I love, love this movie!

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 2012)

"Lilo & Stitch" is now 10 years old. It's hard to believe this movie came out in 2002. I loved this movie when it first came out, and I still love it even now. "Lilo & Stitch" is a cute little picture, but not so cute, really, that it treads sappy over-sentimentality territory. Quite simply, you won't find a simpler better animated feature from Disney in the early 21st century.
The story begins when the mad scientist Dr. Jumba (voice of David Ogden Stiers) goes on trial for illegally creating a dangerous extraterrestrial life-form, "Experiment 626" (voice of co-director Chris Sanders, who shares directing duties with Dean DeBlois). Jumba receives life imprisonment, while "Experiment 626" is to be exiled to another planet. As would be expected, the crafty, cunning little blue-skinned bugger that is "Experiment 626" masterminds an escape mid-flight, and manages to high-tail it in a space cruiser to Earth, where his ship crash-lands in the woods on the island of Hawaii.
The obnoxious and highly destructive little extraterrestrial is mistaken for a mutated dog and is later adopted by Lilo (voice of Daveigh Chase), a lonely, misunderstood young Hawaiian girl, who later renames "Experiment 626" as "Stitch." Lilo's living with her older sister Nani (voice of Tia Carrere), who is struggling to make ends meet to support them both in the aftermath of their parents' deaths in a devastating car accident. Pretty soon a little family is born - however marginalized - despite the interference of an imposing social worker, Cobra Bubbles (voice of Ving Rhames); and Jumba and alien-government bureaucrat Pleakly (voice of Kevin McDonald), who have been dispatched to Earth to retrieve Stitch at all costs.
I have to say "Lilo & Stitch" somehow feels different from other animated Disney features. Obviously, it's still very much aimed at a general family audience (kids), but it also feels very mature; I don't like being preached to by movies - especially kids movies - but "Lilo & Stitch" makes the case for family (however bizarre they may sometimes seem, especially when you throw alien fugitives in the mix) and not leaving one behind. We also get a little bit of culture-shock as well, since a great deal of time & effort is spent showcasing Hawaiian native cultures and tradition.
The movie itself is great to look at it, with its excellent use of water-based paintings mixed with minimal CGI. Lastly, Stitch is just so cute! I'm a guy, but Stitch is just crazy! Even though Dr. Jumba designed Stitch with only one purpose in life - to destroy anything and everything he comes into contact with - he soon realizes the truth about his own loneliness and isolation and how to come to terms with finding his own place in the universe.
This is a fantastic and original Disney animation. I loved it, and you'll love it, too!
10/10