Scene Selection — Geoff Carter: With ‘Stitch,’ Disney keeps animation reputation intact

Friday, Dec. 27, 2002 | 9:04 a.m.

Geoff Carter is a Seattle based free-lance film critic and entertainment writer. Reach him at carter@pre2k.com.

If 2002 hadn't also seen the release of Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," Walt Disney Pictures' "Lilo and Stitch" would be the best animated film of 2002. The two films are standing neck and alien neck, and are likely to remain that until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sorts them out. That is to say, unless the Academy gives the Oscar for Best Animated Film to "8 Crazy Nights," of course. If Roberto Begnini can win an Oscar, anything can happen.

"Lilo and Stitch," now available on DVD (Disney DVD, $29.99) is a fine example of our world of infinite possibilities. It wasn't Disney's prestige picture this year (the unfairly maligned "Treasure Planet," currently crashing in theaters, enjoys that dubious honor) yet grossed an astonishing $146 million in box office receipts this summer. That means repeat business, and adults seeing the picture without children in tow.

What did they see in "Stitch," those huddled masses? Probably what comes through so clearly on a television screen: a family home movie, albeit a family with a possibly dangerous beast posing as the family dog. Viewers can identify with "Stitch's" characters in a way uncommon to Disney films: theirs is a condition we don't have to aspire to. They're at our level already.

Lilo, her sister Nani, and family friend David have no special abilities or royal birthrights. Lilo (voiced by Daveigh Chase) feels lost and broken, and beats up her classmates when they turn their back on her; Nani (Tia Carrere) is struggling to keep a job, any job, to support Lilo while a social worker named Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames) watches her every move; David (Jason Scott Lee) just wants a date with Nani.

Into this fragile environment comes Stitch (voiced by director/writer Chris Sanders), a genetically modified alien warrior that just happens to be small, cute and Koala-like. Escaping captivity, he lands in Hawaii and poses as Lilo's pet dog to evade capture by his creator Jumba (David Ogden Steirs) and one-eyed Earth expert Pleakley (Kevin McDonald). Stitch was programmed to destroy everything he touches, but he likes Lilo, and tries to rein himself in.

Anyone who's seen Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro" will recognize where "Lilo and Stitch" is coming from: a place where the ordinary cannot survive without timely intervention from the extraordinary. It's a different film for Disney, yet remains rooted in the studio's traditions -- after all, Miyazaki is a Disney fan, too.

Most of the credit goes to Chris Sanders, who conceptualized the piece while working deep in Disney's animation department. This is his directorial debut -- in collaboration with Dean DuBlois -- and as the documentary extras on the DVD indicate, it won't be his last. Sanders is a creative dynamo: not only did he create the characters, but the film's friendly, rounded style of animation is based entirely on his drawings.

The thought that Disney may make more films like this one -- its most human picture in recent times -- is an exciting one.

"Lilo and Stitch" is every bit as enjoyable on your television as it was in theaters, and perhaps more so. At home, you'll be able to visit these friends as often as you like. For the benefit of Sanders and Disney's animation department, I hope the Academy is paying some long, quality visits.