An Analysis of "Stitch Has a Glitch" and the Importance of Starting with your Ending (Spoiler warning!!)

For every great Disney movie to come out of the late 90s and early aughts comes a less-than-stellar sequel. One of my favourite movies; Lilo and Stitch (2002) is no exception. In 2005, Disney released its sequel Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch which I also saw. In comparison to the other straight-to-DVD sequels, Stitch has a Glitch is considered one of the ‘better’ ones. Even so, I still take great issue with some of the narrative choices.

The best way to describe my problems with the ending is to give a general premise to the movie. The Pelekai family have now settled into their new life with their chosen alien family. Lilo's hula dance class is given the opportunity to participate in a dance competition, but Lilo is struggling because Stitch is showing signs of destructive behaviour and regression due to a lethal genetic defect. The family scrambles around to build an apparatus to fix Stitch's glitch before he dies. The movie attempts to run parallel with the Hawai'ian myth of the healing goddess Hi'iaka with its message of how “love is more powerful than death”; in the ending, Stitch sadly ends up succumbing in a beautifully done scene. In a sudden change in events, Stitch inexplicably wakes up to which Lilo reiterates her statement of love being more powerful than death. The family have a dance and all is well.

My issue with this ending is that it felt very arbitrary. There was no reason stated in the story that Lilo would be able to simply “love” Stitch to life. As an anonymous google reviewer describes the exact issue: “ This movie suffers from too much going on and it seemed they wrote themselves into a corner and used a “miracle” to get out of it at the last moment" (2021). The trope of “death, just kidding” is present in a lot of Disney movies. As tired of the trope as I am, it is still passible because there is usually some magical force like love established from the beginning that can revive someone. Stitch has a Glitch did not have anything to back it up which includes the original movie. I presume they made this choice to run parallel with the Hi'iaka myth where she uses her love to revive the handsome mortal Lohi'au from the dead. However, this component of the story falls weak because Hi'iaka and Lohi'au are not even mentioned until about halfway through the movie; and even then, the narrative feels disconnected from the movie plot apart from “Hey, I know that his story exists”. As a result, the movie feels unsatisfying and begs more questions from confusion than investment.

The ending is evidence that the storywriters did not know what story to tell: Stitch's glitch is the advertised plot but there is too much focus on the Hula competition subplot to really extrapolate the extent of Stitch's defect. Thus, the overall story structure feels extremely disjointed. I took a handful of creative writing classes in university and I taught some creative writing lessons to grade 11 students last spring semester. The main concept I teach my students is the importance of knowing the foundation of your story. I use a plot diagram, but it is also important they know how the story is going to end before they add in other plot details. The reason I know this is because I have definitely made that mistake numerous times as an aspiring writer. I do know the sequels have less of a foot to stand on since they are operating on a significantly lower budget, but I do believe this movie is at least salvageable.

Firstly, I think the Hi'iaka and Lohi'au story parallel is a brilliant idea in concept. The first suggestion I would make to execute it better is to use the myth as an integral subplot rather than a disconnected story beat. For example, I wonder if this movie should have been a fractured fairytale; perhaps it could have been a science fiction retelling of the myth of Hi'iaka. Furthermore, that can help develop the alien world established in the first movie. Some ways to make the parallel more strong include telling the myth from the very beginning and also going into more detail about the actual myth. For example, in the opening act when Lilo's Kumu shows her the picture of her late mother, maybe Lilo can further inquire about her mom's dance which could have been about Hi'iaka. Furthermore, since Lilo's mom is deceased, it will reinforce the “love is more powerful than death” concept. It also strengthens the overall tension of the plot and gives the audience more to anticipate. Lilo's decision to make the myth the primary topic of her hula can still be at the same point in the movie. When she asks the two street performers about their song, she can then remember what Kumu told her about her mom. Also, an integral part of the myth is Hi'iaka's extensive travelling which led to her discovery of her healing powers. In the same manner, Lilo walks around her town to find the perfect theme of the hula. This beat could have been a perfect component to extrapolate upon because it can allow to expand on who Lilo is. What these change can do is 1. help the story move forward a lot more smoothly and 2. make the Hi'iaka parallel more obvious to the viewer.

The second change I would make to make the ending feel more conclusive would be to have some supernatural component to explain why Lilo's love brought Stitch back. As I am thinking, there are a few ways to develop this piece. Firstly, I can return to the first movie. The first connection Lilo has is her mistaking his crashing spaceship for a shooting star and wishing on it. Perhaps there could be a supernatural connection where Lilo's love somehow directly affects Stitch's genetic coding. Her mother can also be an integral aspect of it, too. In more quiet scenes where she is looking at her mom's picture, there could be a brief meteor shower.

Overall, the problem with the ending of Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch is that it feels abrupt as the result of the writers not knowing what direction to take the movie in. To reiterate, the idea of the movie's plotline running parallel with the myth of Hi'iaka is brilliant; I did not even know who Hi'iaka, Pele, or Lohi'au were before I saw this movie. Thus, I think the fractured fairy tale approach can be a great way for Disney to represent various cultures through storytelling. Disney's recent movies have been a flop, and I believe that this approach would be a step in the right direction for representation, good storytelling, acknowledging tradition, and innovation.