Rating: 
Summary: Funny, bright, ditzy family entertainment
Review: 'Lilo and Stitch' is a lively, funny animated movie from Walt Disney Pictures. The animation is not done in the lavish style often associated with Disney. The movie has more of a Cartoon Network look to it. This visual mode fits perfectly with the delightful, ditzy and happily subversive story of an unhappy little Hawaiian girl who befriends an equally miserable creature from another planet. Stitch is banished from his home planet to a deserted asteroid for good reason - he's a mean little critter who was hatched in a test tube. Clever Stitch manages to escape to Earth, where he crash lands in Hawaii. The authorities from back home are in hot pursuit. While hiding out in a local dog shelter, he is adopted by the rebellious, maladjusted Lilo, who takes to him even though he's the ugliest dog ever. At first Stitch does everything he can to wreak havoc on his new owner, her sister and everyone else who comes near him. Over time, though, he and Lilo establish a bond based on their mutual loneliness, which, for Lilo, is caused by the recent loss of her parents and, for, Stitch, by the fact that he never had any. The movie covers familiar ground ' the importance of friendship, loyalty, etc., but it does so in a fun, spirited, and never preachy way. It's a movie that many adults will find entertaining because it's hip and doesn't ram the 'cute factor' down one's throat. Children will be delighted because the movie operates equally well on their level. 'Lilo and Stitch' is great family entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: Disarmingly charming deviant characters
Review: Lest you think that Lilo & Stitch is another fractured fairy-tale like that of Shrek from those uproarious trailers, the 2D animated feature from Disney is sparklingly original with its stridently deviant characters. Most Disney animation are adapted from popular fairy-tale classics but this movie boldly crafts out its central protagonist based on an idea by Chris Sanders. A Gremlin-like fuzzball created by Profesor Jumbo Jookiba from Planet Turo has escaped to Earth. Its programmed destructive nature may spell apocalyptic doom - so it's imperative that galatic cops bring them back. To escape their pursuit, the creature fatefully ends up as a lonely Hawaiian girl, Lilo's pet. They are kindred spirits. Lilo grips with her dysfunctional family and practises voodoo on her friends, segues into Elvis's songs when upset while Stitch is disillusioned without a family to begin with. Lilo's sister Nani (Tia Carrere) is just as lost with her fighting to impress a welfare officer (Ving Rhames) in order to keep her sister. It is the dynamics of the flawed duo that charges the movie with an disarming charm. Their differences makes them estranged and sadly vulnerable. Stitch constructs a model of San Francisco city and then mauls it to shambles like a raging Godzilla; Lilo bites when she is irritated by her friends. The underlying theme of "ohana" - family and love fuses with the subtle exploration of dysfunctional characters to flourish without oversentimentalism. Though the movie may stray a tad too cutesy and never on par with the dazzling mastery of Hiyao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, it is unequivocally Disney's best animation in years. Equally poignant and rambunctious, Lilo & Stitch's bright colours and imaginative characters is a scream when Stitch imitating Elvis should be enough to leave you in stitches.
Rating: 
Summary: What an incongruous bunch of ideas...
Review: Let's see...UFOs, Hawaii, and Elvis. Oh yeah, I see the connection now. It's all so obvious!
Never have I encountered such an incongruous bunch of elements thrown together on film. Who thought this up? Let me know so I can know what not to smoke.
In addition, Lilo is little spoiled brat; her sister is an abhorrent caretaker; and the little UFO guy is more scary than loveable. No thanks.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Disney Movie - Aloha!
Review: Unlike the usual Disney movie, Lilo and Stitch has seemingly broken the mold, of the Princess formula. 8 year old Lilo and her pet "dog" Stitch are certainly no Prince and Princess. The whole story is charming, as well as hilarious. Like any Disney Film you find some lessons to be learned as well. The visuals of Hawaii are lush and colorful watercolors which is a refreshing change from the computer animation that is seemingly taking over the genre. I would recommend this movie across the board to anyone young and old!
Rating:
Summary: Disney's Non-Pixar Comeback (and what a comeback it is!)
Review: In the past, Disney's animated films have been based around fairy tales, children's stories, and myths. This is why when in the beginning credits of Lilo & Stitch, it is fascinating to see that it is based on an IDEA; and what an idea it was. Lilo & Stitch is an adorable film, finely crafted with classic animation, humor, heart, and lovable characters. It tells the story of a little girl in Hawaii, her parents were killed in a car accident and she and her older sister are struggling to stay together against adverse conditions. She's a strange kid no doubt, a misfit with shades of nearly everyone's younger sibling in her. Stitch is the alien monster who escapes to earth, with others in hot pursuit, he is also the cutest and just plain coolest Disney character since who knows what. What follows is a thoroughly original concept, a story held together that will have everyone from small children to adults (and yes, even teenagers (not kidding)) laughing and crying. On some level everyone can relate, and the movie is nearly impossible to dislike, or even find annoying. Fabulous characters, beautiful watercolor backgrounds, traditional animation, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel everything that a movie should make you feel. Lilo and Stitch is nothing if not a triumph for the Disney studios....and one would hope that they continue such imaginative movies and give up on those god awful sequels. Yay! You will love this film!
Rating:
Summary: Timeless Classic
Review: I absolutely loved this movie. It harks back to the innocence of Snow White yet does not fade into a period piece that will fail time. Star Wars fans will get the boundless tie in jokes with the Galactic Federation and Stitch's escape; "He's gone up the ventilation shaft!" The Galactic Federation senate scene is done brilliantly. Stitch is not a typical, loveable Disney character - he is a menace to the galaxy who runs things his way. However, it is his personal journey through the eyes of the Ugly Duckling story and Lilo's "ohana" that he begins to change from Military Experiment into loving family member. As for Lilo, her struggle to fit in after the loss of her parents is equally real. She is cute without the treacle and unlike typical characters in her situation, continues to be a child in her approach to the larger world. One of the great things with the animation of Lilo is that she is not the beautiful and skinny, cute little girl from page 621 of the writers characterisation manual: she defies the normal by being normal. The best thing I loved about this movie was definitely the fact that it wasn't sweet, sappy and gooy. It was simply heart warming and innocent. A classic movie that I place up there with Aladdin, the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I loved Lilo and Stitch. It was the most adorable cartoon I've seen! The story idea was hilarious, and the way it was presented was equaly funny. Stisch is an adorable mischif maker created by Jumba, an evil genious with a Russian accent. The cast of characters was great. I also loved that the drawings in this movie were not Disny's usual perfect-figure drawings. It made the movie much warmer.
Rating:
Summary: OMG OMG I Luv Lilo & Stitch!!!111!!!!
Review: OMG OMG ITS THE BEST MOVIE EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!! OMG OMG BUY IT BUY IT!!!!! GANTU IS MY FAVORITE
Rating:
Summary: Disney's Non-Pixar Comeback (and what a comeback it is!)
Review: In the past, Disney's animated films have been based around fairy tales, children's stories, and myths. This is why when in the beginning credits of Lilo & Stitch, it is fascinating to see that it is based on an IDEA; and what an idea it was. Lilo & Stitch is an adorable film, finely crafted with classic animation, humor, heart, and lovable characters. It tells the story of a little girl in Hawaii, her parents were killed in a car accident and she and her older sister are struggling to stay together against adverse conditions. She's a strange kid no doubt, a misfit with shades of nearly everyone's younger sibling in her. Stitch is the alien monster who escapes to earth, with others in hot pursuit, he is also the cutest and just plain coolest Disney character since who knows what. What follows is a thoroughly original concept, a story held together that will have everyone from small children to adults (and yes, even teenagers (not kidding)) laughing and crying. On some level everyone can relate, and the movie is nearly impossible to dislike, or even find annoying. Fabulous characters, beautiful watercolor backgrounds, traditional animation, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel everything that a movie should make you feel. Lilo and Stitch is nothing if not a triumph for the Disney studios....and one would hope that they continue such imaginative movies and give up on those god awful sequels. Yay! You will love this film!
Rating:
Summary: PG-Rated Animation? Yes, but it works.
Review: When I saw this movie advertised as being "PG" rated, I couldn't understand why an animated film would labor under such a restriction. On the other hand, considering that almost every Disney animation has its scary bits (think the Wicked Witch in the studio's very first full-length animated feature, "Snow White"), maybe it's overdue. Stitch (so named by Lilo, the six-year-old Hawaiian girl who buys him from the State pound under the misapprehension that he's a dog) is really Experiment 626--an intelligent, all-but-invulnerable, six-limbed, blue-furred, keen-eared, grotesque-yet-loveable genetic construct designed as a living war machine (his creator, alien scientist Jumba Jookiba, says he will be inevitably "attracted to large cities"). Condemned to a prison asteroid by the Galactic Council, he escapes in a stolen police boat and ends up on Earth, hotly pursued by Jumba (paroled for the purpose) and a Council observer, the monocular Pleakley. Here he becomes a member of the "ohana" (family in Hawaiian) of Lilo and her big sister/guardian Nani, who are struggling to stay together despite interference from Social Services, while Lilo uses fantasy and acting-out to cope with the apparently very recent accidental death of their parents. Unable to leave the sisters' little island (his molecular structure is too dense to cope with water), and therefore thwarted in his need to find a "large city," he eventually bonds with Lilo (a touching scene occurs in her bedroom when she tells him about her parents and asks if he too has lost loved ones--"I hear you crying in your sleep," she says), and after a couple of hilariously failed attempts to be a "model citizen" on the order of Lilo's hero, Elvis, he redeems himself by rescuing her after his nemesis, Captain Gantu of the Galactic Space Navy (who resembles a giant whale on two legs), more or less inadvertantly kidnaps her. A delightful montage of "photographs" under the closing credits suggests that he and the sisters, with Nani's would-be boyfriend David, social worker and ex-CIA agent Cobra Bubbles, and the two exiled aliens, eventually form an "ohana," with holiday celebrations together, picnics on the beach, and even a trip to the Mainland to visit Graceland. Some of the aliens, like Jumba and Gantu, may scare the youngest kids, but probably not if they've already seen and enjoyed "Shrek" or "Monsters Inc." (Others are small and cuddly, resembling beloved stuffed animals.) One very positive alien is Madame President of the Council: though not human or conventionally female in appearance, she's referred to as "she" from the beginning, and may remind adult viewers of certain teachers from their past--strict, yet just. The sequence in which David and the girls introduce Stitch to the joys of surfing is particularly well done, and the pursuit of Gantu in his small spaceboat by Nani, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley in a bigger one, is full of thrills and thunderous background music. There are plentiful humorous bits, like Jumba and Pleakley's attempts to blend into the background and the denouement of Bubbles's past. I would personally have preferred more Hawaiian and original music in the score and less Elvis, but that's a personal quirk.
|
