Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Voices: Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Zoe Caldwell
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois

Rating: PG

Studio: Disney

Review Posted: 7.31.02

Spoilers: Minor

Rating: 3/4

By Mike McLarney.

"Lilo and Stitch" caters to the mischievous side of kids, which I believe is the best side. I'm guessing that's the side that never fully burns out as children mature. A sense of awe and wonder, parental neediness; those things at some point start to dissipate, but I'm willing to wager that a desire for mischief has a bit longer shelf life.

The animated tale opens on a distant galaxy, where a renegade four-eyed inventor (I mean, literally four-eyed) named Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) has gone ahead without authorization and created the extra-terrestrial equivalent of the Tazmanian Devil. The creation is named Experiment 626, and is designed to devour anything in its way. Offended at the mere sight of it, the Grand Councilwoman (Zoe Caldwell) orders that it be banished from the galaxy, and its inventor imprisoned. However, the savvy little bugger escapes via a mini space cruiser, and rockets light years away to another galaxy ... ours. The little creature crash lands in Hawaii, about to embark on a whole new adventure.

Meanwhile, a delightfully mischievous young lass named Lilo (Daveigh Chase) is having trouble fitting into her surroundings. Marching to the beat of her own drummer, she gets provoked into fights with ease, spends long hours locked in her room with Elvis records at full volume, and consistently finds the quickest route to her older sister's bad side. The two live alone, we learn. The older sister, Nani (Tia Carrere) works long hours doing menial tasks to make enough money for survival. As if their lives weren't stressful enough, Nani is now being evaluated by a member of child services: a behemoth bouncer-type named Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames). The last thing they need is another distraction...

So of course, the little alien inevitably enters the scene. Their paths meet when Lilo is granted permission to adopt a dog. The creature, after a rather painful introduction to a truck, is discovered and tossed into the pound, as the locals assume it's an unusual breed of pup. (One running sight gag has the other dogs convinced it's not one of them as they tremble incessantly at the other end of the cage.) Lilo, though, is sold on it. Believing she has finally found a soul mate of sorts, the young girl names it Stitch and ushers it home, where humorous havoc will no doubt be wreaked.

Being an adult (more or less), I wasn't sure how I'd react to the character of Stitch. Would it be funny, or just annoying? Fortunately, I was won over almost immediately, as writers/directors Chris Sanders and Dean Deblois incorporate terrific comic bits to display both Stitch's propensity for mischief as well as its ingenuity in trying to escape. (There's a neat little number where Stitch is held captive beneath a laser that automatically senses its body heat. So what does Stitch do? Naturally, it spits at the nearby guard, causing the laser to alter its aim.) A tender side soon emerges in the little blue alien, as it learns more about family; it soon feels a sense of displacement. (A touching moment comes when Stitch, after learning the story of the Ugly Duckling, wanders out to the middle of the woods, perches itself atop a little rock, and softly cries out: "I'm lost..." hoping its family will emerge from the shadows.)

The idea of familial loss and rebirth certainly isn't new to Disney animation, yet I was still impressed that Sanders and Deblois explored it as fully as they did. The relationship between Lilo and Nani is handled with surprising honesty, while still leaving room for very funny bits of humor when Stitch enters the scene. There's also a fun "space chase" at the end as the aliens come to retrieve their experiment. Rather than hiring songwriters to concoct new (and quite possibly forgettable) songs for the sound track, the filmmakers selected a few Elvis songs instead, giving the movie a kind of added spunk.

The sentimental arc of the story might seem a bit familiar, but the film has an energy that outweighs the familiarity. I had a lot of fun watching "Lilo and Stitch." It doesn't go for a sense of awe that new computer animated movies do, but instead aims for a part of our inner child that should be catered to from time to time. Of course, bear in mind that these comments aren't coming from a parent.

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