Let’s start with the good: Loved Lilo. Loved Lilo’s world. Loved Stitch. Loved Stitch’s world. Loved the relationship between Lilo and her older guardian sister. Loved the relationship between Lilo and Stitch. Loved the Elvis stuff. Loved the humor. Loved the way the movie looks, feels, moves, and sounds. Loved the first 3/4 of the film.

Hated the ending.

Hated the ending with a passion.

See, this film violates one of the cardinal rules in my book; namely, you have to be true to the world you’ve set up. And you have to be honest with your audience. If you want an audience to experience REAL emotion and have a REAL reaction to the scenes you’re presenting on screen (which I did, up to a point), DON’T all of a sudden have your characters thrust in to a supremely UNREAL situation at the very end! That situation was not only contrary to the entire tone of the film to that point, but undermined a great and emotional set up.

See, the problem I had was this: Lilo and Stitch’s worlds shouldn’t collide as they do in the film’s climax. Lilo’s big sister, in the span of about 15 minutes of “real time,” discovers that not only is Stitch an alien, but aliens are real, and actual aliens have kidnapped Lilo, and are in the process of taking her off of Earth in a capsule attached to the back of a spaceship. Other than a concern for her sister, she has no real reaction to any of this! Now, up until this point, everything in Lilo’s “world” has been real, sometimes breathtakingly so. Real places, real characters, real emotions. But there’s no real reaction to the whole “aliens are real and have kidnapped my sister” thing! One way or the other, please! It’s fine if Lilo’s Hawai’i is obviously a “cartoon” Hawai’i, but it hasn’t been shown that way. I mean, they even have the shaved ice right! So ignoring the arrival of aliens on Earth (and the very forced follow-up between the Galactic President and the CIA guy-turned-social worker) stuck out like a sore thumb.

In my version, the alien world and the human world would have only ONE point of cross-over: Lilo finds out Stitch is an alien. But other than that, nothing else. Maybe she tries to tell her big sister Nani, but of course, Nani isn't going to believe her ... adding another fun point of conflict.

Also, in my version, Lilo must solve Stitch’s problem, taking heroic action to convince Stitch’s would-be captors to let him live out his life on Earth. Stitch must do the same, growing and taking a similarly heroic action to convince social worker guy to leave Lilo’s family alone. Oh, and both those things would happen in a big action scene at the end which would replace the false-jeopardy climax of the film. (I mean, don’t START to take Lilo off in to space, to presumably face the galactic council, if she’s never actually going to get there!)

Other than that …

In case you're wondering, this was a "Three Monkey" movie, until Stitch ate the rating...

If you’ve read any of his stuff, you know Tony’s a funny guy. He’s a funny TV host too. And his relationship with Wilbon has led to some of the best bickering this side of the late Siskel and Ebert.

Some of the recurring gags are a little corny, but if you like your sports news with an opinion, and one often presented in a very funny way, check this show out.

On the other hand, in a “Duel” mode game the other night, a player accused me of cheating, and changed his own screen name to reflect his accusation. How great is that? (Even if I had any idea how to “cheat” at a videogame like this, I wouldn’t. I mean, I always pick the “light side” of The Force for my powers, instead of the more fun “dark side.” Remember Yoda’s words to Luke – the dark side is NOT more powerful. Admittedly, in this game, it is pretty fun to use a Vader-style Force “choke” on an opponent. Not that I would know ... )

All in all, good FPS fun here. I mean, you get to run around with a light saber, using The Force, and battling like a Jedi. What more do you want?

Oh, information on where to buy it? Try my favorite CD-ROM store, Interact! Dave Sparks is the proprietor, and a good man. Tell him you read about it here.