Suprisingly moving.

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2004)

It's hard to say what this movie is: A crazy sci-fi story, or a serious family drama, or both? The trailers showed it as one, big, crazed sci-fi epic, but I was amazed at how much this movie touched me. Opening at an intergalactic tribunal over
Jumba Jookiba, an alien scientist jailed for creating a living weapon of mass destruction, and developing into a high-speed star-trek type chase as the
experiment escapes to Earth, the movie segues into the introduction of a little Hawaiian girl named Lilo, who is clearly not a typical five or six year old. She makes sacrifices to a fish she believes controls the weather, reads books about voodoo, posts pictures of obese tourists on her walls, and adores Elvis, and her older sister is clearly struggling to raise a child like her since the death of their parents. The relationship between the two sisters is handled remarkably well, and is a welcome change in a Disney movie. Having the writers drop "Stitch,"
the destructively deranged alien experiment into this family seems like too big of a risk. But the story's appeal does not come from the comedy of this family
dealing with Stitch's antics, but from the effect the family has on Stitch. He is very much like the Frankenstein monster, knowing he is unnaturally created, and
feeling he lacks what the rest of the world has, and doubtful, knowing he is built to destroy, that he can fit in. His lonely night scene, in which he cries into the night "I'm lost," is just as moving as any scene from Dumbo, Bambi, or Mary
Poppins. Chris Sanders, writer and director for the movie, makes Stitch a
remarkably sympathetic character, aside from the physical and verbal comedy,
in which his voice is the joke as much as Donald Duck's. David Odgen Stiers,
under Eastern European accent, does the honors for Jumba, while Kevin
MacDonald, imitating Jerry Lewis' vocal styles, is a hilarious Pleakley, the erratic expert on Earth. Also excellent is Ving Rhames as the Man-in-Black turned
Social Worker, "Cobra" Bubbles, going back to his "Pulp Fiction" stylings. The real credit, however, goes to Daveigh Chase for her in depth, eccentrically
innocent portrayal of Lilo. Finally, the film's Hawaiian setting is well done, helping to break away from the stereotypes that have existed for years. The
rendition of "Aloha Oe," which has become a hoaky Hawaiian stereotype for
years, reminds us that it is a song of goodbye. The watercolor backgrounds give the movie a delightful old-fashioned feel, contrasting almost comically with the new-age themes. Do the two stories mix well? Does the movie move too quickly
from scene to scene? Who cares! Don't think about that while you watch, and
this movie will capture your heart! Movies that do that don't have to make sense all the time.