Read on Twitter
Do you know why Lilo insists on feeding Pudge the Fish a peanut butter sandwich in the opening sequence of the film?
Pudge controls the weather. 1/? https://twitter.com/SquigglyDigg/status/1246984685567143942">https://twitter.com/SquigglyD...
Pudge controls the weather. 1/? https://twitter.com/SquigglyDigg/status/1246984685567143942">https://twitter.com/SquigglyD...
Lilo fully believes this, and there& #39;s visual storytelling to suggest that she& #39;s not wrong. She feeds Pudge, and storm clouds recede. It goes from dark gray storm clouds, to a beautiful blue sunny day.
When her classmates call Lilo crazy for believing this, Lilo loses it. 2/?
When her classmates call Lilo crazy for believing this, Lilo loses it. 2/?
But it& #39;s silly, right? Why should Lilo believe in this so strongly, and react so violently when someone argues that it& #39;s all in her head?
Well.
"It was rainy, and they went for a drive." 3/?
Well.
"It was rainy, and they went for a drive." 3/?
Lilo is obsessed with feeding this fish she believes to control the weather, because it& #39;s a way she& #39;s been coping with the recent, sudden and senseless death of her parents. She& #39;s making sense of it where she can.
4/?
4/?
And yeah, Lilo is lashing out. Lilo is angry. Lilo is sad, and scared. Lilo is weird. Lilo is also autistically coded, and actively grieving, and *six years old*. She& #39;s one of the most well written children in animated history. 5/?
Lilo is angry that her sister, who was her friend and her sibling, is now her mother and father. That there& #39;s a change in dynamics. That the change in how her sister treats her, talks to her, is a reminder that their parents are gone. 6/?
Nani is also not handling this well. Her struggle is more clear- but also, in a lot of ways, more subtle. Nani is SO young.
And also, a semi-professional surfer. Her room is covered in her medals and trophies. There rests a surfboard, unused. 7/?
And also, a semi-professional surfer. Her room is covered in her medals and trophies. There rests a surfboard, unused. 7/?
Do you understand? She was also a child, but now-- she can& #39;t be. She can& #39;t do this anymore. She has to be an adult. She has to be the grown up. She has to keep this family together, because someone has to, and there& #39;s no one else. 8/?
I said before-- Lilo is blatantly autisically coded. Nani knows she& #39;d be tormented if she got kicked around foster care. That& #39;s why she& #39;s so hard on Lilo, why she& #39;s trying so hard to make Lilo understand why she& #39;s like this, but it just makes Lilo lash out more. 9/?
I can& #39;t make you love this movie, but if you hate it, you just don& #39;t understand it, and you don& #39;t understand Lilo. It& #39;s not a movie about an alien finding a family. It& #39;s a movie about an alien helping to mend a little and broken one. 10/10
I gotta mute this but I& #39;m glad this resonates with people. Sanders and DeBlois are very good directors who really understand how to show kids Going Through Shit. I have a lot of respect for their mastery over their craft.
