Rated PG for violence
Starring the voices of Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Ving Rhames
Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Story:
Experiment 626 (Sanders) is destined for banishmen due to his destructive behavior, but escapes to Earth instead. Meanwhile on Earth, Lilo (Chase) is having a hard time fitting in, being raised by her sister, Nani (Carrere) who faces the prospect of losing custody of Lilo by the new social worker, Mr. Bubbles (Rhames). Landing in Hawaii, he is adopted as a dog by Lilo and renamed Stitch. However, the galactic empire is coming to get Stitch back, dead or alive.
You know those critics that proclaim Frozen as the greatest film in a generation?
Let me offer up 2002's Lilo and Stitch as rebuttal.
Hogwash!
While this came after the Disney renaissance of The Little Mermaid-Lion King era, it more than stands on its own as one of Disney's best efforts at a time when every Pixar movie was a mega-hit and Disney was quickly becoming an afterthought.
Mixing several story modes at first might seem like a jumble, Sanders an DeBlois adeptly weave the tales of:
Galactic Prisoner Escape!
A Girl's First Pet
Custodial Issues
Despair Over Job Issues
Discovering Family
Into a charming, funny, and yes, sometimes even sad, tale that whisks the viewer into Lilo's world and holds you until the end.
Wisely, the movie was not a cutesy musical, but instead relied on Lilo's love of Elvis to provide musical narration for some classic comedy or cinematic narrative moments.
Also, the Hawaiian Roller Coaster original song during the surfing scene is a nice touch, again, a musical number without making the characters burst into song, nicely done.
The voice work is very well done, no distracting celebrity voice to possibly distract from the characters.
The great part about having kids of multiple ages, when you rediscover the good animated fare that you may not have seen for awhile as some of the kids have grown up and moved on.
Nice to see these two again after a few years!
Available for streaming on Netflix as of this writing.
Final Grade: A
Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I already own it, but I'm glad it's streaming, that's what got it back on the radar!
No comments:
Post a Comment