Barnes & Noble

Disney has never before unleashed an animated character like the helium-voiced Stitch, which makes Lilo & Stitch the most refreshingly out-of-this-world film from the House of Mouse in quite a while. Filled with anarchic humor and stuffed to the pelvis with Elvis Presley songs, it tells the heartwarming story of an extraterrestrial science experiment gone awry, leaving chaos and destruction in its wake. All this occurs in Hawaii, to boot, where Stitch proves to be the answer to one lonely girl's prayers. Lilo, a young girl, lives with her loving but overwhelmed older sister, Nani (voiced by Tia Carrere). Lonely Lilo is something of an outcast, with a passion for the King and a penchant for mischief. "Send me the nicest angel you have," she wishes upon a star. What she gets is Stitch, a.k.a. Experiment 626, who escapes his creators and crash-lands on our planet. His maker, Jumba (David Odgen Stiers), and a supposed Earth expert, Pleakley (Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall), are dispatched to retrieve him. But Lilo finds him first in a dog pound and adopts him. Her ill-fated attempts to tame the creature come at a time when a menacing social worker (Ving Rhames) gives Nani only three days to shape up the family's untidy life or lose custody of Lilo. What "Hakuna Matata" was to The Lion King, "ohana" is to Lilo & Stitch. It means "family," and to Nani and Lilo, that means "nobody gets left behind or forgotten." As much as it subverts the time-honored Disney formula, Lilo & Stitch is refreshingly old school. For the first time since Dumbo, the animators used watercolors for the backgrounds. One of the most enjoyable Disney animated features in recent years, it rivals Aladdin, Hercules, and the surprise hit The Emperor's New Groove for sheer fun. The DVD edition will have you all shook up with music videos of Elvis classics (performed by the A*Teens and Wynonna), deleted scenes, and those hilarious commercials in which Stitch wreaks havoc on such Disney icons as Ariel and Belle and the Beast. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

A lonely little girl makes a very unusual friend -- a ukulele-playing alien who likes to toss around small automobiles -- in this antic animated comedy from Walt Disney Studios. Lilo (voice of Daveigh Chase) is a young Hawaiian girl being raised by her teenaged sister Nani (voice of Tia Carrere) after the unexpected death of their parents in an auto accident. While Nani tries to hold their household together, Lilo is a child with unusual interests and a distinctive sense of humor, which makes it hard for her to bond with her peers, as well as her big sister. Nani decides Lilo might be happier if she had a pet, so the sisters go to the animal shelter to adopt a dog; however, the critter which catches Lilo's fancy is a fuzzy blue creature she names Stitch (voice of Chris Sanders). Nani isn't so sure Stitch is really a dog, and it turns out she's right; Stitch is actually "Genetic Experiment 626," a mutation created by extraterrestrial mad scientist Dr. Jumba (voice of David Ogden Stiers) to be used a weapon. Stitch is an intelligent but gleefully destructive little creature with superhuman strength who has escaped to Earth and crash-landed in the Hawaiian islands, but Lilo sees him simply as a fellow misfit and attempts to teach him to behave like her favorite American icon, Elvis Presley. Meanwhile, Nani struggles to keep Lilo and Stitch on their best behavior as stern social worker Cobra Bubbles (voice of Ving Rhames) tries to determine if Nani is fit to raise a child, while Dr. Jumba and Pleakley (voice of Kevin McDonald) attempt to capture "Experiment 626" and bring him back home. Chris Sanders, who provides the voice of Stitch, also co-wrote and co-directed the film, which features numerous Elvis Presley tunes on the soundtrack, as well as a new recording of "Burning Love" by country star Wynonna. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936165142
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Vistavision (1.66:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Español, Français
• Time: 1:25:00

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