Lilo & Stitch 2 Release Party at Mall of America

[BlueDevilSF]

For anyone who's interested (and who is or will be in the Twin Cities), there is going to be a release party at the Mall of America for the L&S2 DVD.

From the MOA website:

Come celebrate Lilo and her extra-terrestrial fugitive pet Stitch’s, DVD release. This morning is guaranteed to be full of unexplainable alien fun!

August 30
10:00am - 12:00pm
Sam Goody Central

[Princess Jasmine]

That sounds kinda cool

[goofy108]

Why is this sequel getting so much hype?

[Disney Duster]

Well, with the look of the high quality animation and all the funny scenes in the trailer, L&S2 looks to be a good sequel (after all, The Lion King 1 1/2 and Tarzan II proved Disney Toon Studios is getting better). But I can't believe it gets int's own Mall Party! Wil someone go and tell us what it's like? Plus pictures?!

[Princess Jasmine]

Hey! Aladdin and the King of Theives was pretty good!

[BlueDevilSF]

Well, with the look of the high quality animation and all the funny scenes in the trailer, L&S2 looks to be a good sequel (after all, The Lion King 1 1/2 and Tarzan II proved Disney Toon Studios is getting better). But I can't believe it gets int's own Mall Party! Wil someone go and tell us what it's like? Plus pictures?!

I don't think it will be all that big of a deal, but then again I could be wrong. I probably should have pointed out that Tuesdays at the MOA are "Toddler Tuesdays." Whatever is going on will likely be pretty small compared to other events held at the MOA.

It so happens that I'll be in the vicinity of the MOA on that day but will be unable to check it out.

[DreamerQ18]

Oh my gosh I wish I lived there. I dont care if its for Toddlers I love my Stitch he is the cutest.Hey BlueDevilSF are you going to and check it out? If so take pics and share pleaseeeee

[BlueDevilSF]

Oh my gosh I wish I lived there. I dont care if its for Toddlers I love my Stitch he is the cutest.Hey BlueDevilSF are you going to and check it out? If so take pics and share pleaseeeee

Unfortunately I won't be able to go. I have two back-to-back doctors' appointments starting at 10 that day.

[DreamerQ18]

Oh my gosh I wish I lived there. I dont care if its for Toddlers I love my Stitch he is the cutest.Hey BlueDevilSF are you going to and check it out? If so take pics and share pleaseeeee

Unfortunately I won't be able to go. I have two back-to-back doctors' appointments starting at 10 that day.

Oh thats a bummer but I hope your docotrs appoitments go well. But if anyone else here goes I love pictures .

[dvdjunkie]

You know with all this money being spent on promotion of this "sc-called" movie.............it's just a video folks...........it never played in the movie theater...........you would think they would have spent more time and put it in the theater for everyone to see. Why do they expect us to blind buy something that we don't know anything about???

I refuse to buy most of the direct-to-video movies that Disney has put out. I think I only have TLK2 and TLK1&1/2 and 101 Dalmations: Patch's London Adventure.

It just shows that there is no confidence on Disney's part that any of these movies would hold their own in the theater, yet they stick us with crap like "Sky High" and "Recess" and "Teacher's Pet", all of which bombed big time. They should have put those out direct-to-video and saved the money to put the good ones out in the theater.

BOYCOTT ALL DISNEY DIRECT-TO-VIDEO MOVIES. Your collection will be better for it.

[Luke]

You know with all this money being spent on promotion of this "sc-called" movie.............it's just a video folks...........it never played in the movie theater...........you would think they would have spent more time and put it in the theater for everyone to see. Why do they expect us to blind buy something that we don't know anything about???

You don't know anything about <i>Lilo & Stitch 2</i>? May I introduce you to this site which has a great deal of information about various upcoming Disney movies and DVDs: http://www.ultimatedisney.com. We'll have a review of this before release date, and so will plenty of other media outlets. It's promoted on television the way any movie is and the only place you won't find previews for it (and even this is not impossible now) is in movie theaters.

As for a lot of money being spent, you'd have to be familiar with the Mall of America to know better, but this is not some great big deal. "Toddler Tuesdays" is a program to bring in parents and children to the mall, and this particular event is being held in one store which didn't even get the name of the movie right in the brochure (it merely says "Lilo & Stitch"). It could very well be something the store is doing on their own, but even if Disney is helping out, this is not something that's going to create big bills.

It just shows that there is no confidence on Disney's part that any of these movies would hold their own in the theater, yet they stick us with crap like "Sky High" and "Recess" and "Teacher's Pet", all of which bombed big time. They should have put those out direct-to-video and saved the money to put the good ones out in the theater.

Furthermore, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, <i>Recess: School's Out</i> grossed $36.7 million in theaters domestically and I'd suspect around there on DVD. Its production budget was $23 million, so not only did it not "bomb big time", but it earned back its budget in less than four weeks in US Theaters. <i>Sky High</i> had a production budget of $35 million and after 3 weeks in theaters, it has already grossed $44 million. That's without international grosses, domestic home video sales and rentals, pay-per-view and network television sales, etc. According to IMDb, <i>Teacher's Pet</i> had a $10 million budget and while it didn't earn all of that back in US theaters, I'm sure the international market, DVD sales and rentals have made up the difference. You should really check what you're saying before simply saying it, since your statements leave no room for doubt and in turn not the slightest bit of accuracy.

[dvdjunkie]

Luke, I mean no disrespect here, but you are quoting figures for movies that aren't blockbusters. Just because they earn their budget back doesn't mean they are considered hit movies. And if you think that "Sky High" was a good movie, I am very sorry. I wasted five dollars and almost two hours of my life that I will never get back with that piece of drivvel. It should have been a direct-to-video release.

If Disney is so positive about their releases, why not put "Lilo and Stitch 2" in theaters and let it be seen by the masses. I don't understand why you think that just because it is Disney that it is the 'end-all' of pictures. I would feel the same way if they were to put "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" only to video and not in the theaters. "Lilo and Stitch" was such a great film and one that I watch over and over, I just don't understand why they don't have enough confidence in it to put it in the theaters first.

I would think that video sales would be a lot better if the movie was shown in a theater first. The classic Disney animated features are almost a thing of the past and with "Lilo and Stitch" and "Lilo and Stitch 2" Disney could probably have knocked the socks out of the box office.

When I see a movie that is released direct to video my first reaction is "oh-oh, it wasn't good enough for the theaters, I better beware of this!"

And I will, I will be very wary of this film. As much as my grandkids like "Lilo and Stitch" I am sure they would probably not care for this one because they didn't see it in the theater first. Heck, even Nickelodeon puts their films in the theater first, look at how well "Rugrats" has done.

I just think that Disney is off base on this one. I hope it tanks big time and they have to finally break down a release it to theaters. They won't but I can hope.

[AwallaceUNC]

So, if The Lion King had debuted on home video, that would have made it a bad movie?

-Aaron

[Luke]

Just because they earn their budget back doesn't mean they are considered hit movies.

Nowhere did I say they were hit movies. I did take you to task on claiming "they bombed big time", since they weren't big budget movies to begin with, and therefore, they would have had to perform much worse than they did to qualify even as "bombing little time."

If you've read any of my DVD reviews, you'd notice I have criticized plenty of direct-to-video movies, but it's never on the basis of them being direct-to-video, it's on the basis of not thinking they are very good. Disregarding something because it is direct-to-video is about as open-minded as disregarding something because it is black and white or widescreen. Theatrical performance and or exhibition at all is not often a factor great at determining what movies are good and what isn't. <i>The Lion King</i> and <i>Finding Nemo</i> made amazing sums and are what many people would consider great. So did <i>The Pacifier</i> and <i>Pearl Harbor</i> and they're not held in such high regard. <i>The Straight Story</i> was only released in a limited number of theaters - does that make it a lesser film?

Nowadays, movies don't always debut on DVD because they're "not good enough for theaters." Disney has observed that the marketplace allows for such a route to be taken and it has resulted in fruitful profits for them and some very good movies as well as plenty of stinkers.

[Disney-Fan]

Remember as well that not every movie made was designed to have a big release. Storyline and acting aside, not all movies are considered high priority and since marketing costs a LOT of money, releasing it straight to DVD only seems logical. Why waste millions of dollars in cinemas on advertising a movie that's going to appeal to a very limited audience anyway?

[castleinthesky]

BOYCOTT ALL DISNEY DIRECT-TO-VIDEO MOVIES. Your collection will be better for it.

By the way, some of us like DTVs. Some of us like seeing 2-d Disney animation to be kept alive. I personally collect these DTVs. The only DTV's I don't like are the unecessary Winne the Pooh spin-offs.