Stitch Head

by Mike McGranaghan

The main character in Stitch Head has a noggin that resembles a baseball. He’s clearly been patched together from the remnants of other people. That’s a grotesque idea, although one likely to go over the heads of the young audience this animated feature is pitched at. For the most part, the movie goes for wacky humor, and it hits the target more often than not.

Voiced by Asa Butterfield, Stitch Head is the assistant to a mad scientist (Rob Brydon) who creates new forms of monsters. Those monsters are taught to be afraid of townspeople so that they never leave the castle. When a traveling sideshow operator named Fulbert Freakfinder passes through and finds out about the monsters, he visits the castle, gets a load of Stitch Head, and immediately offers him a job terrifying audiences. Feeling ignored by his boss, the timid assistant accepts. One of the scientist’s newest creations, the generically named Creature (Joel Fry), fears his friend will be killed by townspeople and launches a rescue mission.

The first thing you notice about the movie is its animation, which includes all sorts of visual references to the horror genre. Director Steve Hudson and his team have real affection for classic fright flicks; that affection is visible in every shot. The look and feel of, for example, James Whale’s Frankenstein is lovingly recreated in animation, then turned on its ear through the inclusion of humor. I laughed out loud when Creature, freaked out by his own monstrous nature, begins smashing through the castle’s walls as he tries to run away.

There are plenty of other funny sequences. All the material concerning Freakfinder’s show is gold, especially the parts where he teaches Stitch Head how to get the most hysterical reactions from ticket buyers. Creature and the other monsters often look comical, too. One is a centipede-like bug with faces on both ends, and another is a head inside a light bulb with tiny metal legs. Children and adults alike will find plenty to smile at during the film, thanks to both lowbrow and higher-brow jokes.

Stitch Head aims for a little heart toward the end, tossing in a theme about learning to appreciate the family you have. We’ve seen that before in animated fare, so it doesn’t necessarily make a huge impact. The message is nice enough, though, and it comes wrapped in a package that’s good-looking and filled with wit. In this case, that’s enough for a good time.

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