The Reel Rejects - LILO & STITCH (2002) IS HEARTWARMING!! MOVIE REVIEW!!
Episode Date: May 19, 2025OHANA MEAN FAMILY!! Lilo & Stitch Full Reaction Watch Along: / thereelrejects With the 2025 Disney Live Action Remake looming ever-closer, Tara & Aaron REUNITE to give their Lilo & Stitch Re...action, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, & Spoiler Review!! Download PrizePicks today at https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/RE... & use code REJECTS to get $50 instantly when you play $5! Join Aaron Alexander & Tara Erickson as they embrace the “ohana” spirit in Disney’s heartwarming 2002 animated adventure, Lilo & Stitch. When mischievous alien experiment Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders, co-director of The Croods) crash-lands on Earth, he’s adopted by spirited island girl Lilo Pelekai (Daveigh Chase, The Ring, Flightplan), who teaches him the meaning of family. Alongside them, Nani Pelekai (Tia Carrere, Wayne’s World, Relic Hunter) struggles to keep guardianship of her little sister while working in bustling Kaua‘i. Rounding out the ensemble are Dr. Jumba Jookiba (David Ogden Stiers, MASH*, Beauty and the Beast)—the mad scientist who created Stitch—and his neurotic partner Pleakley (Kevin McDonald, The Kids in the Hall), whose undercover mission on Earth provides comic gold. Aaron & Tara break down every unforgettable moment—from Stitch’s chaotic first pancake-making crash to Lilo’s iconic hula lesson set to “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” and the adrenaline-charged chase through the surf-shingled streets of Kaua‘i. Don’t miss their take on the emotional rescue of a wayward Stitch and the tear-jerking reunion that proves family isn’t just blood—it’s those who would never abandon you. Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad: Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM: FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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All right,
I think we're
doing good.
I think we're
feeling
fresh.
Hawaiian.
Are you ready?
Pretty good.
Oh,
like that?
We just finished watching Lilo and Stitch for first.
We want to thank the guys over a prepper for cutting down these highlights.
You can see them here on the YouTube's.
If you're listening to Apple or Spotify, you're going to give us five stars also on the YouTube short channel.
It should be the review of Lilo and Stitch.
We're here.
We've seen it.
We've experienced it.
Tara, how are you feeling?
I feel.
I feel good. I love this movie. I'm so glad I finally got to see it because this movie is it's great. I mean, it has a ton of heart that hits you from the top and on the back end. And like it doesn't take a long time in sitting in like the bad aspects. Not the bad aspects, but like the traumatic events that happen within this movie. I think are it's paced really, really well that we sit in them like.
the perfect amount of time
and then move on.
Like, I don't think any
movie really needs to be like three hours.
And this movie, it felt like it flew by.
Yeah, it's under an hour and a half,
which is really impressive.
And you got, I got everything I needed from it.
Like, from beginning to end,
we got to know,
um, not only who Nani was,
who Lilo is, also who stitches,
all of their backgrounds, right?
And we all, all,
every part of like,
where they're at in life right now.
We got through the story.
There's only 85 minutes.
Yeah.
It's great.
Yeah, no, it was super impactful.
I love this movie.
You know, I saw it as a kid.
I haven't seen it since then,
since I was a youth.
And I now understand why it is a classic
because it touches on all the things
you want a movie like this to touch on
while being hilarious,
having oodles and noodles of heart
and having amazing action
and animation to go with it.
I think this movie is the epitome of,
what it means to be a good time
what it means to, you know, show
people that there is
you know, ohana.
You know, I love the themes of this movie.
I love that it was about,
you know, found family or
even if your family
isn't ideal or even it's not
picture perfect. It still is
a family. And I love that a lot
of the people that are a part of this, you know,
Stitch, eventually, you know,
Cobra bubbles, it seems like, and then the two aliens
all join together. And they're all just like,
chilling and family because they're all in some sense a form of reject or outcast and they've
kind of come together because they see something that they resonate with one another.
I think that's a really cool lesson for kids to have and for families to have.
I really liked that this movie was something that was universal.
This is not a kids film.
This is a family film.
And the distinction of that is, you know, one specifically geared towards a younger audience,
whereas this is a film that everybody can enjoy.
and the fact that this movie is so simple yet is so impactful is really impressive and it makes me wonder like oh man what what goes wrong with certain other films you know or how come the magic of the simplicity of this movie has been something that's so hard to capture because everything is so striking from the beginning from the moment you meet stitch you know how the people feel about him you know how he interacts with the world same thing from the moment you meet lilo yeah and you know she cares about things like
like feeding the fish peanut butter sandwich and know that she's outcast by her contemporaries,
but also, you know, she's still really, it's never, it's never overstated, but you know,
these two girls are both probably still depressed and from the loss of their family,
they lost their parents. And all they have is each other to really latch on to. And grief is
such an interesting thing because it manifests in different ways for different people. But at the
end of the day they have kind of they know that they need each other because they're all that they have
left and then stitch is the other part of that equation because he is lost and he finds them and all he
knows is destruction he's a being with a lost sense of purpose and then rediscoveres a sense of purpose
within family and protecting these people and i think i just think it's beautiful you know it's
something you can watch on a surface level and just enjoy its entertainment but those also just like
these deeper, more heartfelt themes underneath that are things that will stick with you.
And I really appreciated the movie for that.
Yeah, especially when the scene, when Lilo tells Stits, that she's like,
I know that you have had like basically a hard life and that's why you're mean and that's
why you bite me and that's why you do these bad things, right?
And it's sort of like the same a little bit with Lilo of like grief comes in waves.
So, you know, her and her sister have lost people.
they get in arguments, right?
There's a lot that sometimes when you're in the midst of grief,
that stuff will come up arguments like sister stuff,
but there's always like grief underlying that.
And I think that that's what made Lilo even being such a little, little tyke,
make her understand stitch more in that aspect.
Because it was a really grown thought for her to have.
I know why you do this.
But she was like, but if you stay with us,
we can treat we can teach you like you know how to be good and stuff um and i love the line i think
you know the underlying message in this is ohana family right and the the fact that he says like
we're broken but we're still we're still good like we're still a family um that like hits home
i think it's such a good line it's a good representation that it doesn't have to look like a
Disney movie with like a mom and a dad and a brother like it doesn't you know it's it's different
um and i like that and i like that they embrace were broken but it's still okay um and i think
that the movie had just a lot of heart from beginning to end and and adding in those two guys
that are hunting after stitch the scientist and the other guy um i like that they threw them in
for i guess chasing him right the the the chase is still there
we're wondering, are they going to capture him or not?
But I liked at the end, obviously when we see them all on the same ship.
And David's like, I'm going to have to take two trips.
And he brings them like, my assumption, he brings them all back, which I love.
And it just feels like, oh, I like the happy ending.
It's fun.
I enjoyed this movie a lot.
I really need to look up to see if it was, I need to look up trivia, but then I need to see
was Jennifer Lopez. Why do I feel like
it's someone who sounds like her and
someone is going to have to be like, yeah,
it sounds like her. Like
Okay.
Now hold on.
Pulling the phone. I know. I'm totally
probably going to be wrong, but that's the new one.
This is $1.25 one.
Okay. Hold on.
Lilo and Stitch
2002.
Okay.
cast only a little over 20 years old that's wild lelo oh Tia Carrere uh Kevin Michael
Richardson that's how I knew that man's voice okay I don't know her awesome um and Kevin yeah
Kevin Michael Richardson um Ving Rames who's Ving Rames oh he's Cobra Bubbles yeah oh Ving Rames
because I was wondering who that voice was um that's great and oh my gosh wait
hold on christanders yeah but up the colonel he played stitch i love it this is his idea he wrote
and directed it and he played stitch's voice i freaking love that what that's awesome um i will let me see
if i can find just a few trivia that we can like read real quick um and then yeah we can okay so
you pull up trivia what one more thing i wanted to say before
before you do that.
I really enjoyed that it's interesting because, you know,
we like to watch movies that are set in different parts of the world
and, you know, you get a little bit of insights
to what those wars worlds and those settings were like.
And I like the fact that this movie was an embraced Hawaii
and, you know, as it was without having to be about Hawaii itself.
And I, granted, I would have liked a movie.
about Hawaii but ultimately it's the setting the background and the feeling of that place
that not sets the tone for the movie but I don't know I think just it's another character
in the movie but it's not the star of the movie if that makes sense I think that it it's a vibe
of you know the the ocean and then the music and then ohana all being infused into this was
really cool and I just appreciated
that we got something that was
outside of the traditional
you know setting for a movie like this
something I do know weird little tibbit in my head
I can't remember if it was a movie remake
or if it was a sequel
but I know that at some point
there's like another version of Stitch
and a continuation where Stitch is in Japan
with like another little girl
yeah and that's like a thing
but I don't know anything about that one
but I like that there is this
thing that is
synonymous with Stitch and like
culture outside of traditional American culture.
So, yeah, or not American culture, but I guess mainland, California and New York, Streamline.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's essentially what I was thinking.
And I think they did a really good job of representing the culture in Hawaii because it really is like you live on the island.
A lot of people are surfing.
They have like, and most do work either in the, in the restaurant or the hotel.
in the, where the tourists are, which is where Nani was working.
And then they just, they live, they live free.
They go surfing and they're, they're on the beach,
live in like a good life, but paying their bills mostly by working on the resorts.
But I feel like, yeah, the Hawaiian culture is a lot.
I think it was represented nicely here, especially when Lilo says, like,
she pulls up, but she's like, isn't it nice that there's no big cities like around here
and Stitch freaks out?
that that really reminds you of the lifestyle that they kind of that they love and that they like fight for in Hawaii.
How long are we out there?
Which is cool.
I was only there for like six months, so not that long.
But you still got a vibe for you in that in that time.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah, my days off I would go to the beach or I found in between one resort and the other.
It was like this white sandy place that no one to go near.
and there was rocks where all the honoos would the sea turtles would go and like they go on the rocks to like dry
and so when I would go in and swim and like practice my free diving or whatever they would they would swim with me
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Um, okay, let me read a future of it because it might be fun.
Hawaiian-born cast members, Jason Scott Lee, and Tia Carrere helped the writers with dialogue and accents.
Okay.
Disney promoted this movie with a series of trailers inserting Stitch into some of its classic
titles. Oh, like the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion
King. Interesting. It says like Stitch
serves a wave that crashes on
Ariel. He causes
a chandelier to fall in the
beauty and the beast scene.
He steals Princess Jasmine from
Aladdin. He takes
place on Simba's Pride Rock,
which I'm like, oh, that's funny.
Like the live action
monster movie that appears briefly, photographs
of Elvis Presley are real pictures
and not animated
drawings. Yeah.
Okay. That's cool.
Lilo means generous one and originates in Hawaii.
It can also be interpreted as lost.
And this would give us the title,
Hey, Mele, no, Lilo, a loose translation as Lullaby of the Lost.
The name Nani means beautiful in Hawaiian.
That's so cute.
I'll read one more.
One of the most complex parts of Stitch's characterization
is that it's challenging to read what kind of emotion he is feeling,
mainly because his eyes don't have pupils.
The animators essentially got around this problem
by making Stitch very physical.
Yeah, okay.
Like the way he would like sort of tuck in or out
or like put his ears down or up.
I get that.
That's great.
That's a great detail.
It's very smart of them.
Oh, it says the aliens are inspired by Disney characters.
Oh.
Including piglet and thigger.
That's random.
Huh.
Which aliens specifically?
They just say that's all it says.
Interesting.
Yeah.
The one where you thought looked like Pink Panther reminded me of Tigger.
Yes.
Probably.
Yeah.
Right.
And get this.
It was supposed to be.
Guess where this was originally supposed to be placed?
Japan.
Nope.
It's in U.S.
What?
In a town in the U.S.
Do I know it?
Yeah.
I mean.
L.A.?
No.
I'll give you one more guesses over there.
New York.
No.
Texas I would have not gotten that what
Kansas instead of Kauai give me a break that would have been
that would have been Wackadoo wild you truly like no thanks
Kauai I'm all four yeah that what a random fact
what a random me yeah okay there's something I do have a question about though
if bobo or cobra bubbles already had like an association with aliens
why was he just like a caseworker because none of the alien stuff happened until
after the fact that they had their first scene.
You remember that?
Until after the fact that they had their first scene.
Oh, after the fact that Stitch came to them.
Right.
And are you saying that you think he has like some weird throughway with the aliens?
There's no, I'm saying.
What are the odds that, you know, their caseworker would also have history with aliens?
Oh, right, right, right.
Well, it's just, I guess that's how they worked it in where he's like former CIA and then he was part of Roswell.
Yeah, because he said they're like, yeah, I look, I'm from Special Forces or something.
Yeah.
Because she even came to them.
Right.
That was interesting.
Yeah.
And I want a bubble sequel.
Get us a bubble sequel prequel ASAP.
Yeah, that'd be fun.
It's been 20 plus years, but I need it in my life.
We need to expand on that because you can't just drop the little tidbit and then not give us more.
I know, right.
Especially when the, when she's like, oh, yeah, you had hair then.
And I'm like, what?
Let's rewind.
Let's see what happened there.
Please.
I would have loved to.
I think that would be fun.
Oh, my gosh.
But then people would maybe miss Stitch and Lilo because it would just be, but they make it just as good.
But yeah, they can have some, they can get some other characters in there.
Ving Ram's still alive.
Bring him back.
Give us the Bubbles prequel, go.
That's right.
That's right.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
All right, Terry, any final thoughts for you getting out of here?
No, I'm so glad I watch this movie.
Now I get it.
I get Leland Stitch people.
I've seen it.
I love it.
I'm sold.
I got one more thing, one more thing.
What is it?
Do you want to know the Rotten Tomato story?
Okay, let me guess.
Okay, critics, I'm going to guess that the critics gave it 75 because they're weird.
Hopefully it's higher, but I don't know.
And then the audience, I'm going to say 83.
You know, this is one of the few days that I'm glad to say that you were wrong on this one, Tara.
Really? Okay, what is it?
Critics, 86.
Good job, critics.
audience is 78
what
critics like this more than the audiences
that's weird that is very rare
normally it's the
what
yeah you know what
I did ask a friend the other day
a friend of a friend I went
have you seen Leland Stitch
I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna watch it soon
and she was like yeah
and I was like obviously no spoiler
because I've never seen it and she was just like
I did not
like that movie. I was very annoyed. Stitch talks weird. I was annoyed by Stitch. And I was
like, oh, okay. But then I watch it. I love, I love them all. I'm not annoyed, but then I thought
maybe that low scores, because people were annoyed, but I'm like, he's barely, he's just like,
my, ma ma, ma, like, he's awesome. He's just a little, he's a little dude. I, I find that
weird. I did not think that he was annoying.
all but maybe other people did wow that's wild to me he's adorable they're all great
Lilo was adorable and so endearing so quickly so cute fish was so cute and yeah give us more
I'm excited to see the new one see what they keep what they change what they expand upon
and yeah well that's it for us guys uh do you have an ohana I think that they mean family
oh nobody get left behind no party gets left behind okay
They're going now.
Bye, buzz.
Bye.
Which one of us is going to do it?
You can go for it.
Are you sure?
Yeah.
I know you've got a couple of voices.
No, I don't.
This isn't the one?
No.
All right.
Well, London, it's time to shout you're out in the Stitch voice.
You'll have to do it.
It's required by law.
We're going to the Stitt when you're doing.
We don't stitch together, Stitch, and we're just lowering to the...
I will never be able to do a gollum.
See, no, it's not working right now.
So sorry.
I'm so committed to the character of Stitch.
Just let me get back into the voice.
We love you.
You'll hear every month, which means you're part of our Ohana, which means family.
Which means that this takes place inside the fast and furious universe.
Also, this means that this inevitable sequel to the live acts of Lilow and Stitch movie will be a fast 11 and you will be the star of it.
I hate when people say like, when you're doing an impression and then they make fun of you for sounding like somebody else.
I hate that.
But I'm going to do that.
Oh, it's fine.
Because I didn't know.
Who was on ball?
I didn't know Barth and Brando.
It sounds like more than Brano doing a stitch impression.
Oh, Hannah, man's family.
This is going well.
Anyway.
Letting this is catch me on Instagram doing those, like, impressions of.
Happy May.
Poison for Cusco.
Thank you.