If you’re not familiar with Lilo and Stitch, Stitch is the 626th genetic experiment of “evil genius” Dr. Jumba. Stitch escaped to Earth and was adopted by Hawaiian Lilo who thought he was a dog. To make a long story short, there was a direct to video sequel and a television series. This is the third (I think, there’s also Stitch! The movie) sequel and appears to take place after the TV show.
The TV show was about Lilo and Stitch recapturing all 626 of the other experiments. At the start of this sequel, Lilo (Daveigh Chase), Stitch (Chris Sanders), Dr. Jumba Jookiba (David Ogden Stiers), and Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) are getting rewarded for this task by the Galactic Federation.
Dr. Jumba is given back the key to his laboratory, Pleakley is made a professor of Earth studies at the Galactic Alliance Community College, Stitch is made captain of the BRB-9000 (Big Red Battleship) and Lilo is made Earth ambassador to the Federation.
However, this mean that the friends will have to go their separate ways. Meanwhile Captain Gantu (Kevin Michael Richardson) decides that he should free his former employer Dr. Hamsterviel (Jeff Bennett) from prison. Hamsterviel is an old rival of Dr. Jumba and goes to Jumba’s laboratory. Jumba could not resist the temptation and is working on illegal genetic experiment number 627.
He succeeds in making a genetic duplicate of Stitch but in red. Dr. Hamsterviel takes it from Jumba (as well as capturing Stitch, Jumba, and Peakley) and dubs it Leroy (also voiced by Chris Sanders) since Lilo took all the good names in naming all 625 of Stitch’s cousins. Hamsterviel clones Leroy and sends our captured heroes spiraling towards a black hole.
Stitch surrounded by Leroys
Meanwhile on Earth, Lilo is missing all of her friends and wants to call them and has to go to Gantu’s crashed ship to used the intergalactic cell phone. She has to sweet talk the sandwich-making obsessed Experiment 625 to make the call. She dubs him Reuben (Rob Paulsen).
However, Dr. Hamsterviel and his clones are on the way back to Earth in the BRB-9000 to capture and destroy all of the Experiments to that he will reign supreme. Will our heroic trio make it out of the black hole, will Lilo and Reuben make a phone call, will all of them be able to save the Experiments from Dr. Hamsterviel, and how does Elvis fit into all of this?
Adults beware, this is definitely aimed at the kids. The film plays a breezy 73 minutes and is in my opinion feels like an extended episode from the TV show. I think that it isn’t just a compilation of episodes - it just felt that way to me. The plot wasn’t too difficult to follow (I’m not too familiar with the Stitch-universe) but the kids seemed to enjoy it.
Leroy and Stitch is presented in “family-friendly” anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the Big Red Battleship Simulator game and a 22 minute “never-before-seen” episode of the TV show. It concerns a treasure map and Experiment 251, who binds incompatible people together. It also has the Disney Fast Play function.
Cousins!
Leroy and Stitch is a breezy little time killer for the kids as most of the Disney direct to videos are. I’d suggest picking it up if the kids are fans of Stitch or were aficionados of the TV show. Others might want to consider it as a rental for the kiddies on the next trip to the video store.
Leroy and Stitch is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story