Lilo and Stitch looked to me, through the last 8 years, to be a fairly basic movie with an odd little alien gremlin thing in it. So a Disney movie with a gremlin. Disney does make a lot of good movies, always has, but rarely are their movies very spectacular. This particular movie does unique visual style, and I did hear a lot of good things about it, but Disney is best at presentation so that didn't mean much.
My skepticism wasn't unfounded, but I should have seen it a long time ago. Lilo and Stitch is a "Very Good" movie. I would go so far as to say it is one of the best movies Disney has ever made. It does suffer from some of the problems inherent in being a Disney movie (enough sap to sting my cavities) but the film is still new enough and deep enough to stand on its own as a pretty brilliant flick. It has it's own style, a good starting point, but what really sells the movie is the sense of humor. It reminded me a little of The Iron Giant.
The humor is just the beginning and the end of what makes this a great movie. The characters which populate the environment are dynamic and engaging with some realistic problems to deal with. And they navigate these problems as they should. But despite being a little dismal in plot, Lilo and Stitch manages to tell the story in a very fun and engaging way. The plot is tightly woven with patterns that re-enforce each other but aren't just echos rebounding off of each other. The film is done an injustice by its ending, but it's hard to blame anyone for that. No one can get a good ending now-a-days, not even the famous Harry Potter (epilogues suck). But it ties up well enough that I am very disappointed there are sequels.
The final bow on this package is the music. Unfortunately, it is a little peripheral. No one bothered to integrate it, as music was in much older movies. But it makes a beautiful bow. It is worth unwrapping this package just to listen to it.
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