Commentary on the comments and an overall review.

Rating: Null/10 (6 December 2002)

"Lilo & Stitch" was a good movie with positive values, and while I certainly don't fault anyone who sees it another way, I do have a few points to list in its defence.
1) The "adult" themes. Do we really have to shelter our children from the cold, hard facts of the real world? If anything, this movie opens up questions about real family problems that kids NEED to learn about. Where was Mr. Bubbles going to take Lilo? What happened to Nani and Lilo's family? Kids need to know that bad things can and do happen -- maybe they can glean understanding of the real world from the people they trust most: their parents. This film does little but expose children to the realistic view that sometimes, things really aren't so peachy after all. If parents think these ideas are too "mature" for their children, perhaps they should take a good long look at what kind of life expectations they're giving these kids. (I'm NOT saying we should be sitting three-year-olds down and telling them, sometimes kids get taken away from their mommies and daddies. There is an appropriate age for such revelations, but often it's quite earlier than parents seem to think.)
2) The "violence." This is a PG-rated movie. (For non-American viewers, most Disney movies are rated "G," which means "for general audiences" -- in most cases a family movie with little controversial elements in it. "PG" means "parental guidance," indicating that, though still likely appropriate for children, the movie does have some things that parents might not want younger children to see.) Yes, it's animated, but so was Princess Mononoke (a Japanese film released in the US around 1997), and it certainly wasn't a children's movie, now, was it? There are things in PG-rated movies that you wouldn't want your kids to see, and violence is one of them. ..Of course, then again, the violence was presented in a slapstick, Bugs Bunny kind of way, though original in its own right; there was absolutely no instance of gore or blood and the space-guns looked as though they were spewing Jell-O rather than some volatile substance. You'll find worse on afternoon children's programming, I can assure you.
3) "Inappropriateness." This isn't a movie simply for children. Granted, there are instances which may be inappropriate for young children who cannot yet understand the concept of foster care or death. But look at a lot of other recent animated films -- Don Bluth's "All Dogs Go to Heaven" springs to mind. I went to see this movie in the theatre when I was six years old and left with nary a CLUE of what had happened. I recently picked it up from the movie rental and found all sorts of hidden jokes, plot themes and circumstances which passed right over my head before. I can say comfortably that, had Lilo & Stitch come out in 1989, I would be rediscovering it in much the same way. The compex themes would suggest this movie be aimed at children at LEAST eight years old, but there is little harm in taking younger ones to see it.
4) Lilo's behaviour. Yes, Lilo was a brat. Yes, she had a good reason, and yes, she was acting like a normal child. Children go through all sorts of horrible things, and they react accordingly, often developing serious behavioural problems. Lilo's springs from her parents' death and her and her sister's, as another reviewer put it, inability to recover from this grief. A glance at the children on your own child's playground, even in the most upstanding of communities, presents an array of children, some with serious problems, even some children who are in trouble with the law or come from, god forbid, "broken families." If I may interject here with my own opinion of Lilo, it is that I liked her; it was refreshing to see a Disney child who wasn't an upstanding citizen like the children from The Rescuers duo, Pinnochio, The Jungle Book, and the various animal children from movies like The Lion King, Bambi, and The Aristocats. Lilo acted like a real child. (Kudos to "Treasure Planet" for its portrayal of Jim as a juvenile "delinquent" as well.)
In conclusion, Disney has gone a great way and provided a film that, despite its science fiction backings, is quite a bit more real than other classics it's thrown our way. True, there are instances that might be considered "mushy," and there are instances that might baffle or frighten younger children, but overall there is very little cushion between the audience and the raw facts of Lilo's situation.