Refreshingly different from the usual Disney fare

Rating: 7/10 (27 October 2002)

Lilo is an orphaned Hawaiian girl who is brought up alone by her elder sister. They adopt a dog, Stitch which unknown to them, is actually a mutant alien accidentally landed on Earth and has been designed to destroy everything it touches. Despite Stitch's genetic tendencies towards destruction, a bond forms between girl and alien while the scientist who created Stitch also arrives on Earth to capture him.
Lilo is an adorable but rebellious little girl who loves Elvis. Therefore, instead of characters bursting into song singing the usual Disney tunes, we get Elvis songs on the soundtrack which makes for a refreshing change. Stich is immediately unattractive, being a big-eared four armed monstrosity designed for destruction and creating havoc. Like with Warner Brothers' Tasmanian Devil, it is down to the animation and characterisation which up the cute factor and allow for the audience to warm towards the alien.
It seems like Disney have gone with the times, choosing to deal with the issue of a single parent family. In doing so, they keep the right balance of sensitivity and compassion in the relationship between the two sisters without being sickeningly sentimental.
As is often the case in animated features, part of the fun is to work out who the familiar voices belong to: Lilo's older sister Nani is played by Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee plays Nani's friend who offers her a shoulder to cry on (and probably wants the friendship to develop into something more!) Another character is the Ving Rhames-voiced social worker who oddly, is a big burly Man in Black type character.

Chaotic action towards the end of the film is a little bit of a let-down after the fun of the relationship between Lilo and Stitch and inevitably, the ending is a sentimental and happy one.
Overall, Lilo and Stitch' is good fun and will win over audiences both old and young through the story's originality and the characters' charm.