiment?

It's, you know, basically, you shouldn't be playing God kind of deal. You can't just make a new life form. And they're like, is there anything good about Ustitch? The evil Scientists made him to be completely evil.

So he says some phrase that's apparently really gross. He gets some mischief. He steals a car. He basically blows up all the alien stuff.

It's not a very long part, but it's like super sci fi in the beginning. It's funny because they have, like, a giant shark man, and he kills it. His name's Gantu, who's not in the live action film. But anyway, I digress.

Stitch takes the ship, crashes to planet Earth. Earth. Find out.

Stitch can't be in water because his molecule structure's too dense, so he's stuck on an island as a creature that was meant to destroy cities and be a menace. There's no cities, not a lot of people, just island.

And in order for the mad scientist Jamba to get his freedom, he has to go catch Stitch, and he can catch Ditch. Return him to the Federation and he'll get his freedom. They send Plinkly along with him because he's the Earth expert.

They can't destroy Earth because that's where mosquitoes are and that's, you know, an endangered species. So Jamba Peakley, they go Peakly is like teacher's pet kind of person. I don't know. I feel like that's, you know, whatever.

Stitch ends up with this family because of shenanigans and realizes they can't attack him while he's with the humans, so he uses them as a shield. But humans are Nani and Lilo, their parents passed. Nani is now watching over Lilo, her older sister.

They get in trouble with Child Services because they're struggling financially. Nani loses her job. Turns out that Stitch also is a menace. Lilo's a really unique child. All this stuff's going on and the child service person, Mr.

Bubbles. He basically is in command. Stitch has to become a model citizen. Nani has to get a job. Lilo has to become a behaved child, basically.

So you have a really long montage where Nani keeps trying to get his job and Stitch keeps destroying things because he was literally built to destroy. Eventually, it looks like the family's going to be broken apart. All this stuff's happening. Lilo's very sad.

And you finally have a moment where Stitch starts to break down. And Jam was watching. And he realizes, what do you do when you are created for destruction and you end up alone? No one's related to you.

You are the only kind. You're alone. Your only mission in life is impossible for you to do. You have no purpose. You have no family. You have no friends. What do you do?

And that's when Stitch finds the Storybook of the Ugly Duckling. And Lilo reads it to him. And for those who don't know the story, the stuck feels all alone. It's like, I'm such an ugly duck.

It turns out it's because he's a goose. He's not a duck. And at one point in the story, he's, I'm lost.

And Lilo's reading that part, and that page is, like, really significant part of the story. Anyway, so after this moment, Stitch starts to try and make amends.

They have, like, a whole chart of, like, you're this bad, but we need you to have this much bad level. And in order to become the model citizen, Lilo's decided the most model citizen is Elvis. So she tries to just teach Stitch to be Elvis.

So he's gonna be charming, give old ladies roses, he's gonna play the music like Elvis. The whole shebang. Needless to say, stuff doesn't end up going right. The family looks like they're about to be split apart.

Lilo's so upset by this, she tries to run away. Stitch gets captured and by Jamba. And he's like, wait a minute, Jamba. Let me go help Lilo. And Jamba's like, why would I do that?

Stitch makes some noise. He's like, so you just expect me to just stop everything we're doing and just help you get this little girl? He's like, oh, honey means family.

Whatever. He's like, really? And Stitch just goes, e. And Jama's like, that's a good argument. So they go and help Stitch save Lilo.

And in this whole process, the aliens realize that Jamba's not doing his job, so they Send Gantu the giant shark man. And that's where you get some spaceship chases. Different shenanigans happen there. Gantu ends up being the main antagonist. They defeat him.

Grand Councilor Roman comes to get Stitch because he's still supposed to be in prison. And Stitch is like, I'll go, but let me say bye to my family. And she realizes that this alien creature but was meant to be an omination has changed.

So instead she allows them to be exiled with Jamba and Peakley on Earth. And that's where you get the show with the whole family. Jamba, Peakley, Nani, Lilo, all shebang. And it's great. It's a lot of fun. Yeah.

But the main theme of the original cartoon would be that that line, ohana, means family. Family means no one gets left behind. That's what Lilo says to Nani when they first get Stitch. And that's what Stitch learns throughout the movie.

And that's why whenever Lilo gets captured, he's like, wait a minute. We have to get Lilo because she's family and no one can be left behind. Yeah. So it's like the main part of the movie. Yeah. So that's the animated one.

We want to talk some about the live action film as well. That just came out. That's been pretty controversial. I know you saw this one in theaters.

Do you want to take a crack at summarizing this one so we can talk about some of the changes they made?

Evan Garcia: 00:15:26

Maybe they made it. They made a few kind of big changes. So much so that I kind of appreciated the swings that they took with it.

They made a change where, again, two isn't the one following them. It's Dominic Lickley. They are there. They like the. They are the ones that are following them around and they're voiced by Zach Galifianakis.

And the hot tub, the can I get a hot tub? Meme guy. Which they made a reference to that in the movie, which I like. When they went. When someone says a meme. That was pretty cool.

But they made some. There was still some other difference where I think in the lending, she stays home. The older sister stays with them. Correctly. Right.

But in the new movie, she goes off to college and she. And she lives her dream of trying to be a marine biologist. And I think there's two different lessons to learn from each one. And they are both valid.

And I appreciate the fun that they had with. With the live action movie where they had like, he. He was just a menace to this place.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:55

Yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:16:55

And. But he was so cute. He was so cute. At the same time, the. The CGI was amazing.

Joshua Noel: 00:17:05

It looked really good.

Evan Garcia: 00:17:05

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:17:06

For such a low budget they had.

Evan Garcia: 00:17:08

Yeah. Because this was gonna be a Disney plus just kind of.

Joshua Noel: 00:17:12

Yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:17:13

A one off thing.

Joshua Noel: 00:17:15

Which is why the sci fi bit in the beginning is even shorter in the line actually than it was.

Evan Garcia: 00:17:19

That makes sense.

Joshua Noel: 00:17:20

Yeah. But the. Yeah, there's. There are some parts that really aggravate me that they took out. Some changes they made that I actually really liked.

And some stuff that they added that I was like, oh, so cool. The Mr. Bubbles is now just like alien investigator guy. And then they had a different person for the child services. I actually really liked.

The people were aggravated by it. But I like that a lot because they portrayed the child services a lot more positively in this film than they did the animated film.

For me, I appreciate that even though I know that system can be really ugly.

But for this being a kids film and all the kids are having to go through that system, I kind of like not vilifying it feels like maybe a good thing perhaps. I like that change. They also added a neighbor, this older lady.

Evan Garcia: 00:18:05

Oh, she wasn't in the original.

Joshua Noel: 00:18:08

No, no. The guy was the dreamy guy that she. Her boyfriend with. Yeah. But they didn't have him as an. I don't think they had him as a neighbor at all.

And then especially not his mom. So that was a really cool change. And that character, one of my favorite characters.

Evan Garcia: 00:18:21

That was fun.

Joshua Noel: 00:18:22

This is cool. I love that they added her. I don't like, Jam is not a Russian giant. Like, like at all.

They just took it out cuz they wanted to avoid the conflict, I guess.

Evan Garcia: 00:18:32

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:18:33

And they make him just straight up the villain. And I'm like, Jam is not the villain of the film. Like, what are y' all doing? That drove me crazy.

Evan Garcia: 00:18:40

That was a pretty big swing. Yeah. I remember thinking like, man, like, he's like, he's just missing the twirling mustache. I was just like, oh, wow.

Joshua Noel: 00:18:51

Yeah. I was like, man, that's not the Jamba that I know and love.

But also, you know, I watched the whole TV show, which they basically portray Jamba and Bleakley as like a couple, even though they're not. And it's just, I heard that some.

Evan Garcia: 00:19:04

People were aggravated that they didn't do that here.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:08

Yeah, I know there was a lot of aggravation that Bleakley didn't cross dress more.

Evan Garcia: 00:19:11

Yeah, cross dressing.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:13

To me, he still cross dresses in the film. I think if they would have overdone it like they did in the cartoon, with modern sensitivity. Somehow we got more sensitive about this.

It would have made the whole point of the movie about that, which I think took away from the actual message that they were trying to do. So I'm like, I'm glad that they included it. It needed to be included.

I'm okay with them not overemphasizing it because I think it would have took away from the message.

Evan Garcia: 00:19:33

Yeah. And about the social services, they made the social service representative. The voice of the sister. Correct. From the first one.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:48

Oh, was it?

Evan Garcia: 00:19:49

Yeah. And she's the supermodel for Wayne's World, too.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:57

That's funny. Yeah. No, I didn't know any of that. That's really cool. And of course, the other huge change that bothers me to my core. No Gantu.

Of course, the reason for that is it would have been way too expensive to make him a CGI for a Disney show. And by the time they decided it was for theaters, they had already done this, which is also why Jamba becomes a villain.

Because they can't have Cantu. They had to figure out, what can we do instead? And so they just kind of rewrote the story to make that work. I don't think it works. Jamba is just.

He's one of those, like, just kind of like how in one piece, they're pirates, but, like, we know they're not really pirates. It's like, Jamba's an evil scientist, but we know he's not really an evil scientist. He just likes to create characters that cause mischief. Like.

Like in the show, one of the aliens he creates to, like, cause terror. Yeah, it's just a stoplight.

Evan Garcia: 00:20:43

Oh.

Joshua Noel: 00:20:43

Just goes around and changes colors to mess with people.

Evan Garcia: 00:20:46

And I'm like, yeah, third blinks a little slower.

Joshua Noel: 00:20:49

Yeah. I'm like, he's not like a evil, evil genius. He's just trying to cause some mayhem, you know?

Whereas Gantu is, like, so rule thing, and he's like, he wants to move up. He's so transactional that he's. He's not really a bad guy in the original film, but he's so transactional, he can't see the nuance.

He can't see change. He can't see, like, oh, hey, maybe something's going on here.

And that stays throughout the entire show, all the way through Lee Roy and Stitch, where this is what's just. I'm going to get really nerdy. I'm sorry.

In the TV series, Gantu ends up with Experiment 625, who is exactly like Stitch in every way, except for he's super hyper fixated on making sandwiches.

Evan Garcia: 00:21:31

Love it.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:31

So he has all the powers of Stitch, but the only thing he wants to do is make sandwiches. So he ends up with Gantu in the TV series, constantly making sandwiches. And Ganttu's so annoying. You know, you could do so much more.

And we could do this. We could capture him and get promoted and we can get our bounty for capturing the alien. Whatever. And 625 is named Ruben. He's like.

Or I can make a really killer meatball sandwich.

Evan Garcia: 00:21:52

Oh, right.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:53

It's like there's this whole thing, man. But come through this entire, like, however many seasons the show lasts. And then they have Leroy and Stitch.

After several other movies, it turns out that that relationship with Ruben changed Gantu. That's like, the whole thing that's really cool through all the original Lilo and Stitch franchise is like.

It's all about, like, family and how we change one another through relationship.

Evan Garcia: 00:22:15

Sure.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:16

And so seeing all that's cool. And it's why I'm really sad that Gantu wasn't here. Because even if they made more, they can't make the story what it was without him.

You know, I'm like. And that's where I'm like, I don't. I don't like that change because I want to see more, because I love it.

Evan Garcia: 00:22:31

Are there signs of them making more?

Joshua Noel: 00:22:33

I don't know. I don't think they will because of how they did it, but I'm not sure.

Evan Garcia: 00:22:37

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:38

They always could just retcon it and be like, can't use here now. Yeah. Why not? I don't think questions that much.

Evan Garcia: 00:22:44

He was voiced by Terry Crews, right?

Joshua Noel: 00:22:47

Good question.

Evan Garcia: 00:22:48

I think it was. Yeah. Because that would have been fun to see him in a movie.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:51

That would have been fun. But. Yeah. So I think the most substantial difference, though, in the original, they keep going back to ohana. Means family. No one gets left behind.

And that's where, like, you know, Stitch can't leave Lilo. Lilo can't leave Stitch. It's a whole thing. And that's like the message of the film in this one, they say the ohana line.

But I think the message of the film actually comes from the song He Mele no Lilo, which is like a song for the Lost.

And whenever they're describing it and this line gets used a few times, they talk about how, like, if you really love them, you let it go to grow, basically, and it changes from the message, oh, no one can be let go to now, the message of the film is, no, you choose to let go so that they can grow. And that's what's so different about this film.

In the cartoon and everything that happens, Nani finds a way to do Lilo, and she just makes her whole life about raising this family, doing this family right. And even earlier this year, or maybe last year, TJ and I did a whole episode about all the different Lilo and Stitch properties.

You know, I brought up my biggest aggravation with the film Leroy and Stitch, which, again, is just like Endgame. But Lelo and Stitch, for some reason, where you have experiment 627, who's even stronger and cooler than Stitch.

Evan Garcia: 00:24:06

Which one's angel? The pink version.

Joshua Noel: 00:24:09

624.

Evan Garcia: 00:24:11

Okay, cool.

Joshua Noel: 00:24:12

Wait, maybe she's 627. And Leeroy 628, unsure. But one of the other experiments, I love Angel. She's in the anime a lot like the Japanese and Chinese version.

Yeah, she is cool. She's like Stitch, but cute and pink. Anyway, in the Leroy and Stitch film, everybody gets their dream. It's so cool.

Like, John begins to have his own lab and create new experiments and do stuff. And Bleakley gets to go be a scientist and do stuff. And Stitch gets to captain the Little Red ship and be, like a police officer.

And everyone's getting to live their own lives. And then they're like, oh, we're sad. We miss each other.

And in the end of that film, they all give up their dreams to be together because family means more. And I mentioned telling TJ when we were reviewing it. I like it. But I'm also really aggravated because why can't they have both?

I don't like this idea of teaching children, give up on your dreams.

And what I think this film does, right, for all the stuff that I am upset with, a live action is it does teach that Nani doesn't give up her entire life to raise Lilo.

The neighbor ends up being able to take care of Lilo and Nani is able to go to college and also visit Lilo whenever she wants and is still part of the family. They're all still family.

Evan Garcia: 00:25:26

You go, can Leela.

Joshua Noel: 00:25:27

They're also give each other space to grow. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I talked a lot.

Evan Garcia: 00:25:33

See, no, that comes only because you saw the first movie. I realized I've never seen it and. But this was still impactful.

And that idea of Lilo embracing the idea and being okay with her sister going off to college, that was A huge lesson.

Like you said, it's a different lesson, but it's a good one to teach that you can have those personalities within a family and you can still be together. So.

Joshua Noel: 00:26:18

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Well, as a Bible nerd, it also reminds me something that when you learn more about Bible literature, especially if you follow like Pete ends some of the fun nerdery there is, like where you see the Bible actually retells stories from other cultures.

Evan Garcia: 00:26:34

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:26:35

And a lot of times that changed being the main point. Yeah. So like, like the story in Genesis, you can find it in other ancient texts, older texts than the Bible.

What the Bible changed was putting women at a place of prominence, putting women as coming from the side of men and not from their foot.

Evan Garcia: 00:26:54

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:26:54

You know, and it's like, like little changes like this and the Bible retells these stories in the point is what was changed and.

And you're like, oh, it actually makes it so much more meaningful when you see that it doesn't steal the meaning like, oh, the Bible retold that story. And I think the same challenge happens here.

We can either be upset because they changed the story or we can say, wait a minute, how much more meaningful is it that we still have that original story? I think what they wanted to say with this was, hey, ahana means family. But also it's okay to give each other space to grow.

And like that change, I think rather than taking away from the original film, I think really adds a lot.

Evan Garcia: 00:27:31

Totally. Right. That was a great analogy. Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:35

Yeah. I feel like I use that one too much. But our listeners haven't complained to me yet, so.

Evan Garcia: 00:27:39

No, because, because when you said that like that, that applies to. To any kind of universe, any kind of. Any kind of fandom almost.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:51

Yeah. 1. That's something fans struggle with. Right.

Especially all these live action adaptations of our old films where they go, they changed this or they did this and. And I think it's been done better and worse. Right. Some of the changes made in Aladdin I didn't like that much.

The Beast, the changes made, I thought added to the story. There was no changes in Lion King. It made it boring.

Evan Garcia: 00:28:14

Why am I watching this?

Joshua Noel: 00:28:16

Yeah. Because they didn't change anything.

Evan Garcia: 00:28:18

Nothing.

Joshua Noel: 00:28:18

So I think the big lesson is like, if you're going to keep doing this Disney. Because we know Disney listens to this. Yeah.

If you're going to make an adaptation, make changes that are meaningful, not just changes for to change stuff and don't just make the same film over and over. I don't need the exact same film, right?

Evan Garcia: 00:28:34

Please don't just do it. The book report version, where it's like, you know exactly what's going to happen.

Joshua Noel: 00:28:41

Yeah, I like that simile there. Book report version. So if you had a.

For the live action, if you had to rate it 0 to 10, since you haven't seen Animated, what would you do with the live action?

Evan Garcia: 00:28:52

Zero to ten? I'll do a solid seven and a half. Seven and a half? Yeah. I had a fun time. There was a lady that was in back of us in the theater.

She was asking questions. And the part where Alilo falls to the bottom of. The. Falls to the bottom of the ocean. She goes, why can't he just get up and motherfucking swim?

Joshua Noel: 00:29:16

Oh, man. That was a change. I liked a lot, too. I want to hear our friend will speak to this at some point.

So in the Animated, right, a lot of the same stuff happens. Stitch pulls her down because the aliens are trying to capture her in the ocean and he can't swim.

His molecular density or whatever, a lot of that happens pretty much the same.

What was really cool earlier in the film, they established some of the exercises you do with surfing, where they're carrying stuff on their back and walking on.

Evan Garcia: 00:29:43

The bottom of the ocean. That was cool.

Joshua Noel: 00:29:46

And then they use that at the end of the film, Stitch tries. Makes a sacrifice of himself. This doesn't happen at all in Animated. He tries to sacrifice himself to save Lilo and he's stuck.

And then Nani goes to try and save him and ends up doing that surfing move. And I'm like, okay, that's a cool payoff. It was a cool nod to surfing culture, which is a large part of Hawaii.

And it shows how, like, Nani is still awesome. Just because she didn't give up her life to raise Lilo doesn't make her any less cool. Yeah, like, I like. Nani was awesome, man. Yeah.

So for me, I think. I think I like seven and a half. I'll probably just go seven. For the animated, I'd probably give it like a nine. Nine and a half. Probably nine.

Maybe eight and a half. I'll say nine. Since I said eight and a half and nine and a half. I'll say 9. Animated was great. I love the original version.

And that doesn't take away from being able to like the live action, too.

Evan Garcia: 00:30:37

Exactly.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:37

I'm able to like both even if I like the Animated better. My biggest fear, really. This is so weird.

Just as an animation nerd, part of what made Lilo And Stitch so good is the watercolors they use for all the backgrounds. It really makes it feel so special.

Evan Garcia: 00:30:52

Emphasis on watercolors.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:54

Yeah. And you can't do that in live action. I'm like, what are you gonna do?

But then I see that scene where Nani's explaining to Lilo that they might be separated, and they're sitting on the porch and you have, like, these trees surrounding the porch. And I'm like, okay, it's not watercolor, but this is still beautiful.

Evan Garcia: 00:31:09

They framed it nice. Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:31:11

Yeah. It was like, okay. They still. Yeah, they still made it. You know, it's not the same.

Of course, the best telling of Lilo and Stitch still happens in Kingdom Hearts, but that's the case for everything. Yeah. No, you do see, I love it. You see Stitch after their world gets lost in Kingdom Hearts 2.

And then later, when you're playing one of the, like, prequel games, you see Stitch on the spaceship when he first broke out. And I was like, that payoff is so cool. Because you can't do that in movies. Like, a movie, you have to tell the story coherently.

But in the game, it's like, man, so many years happened between these games. And, like, I'm exploring. I'm like, oh. Seeing his story in different parts and spread out through years of my life. I'm like, okay.

Because sometimes in movies, I feel like you lose a sense of meaning because movie, it's two hours, and you're like, wait a minute. That's right. An entire lifetime has passed.

Evan Garcia: 00:31:58

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:31:59

And some of these films. Yeah. But no, that was cool. I love that. Um. Yeah. So that's where I'm at with the ratings. Do you have anything else to add as far as, like, the means?

I know we talk a lot about child services. We talk a lot about, like, ohana means family.

And do we give each other space to grow, or do we stay together because family is the most important thing? But for the.

Evan Garcia: 00:33:08

Who's the head of the Alien Corporation?

Joshua Noel: 00:33:16

I don't know if they gave her a name in the live action.

Evan Garcia: 00:33:18

Okay. Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:33:18

In animated, she's literally just called Chancellor Woman. That's just her name in the credits.

Evan Garcia: 00:33:22

Chancellor Palpatine. Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:33:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:33:26

But I don't think it was emphasized enough where she was able to pivot, you know, where she sees the connection. And for her to let Stitch grow, would she had to change?

Joshua Noel: 00:33:44

Yeah, yeah.

Evan Garcia: 00:33:46

So I think it was a huge thing where they let her change and to let him stay. And that goes unnoticed, I think, because I think that is a big deal. Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:34:00

Yeah. And is. It is really cool. I like that.

And it's like in the Animated, she was going to take him anyway, and Lilo shows her little paper that's proof that they adopted him, and she goes, well, I mean, technically, that's binding.

Evan Garcia: 00:34:12

Okay.

Joshua Noel: 00:34:13

Yeah. I kind of missed that because it was kind of funny in the cartoon. The other thing the live action didn't do, that does upset me.

And part of the problem is the live action was trying to tell a new story.

So it couldn't include all the stuff from the original, but it also was trying to include enough that people weren't mad that it was, you know, they didn't want to be nothing like the original because that would have made everybody really angry. So you had a lot of stuff, like, still including the ohana, even though that wasn't the meaning of this film and that kind of stuff.

But I think what the film didn't stress enough is how lost and how broken some of the stuff felt in the cartoon. You feel it. It's heavy, man. In the Animated, it feels like it's almost moving too fast to feel it.

Evan Garcia: 00:34:49

Sure.

Joshua Noel: 00:34:49

Yeah. I think that was the thing, because when they should have included the lost duckling, so the ugly duckling still, I think.

And I understand why they were trying. That can be a problematic book now or whatever.

But, like, in that Amy version, when Stitch takes the book and he's out in the thing and he's realized that he's alone, he doesn't have a family, and he's. I'm lost. I mean, man, I needed that moment still, like, it's such a moving. But that's the thing that, you know, we make change. We do stuff like that.

I just. I feel like if they were gonna given a little bit more time, we would have had that.

And that's what makes a lot of this stuff meaningful, is when you connect with it. We've all had that feeling of lost, or the line in both films of where Stitch goes, this is my family. It's broken, but it's still good.

Evan Garcia: 00:35:32

Oh, man.

Joshua Noel: 00:35:34

We all connect with some of this stuff and making that connection, I think saying, what do we do with it? Do we decide as a family we're going to stick together, or do we decide to let each other go? And what's it look like to find a good middle ground?

Because I don't think, you know, it's one or the other in real life. We don't have a fun portal gun that lets you do both.

So we have to kind of find a way to balance this for ourselves, and that can be hard to do as a dad. You might be able to speak to this a little bit more.

Do you have any thoughts as far as, like, how do we balance this idea of, like, ohana mean family, we stick together and also giving each other space to grow?

Evan Garcia: 00:36:07

No. This is definitely that lesson that I learned quickly.

When you have kids, but not just the kids, but when you're in a relationship with someone, with anyone, you can't control that person to do what you want. And to control them is to not have a relationship with them.

So you need to let them grow and flourish in the way that you need to grow and flourish yourself. And the less of you interrupting them is probably best. But that's definitely a big thing from that one that I did appreciate.

Joshua Noel: 00:36:52

People know I quote this book too much. C.S. lewis and the Four Loves, but when he talks about.

He talks about romantic love, and one of the really interesting things he talks about is, like, one of the weird problems with romantic love is a lot of times we try to change ourselves for the other person. Right. You want to be what's best for them.

But the thing is, if you're truly in love, once you change to be there for them, you're not the person that they love anymore because you changed who you are. So, so much of it is like, yes, like, I need to get off of this podcast so I can go spend time with my wife, because that's what I do Friday nights.

But also, who I am that she loves is someone who does podcasts, is someone who is weirdly obsessed with Kingdom Hearts. And that might not be the stuff that she loves about me, but all of that is part of who I am.

And if I don't indulge in Kingdom Hearts every now and then, I'm not going to be the same Josh. And it's weird. People notice.

They don't know it's from Kingdom Hearts, but if I haven't touched that game in, like, a week, I will start hearing people like, josh, are you okay? Are you? Because it's like, it's so much part of me that, like, if I don't touch it, people are like, I am not as joyful.

I'm not as, like, you know me as I am when I play it. So even if you don't care about Kino Hearts at all, you might care that I play it, because that's part of what makes me me.

Evan Garcia: 00:38:04

Exactly.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:04

Yeah. Yeah. That's why I love your Like Star wars decked out room. And Kushner needs to love that we love the Last Jedi, even if he doesn't love it.

Evan Garcia: 00:38:15

Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:17

Yeah, yeah. All right, man. Any final notes before we start wrapping this up then?

Evan Garcia: 00:38:22

I need to go make a reservation to Warhunters now.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:26

Me too. Me too, man. I still want some Stitch stuff, man. There's two different animes.

A Japanese produced one, the Stitch, and then a Chinese one that's newer. That's Stitching AI.

Evan Garcia: 00:38:35

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:36

If you want more of Angel. Yeah, if you want more of her, she's in Stitching AI a lot. That's the Chinese anime one. So cool.

I mentioned the comic book earlier too, so it's great.

Evan Garcia: 00:38:48

And the Alelo and Stitch, the original film was the last film to come out of the Walt Disney World Studios.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:56

Yeah, the MGM one, right?

Evan Garcia: 00:38:58

MGM Studios.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:59

Yeah, man. Cool stuff. Well, then, we'll go ahead and wrap this up. And as always, we are going to have a bonus question here in a minute.

Just how would we imagine the events of the television series unfolding if the live action version of the own Stitch happened? So if they made a live action show because they didn't introduce Ganto, what would happen? How do we. How do we get there?

We're going to answer that question just for our patron, captivate and Apple Podcast listeners, but for now we'd have to give a recommendation. I gave mine early on. Accident. I'm sorry. It's the Lil one Stitch comic. Check it out. It's great. Evan, any recommendation for our listeners?

Evan Garcia: 00:39:38

I'm gonna do a cheat and do the. What was it called? I read the Haunted Mansion comic books for one of our other episodes and yeah, that was really cool. That was really cool.

And that shows the proper storytelling of Disney. So check that out.

Joshua Noel: 00:40:04

Yeah, it's great stuff. Yeah, there's all the Disney Kingdoms comics.

Evan Garcia: 00:40:09

Yes, there you go.

Joshua Noel: 00:40:10

Yeah. But thank you, Evan. Thank you, listeners. If you're on your laptop, consider reviewing our show on Ponchi's or a good pod.

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