Featuring the voices of: Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, Kevin McDonald, David Ogden Stiers
Directors: Chris Sanders, Dean Deblois
Screenplay: Chris Sanders
Music: Alan Silvestri
U.S. Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
With the release of Lilo & Stitch, it's official: the "second Golden Age" of Disney animation, which began promisingly with 1989's The Little Mermaid, is over. Of course, some of Disney's recent efforts - Atlantis and The Emperor's New Groove come to mind - have been uneven, but they haven't been as lackluster as this movie. In terms of storytelling, voice characterization, and visual appeal, Lilo & Stitch seems more like a wannabe production than an actual Disney effort. Lilo & Stitch hails back to the Disney films of the late-'70s and early-'80s, when the craft and creativity had been leeched from the process, turning motion picture animation into an assembly-line approach.
Lilo & Stitch is easily Disney's worst animated feature since before The Black Cauldron (1985). Despite countless pop references and the occasionally witty line of dialogue, this movie cannot overcome an uninspired plot about friendship and family, nor can it avoid scenes of crass, clumsy manipulation. Admittedly, many animated features manipulate emotions, but the key is to do so with skill and grace - something that Lilo & Stitch is incapable of grasping. There are times when this movie does everything short of displaying a neon sign demanding "Cry!"
The movie opens on the distant planet of Tura, where a mad scientist named Jumba (David Ogden Stiers, the most frequent and consistent vocal contributor to Disney animated movies in the last decade) has violated the laws governing genetic experimentation by creating a little monster named Stitch (Chris Sanders). After being condemned to exile on a barren asteroid, Stitch escapes and instead crash-lands his craft on Earth (in particular, in Hawaii). There, he is mistaken for a strange puppy by a little girl, Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who adopts him from an animal shelter and brings her to the home she shares with her older sister, Nani (Tia Carrere). Since the death of their parents, Nani has been acting as Lilo's guardian, but the Department of Youth and Family Services, as represented by Mr. Bubbles (Ving Rhames), is not convinced of Nani's suitability for that position. The arrival of the mischievous Stitch, not to mention the aliens who appear with the intention of hunting him down and bringing him back, make Bubbles even more suspicious.
It's easy to view Lilo & Stitch as a low-rent E.T. The emotional core of the story, about the bonding of an alien creature with a human child, echoes Steven Spielberg's 1982 feature, even though Stitch is less benevolent than E.T. And, in this case, the objective is not for Stitch to go home, but to stay here. While it's good for a children's film to teach things like tolerance and the importance of family, Lilo & Stitch uses an approach that's close to sermonizing - overt and obvious, with every point repeatedly pounded home. Disney animated features from the early '90s managed to embrace themes without bludgeoning movie-goers with them. Lilo & Stitch's lack of subtlety won't bother many children, but it's sure to annoy a portion of the adult audience. Interestingly, the previews for Lilo & Stitch (which feature re-creations of scenes from other Disney movies with Stitch inserted) are more creative and more enjoyable than the actual movie.
Unlike many recent Disney movies, this one features no "A-list" actors. The biggest name is Ving Rhames. Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee are recognizable, but hardly big stars. None of the voices are memorable, with the possible exception of Rhames, who uses his menacing bass to good effect. Then again, this isn't a big drawback for Lilo & Stitch. Unlike some animated features, this one doesn't demand a colorful, larger-than-life vocal performances to succeed.
The animation is dismal. With static backgrounds that sometimes look like they were drawn with crayons, this movie represents a low point in Disney animation, occasionally resembling a high-budget Saturday morning cartoon. The studio's defense, I'm sure, is that this was an "artistic decision" on the part of the directors, but, regardless of the creative reasons underlying the choice to go forward with such a cheesy visual look, it makes Lilo & Stitch appear cheap and rushed. Even The Emperor's New Groove, not known for clean, well-detailed animation, is more polished.
Perhaps hand-drawn animation is dead, and the future of the medium lies in the computer-generated realm, which has given us two Toy Storys, Shrek, and Monsters Inc. (amongst others). Already this year, audiences have turned a blind eye to Spirit, which featured gorgeous animation but a weak story. Lilo & Stitch will not be the film to re-affirm the public's love for this kind of animation. There's no reason this form of cinema has to die - if only Disney and its rivals would go back to the drawing board and lavish the kind of care on their new projects that was evident for the likes of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. However, movies like Lilo & Stitch almost guarantee that audiences for traditional animated fare will continue to dwindle. This is product, not craft.
© 2002 James Berardinelli