Lilo & Stitch

"Oh, good! I was hoping to add theft, endangerment, and INSANITY to my list of things I did today!"

"Ha ha! You too?"

Dr. Jumba Jookiba (Stiers) is on trial with the Galactic Federation for illegal genetic experimentation.  His latest experiment, number 626, is

He is fire-proof, bullet-proof, and can think faster than super computer. He can see in the dark, and lift objects three thousand times his size. His only instinct... to destroy everything he touches!

The Grand Councilwoman (Caldwell) is not impressed and orders Jumba's imprisonment and 626's destruction.  However, 626 escapes and crashes on Hawaiian island of Kauai.  The Grand Councilwoman sends Jumba and Earth expert Pleakley (McDonald) to retrieve 626 without alerting the native population.

626 is taken to a dog shelter, where he is adopted by imaginative Lilo (Chase).  Lilo is being raised by her older sister Nani (Carrere) after the recent death of their parents.  Nani is being reviewed by their latest social worker, Cobra Bubbles (Rhames), who gives a 3 day window to get their lives in order.  Lilo is excited to have a pet and names him Stitch (Sanders), but she notices from the beginning that Stitch has a dark side: "This is your badness level. It's unusually high for someone your size. We have to fix that."

Can Lilo change Stitch or will his evil programming take over?


A sweet and emotional Disney film, that also has a lot of fun... here are 4 trailers that place Stitch in other Disney films (in fact, one of the posters for the film is classic Disney characters glaring at Stitch, "there's one in every family"), with entertaining results:

Everything about this film works.  There are beautiful watercolor backgrounds (according to IMDb.com, this was the first Disney film to use watercolor backgrounds since Dumbo) that make you want to pack a back and go to Hawaii.  The soundtrack is a combination of traditional Hawaiian songs and classic Elvis Presley songs.  The animators worked hard to perfect the hula style, while the actors worked on achieving the correct dialog / accent.  The cast are funny and perfectly suite to their roles, especially David Ogden Stiers, who once again voices a "bad guy."

The film was an outright success for Disney and spawned 3 sequels (Stitch the Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, and Leroy & Stitch) and a TV show (Lilo & Stitch: the Series).  Stitch is cute and cuddly with a funny voice and an expressive body... and Lilo is quirky and imaginative.  They are a great pair and the film is great.

Lilo & Stitch (2002) 85 minutes
Director: Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Starring: Daveigh Chase as Lilo
Chris Sanders as Stitch
Tia Carrere as Nani
David Ogden Stiers as Jumba
Kevin McDonald as Pleakley
Ving Rhames as Cobra Bubbles
Zoe Caldwell as Grand Councilwoman
Jason Scott Lee as David
Kevin Michael Richardson as Captain Gantu