The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 42

E4 Saturday June 22 2002 wwwnomcwiphixonfv Thi Commercial Appeal Jay Adamswas among group of Santa Monica "freaks' who pioneered skateboarding in the 1970l i Bays should appeal even to tnosa unfamiliar with tha subculture Skateboard turned fad into phenomenon the concrete of city streets culverts and most spectacularly the many swim- NOW PLAYING gp-gs- BPm saoHs SSobiii Wily ilimiHalkeiM ai NMH flkl 11 KMGRFUan ssA si some neighborhoods The most interesting part of die movie chronicles die illicit activities of the Zephyr team which would scout neighborhoods for dry swimming pools and then practice (vertical moves) and other stunts inside the pools for hours while the owners were away or until the police arrived This premise is certain to form the basis for a future dramatic film starring some nascent Freddie Prinze type Dogtown and Z-Boys is narrated with casual cool by Sean Penn whose occasional flub-ups are left on the soundtrack The music score includes 1970s favorites by such artists as Alice Cooper David Bowie and Ted Nugent The movie is playing exclusively at Trinity Commons 9 which is located at the northeast edge of several acres of potentially fine skateboarding turl prt to standing soften each other (in one bonding sequence Lilo teaches Stitch how to behave like that "model Elvis) There is much talk of ohana the Hawaiian term for family and unity but the message never gets too sticky even at the movie's conclusion when Stitch MOVIE REVIEW Rated PC-13 for mild profanity drug references and smart-aledcy attitudes BrJsfeaMtas bnfimflgnmrmpfiBxpm Eventhose who don't know longtime skateboard legend Tbny Alva from Thomas Alva Edison should be engrossed by Dogtown and Z-Boys a documentary look at the Santa Monica who transformed skateboarding in the 1970s from a neglected fad into an international youth subculture that continues to thrive The focus is mainly on the ethnically diverse "Zephyr Skating Team" a group of 10 boys and one girl from the rundown urban beach neighborhood of who joined forces in the early 1970s Adapting the fluid style of surf boarding to Firom Page El Lilo of the old Bugs Bunny-and-company shorts of the rival Warner Bros animation de- Eartment in its sometimes enetic action and just plain funny-looking characters And the large sturdy legs of the characters will remind aficionados of anime particularly the work of Osamu (JiiraJO))Tezub Adding to the freshness is the Hawaii setting in a decision sure to amuse Memphians in particular the use of Elvis music on the soundtrack rather than original songs (which is why Sanders DeBlois and other Disney creative talents and executives were In town Thursday night for a gala luau-tnemed party at Graceland) Lilo Stitch a traditional hand-drawn animated feature as opposed to a Toy Story-type cartoon created with computer-generated im-agery begins in outer space where a galactic council of aliens of all shapes and sizes is condemning the mad scientist Jumba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers) for his creation of 626 who will later be known as Stitch (voiced by The movie consists of plenty of archival footage as well as interviews with the Zephyr members today and testimonials from such celebrity fans as Henry Rollins Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam and Iain MacKaye of Fugazi who all grew up reading about and admiring die Zephyr team from such far-flung home bases as the District of Columbia and Montana The movie is particularly interesting as a history of the evolution of a subculture According to Dogtown the surfing boom of the 1960s gradually gave birth to the more democratic skateboarding phenomenon in part because skateboards were much cheaper than surfboards and because the activity could be pursued just about anywhere rather than at select locations an explanation that links skateboarding to such other street arts as rap and tumtablism which allbut replaced traditional rhythm-and-blues musicianship in it lends authenticity to the characterization and is moving in that it lets die audience know that Lilo is not just sad but a true problem child Lilo also butts heads with her older sister and guardian Nani (Ha Carrere) who has been the head of the household since die death of their parents The situation does not meet the approval of a large social worker named Bubbles (Ving Rhames) who has the letters C-O-B-R-A tattooed on the knuckles of one hand Lilo prays one night for a friend an angel perhaps but the shooting star she sees out her window is actually spaceship Thinking the creature is an incredibly ugly dog (although Nani believes it to be evil Lilo adopts 626 from the pound where the dazed ET-with-an-attitude was taken after being run over by several tractor-trailer rigs She christens the foul-tempered being Stitch accepts this misunderstanding because he knows he can use the family as a sort of living shield against his would-be captors Needless to say Stitch a monster stranded on a tropical paradise with nothing to destroy and Lilo who craves affection and region that were drainecfdue to drought the longhaired punks of the Zephyr team brought outlaw attitude and aggressive athleticism to what had formerly been a rather clunky pastime The movie was directed by Stacy Peralta the first Zephyr team member to capitalize on his notoriety with sponsorships and advertising deals and co-written by Peralta and Craig Stecyk whose writing and photography in SkateBoarder magazine 20-plus years ago codified and promoted these unconventional of the (to quote a Rex song heard on the sound-trade) Stecyk called the skateboarders "urban and praised them ter humanizing the impersonal environments of their neighborhoods in ways the architects and planners never intended filmmaker Sanders) 626 described as "an affront to and "the flawed product of a deranged is a pint-sized blue super-monster that was created with no other function than to destroy When the creature escapes from a prison ship and crash-lands on the island of Hawaii on the planet Earth (a "protected wildlife because it is home to the endangered mosquito) the council orders Jumba and a one-eyed two-tongued Earth expert named Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) to travel to Earth to recapture it but without interfering with the human population that is part of the mosquito's food chain Meanwhile a somewhat odd little Hawaiian girl named Lilo (Daveigh Chase) is having troubles of her Lilo has no friends due to her sometimes morbid imaginings (she pretends her doll has been infected by insect larvae) eccentric tastes (she is a diehard Elvis fan) peculiar beliefs (she credits a fish with controlling the weather) and short temper In one scene Lilo flies at a girl who insults her biting and punching This raging fit is not the usual behavior of little girls in Disney films but family: and broken but still One reason LOo ft Stitch is so successful may be that Sanders and DeBlois youthful veterans of such Disney projects as The Uon King and Mulan were allowed a perhaps unprecedented degree of control on this project The film was produced at Disney's smaller relatively more intimate Orlando animation unit and Sanders and DeBlois handled the original storyboards and collaborated on the writing and directing This partnership lends a real unity to the dialog and especially the visuals which are enhanced by the use of watercolor paintings for backgrounds an old-fashioned technique that not only lends charm to the images but also fits the retro-exotica style of the Hawaii setting.