Leroy & Stitch

In today's world, Leroy & Stitch has captured the attention of millions of people around the world. Whether due to its impact on society, its relevance in the market or its influence on popular culture, Leroy & Stitch is a topic that never ceases to surprise and set a trend. From its beginnings to the present, Leroy & Stitch has played a fundamental role in various aspects of daily life, generating conflicting opinions and arousing constant interest from the public. In this article, we will further explore the impact and importance of Leroy & Stitch, analyzing its evolution over time and its meaning today.

Leroy & Stitch
DVD and digital distribution cover
Directed by
  • Tony Craig
  • Bobs Gannaway
Written by
Based onCharacters
by Chris Sanders
Dean DeBlois
Produced by
  • Igor Khait (line producer)
  • Kurt Weldon (line producer)
  • Jess Winfield (executive producer)
  • Tony Craig (executive producer)
  • Bobs Gannaway (executive producer)
Starring
Edited byTony Mizgalski
Music byJ. A. C. Redford
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • June 23, 2006 (2006-06-23) (TV)
  • June 27, 2006 (2006-06-27) (DVD)
Running time
73 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Leroy & Stitch[a] is a 2006 American animated science fiction comedy television film[b] produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.[1] It was written by Bobs Gannaway and Jess Winfield, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Igor Khait, and directed by Gannaway and Tony Craig. It is the fourth feature film in the Lilo & Stitch franchise and the third and final sequel feature film to the 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch, serving as the finale of Lilo & Stitch: The Series and concluding the franchise's main continuity where Lilo Pelekai is a main character and Hawaii is the main setting.[c] It is the last Western-animated production in the franchise to date. The film debuted on Disney Channel on June 23, 2006, and was also aired on Toon Disney on June 26, 2006.[3]

Plot

With their mission to capture and repurpose Jumba's experiments completed,[d] Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley are honored as heroes by the Galactic Alliance. Jumba is offered to return to his old laboratory, Pleakley is offered a post as chairman of Earth Studies at Galactic Alliance Community College, Stitch is made the Captain of the Galactic Armada and commander of the Big Red Battleship 9000 (BRB-9000), and Lilo is made the Galactic Federation's ambassador to Earth and the experiments' guardian.

The aliens initially decline the offers for Lilo's sake, but she later lets them go after seeing how much they long for their new adventures. Before they leave, Lilo gives Jumba her favorite Elvis Presley record, Pleakley a small rock to use as a paperweight, and Stitch a necklace with a Kū tiki. Meanwhile, Gantu decides to break Dr. Hämsterviel out of prison, leaving his companion, Experiment 625, alone. Gantu frees Hämsterviel, who develops a new plan upon learning of Jumba's current status.

While they enjoy what they are honored for, Jumba, Pleakley, Lilo, and Stitch begin to feel sad from their separation. While Jumba works on a new experiment, Gantu and Hämsterviel intrude his lab and force him to create a new Stitch-like experiment dubbed Leroy. Stitch, on assignment to recapture Hämsterviel, arrives and duels Leroy, but is defeated and imprisoned in a capsule. Hämsterviel then clones Leroy to make an army to conquer the Galactic Alliance. Before leaving for Turo, Hämsterviel locks Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley in Pleakley's vehicle and sends it toward a black hole.

On Earth, Lilo decides to contact Stitch but realizes that the only intergalactic videophone available on the planet is in Gantu's ship. Upon arrival, she finds 625 and asks to use the videophone, but it is not functional. Lilo, upon seeing 625 emotionally hurt, consoles and names him "Reuben", and he repairs the videophone. Lilo contacts the BRB-9000 to reach Stitch. Leroy, now controlling the ship, disguises himself as Stitch, but Lilo sees through the ruse, noticing he is not wearing Stitch's tiki necklace. After Gantu reminds Hämsterviel of the threat of the other experiments, he commands Leroy to capture them. Realizing Stitch is in danger, Lilo has Reuben repair Gantu's ship. As the G.A.C.C. vehicle heads towards the black hole, Stitch escapes his capsule and frees the others. He then throws Pleakley's rock into the black hole, disrupting its event horizon and enabling them to escape.

On Earth, Leroy obtains Lilo's scrapbook of the experiments[e] and captures them and Lilo's rival, Mertle Edmonds. Lilo and Reuben arrive at Turo, but learn that Hämsterviel has taken over the Galactic Alliance. He orders Gantu to imprison the duo, then fires him after realizing Leroy is more efficient than him. After having a change of heart, Gantu helps Lilo and Stitch escape, and they return to Earth in the G.A.C.C. vehicle.

Leroy and Hämsterviel gather the experiments at Aloha Stadium and prepare to kill them with the BRB-9000's cannon. The heroes arrive and destroy the cannon, but Hämsterviel unleashes the Leroys, who overwhelm the other experiments. Jumba then remembers that he programmed a secret shutdown command into Leroy: Elvis Presley's rendition of "Aloha ʻOe". Stitch interrupts the battle and performs the song, triggering the Leroys' command.

As the team is again honored by the alliance for their victory, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley ask to return to Earth with Lilo. The Grand Councilwoman grants this and reinstates Gantu as the captain of the Armada, with Reuben as a galley officer. Back on Earth, Lilo sets up for one last ʻohana photo with her family and Mertle.

In a final scene, Hämsterviel is seen incarcerated with the Leroys in cells surrounding his. During the credits, a nearly-full list of Jumba's experiments is shown.[f]

Voice cast

Production

According to writer-producer Jess Winfield, Leroy & Stitch was produced alongside the second season of Lilo & Stitch: The Series and finished production in 2005.[5] The film was originally set for a direct-to-video release in spring 2006.[5] The animation production was outsourced to Wang Film Productions, a Taiwanese studio that previously worked on Lilo & Stitch: The Series.

The film marks the third film in the Lilo & Stitch franchise without any involvement from creators Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (besides Sanders providing the voices of Stitch, Leroy, and the latter's clones), as they would leave Disney for DreamWorks Animation to write and direct How to Train Your Dragon.[6][7]

Release

Leroy & Stitch debuted on Disney Channel on June 23, 2006 and also aired on Toon Disney on June 26, 2006.[3] It was released on DVD in the United States on June 27, 2006 under Walt Disney Pictures.[8][9] Bonus features of the DVD include a then-unaired episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series titled "Link" and a set-top game The Big Red Battleship Flight Simulator.[3] Distributed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, DVD sales in the United States earned a total of $16,672,732 as of September 2021.[10]

Critical reception

Leroy & Stitch received mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 40% with an average rating of 5.4/10, based on 5 reviews.[11]

Skyler Miller of AllMovie gave the film a rating of 3½ out of 5 stars,[h] praising the voice acting, Elvis Presley songs, and " fast-moving plot that mixes frenetic action, sentimentality, and a few laughs." Miller wrote, "While not nearly as engaging or emotionally rich as the original film that inspired it all in all, Leroy & Stitch is a fitting wrap-up to an enjoyable animated series."[12]

Edward Perkis of CinemaBlend gave the film a rating of 1 out of 5 stars, stating the film is "just another direct-to-video sequel of Disney with no unusual stuff in it," and further uplifted and preferred the original film.[13]

Common Sense Media (CSM) gave the film's quality 4 out of 5 stars and applicable for ages 5 above based on 10 reviews from both parents and children.[14]

The film was nominated for the 2007 Golden Reel Award by the Motion Picture Sound Editors, which ultimately went to Disneytoon's direct-to-video film The Fox and the Hound 2.[15]

In 2019, Petrana Radulovic of Polygon ranked Leroy & Stitch ninth out of twenty-six films on her list of direct-to-video sequels, prequels, and "mid-quels" to Disney animated films, one rank higher than Stitch! The Movie.[16] Despite criticizing Leroy & Stitch for focusing more on the aliens and space over the "charming" characters like with Stitch! The Movie, she ranked the finale film higher than the pilot film because of all the now-united 626 experiments' "wacky and really specific powers", stating that "e get to see what they've all been up to after acclimating to life on Hawaii, and see them in action in the final battle."[16] In a similar list in 2020, Lisa Wehrstedt of Insider ranked Leroy & Stitch seventh out of twenty-five films on her list.[17] Werhstedt wrote, "For fans who were really involved with the series , this film acts like the perfect finale." However, she also criticized it for "los a bit of the human charm of the original and the previous sequel."[17]

Soundtrack

Lilo & Stitch Hawaiian Album
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
Released2006
Recorded2005–2006
GenreRock, country rock, pop
LabelWalt Disney
Lilo & Stitch music chronology
Lilo & Stitch 2: Island Favorites
(2006) 		Lilo & Stitch Hawaiian Album
(2006) 		Stitch!: Original Soundtrack
(2010)

Lilo & Stitch Hawaiian Album is the soundtrack to Disney's Leroy & Stitch. The majority of the Leroy & Stitch soundtrack are Elvis Presley records, while other parts of the soundtrack include music inspired by Gustav Holst's "The Planets".[18][19] The soundtrack also contains score pieces from the original Lilo & Stitch film (which was composed by Alan Silvestri) and from Lilo & Stitch: The Series's pilot film Stitch! The Movie (which was composed by Michael Tavera, who was also the composer for The Series).

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."Aloha ʻOe"Queen LiliuokalaniElvis Presley 
2."I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"Hank WilliamsPresley 
3."Hawaii Five-O Theme"Morton Stevens  
4."Jailhouse Rock"Jerry Leiber and Mike StollerPresley 
5."Don't Be Cruel (Everlife version)"Otis Blackwell, Elvis PresleyEverlife 
6."Aloha, E Komo Mai"Danny Jacob and Ali OlmoJump5 
7."Aloha ʻOe"Queen LiliuokalaniLilo, Stitch, and Reuben (Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, and Rob Paulsen) 
8."Shouldn't Have Yelled (Lilo & Stitch)"Alan Silvestri  
9."What's Best for Lilo (Lilo & Stitch)"Silvestri  
10."Ugly (Lilo & Stitch)"Silvestri  
11."Rescue (Lilo & Stitch)"Silvestri  
12."The Big Battle (Stitch! The Movie)"Michael Tavera  

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Titled as Disney's Leroy & Stitch on its title card and stylized as Leroy Lilo & Stitch on its cover art.
  2. ^ Leroy & Stitch is often considered to be a direct-to-video film instead of a television film due to its DVD release just four days after its premiere broadcast.
  3. ^ Three succeeding works in the franchise—Japanese anime series Stitch!, Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai, and Japanese manga Stitch & the Samurai—replace Lilo with different humans who become Stitch's new best friend and change the setting to other regions on Earth.
  4. ^ As depicted in Lilo & Stitch: The Series
  5. ^ The scrapbook was first seen in the Lilo & Stitch: The Series episode "Snafu", which first aired just before Leroy & Stitch premiered.
  6. ^ The list shows only the experiments from Experiment 001, Shrink, to Experiment 626, Stitch. It does not include Experiment 627 (who is mentioned when Jumba suggests that Hämsterviel just numbers Leroy as 627, only for Gantu to remind Jumba that he already made 627), Experiment 628 (who only appeared at the end of the episode "627" in pod form), 629/Leroy (who wasn't officially numbered 629 until 2020 through a special one-off chapter of the manga Stitch & the Samurai), Skunkuna (an unnumbered experiment from Stitch! who is said to have been made by Hämsterviel, contradicting Jumba being the experiments' creator) and Experiment 000 (an experiment who was introduced in Stitch! as the predecessor to all of the other experiments). Furthermore, 275/Tickle-Tummy, an experiment who was introduced in "Snafu", was accidentally left off the list; her number in the list was taken by Wormhole, an experiment who was later introduced in Stitch! and is actually numbered as Experiment 272.
  7. ^ Leroy wasn't numbered in the film; he was later designated Experiment 629 via a Disney Tsum Tsum-based side story of Stitch & the Samurai released in June 2020, nearly fourteen years after the release of this film.[4]
  8. ^ After AllMovie removed professional reviews from the site in 2024, AllMovie's rating for the film was changed to 2 out of 5 stars; it has since been changed again to 2½ out of 5 stars as of March 2025.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Laydon, Joe (June 27, 2006). "Review: 'Leroy & Stitch'". Variety. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Leroy & Stitch (2006)". AllMovie. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "Lilo Leroy & Stitch DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. June 27, 2014. Archived from the original on July 1, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2006. Though Leroy & Stitch seemed destined to be direct-to-video, just a few weeks ago, it was announced that the movie would air on television twice shortly before its DVD release. It did that last Friday on Disney Channel and last night on Toon Disney.
  4. ^ LINE：ディズニー ツムツム公式 (June 4, 2020). 大人気マンガ『殿さまとスティッチ』の限定マンガの続編を公開！今度はリロイが戦国時代で大暴れ！詳しくはゲーム内インフォメーションをチェックしてね♪ (Tweet) (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 7, 2020 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ a b Armstrong, Josh (July 22, 2005). "Leroy & Stitch to wrap up Lilo & Stitch: The Series?". Animated Views. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  6. ^ "Interview: Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders of 'How to Train Your Dragon'". Beliefnet. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  7. ^ "Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois Talk 'How to Train Your Dragon'". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on August 15, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  8. ^ "DVD's". Chicago Tribune. May 30, 2006. p. 57. Retrieved September 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ McCutcheon, David (May 31, 2006). "Leroy & Stitch Run Amuck in June". IGN. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  10. ^ "Leroy & Stitch - DVD Sales". The Numbers. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  11. ^ "Leroy & Stitch (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on November 7, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  12. ^ Miller, Skyler. "Leroy & Stitch (2006) Review". AllMovie. Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  13. ^ Perkis, Edward. "Leroy & Stitch DVD Review". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  14. ^ "Leroy & Stitch Movie Review". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  15. ^ "MPSE Golden Reel Awards". 2008-03-25. Archived from the original on 2008-03-25. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  16. ^ a b Radulovic, Petrana (March 28, 2019). "Every Disney direct-to-video sequel, prequel, and mid-quel, ranked". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  17. ^ a b Wehrstedt, Lisa (July 10, 2020). "All of Disney's straight-to-home-video sequels, prequels, and midquels, ranked from best to worst". Insider. Insider Inc. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  18. ^ "Leroy & Stitch (Video 2006)". Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on April 8, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  19. ^ "Leroy & Stitch (2006) Soundtrack OST - RingosTrack". RingosTrack. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Leroy & Stitch.