LILO & STITCH - DVD review

I've mentioned in the past that I'm generally immune to the charms of animated films, but the last few years have been especially fruitful for the feature-length cartoon, and 2002's "Lilo & Stitch" joins such esteemed colleagues as "Shrek," "Monster's Inc.," and "Ice Age" in getting and keeping my attention. "Lilo & Stitch" may not display all the originality or humor of the aforementioned cartoons, but it's got almost as much charm and enchantment. If you're an adult with no children, I'm betting you'll find it a safe rental; if you've got kids, it's a must buy.

Oddly, I didn't start out liking the picture. The opening sequence, set in a faraway galaxy, looked rather ordinary in its animation, the simple line drawings conjuring up little magic for me and the alien characters looking like retreads from the cantina scene in "Star Wars." What's more, I could see at a glance exactly where the story line was going and how the film would end up from my first few minutes of watching it. It wasn't until the story moved to Earth that both the animation style and the characterizations picked up. From that point on, it didn't matter that the plot was predictable. The landscape was so lush and beautifully rendered and the action so involving that I was caught up in the movie, anyway.

I'd have to describe "Lilo & Stitch" as a lovable sci-fi adventure, and I hope that doesn't scare away too many older viewers. The animation has enough visual delights to keep most any age group interested, and the sentiments expressed, corny or not, are honest and heartfelt.

Things begin in a distant star cluster where a mad scientist ("I prefer to be called 'Evil Genius'"), Dr. Jumba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers), is on trial for creating the first of a new species of super creatures, Experiment 626. The pint-sized critter looks like a four-armed Tasmanian devil, and he's plenty mean. He's been engineered to be bulletproof and fireproof and to think faster than a supercomputer. Furthermore, he can see in the dark and move objects 3,000 times his size. Trouble is, his only instinct is to destroy everything he touches, so the advanced civilization to which Dr. Jumba belongs wants the monster terminated and Dr. Jumba penalized for his wrongdoing. The result of the trial is that the creature is to be banished to a deserted asteroid and Dr. Jumba imprisoned.

But nothing is easy. Aboard a spaceship on his way to the asteroid, the creature escapes and finds his way to the remote planet Earth, landing in the Hawaiian Islands. Dr. Jumba, with the assistance of an agent named Pleakley (Kevin McDonald), is asked to bring the creature back in exchange for his freedom.

Quick cut to Hawaii and a cute little girl named Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who turns out to be not your typical, innocent little Disney girl full of sweetness and light. She's a bright, gutsy, fully independent little girl, whose attitude and unusual behavior (voodoo is one of her hobbies) don't exactly put her in good stead with her peers. As a result, she has no close friends. Plus, she has no parents and is living with an older sister and guardian, Nani (Tia Carrere), possibly the sexiest female character the Disney studios have ever offered up in one of their children's tales.

As you may have guessed, Lilo finds the alien creature (who has wound up in an animal shelter after being run over by a truck and is now disguising himself as a particularly malign-looking dog) and takes it home as a pet, naming it Stitch. They're a perfect pair, and it's hard to tell who's the tougher of the two. Figuring this is as good a ruse as any to avoid capture by Jumba, Stitch goes along with the gag. From then on it's a race to see whether Jumba is going to find Stitch, whether Stitch is going to learn to be nice from his association with nice people (what do you think?), and whether a social services officer, Mr. Bubbles (Ving Rhames, voicing a character who looks just like him), is going to take Lilo away from Nani. "Did you ever kill anyone?" Lilo asks him. Throw in Nani's friend, David (Jason Scott Lee), and yet another alien from Stitch's world looking to find Stitch before Jumba and Pleakley get to him, and you've got a fairly complex narrative for a Disney story.

There are a number of cute touches throughout the film. For instance, the aliens view Earth as a worthless hunk of real estate and consider destroying the whole place in order to eliminate Stitch, but Pleakley reminds them the planet is being used to rebuild an endangered species, the mosquito, which feeds off the native humans. The human race is necessary for the survival of the mosquito; wonderful. Or when Jumba and Pleakley disguise themselves as a human couple and it's commented that Pleakley's head looks swollen: "Actually, she's just ugly," responds Jumba. Or when Lilo finds Stitch helpful in playing phonograph records, using one of his claws for a needle and his mouth for an amplifier.

Most enticing of all, though, are the background paintings for the movie, luxuriant in their pastel shadings and watercolor textures. An island paradise is made all the more paradisiacal and sublime by these supremely attractive backdrops. Then, there's an appealing musical score composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri that incorporates new Hawaiian-inspired numbers and old Elvis songs. The tunes include "He Mele No Lilo" and "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride," performed by Mark Keali'i Ho'Omalu, and "Burning Love" performed by Wynonna.

Finally, there's the message. No full-length Disney cartoon can be without its message, which I quote: "Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten." As I said earlier, the movie is corny but effective.

Video:
Regarding the video, the box blurb is too modest. It claims a screen ratio of 1.66:1 when, in fact, the screen dimensions are wider than that, measuring approximately 1.74:1 across a normal television and enhanced for widescreen playback. The THX-mastered picture itself is as perfect as I imagine it could be, the colors bright, transparent, or muted as necessary, the transfer clean and clear, the definition sharp and vivid. This is a lovely animated feature to look at, although it doesn't show its true lights until Stitch arrives in Hawaii.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sonics are almost as impressive as the video. Bass is quite deep as evidenced from the very opening notes of the film, and the five-channel sound separation is extraordinarily effective. The soundtrack contains all kinds of stuff appropriate to a children's adventure, with things like spaceships flying around the room, waves washing over the listening area, and voices coming from all the speakers individually. What's more, there is a good left-to-right stereo spread in the front channels and good overall dynamics. The music is extraordinarily well projected by the audio reproduction, the three main tunes sounding crisp and wide.

Extras:
There are quite a few small extras on this disc, some of them aimed at kids, some of them at adults, but most of them aimed at promoting the film. The first in order of appearance on the Bonus Features menu is a DisneyPedia item: "Hawaii--The Islands of Aloha." Then there's a "Create Your Own Alien Experiment" game, which children may enjoy. There follows a series of featurettes, lasting from a couple of minutes to almost nineteen minutes. They are "A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years," three minutes watching Stitch performing in other Disney classics; a three-minute "Hula Lesson"; two minutes on the "Young Voices of Hawaii," about the children's choir used in the background vocals; "The Look of Lilo & Stitch," four minutes of early designs and pitches; "Animating the Hula," three minutes, self explanatory; and "On Location with the Directors," nineteen minutes of comments by directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Then, there are three deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes segment with singer Wynonna recording "Burning Love"; a music video, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You," by the A-Teens; a THX Optimizer series of audiovisual tests; Sneak Peeks at ten other Disney titles; thirty scene selections; and four theatrical teaser trailers that again put Stitch into other, famous Disney cartoons. English, French, and Spanish are the spoken language choices, with English captions for the hearing impaired.

Of passing note, an annoying aspect of Disney DVDs that lives on is having to work your way to the Main Menu by bypassing various ads, trailers, and promotional items with an additional button press. In fairness, it's no longer like the old days when you had to keep clicking on "forward" a half dozen times to get through the promos; but it still seems engineered to steer children to the advertisements before getting them to the main feature.

Parting Thoughts:
OK, so back again to the movie, and what do you mean by asking if Stitch learns the meaning of love and compassion and belonging and sharing and family and togetherness? "Lilo & Stitch" is a sentimental children's fable, after all. Of course, we can see the whole thing coming, but with its good humor, quick pace, deft direction, and beautiful art work, the film is a pleasure to sit through.

Admittedly, the film goes into the "cute-and-sweet" category of recommendable animated features rather than attaining true classic status like "Snow White," "Pinocchio," "Beauty and the Beast," or "The Lion King." But, still and all, "Lilo & Stitch" is an entertaining and wholly uplifting film that deserves to be seen, probably more than once, by every member of the family.