Disney’s Stitch! The Movie

Disney’s Stitch! The Movie details the continuing friendship between Hawaiian girl Lilo (Daveigh Chase) and space creature Stitch (Chris Sanders), with the former, as the movie opens, attempting to help the latter blend into her close knit community of family and friends. Trouble ensues after recurring character Jumba Jookiba (David Ogden Stiers) is abducted by the nefarious Gantu (Kevin Michael Richardson), as Jumba’s 625 experiments have piqued the interest of a malevolent, rodent-like alien scientist named Dr. Hämsterviel (Jeff Bennett). From there, the narrative follows Lilo and Stitch as they embark on a daring rescue mission that also involves a mission to retrieve the aforementioned 625 experiments (which, naturally, have been stolen by Dr. Hämsterviel). It comes as no real surprise to discover that Disney’s Stitch! The Movie blatantly leads into the 2003 television series Lilo & Stitch: The Series, as the film suffers from an almost excessively low-rent and episodic feel that ensues the 57-minute running time feels much, much longer. The movie’s geared-solely-towards-kids approach is evident in virtually all of its attributes, with the frenetic pacing and abundance of over-the-top performances effectively perpetuating the bottom-of-the-barrel vibe – which is a shame, really, given that Lilo & Stitch remains a fairly affable (although completely minor) Disney effort.

* out of ****