Works better than it should

Rating: 7/10 (25 October 2009)

Disney, the King of Film Animation. Well, it was at one point. Now Dreamworks is giving them a run for their money, but never mind. This is a Disney movie, although the film has taken its competitor's taste for the irreverent and mixed it with its own Disney heart.
Stitch is a monster created by the "mad scientist" Dr. Jumba (Disney animation regular David Ogden Stiers). But because such experimentation is illegal (and Stitch is engineered to be a complete menace), Jumba is arrested and Stitch is ordered into exile. But clever Stitch escapes to Earth, and Jumba and another alien, Pleakly (Kevin McDonald) are sent to bring him back. Meanwhile, Stitch gets adopted by a little girl named Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who after the death of her parents, is being raised by her older sister, Nani (Tia Careere). But while the inclusion of Stitch into the picture may have been made with good intentions, he may end up causing enough trouble to get Lilo taken away to an orphanage.
The voice actors are good. Daveigh Chase is excellent as the shy and awkward little girl. She wants friends, but she lacks the appropriate social skills (it doesn't help that the other girls treat her like crap). Tia Careere, whose career has been in a rut despite being in one of my all-time favorite movies ("True Lies"), is great as Nani. They may drive each other nuts, but Nani really cares about her sister. David Ogden Stiers is suitably kooky as Dr. Jumba, while Kevin McDonald equals him as the neurotic PETA-clone (some may find his vocalization annoying though).
The problem with the film is that we really come to care about Lilo and Nani. Any time Stitch wreaks havoc (which he frequently does), it is at the expense of Lilo and Nani's shaky stability. His hilarious chaos makes their life harder, and the movie struggles to find a balance between the two. Also, the animation is sub-par, especially when compared to the likes of the previous animated films Disney brought us.
That being said, "Lilo and Stitch" is still a lot of fun for the whole family.