Much of the movie is pure art, with stylised action scenes flowing smoothly and mood just about oozing out of the screen. Combine that with traditional anime-hybrid characters and you have a beautiful piece of work that is a pleasure to watch.
Of course, the younger target audience is not interested in art while beauty does not make for good merchandising opportunities. The movie also offers a sickly-sweet family-orientated plot that is made tolerable only by the most endearing character Disney has yet to create.
Stitch is a little blue alien created as a weapon by a mad scientist engaged in illegal genetic manipulation. Yup, it seems the Galactic Federation has sorted out the ethics of genetic tampering and the creator is promptly thrown in jail while his greatest work is banished to a far-off asteroid.
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 Director: Chris Sanders & Dean Deblois
Cast: With the voices of Daveigh Chase, Christopher Michael Sander, Tia Carrere
Classification: A
Running time: 85 minutes
Mischievous alien Stitch teams up with Earth girl Lilo and causes mayhem in a family with enough trouble of its own. Battles are fought, hearts are won and Disney gets its most endearing character to date.
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But Stitch is smart, strong and nearly indestructible despite being extremely cute. He promptly escapes and makes his way to Earth, programmed to find large cities, block sewers, reverse street signs and steel everybody's left shoes. You get the idea; the little fellow is made for mischief and really enjoys it.
Instead he gets stuck on a small Hawaiian island with no cities to disrupt and has to take on a cover identity as the dog of Lilo, a little girl every bit as unruly as he is. The poor thing (if you don't love him by this time you don't have a heart) has to make do with building a scale model of San Francisco and doing a Godzilla on it. When he is not doing Elvis impersonations, that is.
What follows is standard Disney fare – love conquers the savage beast, the little bit of good in the worst of people comes to the fore and family values are punted no end. Despite this the last third of the movie manages to be just as entertaining as the first third with thrills and spills only possible in an animated world.
Lilo & Stitch may not melt your jaded heart and revive your faith in all that is good, but it certainly will revive your faith in hand-drawn animation and is very entertaining to boot. It is witty, pretty, and well paced.
Take the kids to see this one, or borrow the neighbours' children if you feel you need an excuse to watch it. But be warned that you'll be spending money on plush toys and picture books for a long time to come.
