Has all the elements, but is lacking something.

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2002)

I just got back from seeing this film and am once again disappointed in a Disney film. I just can't figure this one out. This is a cute story, has great characters, lots of action and takes care of some things that have been lacking in a LOT of Disney films-but I still left the theater without really caring about the characters.
I'm not going to reiterate the plot line. I'm sure you've heard it enough. Lilo is a very spunky little girl who is VERY lifelike in her attitudes and actions, still coping with her parents death. There are times in the film when you just want to pick her up and hold her, but there are other times where you just question why a girl as smart as she is is not more aware of her situation. All I've seen on her says she's 11, but my take is closer to 5-7.
Every time I saw Nonni on the screen, I really wanted to cheer! Finally an animated film with a realistic female body! Her hips are actually wider than her bust and she is proportional!!! Hallelujah, they are finally listening. (I think Odette's waist in the Swan Princess was something like 1/6 her bust). And I loved not only her interaction with her sister in similarities, but their fights as well.
Ving Rhames couldn't have been better as Cobra Bubbles. There are just some voices that are meant to be certain characters and this is his. (Think of the difference between John Goodman in The Emperor's New Groove as the peasant and Monster's as Sully).
The supporting characters of Jumbaa, Grand Counsel woman and Plinkley are good but they left me flat.
Stitch does an amazing transformation in his search for someplace to belong, and I cheered when he said he could be soft and fluffy, but again-I really didn't truly CARE.
There is no real quintisential Disney villian in this piece and I think that is truly lacking, but with the villians they've had lately, that may be an improvement.
I read a review that panned this film as too long and just not enough something. They felt it would be a great cartoon series. While I liked it well enough to see it at least one more time, I pray for the cartoon series. Now THAT is a vehicle with potential for this story.
On my Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh LD, there is a featurette in which they said that because America was unfamiliar with Winnie the Pooh in the early 60's, Walt decided to split the story into 3 pieces to give us time to get used to and fall in love with Edward Bear. It worked then and it is a shame that they weren't able to do something similar here.