TMW #56: What's next for Lilo & Stitch and reviewing kids' movies
It's a Stitch-up in this week's newsletter...
Welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Movie Wingman, where box-office titan Stitch takes centre stage in our franchise thoughts and review musings. Read below, and like/share/comment/restack if you’re so inclined…
Stitch pickings
In the wake of Lilo & Stitch’s whopping opening weekend, Wingman weighs up the fur-ture of the franchise…
NOUGHTIE BUSINESS
Lilo & Stitch’s success could be seen as an example of the so-called ‘20-year nostalgia cycle’; could the floodgates now be open to more live-action remakes of noughties Disney flicks? Although it’s a bit hard to feel nostalgic for films no one remembers that well, like Atlantis: The Lost Empire or Treasure Planet. But a few zeitgeisty tweaks could solve things: shoehorn the word ‘jockey’ into Chicken Little and it’ll be raining popcorn in Screen 1. Or how about going the arthouse/awards-bait route with a re-do of Home on the Range from Cow director Andrea Arnold? (Insert ‘Moo Wave’ joke here.)
SPIN-OFF CYCLE
At the rate it’s going, L&S ‘25 is sure to beget a sequel or three, like its animated predecessor. But rather than just copy one of those earlier spin-offs, why not explore a few potentially lucrative crossover opportunities? Dinos & Stitch? The Lion, The Stitch & The Wardrobe? And while we’re at it, perhaps now’s the time to retire Mickey Mouse as Disney critter-in-chief and replace him with Stitch; I can just see him in that Steamboat Willy ident, snarling his way through ‘Suspicious Minds’ and chewing the ship’s wheel into matchsticks.
BLUE IS THE COOLEST COLOUR
It would surely boost other Hollywood movies to lean into the inescapable Stitch-ifcation of popular culture. To paraphrase Tina Turner, we don’t need another Smurfs movie, but I’d certainly be first in line if someone re-engineered Papa’s posse to be a bit more feral and freakishly strong, KO-ing Gargamel in the first act and letting us all go home early. Is it too late for Stitch to join the blue-hued family in Fantastic Four: The First Steps, even if leaves maths pedants griping about the title? And could one of Wicked’s signature lines be adapted to say ‘Pink goes good with green, and also with cosmic lilac blue’?
DISNEY/CRUISE
Of course, Lilo & Stitch wasn’t the only big debut this weekend. Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning also soared, which means we need a green light pronto for an actual Mission: Stitchpossible (nevermind all this ‘Final’ flannel). The plot could set a benchmark for high-concept simplicity: on vaca in Hawaii, Ethan Hunt tries to enjoy a quiet time hanging off of things (palm trees, monuments, washing lines) while Stitch obliviously burns them down. Eventually the pair recognise each other as indomitable kindred spirits with big grins, and spend the last 30 mins surfing waves that make the ending of Point Break look like a fart in the bathtub. (Matthew Leyland)
The kids are all right?
How far should critics consider children when reviewing family flicks?
The resounding box-office success of Lilo & Stitch (2025) in the face of some very sniffy reviews has got me once again thinking about how critics should approach kids’/family fare. As a reviewer, you’ve got to write from the heart, as it’s your byline the opinion’s going to be sitting under (potentially forever online). You also might modulate your review slightly depending on the outlet and its audience: analysis for a highbrow journal will be different to a mainstream tabloid or a website with a devotedly geeky audience and so on.
But across varied big-name publications, I saw some pretty harsh reviews of the latest live-action remake, with it being called a “monstrosity”, a “travesty” and a “mind-numbing abomination”, to highlight a few choice reactions. First perspective check, had these people not seen Snow White (as our Matthew pointed out in his even-handed review)? Second perspective check - by the blunt Rotten Tomatoes metric, the film has a 67% ‘Fresh’ rating from critics, versus a 93% ‘Fresh’ approval score from audiences (the public also gave it an ‘A’ via CinemaScore’s famous post-screening survey). Completely anecdotally, the regular citizens I know who’ve seen it have all had a great time.
So, before critics dub a film a monstrosity, should they actually give more than a second thought to the primary target audience? I’m in two minds. Reviewing will always be deeply personal, and it’d be a complete cop-out to dub every kids’ film as “fine for younglings”. And family films can vary in quality as much as any other category of film, so it makes sense to look at where a new release sits on the scale.
But on the other hand, since becoming a parent (and I’m truly sorry for invoking that framing), my values have shifted slightly, with my high-minded critical snobbery softened when I see whether a film actually works for its target audience. You can have the most chin-strokingly profound and ethereally beautiful animation, but if it can’t command a kid’s attention for the length of its running time, is it truly fit for purpose?
Ultimately, critics do have to review from their own heart and head, and should always have the right to express their opinion in its truest unfiltered form. But with that right comes a risk you end up looking out of touch and/or miserable when a film you call an abomination is so embraced by the crowd it’s intended for. (Matt Maytum)
Should critics think more about how a kids’ film works for its target audience? Or is second-guessing another group’s opinion a fool’s errand? Sound off in the comments section…
The Wingman Quiz: Jackie Chan in Hollywood
Get in training for this week’s Karate Kid: Legends with our kick-ass posers on Jackie Chan’s 30-year US career… Scroll down for the answers.
Released in 1995, which film is considered Jackie Chan’s lead-role US breakout?a) Rumble in the Bronx b) Jackie Chan’s First Strike c) Mr Nice Guy d) An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
Which of these Chan-starring animations grossed the most at the global box office?
a) Kung Fu Panda b) Kung Fu Panda 2 c) Kung Fu Panda 3 d) The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature
Which character did Chan voice in the Chinese-language dub of Mulan?
a) Mushu b) Captain Li Shang c) Fa Zhou d) Cri-Kee the cricket
Which words are missing from this Rush Hour tagline? ‘The fastest ___ in the East versus the biggest ___ in the West’
a) Feet, ego b) fists, brain c) hands, mouth d) draw, bore
In The Karate Kid (2010), what does Chan’s character Han destroy and rebuild in an annual ritual?
a) his car b) his garden c) his sporting trophies d) Ralph Macchio
Quiz Answers
a) Rumble in the Bronx
b) Kung Fu Panda 2
b) Captain Li Shang
c) hands, mouth
a) his car
I think reviewing has to come from the heart as otherwise where do you draw the line? There are plenty of films for adults that get awful / excellent reviews and sometimes I completely disagree with them. It's impossible to be all things to all people. As an audience member you can read lots of different reviews and read between the lines. You also get to know reviewers' individual tastes. I noticed that sometimes TF would rave about a film on the podcast and then it would get 3 stars in the mag because someone else reviewed it. I got to learn which writers my opinions tended to align with.
Despite my comment on the last post I actually did end up going to see Lilo & Stitch at the cinema over the bank holiday weekend. Unsurprisingly there were lots of kids and their parents in the theatre. Almost all of them seemed to really enjoy it with their attention firmly being held and a lot of laughs along the way. So in terms of the specific example of Lilo & Stitch I think it seems to work across the board. I would also say that even if a viewer doesn't agree with a film reviewers opinion it doesn't mean they don't want to read it. I think sometimes comparing opinions on things and having a healthy debate about it is a good way for a film buff (or someone who has any other nerd-ism or strong passion for anything) to indulge in something that interests them.