Lilo and Stitch Review

Directed By: Dean Deblois, Chris Sanders.
Starring: Daveigh Chase, Jason Scott Lee, Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames, Chris Sanders, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald.

Synopsis: Walt Disney Pictures' new animated comedy, 'Lilo and Stitch,' tells a tale of a young girl's close encounter with the galaxy's most wanted extraterrestrial. Lilo is a lonely Hawaiian girl who adopts a small ugly 'dog,' whom she names Stitch. Stitch would be the perfect pet if he weren't in reality a genetic experiment who has escaped from an alien planet and crash-landed on Earth. Through her love, faith and unwavering belief in 'ohana' (the Hawaiian concept of family), Lilo helps unlock Stitch's heart and gives him the one thing he was never designed to have – the ability to care for someone else.

Disney, for the first time in my recollection of the last 15 years, has made a huge mistake with one of their films. Huge! And it's not the movie this time, it's the advertising campaign! Here they have a truly original, whacky and surprisingly heartfelt cartoon and they have pushed it as insipid summer filler until something bigger and better comes along! Look at all those exclamation points! I must be serious!

Lilo and Stitch is one of Disney's best films in a long time, full of insane humour, an oddly lovable and destructive creature called Stitch, a cute kid called Lilo who acts like a child who has no friends, even going so far as to punch a girl in the face. A true treasure of a moment...Lilo soaking little voodoo dolls of her friends in pickle brine while saying flatly...'My friends need to be punished.'

From the opening where it is determined that Stitch, a genetic experiment designed only for destruction, is to be terminated he is placed in a holding mechanism (hanging upside down no less) with guns that are trained to track his DNA. he slowly lets his saliva drip from his mouth to the floor and sucks it back up as guns track the saliva everywhere. This makes for a very entertaining escape sequence.

Stitch makes his way to earth and his first job is to threaten a frog with his three blasters...until he gets hit by two eighteen wheelers. Stitch is programmed to destroy cities, but he has crash landed on a small island in Hawaii and there is nothing to destroy...his whole purpose in life has been taken away, and he can not escape as he is surrounded by water, his major weakness and being hunted by his creator Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) and a snivelling little galactic council creature called Pleakley (Kevin McDonald). Both Stiers and McDonald provide great voice work here.

As does Ving Rhames for the social worker named Cobra Bubbles who keeps tabs on Nani (Tia Carrere) and Lilo (Daveigh Chase). Not all of the humour is for the kids here but there is enough to keep the parents and kids busy and watching for the running time.

A touch nasty at points but nothing kids won't see on regular television, and when it comes down to it, the whole family unit staying together message is, after all, what Disney is all about. I would cheerfully watch this film again and loved the fact that the backgrounds are watercolour. A return to some old style hand animation techniques mixed with some high tech computers ones gives this film a nice look...but it is the original storyline that really deserves the praise here. Disney went out on a limb this time, doing something new and daring and for me it worked in spades. Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders, the writers and directors of this effort should not only get raises (does Disney give raises?), but be allowed to develop another feature on their own.

Final ranking for Lilo and Stitch. 4.5 stars out of 5, although they should lose a point for such a bad marketing campaign, but I'm in a forgiving mood today.

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