Tons of Fun - Lilo and Stitch: The Series
What: "Lilo and Stitch: The Series"
Who: All original voices from the movie return to their roles from their series. The include Chris Sanders (Stitch), "The Rings"' Daveigh Chase (Lilo), "Wayne's World" and "Relic Hunter"'s Tia Carrere (Nani), "Pulp Fiction"'s Ving Rhames (Cobra Bubbles), "M*A*S*H"'s David Ogden Stiers (Jumba), "Kids in the Hall's" Kevin McDonald (Pleakley), Kevin Michael Richardson (Captain Gantu), "Johnny Bravo"'s Jeff Bennett (Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel), "Pinky and the Brain"'s Pinky, Rob Paulsen (Experiment 625), Tony Award-winner Zoe Caldwell (Grand Councilwoman). Where: On Canada's The Family Channel, and the U.S.' Disney Channel and ABC
One thing that Disney has done, unlike any other studio to my knowledge, is occasionally deciding to create television series based on their own animated feature films.
First off was "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." It won two Daytime Animated Program Emmys and two Humanitas Awards. The series featured solid writing; story editor Bruce Talkington even pushed the series to try and remain with the spirit of A.A. Milne original books.
This concept was followed less directly with "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers," which starred the chipmunk duo in a series originally intended for "The Rescuers." "Tale Spin" strayed even further, with a '30s air-charter service meets a sitcom-cum-soap-opera with selected characters from "The Jungle Book" in nearly complete new roles. Both still have rigid fan followings represented online, and can easily keep the title of the most popular Disney animated series.
"The Little Mermaid"'s Oscar-winning musical talents were then translated to the tube with mixed results, while a good prequel overall, it stands in the shadows of great expectations from its predecessor.
However, later efforts at the end of the '90s brought much lesser results. The jazz in the jungle of "The Jungle Book" was lackluster in its prequel, "Jungle Cubs." The Radcliffs move to their storied Dalmatian Plantation in "101 Dalmatians: The Series," but one of AFI's top all-time movie villains is just an angry fashionista; Miss DeVil is far less sophisticated and monsterly. And "The Legend of Tarzan"? It went over like a lead balloon.
And "Lilo and Stitch: The Series"? It's just as brilliant on the cathode tube as it is on the silver screen.
At first the premise for this new series, based on '02s amazing offering seems just all too familiar. Despite this, it's one of my top three favourite new series this season, and one of the three best current shows for its age group.
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