After two boy-oriented, budget-busting, hand-drawn disappointments (ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE/’01; TREASURE PLANET/’02), Disney regrouped for this modest delight, likely to stand as the last hand-drawn animated classic from the Mouse House. One of those projects where everything seems to go magically right without pressing too hard, it has the same feel of artistic refreshment seen last year in LUCA/’21. Here, writer/directors Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders shake things up right from the start with an elaborate half-reel Outer-Space prologue to introduce Stitch, a little monster who’s all ‘ID,’ and soon plummeting to Earth, specifically Hawaii, where tough tyke Lilo, orphaned/living precariously with older sister Nani, adopts what she thinks is a particularly obstreperous dog. A personality match. Trouble ensues; a family is formed. Loaded with bewitching local sights & sounds, costumes & customs, plus a ton of amusingly observed, convincing island flavor. (No one groomed to look like an Aryan model with a tan.) Considering how well this ended up doing (and what long commercial legs it’s shown), you have to wonder why Disney let so many projects well-suited to hand-drawn techniques get made largely in various CGI formats. Sad.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, LUCA/’21. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/07/luca-2021.html
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