3 stars (out of 4)

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2002)

When we meet Lilo, a little Hawaiian girl, she is swimming and body surfing in the ocean, which she loves so much that she's late for a rehearsal of a hula dance. Soon thereafter we learn that she lives with her older sister Nani (voice by Tia Carrere, who really is from Hawaii), and that they don't always get along. Furthermore, a social worker incongruously named Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames) is suggesting that Lilo be taken away from Nani unless things get better real soon.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the universe, we meet Experiment 626 (who is later named Stitch, and whose voice is by one of the two directors). 626's mad scientist creator, Dr. Jumba Jookiba (David Ogden Stiers) has been put on trial for creating 626, a creature designed to be very powerful, intelligent, and dangerous. 626 is sentenced to exile, but escapes. And from the title of the film and the previews, you know that he ends up in Hawaii with Lilo.
The animation here is very different from the computer generated films that are common these days, and more like the two dimensional animated films of years past. The backgrounds are often lovely watercolors, and most of the animation is also hand drawn from what I've read, although based on the credits there is also some computer animation.
This is also not your usual Disney animated film, although it was made by Disney. Both Lilo and Stitch have some pretty objectionable habits, and the jokes target many pop culture icons. I heard that the film was made with much less detailed committee supervision than would usually be the case at Disney, in exchange for (as I recall) a smaller budget.
The soundtrack is good, including Hawaiian music as well as a bountiful selection of Elvis Presley songs (six, I believe).
The biggest downside to the film is that the message is a little too precious, although this is not a big complaint, and I found it less obnoxious than "Ice Age" in this regard. The basic message is one of family, whether or not that family is a traditional one with a mother and a father, or a makeshift one as we see in Lilo, Nani, and Stitch. The Hawaiian word "ohana" is used, which means more or less the same thing as "family." This is timely for me since we just became members of the Hawaii International Film Festival's Ohana in preparation for attending their film festival in November.
This film is definitely recommended, even if you have no children. I originally gave it another half a star, so it's at the upper end of this rating. And I expect it to be a strong contender for the Academy Award for best animated film of 2002.
Seen on 8/16/2002.