Lilo is a young Hawaiian girl who has no friends due to her erratic behaviour towards them, being raised by her sister Nani when they adopt Stitch which they believe is a dog but it just so happens it is actually an extra-terrestrial fugitive that accidentally crashed on earth.
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Within the first few minutes of the film I felt sorry for Lilo instantly, you can tell she was just trying to survive and cope with the death of her parents. Even though she probably doesn't even understand it herself. She is late for dancing class and the other girls think she is weird and crazy, this then pushes her to the edge and she hits and even bites one of the other girls. She just wanted to dance! Then leaving before her sister picked her up would create a tough situation when Cobra Bubbles turned up to Lilo being home alone and this runs the risk of Nani losing her young sister.
Stitch's story from space is that it was an illegal genetic experiment that went a little bit wrong and when he escapes and crashes on earth he finds Lilo. As it would turn out they both needed each other for the same reason, a sense of belonging and to be part of a family. Lilo teaches Stitch so many lessons without realising and when he begins to destroy things she starts to understand what she had been doing as well.
Considering I had never actually seen this film before and as it turns out I didn't actually have a clue what it was about. All I knew were the two title characters, nothing else at all. Which I guess after all of this time was quite impressive really.
The animation is lovely to look at and something I found really interesting was that it was the first Disney animated film to use watercolour painted backgrounds since Dumbo in 1941. I think that gives it a very different feel to other films, especially those released in the 2000s.
I found myself really enjoying parts of the film mainly Lilo and Nani's relationship and how that would be built up. I wasn't overly bothered about the aliens which considering that was half the story it left me feeling like I hadn't missed out on too much by having previously never watched the film before. It certainly had some very emotional moments as well, and I really liked the animation that is for sure! Therefore it will not be added to my favourites from Disney, but I can fully understand what people like and enjoy about this one.
I enjoyed the placement of the different Elvis Presley music and felt this was a lovely touch. It also made sense (eventually) why Gareth Gates released a cover of Suspicious Minds because that was on the credits from the UK version. I may or may not have been a total fangirl of his and even bought that song on CD. Lovely to see actual real photos of Elvis used as well, something a little bit different when it comes to animated films.
