Lilo and Stitch (2002) review

(9/10)

It has been ages since I've last seen this Disney movie, and I remember I loved it then. Now, I love it even more, for it explores sensitive ground touchingly while still creating an action-packed and unique story.

PLOT:Young Lilo (Daveigh Chase) lives with her sister, Nani (Tia Carrere), now that her parents have died in a car accident. She's the odd one out among her peers and just wants to fit in without fighting with them or her sister, who is constantly on-the-watch by their assigned social worker, Mr. Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames). Lilo's prayers for a friend are answered when a blue, convicted, destruction-loving alien (posing as a dog) comes along for Lilo to adopt into her home; she names this "dog" Stitch (Chris Sanders). However, his convicted creator, Jumba (David Ogden Stiers), and alien Earth-specialist, Pleakley (Kevin McDonald), go on a journey to go and capture Stitch. Stitch is a very destructive alien, but through love from his new family, he might just warm up to be an ideal being. It's a really good plot executed excellently.



VOICES:The voice acting in here is very great, and all done by famous cartoon actors and good newcomers. The best performances would have to have been done by Chris Sanders as Stitch and Kevin McDonald as Pleakley. These two voice their parts so well that it matches comically as well as entertainingly. There really wasn't a bad voice in this movie, but the other shiners I'd like to mention would be Tia Carrere as Nani, Daveigh Chase as Lilo, Ving Rhames as Cobra Bubbles, David Ogden Stiers as Jumba, and Jason Scott Lee as David.

SCORE:The soundtrack here is very diverse and kind of relaxing in a way. The score is made up of some dramatic score by Alan Silvestri, some Hawaiian songs by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu, and classic rock by Elvis Presley. It's a very wide variety done all very well, especially the Hawaiian score, which was bright and relaxing to me.

ANIMATION:The animation in here wasn't too special, but it was still done very well. The creative animation of the aliens and the beautiful animation of the waves worked together very well and were overall very precise.



OTHER CONTENT:This is definitely a new idea brought to the Disney canon. This movie brings something fresh and new to the Disney canon (for the time being, I mean) while still keeping the sentimental feeling of warmth the classic Disney films have given in the past. I also liked how they touched upon the idea of keeping a broken family alive while shedding some unforseen light into the reality of it. It's overall a very action-packed, uniquely new, relaxing at times, and heartwarming film. However, some of the new style isn't welcome into the Disney canon and, when put all together, seems a bit cheesy because of how it tries itself to fit in. Either way, this is still a really good Disney film and it deserved the Oscar-nom it got the year of its release.

OVERALL,an awesome Disney film with a unique plot, very great voice acting, diverse and relaxing score, well-working animation, a new change to the Disney canon, and a good look at a realistic family idea, but some of the tonal shifts within the film make it come off as cheesy.