- Content: “Comical Animated Monster Movie About Friendship”
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What You Need To Know:
STITCH HEAD is a surprisingly uplifting movie. It has strong moral messages promoting friendship, brotherly love, standing up against prejudice, and forgiveness. Also, the hero espouses a pro-life view. He convinces his creator that all life, including artificial life, is sacred. The animation and voice acting in STITCH HEAD are engaging and well crafted. However, the facial movements are stiff and blocky. Also, the movie has moderate slapstick violence, occult elements and some potty humor. For example, the monster characters fall down mountains, run head-first through stone walls, and destroy various objects. STITCH HEAD is not scary except for youngest and most sensitive viewers. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
Content:
Strong moral worldview with light Christian, redemptive and occult elements, the protagonist treats human and monster characters with kindness and empathy, he develops a strong brotherly bond with his cyclops-themed monster brother Creature, the hero saves his monster family from impending doom, hero forgives his creator for negligence, a human girl rescues the monsters from peril, the townsfolk apologize to the monsters for almost destroying their castle, a pro-life message of the hero’s creator seeing the sacred value of all his artificial creations, a villain runs a circus of showcasing “weird” performers, and a light occult perspective with a mad scientist creating artificial life in his castle, but no magic or witchcraft is used;
No foul language, but there is some potty humor;
Strong slapstick violence throughout, but no blood or gore, title character gets his arm ripped off, characters fall from extreme heights to the ground (but no one gets seriously bruised), a cyclops-themed monster knocks himself off a mountain, the human and monster characters beat up and chase each other through a castle, a monster runs head-first through walls Wily-Coyote style, characters get electrocuted and smacked in the face, a circus tent is burnt to pieces, an angry mob barges into the castle with pitchforks, and an alligator monster eats a circus merchant;
No sexual content, but a cyclops-themed monster asks the hero about the “bird and the bees” in regards to creating monsters;
No nudity, but a female circus ringmaster wears a corset that reveals some cleavage;
No alcohol;
No smoking or drugs abuse; and,
A circus merchant preys upon a monster’s insecurities for his own profit, the same merchant withholds a fair share of wages to his employees, merchant lies to the townsfolk about the dangerous nature of the title character, and villain kidnaps a human girl.
More Detail:
Based on a novel by Guy Bass. STITCH HEAD is not an American movie but is best described as a European take on HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA. Both movies focus on monsters who yearn to be understood. Like those movies, STITCH HEAD relies on fast-paced slapstick humor, sarcasm and occasional cartoon scares. They aren’t “scary” in the conventional sense but aim to please both children and adults.
In terms of production values, STITCH HEAD is a mixed bag. The writing is competent, and the voice acting is good. The lighting quality and body movements are top-notch. However, the facial movements are stiff and blocky. The filmmakers take design inspiration from MONSTERS, INC. and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA. The result is that the monsters look derivative while the human characters are more hideous than the actual monsters. This leaves the art direction being more confused than Frankenstein’s monster.
STITCH HEAD has a strong moral worldview with occult elements. Stitch Head is kind and empathetic to his monstrous siblings, including his cyclops-themed brother Creature. There is no mention of God or Jesus, but the hero espouses a pro-life view. He convinces his creator that all life, including artificial life, is sacred. Later in the movie, a human girl befriends Stitch Head despite his “scary” reputation around the village. The monsters learn to overcome their fear of the humans and eventually co-exist with the humans. Yet, this isn’t the movie’s spookiest part.
The movie is free of foul language, blood and gore. However, it’s filled to the brim with slapstick violence. Characters, both monsters and humans, fall from the sky and get hit in a violent fashion. The monster characters fall down mountains, run head-first through stone walls, and destroy various objects. A human gets eaten alive by an alligator monster. The villain kidnaps a human girl, lies to the townsfolk, and cheats his employees out of fair wages.
STITCH HEAD is not “scary” in traditional ways. The monster characters are “cutesy” in their design. The subject matter of monsters finding affirmation in a positive manner is well-trodden territory in this genre. Of course, STITCH HEAD is aimed at older children and can’t risk being graphic. However, the G-rated movie MONSTERS, INC. was actually scary. That movie had legitimate jump scares and was not afraid to show the underbelly of corporate malfeasance. STITCH HEAD works well as a “comedy,” but fails to entertain fans of the horror genre.
STITCH HEAD is a surprisingly uplifting movie. It has a strong positive message on friendship, brotherly love, standing up against prejudice, and forgiveness. The animation and voice acting quality are well done. However, the movie has moderate slapstick violence and some potty humor. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.
