My Review of "Lilo & Stitch (2002)"

Lilo & Stitch (2002) is probably one of my favorite Disney animated movies of all time. I was never one to like Disney animated movies in the first place. When this movie came out I was really skeptical even though it seemed as though Disney was making big changes in their direction. Now so many years later, I wanted to see if this movie is still as good as I remember.

The movie starts out with a trial. We have an alien named Jumba on trial. He is a mad scientist that created an alien later to be named Stitch. This whole trial is quite hilarious. It's all done in an innocent manner where everyone takes offence to the smallest things and even the bad guys don't seem that bad. Stitch is supposed to be created to be the most evil indestructible thing in the universe. Due to the dangers that he may cause, the aliens decide that he needs to be eliminated.

Stitch escapes their clutches with his superior intellect. Even this is quite funny because he's just doing simple things to out wit his high tech enemies. He escapes to Earth to an island in Hawaii. This is fortunate for the aliens because Stitch's weakness is water and it's such an isolated place. He won't be able to cause as much trouble as he would if he was in a big city.

Back in Hawaii we have Lilo who is a very young girl trying to navigate her complicated life with her older sister Nani. Lilo is troubled because she's got a fear of abandonment. Nani has issues because she wants Lilo in her life but she needs to have a job to support the family. Unfortunately for them, there's a children's services agent named Bubbles, who's always on Nani's back. Bubbles is constantly threatening to take Lilo away from Nani because it seems as though Nani can't keep the family afloat. This is further exasperated because Lilo unintentionally makes things worse all the time.

To hide from his alien captures Stitch pretends to be a dog. To help Lilo's loneliness Nani decides to go to the dog shelter to get Lilo a pet dog. The Lilo then meets Stitch and names him as such. Thus making Nani's life even more complicated and difficult. All in the most fun and hilarious ways.

First off the visuals are quite impressive. Even today these visuals are still some of the best I've seen from Disney. The art style of this movie is absolutely amazing. To add to this they have the Hawaiian sounds and music to really add to the mix and really give it some depth. They really knocked it out of the park with this one. Each and every one of the characters could be made into a plush toy and people would buy them like hotcakes.

Second, there's such an interesting element of storytelling to this movie. I liked the way where you add two chaos elements with Lilo and Stitch and you have absolute gold. Lilo's longing for companionship whereas Stitch didn't even know he was looking for companionship until Lilo and Nani teach him what that is. The friendship factor of even the enemies and who they pursue is quite different in this one than any other movie. No one inherently hates anyone in this movie. They all exist and they are all surprisingly mature enough to understand this. It's interesting because as a child sometimes this is how you think. As a movie it's talking to them with them in mind. I can go on and on about the interesting nuances between each of the characters in this movie. It's really quite special.

Then we have the fact that this movie feels more natural. Unlike traditional Disney movies, this movie feels modern and lived in. The characters feel multi dimensional and at times breaking the fourth wall. It's almost as if they know they're in a movie and know what kind of movie this is and we're all on some sort of improv ride.

There's so much about this movie that I really liked. It never takes itself seriously but just to the point where it feels natural to be like this in this world. It doesn't feel like it's dumbing down everything to you when really it is sometimes.

Overall, I really liked this movie and it stands the test of time. This is an all time classic and it is still one of my favorite Disney animated movies of all time. The visuals, the character work, the story, the relationship dynamics and the jokes. Everything works so well together and it blends into an all around great time. I have to give this movie a 9.5 out of 10. It is a movie I will always recommend and I think I'll rewatch this movie sooner than later.