#i need a 625 and Gantu series

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

On my recent super-popular post about how Lilo & Stitch has no villains, there’s one comment that reoccurs the most (aside from the one about how the real villains are colonialism or the United States government):

So you know what? Let’s do it. Here we go with

Psycho Analysis: Dr. Jacques von Hamsterwheel

"It's Hämster-viel!”

Oh, sorry. My bad. Let’s try that again:

Psycho Analysis: Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

This diminutive bastard certainly looks like a harmless little critter, but don’t let looks fool you; he is the unholy union of that French asshole from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Dr. Habitrale from the video game Stitch: Experiment 626 and is every bit the card-carrying villain Jumba is. However, while Jumba is all talk when it comes to being evil due to being a genuinely nice and extremely gay alien, Hämsterviel is just completely without redeeming qualities (and even worse, he’s heterosexual). He’s a nasty, miserable little bully, and quite frankly is just what the series needed.

Oh, and he was only in the DTV sequels and series, not the first movie. That’s why he wasn’t in the original post, guys. I was talking about the original film.

Motivation/Goals: This guy, in true evil scientist fashion, wants to conquer the galaxy. To this end he sends out Gantu to do his dirty work and acquire the 625 experiments who aren’t Stitch. If you’re looking for depth, Hämsterviel is not your guy.

Performance: No, that’s not John Cleese there; that is Jeff Bennet, the professional voice actor you might know as the titular character of Johnny Bravo, Petrie in the DTV Land Before Time sequels, Dexter’s dad on Dexter’s Laboratory, Brooklyn on Gargoyles, the one and only Candlejack from Freaka

...Sorry, don’t know what happened there. Anyway, as you can see from just that tiny sampling of his career, the dude is insanely talented and is able to pull off a lot of voices. Is it any wonder he’s killing it in this performance as an evil alien “hamster” with an ego as big as he is small?

Final Fate: Hämsterviel was a fool to think he could stand up to the power of family. Lilo, Stitch, and everyone else (including Gantu and Reuben) team up and beat his ass, sending him right back to jail… only this time, there’s no one who’ll be willing to bust him out. For a so-called evil genius, he really didn’t think this through very well.

Final Thoughts & Score: I think it is really easy to just write Hämsterviel off as an unnecessary addition to a franchise that didn’t need a cartoonish villain to cause conflict, and who sullies the tone and message of the original film. This just goes to show that sometimes doing what is easy is fucking stupid, because Hämsterviel rules.

Okay, he’s not the greatest or most complex villain who has ever existed. In fact, he’s fairly simplistic, but considering he’s the villain of a “Monster of the week” show that is a lighthearted continuation of a slightly heavier sci-fi drama, this is acceptable. He has enough quirks and characterizations that he is immensely fun to watch and, what’s more, watch him eat a big serving of humble pie nearly every episode. He’s like Rita Repulsa, except less sexy.

And honestly, I think even if the series is lighter and goofier with him in it, he provides a nice balance while reaffirming the core found family values of the series by acting as the antithesis to Lilo’s family. Hämsterviel is just completely, irredeemably evil; he refuses to change, and even when he’s finally defeated and hauled off in Leroy & Stitch, he hasn’t changed his tune. His cruel, abrasive attitude caused him to belittle and backstab Gantu and Reuben so much that both of them ended up betraying them, and the guy also threw Jumba under the bus. He’s just horrible, and he fails almost every single time. And do you know why? Because he ain’t got the power of family, baby!

Yes, Hämsterviel showcases the sort of miserable, unpleasant failure you’ll become if you’re a self-absorbed, self-reliant prick who thinks you’re above such silly things as “Companionship” and “love” and whatever. Even if Lilo’s family is a bit messy and at odds sometimes, they all love and care about each other to the point where, when given their life dreams and scatter across the galaxy, they decide that being a big stupid family together on Earth is way cooler and more important, and you know what? They’re right, because they save the world and send Hämsterviel to the space pokey. He is literally the only kind of villain who could possibly work in the series: An arrogant jackoff who is incapable of even understanding what it means to have a family.

As far as fun, Saturday morning cartoon-style villains go, Hämsterviel is a fun little villain, and definitely one of the most memorable parts of the sequels. I almost thought about giving him a 7, but honestly I think he’s iconic enough to get an 8/10. I think he can stand aside some of the great Disney villains as a fun comedic villain.

Oh, and did you know he actually had a cameo in the first film?

Maybe I should have mentioned him in my original post after all...

[stitchverse]

The Lustful Stitch-Verse

WARNING!!!! This is 18+ please do not interact with this blog if you are under 18! (just so you know English isn't my first language and i spell things how i say them, so sorry if there's anything wrong with the text) this is a gay lilo and stitch au, that will be exploring the universe of multiple planets in the galaxy, the au mainly follows Stich(626), Reuben (625) and Jumba, official character design and other stuff will be made later on as the blog gets older and more people enjoy the project. This is mainly for world building and character development which i need to work on, so this will help me get better at those topics as you enjoy the series. this project will have adult themes like death, sexual abuse, toxic relationships, r@pe, and more nsfw sexy topics like sex, inflation, grooming, flirting, beer ect. i haven't thought of much for the project yet, but i will post more stuff as i get ideas and other idea, but for now the project is Jumba,626 and 625 escape the grand council alive, with the other experiments although during it get lost in a teleporter and are transported to other planets. now Jumba, Stitch, Reuben has to find the other experiments before Gantu and the grand council captures and eliminates them. i hope you will enjoy the project as much as i will be creating it for you all! My DMs are open just in case anyone would like to suggest ideas for planets and species x3

[popculturebuffet]

Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: “Morpholomew” (American Dragon Long): Stop Trying to Make Am Drag a Thing (Commisson Done For WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a brand new retrospective/story arc/thing from yours truly, comissoned directly by WeirdKev27. If you’d like to comission your own review or set of reviews like this one, it’s 5 bucks. Just contact me via my ask box or direct messages on this very blog or my discord technicolormuk#6550.

With Shadow Into Light in the books, Kev decided he wanted to comission something not duck related and a bit smaller as a buffer before the next big arc, ALL of three arcs from season 2 of Ducktales, and decided to go with something he suggested to be a while back as a possible future retrospective: The Lilo and Stitch Crossover episodes! 

That’s right for the next three weeks, with TWO reviews this week since I had a spot open up and Kev paid for this one in full and way in advance, we’ll be taking a trip to Hawaii to visit everyone’s faviorte little girl, her best friend/pet/killing machine as they try to find homes for his 625 cousins. 

I loved Lilo and Stitch when I was a kid: Disney admitely got their hooks in me on that one with their cool prequel comics in disney adventures. These comics set up the movie, showing Jumba creating Stitch and the events leading up to both getting captured. The movie did not disapoint with cool character designs, a drop dead gorgeous recreation of Hawaii, and a really heartfelt, heartbreaking and heartpumping story of loss, family, and ving rahmes voicing one of the few heroic child services workers i’ve seen in a medium, a refreshing change of pace. The film is a masterpiece and I really do need to watch it again sometime. 

Given the series was a huge hit and that thsi was before the big lull in the late 2000′s and early 2010′s where Disney refused to make any tv shows based on their movies, a series followed, given a lead in by the direct to video movie Stitch.

The movie set up the basic premise; 624 capsules containing Jumba’s previous experiments, cousins as Stitch calls them, ended up raining over Kauai, awakening when dropped into water or any other liquid. Lilo and Stitch, with help from Jumba, his live in boyfriend Pleakley, her tought but fair sister Nani, and her boyfriend David, who dosen’t show up as much as i’d like but is my boy so he gets a mention here. But anyways our heroes try to reform the various engines of distructoin who all have unique powers and find them their one place they truly belong. 

So yes the show was a Mons-type show clearly captalizing off pokemon.. but the slice of life setting as opposed to the shonen style of most shows following in pokemon’s wake, gave it it’s own unique feel: while our heroes did fight, it was more about shenanigans, adventures and what not with these unique creatures and the purpose is very heartflet: Lilo simply wants to give these guys the same kind of love and support she’s given Stitch and a chance to do good. 

Opposing them is Gantu, the shark bounty hunter from the first film who, now out of a job, is working for Dr. Hamstervile, an imprisoned sceintest and a character I really don’t like that much as he’s not funny or a genuine threat or both and feels like a waste of time. Thankfully he’s not the focus and Gantu is instead partnered with 625, my faviorite Lilo and Stitch character. 625, as the name suggests, is stitch’s immediate prototype.. but unlike Stitch is too lazy and peaceful to be a real threat and isn’t even really a villian despite being on Gantu’s side. He’s busy making samwitches, his calling to the point when he gets a name in the finale movie it’s naturally Ruben, and snarking at gantu. He’s sadly not in this one but hopefully it’s JUST this one. 

As you can tell I liked this show a LOT at the time. I haven’t watched it since, mostly because disney scarely replayed it after it’s run, but it was vibrant, fun and intresting and a nicely laidback and creative take. The fact I came into the franchise with the comics and thus 625, who was introduced there in fact, and had a hunger to know more about the other experiments certainly helped. It was great fun. 

But while I grew up with the show and the four shows it teamed up with, i’ve never seen these episodes before these reviews. I wondered why for years as I caught the tail end of the kim possible one and saw images ocasionally, but never saw them. 

Turns out it’s because in general Season 2 got screwed over. While Season 1 was pushed out the door fast and aired at a rapid pace Season 2.. was portioned out over several years, and the Recess crossover one, the last one aired and the last one i’ll be covering never even got to Disney channel, only airing on ABC kids, DIsney’s saturday morning block at the time I rarely watched. I did watch it’s predecessor one saturday morning though. Good stuff. 

Since I couldn’t find any making of stuff for why these episodes happened, my best guess is DIsney wanted some cross promotion, and the shows used were chosen because they were the most popular at the time and honestly all 4 represent some of disney’s best, with Recess being in heavy reruns at the time, hence i’ts conclusion despite the show being finished before Lilo And Stitch the movie came out, let alone the series. 

So yeah i’m taking this ride for the first time.. but I was happy to. While Kev pays for a lot of my work, I still have to accept the idea.. and this was a great one. It allows me to cover 5 amazing series and gage how much people would want to see reviews of said series on this blog in one fell swoop.

So to kick us off we have American Dragon: Jake Long, a series I waited forever to come to Disney + as I loved it at the time, badly need to rewatch it (Been busy ), and find it genuinely great: It’s a great teen superhero story about the magical protector of new york, with a charming lead, a great setting and horrifcally great villians in the violently racist magic creature hunting huntsclan.. and their top agent who happens to be jake’s love intrest Rose. It’s really excellent and i’m glad it’s now widely avaliable for all to see. I will say ahead that all four shows in this crossover arc are excellent, and were fine choices for this. 

So what happens when an action comedy about a hip hop teenage dragon meets a slice of life show about aliens? Find out under the cut. 

So we open at a fancy hotel where Lilo’s bringing lunch to her sister Nani when she runs into.. Keoni Jameson. 

The second I remembered this kid all the hate just came flooding back, coursing through my veigns. Just pure liquid hatred for this little perosnalitiless little punk. Keoni is Lilo’s crush and local “stupid white audience stand in”. He has no real personality other than “generic cool kid” and “likes skating”, and just sucks the air out of the room anytime he’s in an episode. Keoni is part of a recurring problem in cartoons across the ages, one that’s slowly going away: the bland love intrest. Intorducing a character whose only traits are being cool for the lead to fawn over with usually no intent of either getting the two togehter or just ending it. IT’s annoying, it was in a good chunk of my childhood, I wish it’d stop. I cannot tell you how many shows used this trope. There were exceptions, American Dragon Jake Long actually used it well by not only making Rose a fleshed out character..  but making her jake’s nemisis in their other lives, and thus making things increidbly difficult on both once the truth comes out, with Jake grappling with if he can trust her or not and Rose grappling with the slow relization eveyrthing she was taught her whole life was wrong.

And again I have seen GOOD storylines using this as a tool: Dipper and Wendy ended with her having been aware teh whole time, but simply not knowing how to let him down given the age gap, and Regular Show rebounded the best from it: it turned the stop and start relatoinshpi of Mordecai and Margret’s relationship into a character flaw for him, openly explored it.. and ended up having him work past it and actually date her for a bit. Before she moved away, he got an even better love interest, then they destoryed the relationship in the worst way posisble and I wil lbe getting to that at some point. Some point. 

So yeah even at the time it was done better, hindsight haas only made it worse and it made watching the first few minutes tough because I had to keep pasuing because I hate him so damn much. He just adds NOTHING to the show and is a blank yanwing void from which no good came out of and I was terrified he’d be in the rest of the episode. Thankfully while he drives the plot he’s only in this scene.. but it’s still one more scene than both 625 and Pleakly got. yeah both are missing, as is nani. 

I did uncover one fun fact that made things a bit easier though: The crew ALSO hated Keoni. No really. Disney forced the character on them as they wanted an audience surrogate, and this abomination is what popped out. They DID NOT want him here and likely only used him as mcuh as they did because Disney forced it on them. And Disney would NOT learn from this as Star Vs got saddled with Alphonso and Ferguson soley because of network mandate. The two aren’t TERRIBLE characters but they aren’t great and feel as tacked on as they were. And part of this does fall on the crew: you CAN twist a stupid mandate like this to work well: Joe Murray was asked to add “A female character with a hook”, as in some sort of dumb gimmick to Rocko. He used those words, meant to create a superfical girl power cardboard cutout.. and created the wonderful Dr. Hutchenson, a bright cheery doctor, the series best sidecharacter.. and someone with a hook hand. But I won’t go too hard on them: they probably didn’t have as much room to manuver and the fact Keoni was sitll being shoved into episodes in season 2 tells me they likely had a set number of episodes he had to show up. I’m suprised they didn’t demand they have characters ask “Where’s Keonie?” any time he wasn’t in an episode. He was unecessary and it comes across with a massive chunk of unforutnate implications: that they didn’t think a series with a mostly hawaiann cast would work, that they wanted at least one other “nice” white character to offset myrtle instead of having the only major white character be a bully and antagonist, and that they thought tehir mostly white audience coudln’t enjoy a series without a white character, which as someone who was in the target demo at the time, I call bullshit on. As I said I hated him then, I hate him now and his involvement is the worst aspect of this episode. 

So after Lilo fawns over him for a bit we find out this chonk of wood’s purpose in the episode: to set up the plot. There’s a massive Skate Competition coming to town with the prize being a really cool skateboard.  This plot point itself.. I don’t mind. Jake is a skater, it’s part of his character and one of the things he loves doing in what minsicule spare time he has. And while it was a common trope at the time having a character skateboard really dosen’t harm most works. We’ve gotten great characters like Jake, Jackie Lynn Thomas, Branwen and Ronnie Anne Santiago out of it, and it feels like natural parts of the character, and frankly An Extremley Goofy Movie wouldn’t be NEARLY as awesome without having skateboarding bizzarley attached to the plot via the college x-games. Granted somtimes you get Rocket Power out of the deal but that’s the price you pay for the good stuff. I only regret it’s involved because Keoni has to be there and I had to pause multiple times to get through his scene. He’s just a sampler platter of terrible decisions made in 2000′s cartoons and he irritates me more than this guy. 

And anyone whose read my Loud House reviews can tell you that is a high bar to clear. 

So naturally Lilo wants to enter the Hawiann X-Games to get the board for Keoni. Though I will give the writers credit for having Stitch voice their thoughts and the audiences thoughts by having him take Keoni’s picture and throw it in the garbage. Where he belongs. 

Lilo’s not great at it as they practice.. and said practice naturally ends up waking up a new experiment, 316.. who i’m just going to go ahead and call Morpholomew. Stitch eventually catches him though like many of the experiments he’s not actively malevelolent and is easy enough to get home. 

Jumba gets to his schitck of breaking down what the experiment of the week does: In this case Morpholomew is  a shapeshifter though he has a VERY intresting twist on those powers: while he can naturally morph himself into anything he’s seen or has a picture of, he can do the same to anyone he touches. It dosen’t effect their voices, but otherwise it’s a perfect recreation. 

So Lilo instead of finding him a home right away.. decides to wait until after the compettition because we need him for the plot. 

So at the Skateboard Competittion Lilo tries to enter, but finds she’s too young.. but since she has a picture of Keoni, which is a nice way to use her photo hobby from the movie for plot reasons and thus dosen’t feel like an ass pull. Why Keoni’s not in town to skate is as his dad left because it’d be too crowded.. even though the event is at the resort he owns. 

So while Lilo commits identtity theft, our guest star appears. He’s cool, he’s hot like a frozen son, he’s young and fast he’s the chosen one, people i’m not braggin, i’ts the American Dragon. Jake is here for two reasons: the first is that Grandpa Long got reports of magical creatures out in the open, so naturally they need to look into that. It’s a clever way to get him, along with Grandpa, Fu, Trixie and Spud, over to Hawaii. The Dragon Council would defintely be suspcious hearing about this, and my guess to why they hadn’t sent another dragon over is they simply dont’ have one on the islands. As for why the Huntsclan didn’t get involved in any way, it’s simply too public for them.  With the magical community in new york, they don’t have to worry about exposure because neither side wants it, so neither side can out the other. Here with a bunch of creatures out in the open it runs the risk of the Hunstclan being dragged into the light.. and given the populace dosne’t care about the “magical creatures” alongside them, it would make them look like the monsters they are. 

Spud and Trixie tagging along also makes sense besides “they needed them for the plot”: While they’d obviously want to come to Hawaii, the skate competition is likely Jake’s cover for why he’s there, as well as one for why it’s just him and grandpa going with a couple of his friends so they don’t have to deal with manuvering around jake’s dad. That sad them never TELLING jake’s Dad is it’s own can of worms as it feels cruel, made things harder for jake and there was no real reason not to. At worst he’d want Jake to stop for his own saftey but given ther’es an active threat in  the huntsclan for the first season and a half, NOT helping people would be the right thing and I feel he’s a sensible enough man to understand eventually. 

And it’s stuff like this that already makes this crossover really work for me: they don’t really have to strain to get Jake over there or tell the audience heavily, the blanks fill in themslves. Or I am but that’s because it’s my job and I love doin it. 

So everyone goes off to their corners; Jake to do a few practice runs, Foo Dog to bet on his friend because of course, Trixie and Spud to go to the beach (even though Spud’s terrified of sharks so I question why Trixie needs him for this), and in a delightfully adorable subplot, finds a lady to woo: local fruit stand vendoer and crankly old lady Mrs. Hasagawa. 

I am here for this subplot: While Grandpa not focusing on the mission is weird for him that’s the entire point.. and their just really cute together. He’s smitten with her entirely because he sees her chewing out one of the people running the contest for making her sign too small. And he performs one hell of a romantic gesture by, while everyone’s back is turned, using his dragon fire to make an add for her on the skate ramp itself, and they have a lovely montage of their time together.. which also weirdly includes grandpa using his dragon fire on stage inf ront of everyone which makes no sense for his charcter but is so cute and does feature david I really don’t care. The writers of Lilo and Stitch probably weren’t deeply familiar with the show and likely just wanted a fun gag. Could be wrong there but it’s cute. He continues to act grossly out of character by trying to avoid going home at the end.. but again I find it simply because he’s in love, they have genuine chemstiry and I like to think they stayed in touch and he retired out there at some point once Jake was old enough to handle things himself. This may not be a ship I expected to support going in but I will die for it going out. 

So back to the main plot, Lilo uses Keoni’s body to imitate him which... she’s only loosely called out on and realizes is bad by the end only because she gets stuck in another body. And that’s not even getting into the fact she BREAKS UP WITH KEONI’S GIRLFRIEND. Yes really.. she just does that to get her out of the way. She comes around and realizes she was wrong and tries to fix it which would be fine.. if hte episode didn’t try to cop it out by revealing “Oh she’s not his girlfriend, she’s just someone who keeps telling people that”. It just feels lazy and dumb and a way to keep Lilo’s crush on Keoni for reasons I DO. NOT. GET. But the identity theft is just brushed aside by everyone: Keoni never finds out, and Jake just brushes it off. The real issue is more her trying to bribe keoni into likng her which while something kids need to learn is not the only thing she did wrong here. It feels like they didn’t think all the implications out here and it hampers the episode

Speaking of which as Gantu captures Jake, he sees him transform into dragon mode and assumes he’s the experiment, Jake’s charactization is pretty shallow.  And why yes it DOES feel weird writing sentences about a character with the same name thank you for asking. I wasn’t expecting a deep character piece or anything: This is a guest spot, the writers here are not the same normal ones for American Dragon. That’s fine. The problem.. is that they clearly did not get Jake. Grandpa being partly out of character is half the joke, Trixie actually gets a really nice moment towards the end, and Spud.. is eh. But out of them Jake just feels like a basic character description: He likes hip hop, he likes skateboards, he calls himself Am Drag despite that sounding like a good name for a drag act but a terrible name to shorten your title, he fights.. that’s it. 

While jake is all of that in the main series, he’s also a kind young man who while sometimes irresponsible does the right thing when the chips are down.  He’s someone weighed down by a responsiblity he didn’t ask for, often makes his life more difficult and often finds himself in trouble because his mother and grandfather won’t bother to tell his dad he’s a dragon. Yes that part still bothers me, and I don’t see why we couldn’t just have a superhero show where both parents know. But regardless this just dosen’t feel like Jake , like they just watched the intro and that was it. Jake feels more like a plot device in his own crossover. 

That being said there is some good stuff: The minute Jake realizes some Sci Fi stuff is going on instead of hte normal magic stuff he tells him “The am drag’s show isn’t about sci fi” a nice meta bit and then breaks out. Meanwhile Lilo takes on his form.. and ends up stuck after badly botching her run again, as Gantu finds the real shapeshifter. 

We get the best stretch of the episode from here though: Lilo awkardly tries to play jake and like jake we get a nice meta nod to how diffrent their show is as she’s worried about his belief in magical creatures.. and is startled out of her charade when Foo Dog talks, a really nice bit especially since it’s tame compared to the weirdness he deals with. Spud and Trixie have questions... only for Jake to show up and his agressive behavior leads to the best bit of the episode: Jake Vs Stitch. The catlyst is understandable: jake has no idea why Lilo’s taken his identity and Sttich is just protecting his best friend from harm. The animation is fluid, the fight is fun and quick and uses both’s powers stellarl. Whle “two heroes get into a misunderstanding and then fight” is a well worn cliche at this point, it’s moments like this that show why: you get to see two heroes who in this case never have interacted before or sense, duke it out, why each is special and it’s fun to watch. 

Lilo breaks it up, and admits to the whole thing.. including the whole give Keani the board stuff. While Jake and Spud, being awkard with girls and a loveable moron don’t see the problem with that Trixie gets a moment to shine. As far as I can remember she really didn’t get much on the show proper so it was a nice suprise to see her mentor lilo her, telling her trying to give someone gifts to love you is not okay, she should just be herself all that good stuff. It’s a nice character stuff and tha’ts the kind of character interaction this episode needed more of. 

With the misunderstandings washed away our heroes team up and storm gantu’s ship leading to another great sequence as Stitch rides on Jake’s back while the two keep him busy and Lilo gets turned back, Trixie complimenting her dress “Thanks I have 10 just like it at home”. It’s such a sweet and genuine moment” They head back out and gantu semeingly grabs morpholmew from where they hide.. only to find out when he gets back it’s spud, our adorable little blob monster transforming Gantu into a bunny and our heroes leaving. How does Gantu get out of being a bunny?

But it’s a nice enough gag. So we end the episode. We get another nice gag as grandpa had himself and his lady transformed to try and avoid going home, and Jake is fine with having lost out on the board what matters is he made a friend. Sadly we did not get a followup in ADJL., but spud does name our experiment, Morpholomew. 

We end on Morph getting his home: a costume shop where he gets paid in fried chicken, he was shown to enjoy it throughtout the episode and changes people into things. It’s a nice little button to the episode and one of the funnest parts of the show was figuring out where the experiment would end up at the end. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode is a really mixed bag. There is some good character interactions, two tremendous fight scens and Trixie gets a chance to shine for once if only for a scene or two, and the clashing genres end up making for some great jokes> The shows do go well together as while Lilo and Stitch is more laid back both have slice of life elements. And hasgawa X Grandpa is just oto cute for words. 

The episode is held back by Jake and Lilo’s lackluster characterizatons: Jake is simply the theme song as a character, which in theory is awesome because that theme song slaps but in practice is pretty lame, and Lilo is selfish and irresponsible even for her in a way that dosen’t feel at all convincing. It drags down what’s otherwise a fun crossover and Morpholomew is truly a unique and wonderful experiment. Still if you like either show it’s worth a watch even if you have to suffer through Keoni for it. It’s worth it.. I just wish it was better and hopefully the next 3 will keep the good parts but take out the bad. Granted this was produced last so I could be wrong, but here’s hoping.  Oh this episode also featured Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who claims to be Keoni’s girlfriend. This is also Keoni’s last episode meaning I do NOT have to worry about accidently running into him. Thank fucking christ. 

Next Time On American Dragon Jake Long: Jake’s dad drags him and his friends on a camping trip and Jake ends up encountering the Jersey Devil. Now all they need is a sexy lady devil cake to lure it out... what it worked for the Cake Boss. And yes that happened, Allison Pregler did an episode on that episode. Check it out. 

Next Time On Lilo and Stitch Crossovers: It’s the family, the family, proud familllyyy as the Prouds take a vacation at Peakly and Jumbas bed but not breakfast and we get some kind of squirrel demon for our experiment of the week. We also get Wizard Kelly appearing...

See you at the next rainbow. 

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Disney+ What To Watch: My Top 10 Favourite Direct-To-Video Disney Sequels

#5. Stitch! The Movie/Leroy & Stitch

I couldn’t really talk about these movies separately and I can’t fully give an accurate appreciation for this movie without talking about the animated series.

Both movies are only just over an hour long and so could be seen as a two-part movie with the TV series serving as the connecting story.

I remember seeing the first movie when it originally came out and the tease for the movie of “We all know that Stitch is Experiment 626, but what ever happened to the other 625?” was very tantalising for me to find out, even though it is not necessarily a question that needed answering it was still interesting to see.

The story begins with disgraced former Galactic Alliance Captain Gantu arriving aboard the ship of disgraced scientist Dr. Hamsterveel who was once the partner of Jumba while creating his experiments. The rodent villain, who serves as the main antagonist for the remainder of the franchise, instructs Gantu to abduct Jumba in order to obtain the first 625 experiments so he can take over the Galactic Alliance.

However, Jumba acts quickly and hides his experiment container but one slips through the net and is obtained by Gantu. This is revealed to be the comedy relief Experiment 625 whose primary function is to make sandwiches.

So it is up to Lilo and Stitch to save their friend by discovering the experiment container and releasing one experiment in order to try and save Jumba. Experiment 221 goes rogue though and uses his electric mimicry powers to reek havoc on the town.

Upon retriveving said experiment, Stitch discovers he finally has true family in said experiments and decides to protect Sparky despite Hamsterveel demanding all 624 experiment pods.

The plot could be seen as doubling down on the original Lilo & Stitch story where rather than Stitch, it is now the 625 experiments everyone is after in the movie. But while the first movie focused strongly on the relationship of the sisters, Nani is barely in this movie aside from going on a date with David and trying to assist Cobra Bubbles in negotiating for Jumba’s release.

The climax of the movie effectively sets up the rest of the franchise as this movie acts as a backdoor pilot to the animated series that followed with the explanation of how the series would be shaped. The 623 remaining experiment pods are accidentally scattered in and around the town with some activated and the others waiting to be so.

It’s up to Lilo and Stitch to find all the experiments, find their “one true home” and stop Hamsterveel and Gantu from owning anymore outside of Experiment 625.

The movie is shamelessly a television pilot just as The Return of Jafar was, but this series at least set up as a mission central series whereas Aladdin was more of an adventure series.

Leroy & Stitch is the finalé of the Experiments arc in the franchise but surprisingly not the final instalment in the franchise overall as I have recently learned.

Unlike Stitch! The Movie I have only recently discovered Leroy & Stitch after finally completing the animated series thanks to Disney+. It does seem weird that an almost 30 year old is still interested by this series but I desire closure and had dipped in and out of the series when it first aired.

Before talking about this movie, I just want to give a brief rundown of the series.

Overall I found the Lilo & Stitch animated series enjoyable if not formulaic as a “Experiment of the Week” type of series. It also seemed to have a specific moral for every episode that either the Experiment of said episode played a part in exploring or they were teachable moments.

The series very much seemed aimed at the younger audience, but there were both innocent lessons about “being true to yourself” and “not being in a hurry to grow up” then there were more wider stretched morals to do with pollution for Earth Day and other holidays were also highlighted.

The series ends with Leroy & Stitch where Lilo, Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley have been summoned for official commendation by the Galactic Alliance and Wizard of Oz style are all individually rewarded. Jumba is given his old lab back, Pleakley becomes a lecturer of Earth at a space university, Stitch is made captain of a high-class battleship and Lilo is assigned to continue to monitor the 624 Experiments who have all found homes on Earth.

However, upon learning that her friends would be leaving Earth and her, Lilo uses emotional manipulation to keep them on Earth. This lasts I think a day before Lilo realises that she needs to not be selfish and let her friends go off and be happy. Admittedly this is rather an emotional scene seeing all four of these characters go separate ways, particularly when you see the moment between Lilo and Stitch with no dialogue and instead Stitch returning the Ugly Duckling book from the first movie to the shelf.

However, Hamsterveel plays his final hand by tracking down Jumba to get him to create a new version of Stitch who is completely evil named Leroy. Leroy is then cloned into a Leroy army and is assigned to capture all of the experiments on Earth to destroy them and take over the universe.

The climax of this movie is pretty much epic in standards of these direct-to-video sequels. It’s the standard heroes vs. villains battle but because of what has developed throughout this movie and both Gantu and Experiment 625, now named Reuben, joining the good side, It’s Hamsterveel and his Leroy army against all 626 experiments (apparently) including Reuben and Stitch in this grand football arena.

It’s remarkable to see all of these different experiments who are uniquely designed and have their own individual powers and abilities. They didn’t shy away from just showing a couple of experiments from the series, they legitimately showed, I believe, every experiment from the series as well as a couple introduced in this movie.

I’ve discovered that within this franchise, if Lilo’s name is in the title you will have a heap of development for her and the human characters, if it’s just Stitch then it will be more about the aliens and to be fair this movie is about the aliens.

Lilo does have some development particularly towards the start with learning how to let go, but Nani doesn’t really do anything in this movie other than teach her sister this life lesson and I don’t even think David is in this movie, that relationship had every opportunity to develop but ultimately went nowhere.

The best part about this movie is the best part about the franchise which is Stitch. Not only does he once again bring the emotion when saying goodbye to Lilo towards the start of the movie, but the level of excitement he has for being the captain of this specific battleship is infectious.

Also there’s a brief scene between Stitch and another experiment Angel who is the only experiment Stitch does not call “cousin” because there is a romantic interest there, it’s similar in length and depth to Star-Lord and Gamora’s “reunion” in Avengers: Endgame but because I did watch the series I understand the subtext here.

While the thing that actually saves the day could be seen as a little bit too childish, it’s Lilo & Stitch, I am fully accepting of this type of wrap up compared to how Lilo & Stitch 2 wrapped things up.

Discovering this closure years later has instilled in me why I love this franchise so much. There may be individual morals and messages throughout the animated series and individual movies, but overall the Lilo & Stitch franchise is about embracing family because it can be a standard family unit or it can be an expansive family that comes in all shapes and sizes.

Technically all of these 625 experiments are Stitch’s siblings but “cousin” is a Hawaiian term to refer to friends and neighbours as they feel like a big family. Jumba is technically Stitch’s father being his creator which not only plays into the emotions of Lilo & Stitch 2 when Jumba can’t save his creation but also makes for several nice moments throughout the franchise when Jumba tries to help Stitch.

Jumba and Pleakley are continuously referred to as Lilo and Nani’s uncle and aunt which could be seen as groundbreaking with Pleakley being one of Disney’s first transvestite or transsexual characters.

The sisterly bond between Nani and Lilo I have only really ever seen replicated with Tadashi and Hiro in Big Hero 6. Before anyone says anything Elsa & Anna had a different sibling dynamic, I’m referring to the type of bond Nani and Lilo had.

There is not enough credit or attention on this type of family dynamic particularly in a family genre such as Disney Animation.

Honestly, not talking comedy, my favourite line read in this movie comes from Pleakley at the end when the four are once again in front of the Grand Councilwoman and rather then feeling guilted into giving up their dreams, they do it willingly with Pleakley exclaiming “I want to go home” meaning Earth.

Also the two experiments that don’t officially have a “one true home” find it in this movie. Reuben not only gets his name but is also offered the position of Gantu’s right-hand when he is reinstated as Captain of the Galactic Federation. Again watching the series you do see the bond these two have formed.

Stitch meanwhile states his “one true home” is with Lilo, both of these endings are what we already knew but the very fact it is stated is a nice way to end their stories.

The fact this is a wrap up of a series that is the spin-off of a movie that genuinely could have just stayed as a standalone feature but decided to be more speaks volumes for the popularity of this franchise. Lilo & Stitch is one of the largest franchises in the Disney proper brand maybe with the exception of Winnie the Pooh and the original Mickey and Friends lineup.

So what do you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Disney+ What to Watch Top 10s as well as more Top 10 Lists and other posts.

[spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia]

SpongeGuy Reviews Every Disney Animated Show Ever!: Lilo and Stitch The Series (1.1): Richter

And so we begin the animated marathon!

Lilo and Stitch was and is one of my favorite movies, period! The wonderfuly quirky and sadly realistic yet charming tale of a destructive alien learning to love is quite the beauty from the company, but it was also a cash cow, and it soon led to a million spin offs.

But before we tackle the... Odd anime spinoffs, let’s start with the original show, a pokemon esque enterprise involving Lilo and Stitch trying to catch all of Jumba’s experiments!

I have mixed feelings from the show: While my nostalgia and the fact that it has a charm to it give it a lot of points, it’s hard to deny the formulaic nature, or the slight flanderization everyone recieves, not to mention the show being nowhere near as emotionally complex as the movie, heck, even the second movie!

Still, i am here to give it a fair shot, so let’s check the first episode out, with our review standards of Comedy, Characters, and Story and Heart!

Summery:

An earthquake rocks the island, prompting Pleakley to study earthquake safety. When it is discovered that the earthquakes were caused by an experiment, Lilo and Stitch must travel underground to catch it before it cracks the Earth in half (and before Gantu catches it). 

COMEDY: 2 Out of 5

Comedy, as previously mentioned, can be hard to review, but i’ll try my best here. Each show has a comedy style of its own, with Lilo and Stitch The Series going for Character’s quirks (a favorite style of mine, I do confess), slapstick, and things going wrong. This can be funny, buy Lilo and Stitch The Series has a tendency to... Falter with these jokes. Pleakly, for example: At first, his earthquake paranoia jokes are funny, and make sense for his character. But after the same joke is repeated over and over again (another fault of this show), it begins to get tired. The humor of the show is always very mixed, so prepare to see me say that a lot. Of course, this show isn’t bad at all, in fact it’s quite fun, a lot thanks to the next two categories:

CHARACTERS: 3 Out of 5

In Story and Heart I will go deeper into this, but it’s important to remember this show has two kinds of episodes: Adventure stories with a sort of moral, and moral stories with a little adventure. This is one of the former, so character study isn’t exactly a prioraty. In fact, the only character work we get is Stitch continuing his redemption by learning to care for things he loves, and it’s a very minor arc. So why the 3 stars, you may very well ask? Well, characters can also be entertaining. Not every show has to be a 3 dimensional drama about how hard life is: Sometimes a show can just be fun. And thanks to the lovable personalities of the cast (even when they later do get flanderized) helps a lot. I’d much rather see Lilo and Stitch doing this kind of shit then, say, Chip and Dale, and there is good reason for that! So yeah, pretty good overall!

STORY AND HEART: 3 Out of 5

This one is a bit of a stretch from me, seeing as the heart is very minor, and the story is your typical adventure fodder: Lilo and Stitch must catch the monster of the week, and basically do that for 20 minutes. Why the high rating again? Because again, I still find it entertaining despite. A lot of this IS characters, but I can’t say I didn’t like the moral, limited as it was in this adventure episode, and combined with the fact that I enjoyed my 20 minutes, and I DID find the underground aspect of the episode fresh compared to most typical plots, I had to give this one a high score again. Any show that manages to entertain me despite limited storytelling gets a good score in story, imo. It’s paradoxical, I guess, but still!

FINAL SCORE: 8 Out of 15

I feel like that sums it up pretty well, honestly! Just above average, like most of the show! Nothing too groundbreaking or anything, but a fun time with familiar characters, good for someone needing a break with old friends during this quarrentine! (The show has better episodes though, I await those with anticipation!)

EVERY DISNEY ANIMATED SHOW RANKING LIST:

1. Lilo and Stitch The Series

EVERY DISNEY ANIMATED EPISODE RANKING LIST:

1. Richter (Lilo and Stitch The Series)

EVERY LILO AND STITCH THE SERIES EPISODE RANKING LIST:

1. Richter (S1 E1)

EVERY LILO AND STITCH THE SERIES CHARACTER RANKING LIST:

1. Captain Gantu

2. Lilo Pelakai

3. Jumba Jookeba

4. Stitch

5. Wendy Pleakly

6. 625 (Reuben)

7. Nani Pelekai

8. David

9. Dr. Hamsterviel

10. Richter

Every Disney Animated Show Character Ranking List:

1. Captain Gantu

2. Lilo Pelakai

3. Jumba Jookeba

4. Stitch

5. Wendy Pleakly

6. 625 (Reuben)

7. Nani Pelekai

8. David

9. Dr. Hamsterviel

10. Richter

Every Disney Animated Show Theme Song Ranked:

1. Lilo And Stitch The Series Theme Song

Next time: The Proud Family! That’s gonna be cool!

[theonceoverthinker]

I'm in a KP mood so I want to know what is your favourite KP episode?

It’s a toss up between “Rewriting History” and “Graduation.”

“Rewriting History” is an episode that I keep turning back to (Pun, as always, is intended) and I think I get why. We get so many characters (All of which is as solid as a freakin bolder), an engaging and tight mystery, and a whole lot of absurdity. Now, absurdity is Kim Possible’s bread and butter, but the dream framing/twist of the episode allows for all manner of crazy coincidences and relationships to be played at and it makes for outstanding comedy! And obviously, I love Drakken and Shego episodes, so bonus points there, and their simultaneous plotline made for great banter/ship tease between them!

...Do I even need to explain why I love “Graduation?”

...I don’t, but i’m gonna do it anyways.

How could “So The Drama” possibly be topped (I didn’t include that as a candidate because it’s a movie, but that would be number 1)? Also, pun intended. 

Well, with one hell of a finale that brings it ALL back! 

“So The Drama” is a more tight narrative that makes for better character work, but in terms of being a finale to the series, “Graduation” is better. There is so much brought back, expanded on, and finalized in this episode and it’s all really good (Well, I don’t know if I would’ve sent Bonnie to summer school -- it was just a bit too mean spirited for my taste). 

First, Drakken and Shego are in the episode and that almost always makes the episode automatically awesome! Here, we get to see how Drakken is actually a genius and always was, but because his genius was improperly funneled, we didn’t get to see really make a successful impact until then. And Drakken’s plan is odd, but the flower gave him a cool superpower of sorts. Shego’s her snarky, fun self and she and Drakken get a lot of great moments together. 

Second, Kim and Ron’s stories come to a natural conclusion. Kim gets some well due fame for her heroics, but that pressure spirals her into fears that are not so overt to the audience, especially compared to Ron. And Ron is prompted into his spiral by Barkin, who has always -- almost more than Monkey Fist -- been his real rival. Barkin is the first to point out his flaws and his hard personality and power relative to Ron’s serves as a foil to Ron’s more laid back attitude and powerlessness. I love dynamics that do that (Shout out to Gantu and 625 from Lilo and Stitch) and the more time I think of them, the more I appreciate Barkin and Ron’s rivalry.

But anyway, these stories all give the four main characters a strong sense of closure. It’s more than just romantic payoffs, but the culmination of journeys playing out and giving us a fireworks show in the process!

[mademoiselleenjolras]

Remember that old Lilo and Stitch TV show that used to be on Disney Channel? I have some QUESTIONS. So, Stitch is experiment number 626 of eventually 627, all of which are contained in tiny dehydrated balls that defy most of the logic of mammalian (if they even ARE mammals) biology. Question number one: what the FUCK?! And when one pod comes into contact with water and produces Sparky, Lilo finds him a home working in the old busted lighthouse. Question number two: lighthouses are important as fuck for seafaring navigation, so who the FUCK let that lighthouse just sit there broken? At some point, local or state or even the national government should have stepped in, but no, repair was left to a little girl and her alien buddies. But moving on.

Through the series of events leading to Sparky acquiring his position at the lighthouse, somehow ALL 623 OTHER EXPERIMENTS (one, 625, a sandwich-maker, was released earlier in the movie) are released across Lilo’s island in Hawai’i. Which brings me to question number three: how the FUCK did all of these balls not hit water IMMEDIATELY and sprout into chaos-bringing genetic experiments within the first five fucking seconds of being present on an island known for its RAINFORESTY CLIMATE? The TV show implies that approximately one experiment per day, sometimes as few as one per WEEK, was activated. At that rate, it would take over TWO FUCKING YEARS for all of them to become experiments. Are you telling me that these some of these balls avoided water on a hot, wet, RAINY GODDAMNED ISLAND for almost two years? Bullshit, Disney, I call bullshit. You cannot fuck the laws of biology, meteorology, AND ecology all in one go. Fuckology is not a science and ‘aliens’ does NOT explain everything thank you very much.

AND ONE MORE THING! Each time she and Stitch found and rescued one of Stitch’s “cousins” (while usually going head-to-head with trained professional alien Captain Gantu (which is a whole other batch of HOW THE ACTUAL FUCK that we’ll just call question three-point-five)), Lilo or the circumstances surrounding her found a suitable occupation on the island for said cousin. Now I get that some Ohanas are large and there’s room in our hearts for every single sweet little alien, but one tiny island had room and job openings for SIX AND A QUARTER HUNDRED MOTHERFUCKING ALIENS. And more importantly, none of these aliens was particularly well-hidden. Not everyone on that island can be as blind as the little old fruit lady. Which brings me to my fourth and final question: nobody, at any time, QUESTIONED THAT?! No citizen or tourist or, I don’t know, government body, has anything to say about a little girl rounding up aliens and putting them to work in her hometown? This Hawaiian Island has hundreds of actual fucking aliens running around and nobody seems to care people WHAT THE FUCK WAKE UP AND LOOK AT YOUR LIVES HOW ARE YOU ALL OKAY WITH THIS

Look I’m sorry but these questions needed to be asked. I’m sure some were answered at some point in the series and my mind as just lost the information. But some weren’t, and Somebody has to call Disney on their bullshit. Good day.