Toronto

It's so refreshing to see Disney get away from that musical-fairy tale formula they've been sticking to since The Little Mermaid raked in the dough. And let's face it, everything post-Lion King has pretty much sucked:Pocahontas, Tarzan, Hercules (where Disney expressed its new lack of interest in good artwork) Atlantis was a nice departure and set the precedent for a new kind of Disney cartoon. Lilo & Stitch takes it further by giving us a wacky sci-fi tinged laughfest with an Elvis soundtrack instead of the tired Can You Feel The Love Tonight copy filled boredom. Lilo & Stitch is cute, it's charming, it's hilarious, it's almost entirely hand-drawn, and it's wonderful. There are jokes for everyone, and a few that need not be explained to the young ones (eg."Hey David, why does your breath always smell like a lawnmower? ") Lilo is adorable in a devilish sort of way, and Stitch is cute in much the same way as an untrained pitbull puppy is cute. The supporting characters are varied and quite a departure from what you are used to in a Disney cartoon. Lilo's sister Nani is loving and caring of her younger sibling, but sometimes her frustration borders on child abuse (incidentally, what is with her enormous legs?) Her friend David is a well-meaning, fire-breather who is a bit of a klutz but not ridiculously so. The two aliens sent to find Stitch are the usual Disney wacky characters, but they go a step further; one of them is an insane scientist, the other a cowardly cyclops with a penchant for women's clothing. All in all, it is a fun movie that I would not hesitate bringing a kid to. Any adult jokes are far too subtle for anyone under the age of 14 to grasp, and it presents a nice message on family values that is sorely lacking in today's world. It almost lost one point because of the earlier false advertising commercials depicting Stitch invading other Disney films. For months, I expected the movie to be like this. However, I will not hold it against the movie, but against the corporate scum that is the Walt Disney Corporation. They may sue everybody in sight, but they still know how to make the occasional gem.

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