'Lilo & Stitch' is a treat for moviegoers of any age

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

LILO & STITCH (Rated PG for adult themes) Three Stars (Good) A witty animated adventure, about an outer-space creature who lands on Earth and befriends a friendless Hawaiian girl. Occasionally talky, but with moments of outrageous humor. Featuring the voices of Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. Walt Disney Pictures, 87 minutes.

In some ways, this film is like a hand-drawn version of "Monsters, Inc.," Disney's computer-animated hit from last year. In its opening sequences, co-writers and directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois imagine an alien planet with so many bizarrely funny species that you wonder how anyone procreates.

"Lilo & Stitch" begins with the revelation that, even on the Planet Turo, there are scientists tampering with the secrets of life. One of them, a balloonish-looking fellow with four eyes named Jumba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers), has created an experimental creature as a secret weapon. Though cute and cuddly, Experiment 626 is bulletproof, fireproof, incredibly smart and strong, with an instinct to destroy everything in its path.

The Grand Council orders the creature exiled to a desert asteroid, but 626 outwits its captors, steals a spaceship and zooms off to Earth. So Jumba, who has been jailed for his experiments, instead is offered his freedom to bring his creation back.

The creature lands on an island in Hawaii and, through unexpected circumstances, ends up in a pet shelter. Endlessly adaptable, it rids itself of two of its six legs in order to make itself less alien and more adoptable.

True to its instincts, it is chosen by a little girl named Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who appears to be about six and who lives with her teen-age sister, Nani (Tia Carrere). The pair are orphaned and trying to make it on their own. But they've come under the scrutiny of a social worker with the unlikely name of Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames).

Even as Bubbles considers placing Lilo in a foster home, Lilo — who has no friends — is trying desperately to bond with her new pet, whom she names Stitch. But it's tough because Stitch is such a thoughtless and destructive little devil.

"Lilo & Stitch" takes "The Ugly Duckling" as its subtext with its story of the misfit who finds the family that loves him. In the case of the laboratory-created Stitch, there is no actual family — but he finds himself becoming attached to the broken family of Lilo and Nani, whose code is "no one gets left behind — or forgotten."

Stitch is like the world's naughtiest child, but with super-powers and a sense of humor. His practical jokes, greed and nastiness are all given strong slapstick treatment that yields humor on the level of a good Road Runner cartoon.

Still, the writer-directors have no idea what to do with Bubbles, a great idea for a character who looks a lot like the real Rhames. But as much larger than life as Cobra is drawn — and voiced with dry wit by Rhames — he has very little that's truly funny (or, for that matter, interesting) to do.

On the other hand, more of the scientist Jumba and his persnickety sidekick, a one-eyed, three-legged Earth hobbyist named Pleakley, would have been welcome. Stiers, an old hand at Disney animation, brings sly enthusiasm to the venal scientist, while Kevin McDonald has the perfect geeky tone to his voice as the government official who has spent time studying Earth.

It's all drawn with an almost storybook look, with solid characters romping amid backdrops that have the gently harmonized feel of a watercolor wash.

"Lilo & Stitch" is fast-paced and funny, a treat for the eyes that occasionally gets bogged down in talk and has a plot that the youngest viewers might find hard to follow. Still, it's often warm and comical, a treat for moviegoers of any age.

Rated PG for adult themes.