Post #2816 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Jun 26, 2002 9:57 AM

Just went to see Lilo and Stitch at the El Capitain, and for all you LA Tiki Centralites, that is where to see it. The "Lilo and Stitch's Hawaiian Beach Party" set up is quite elaborate, like a mini Hawaiiana Disneyland, on several floors of what used to be a Masonic temple, and an incredible value for your dollar (included in the ticket price). They have a live Hula show, lots of games, a huge hall with Elvis collectibles, and lots of Tikis. Some games like the Tiki Toss include Tikis, and there are Tiki details to be discovered here and there. Kind of makes up for the lack of Tikis in the movie.
Also cool is the live Wurlitzer performance before the movie, which 10 minutes before the film goes to all Hawaiian classics, not only including the Tiki Rooom song and Hawaii 5-0, but also (I felt transmitted back to room 135) the C&H sugar song! A nice effect at the end is to see the Organ dissappear into the floor while the organist plays Aloha-e.

The movie itself is supercute, yet not in the sacharine Disney way, but with good characters, genuinely moving. I really recommend it. I already new about the fact that Tikis were rare in it, and the only disappointment was the brevity of the Elvis song moments, and that they did not include any Hawaiian Elvis songs. Judging by the amount of Elvis stuff in the exhibit, and by the fact that my friends at Disney saw parts of the movie that had "Blue Hawai" as title song and longer Elvis tune segments in it, it looks like Disney wanted to save on royalties and cut down on the Elvis soundtrack time, which is too bad.
It seems that the cool element at Disney was aiming for Polynesian Pop, but it didn't quite make it.
Still, a fun film.