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LILO AND STITCH

     LILO AND STITCH is, to date, the last major hand-drawn animated feature released by Disney.  (There were to be a few more hand-drawn features, but they hardly qualify as "major.")  If it's to be the last important work of its type before the technique is rendered obsolete by computers, they went out with a bang.  Visually, the film is perhaps the most detailed and lush-looking feature since Disney's Golden Era in the 1940s.  It's also the first film to use watercolor backgrounds since DUMBO in 1941, and gorgeous they are.  More importantly, LILO AND STITCH is one of Disney's all-time most quirky and original projects.  Its tale of a lonely, Elvis-worshiping little girl and her alien friend is both hilarious and poignant, without relying on sticky sentiment or audience-demographic considerations.  Young Daveigh Chase is outstanding as the voice of Lilo, when her scenes aren't being stolen by one-eyed Agent Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) or four-eyed Jumba Jukiba (David Ogden Stiers), the mad scientist (or, as he would say, "I prefer to be called 'evil genius.'").   - JL

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