Nope, it's not simplicity at its best...

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 2002)

A sweet film that captures the feeling that anyone has the ability to change for the better through love, sharing, and bonding! It focuses on themes that are easily associated with everyday life. Sure, I'm fascinated with the way this film connects the themes to the Hawaiian 'ohana' concept.

Ohana, for any Hawaiian, means a group of people (closely and distantly related) who share nearly everything. Yep, sharing is the core of ohana value. Hawaiians believe that duties to 'ohana' will help them increase their mana (spirituality). The concept of `immediate family' is alien to native Hawaiians. I'm not sure whether the very young viewers will be able to grasp this association, but I'm convinced they would definitely grasp and enjoy watching the development of friendship between the environmental-conscious, little Lilo and the koala-gremlin like, extra-terrestrial Stitch.
Two characters who are so different in appearance, yet almost similar in behavior and traits. I've no doubt that it would tickle the young viewers to catch the mischievous behaviors of these characters on screen. Also, there's enough action and plenty of wacky and weird looking characters in this film to hold up their interest and attention. Young lads would most certainly applaud the sci-fi creativity. And there's nothing crude or terrifying to tempt contempt from their parents. This film has a fair amount of humor, but I'm not convinced that kids below the age of 5 would be able to recognize most of it. Overall, the movie is paced well and the length of the story is appropriate - even for the very young kiddies.
The artistic style of this movie pumps up memories of the traditional animated cartoon medium of Freddie Moore, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Eric Larson. But I wouldn't say it's simplicity at its best. The characters lack the charisma and color of those characters of Monsters, Inc. And the film does fall short of those lovely musical elements that have come to be so appealing with the modern-day Disney animated flicks. After all, the film's setting is Hawaii, and Hawaii is known to be an island of song, beauty and dance! However, I'm grateful for the familiar Queen Liliuokalani's composition `Aloha O'e.'
The voices of Tia Carrera and Jason Scott Lee succeed in giving their characters the Hawaiian credibility. But overall, the voices given to the majority of characters don't appear to energize the characters' personalities. Only Stitch's character is cool and pretty credible. an alien whose actions definitely speak louder than words. He is the character that truly brings out laughter from the children sitting around me!
Obviously, this film pays a great deal of homage to Elvis. Quite appropriate, I must say! How can fans of Elvis ever forget that The King had serenaded them with those unforgettable songs from his `Blue Hawaii' flick! Overall, it's a nice summer film to watch with the younger kids. But I doubt it's the sort of Disney movie the kids would be willing to watch over and over again.