Lilo & Stitch Movie Review

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

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Written by: Chris Sanders (idea), Chris Sanders &Dean DeBlois (written by)
Directed by: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders 
Starring: Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
A little girl adopts a dog that happens to be an alien, hunted by his creators.

Verdict
It tackles a mature story, a little girl on the brink of being taken by social services. It delivers laughs and touching moments alike when the little girl adopts a really ugly dog that is actually an alien hunted by its people.
Watch it.

Review
It's hard to blend serious themes, comedy, and drama, but Lilo & Stitch does it effortlessly.
It's self referential and dark for a children's movie. Lilo is a rambunctious child from a broken family and doesn't fit in . Stitch is an alien bred for war, an experiment gone wrong. Aliens are battling to reclaim the escaped Stitch, while keeping their existence a secret from humans.
The advanced aliens must keep Earth intact as they use it for a wild life preserve for mosquitoes. It's comical, but that joke comes back at the end and is even better.

Lilo & Stitch -Touching and sweet.

Lilo's sister is trying her best to make ends meet and provide an appropriate home life for Lilo, but a social worker is threatening to take Lilo away, and with good cause. The sister is trying to make it work and find a job, while trying to tame Lilo. It's not the typical animated prince and princesses story.
The social worker is atypical, and you wonder throughout the movie if there is more to him than we're told.
The jump from the humans seeing and then trusting that aliens exist was odd, but it works for a cartoon where humans believe an alien dressed as a woman passes for human without question.
The recurring theme of never leaving family behind leads to the climactic fight to save Lilo.

The ending is really well done, bringing the themes and even jokes from the very beginning back and making them even better. The movie's theme is that people or kids that are different aren't bad. The movie even references The Ugly Duckling. Sometimes fitting in is just about finding the right people.