I liked Tarzan, but there hasn’t been a truly great Disney animated film that didn’t come from Pixar since The Lion King.  That changes today.

Lilo & Stitch is a great little film.  And like Shrek and Toy Story (1 & 2) and The Lion King, it’s not the form that makes the film great.  It’s the story… the humanity… the real emotional truth of the film. 

Even more exciting, Lilo & Stitch suggests that Disney has once again caught up with today’s world.  Make no mistake, the film has all the earmarks of old fashioned Disneyana... watercolor backgrounds,  lots of 2-D animation, Elvis Presley songs and a cute anthropomorphized star.  But what is stunning about Lilo & Stitch is the very unDisney-like subtext.

The film manages to accurately show Hawaiian physicality as different than typical Disney characters, yet beautiful in its own way.  The one non-Hawaiian human, a character of intelligence and power, is black.  And women rule this film, never embracing the classic Disney stereotype of the weak female that needs to be saved and the evil witch who envies the young beauty of the heroine.  More importantly, the film doesn’t call attention to its choice.  Which is not to say that it is P.C.  It’s not insensitive, but it never seems to compromise character for reality. 

But the major leap for Disney is that Lilo & Stitch is centered around a broken family and it says this throughout the film, quite literally. Disney animation has always been based in the world of fairy tales, where evil breaks up families and heroes - usually the youngest children in the family - fight for the truth. (Hamlet... by Disney... coming soon... ha ha ha!)  In Lilo & Stitch, Disney for the first time speaks to the cultural phenomena of this generation, the healthy broken family.  In this case, the parents are dead, killed in an auto accident, and the elder sister (Nani) takes care of the younger sister (Lilo) in the family home.  And throughout the movie, they cobble together a makeshift family... a surfer dude friend, Lilo's teachers and ultimately, this dangerous alien whose only salvation is love.  (My guess is that the movie idea sprouted from a viewing of the Karloff’s Frankenstein and someone wondering, "What if Frankenstein didn't drown the girl by mistake and actually went to live with her and her family?")

In Disney's vaunted history, it has always been lost people – mostly women - finding family, but then using that family to find "the perfect love," which will allow them to create their own new family.  For the first time, Disney tells kids that it is okay to love the ones you are with... as much as Lilo misses her parents, she can find joy and understanding and deep familial love somewhere else... life and love go on...

But I’m making it sound like Lilo & Stitch is a heavy experience.  It’s not.  It’s a joy.  Lilo is a firebrand, passionate about her freedom, her power and about the people she loves.  Her sister is a real young woman of today, ready to fight to keep her family together.  In the meantime, they have fun.  They are alive.  They dance, they fight, the sing, they fight some more. 

Stitch comes into their lives because he is one of them.  They don’t know that he has been created to be the ultimate destructive force in the universe.  But Lilo identifies Stitch’s surprisingly charming aggression from the start.  And as tough as she is, she is willing to give a lot for this "animal" that she loves… really, for anyone she loves. 

The story is simple.  Experiment 626 is on trial.  In one of the best twists on Disney tradition, the female leader of the intergalactic counsel is tough, but is willing to encourage and support any life form that shows the slightest hint of good.  But 626 shows none.   He proves it by escaping the planet and heading, by happenstance to earth, where Lilo lives.  They meet, they bond and slowly, the newly named Stitch finds a reason to think of someone other than himself… familial love.   In pursuit of 626 is a variety of intergalactic odd balls, including a sexual ambiguous bean head, voice by Kids in the Hall’s Kevin McDonald.  

As regular readers know, I don’t like to get into story too much… you should experience the ebb and flow of the storytelling on your own.   Needless to say, the twists keep coming, including one movie-world joke that I should have seen coming an hour away and that is never explained… let’s just say that it’s appropriate to this very summer.  (Keep in mind that critics who write about this film as a reaction to Shrek – or who write about any animated film as a year-later reaction to another film – are goofballs.  You can add a current beat here or there.  But you are looking at a film that stated production four years ago.  Animation is one of the few areas of the industry that are pure in that regard… there is no way to really catch the wave of a trend fast enough.)

I really enjoyed this movie… even more than I expected.  My nephew and niece already had tickets for this weekend when we saw the screening last Saturday… and they couldn’t wait to see it again.  Me either.

THE TOMS:  A few readers pointed out that I didn’t write much about Tom or Tom in yesterday’s reviews of Minority Report and The Road to Perdition.  A similar question came up when I reviewed Spider-Man. The answer is simple.  Both actors are excellent.  Both fit their parts.  Both are real movie stars.  But both carry the film more than stand out as extra special elements of the film… I already expect a lot of both men.  This may be Hanks’ most quiet and restrained performance and Cruise plays more fear than I think I’ve ever seen him play before. 

EMBARGO NOTE:  Just for the record, I got clearance from Fox to run the Minority Report review yesterday, so there was no embargo breakage.  As one prominent member of the internet community pointed out, there is rarely a reprisal against anyone for breaking an embargo with a positive review.  But that wasn’t the point.  There needs to be a serious examination of what we all expect from one another in an era where real change gas changed, on the web and off.

BOX OFFICE:  When was the last time two films that grossed over $200 million opened on the same weekend?  I’m not sure that it’s ever happened.  But it’s happening this weekend.  Between Minority Report, Lilo & Stitch and Juwanna Mann, look for around $100 million from the openers. 

MORE CANDY:  Julie Salamon has written an updated forward to her book about the ugliness that was Bonfire of the Vanities.  It was an interesting enough read for the New York Times to run it as a story.  And it’s interesting enough for me to send you to read it here.

ALL ABOUT DICK:  Slate’s David Edelstein takes a Times out to take a look at the work of Phillip K. Dick, the progenitor of Minority Report, Total Recall, Blade Runner and more.  Well done, David.  (Click here.)

THREATENING ROGER:  I’m not sure what Film Threat has against Roger Ebert, but they decided to go after him for admitting that he just can’t get behind Scooby Doo… he’s not of the Scooby generation and he didn’t think the film worked as a non-fan.  But isn’t that exactly what am honest critic should do when confronted with a disconnect?  It’s not just a generational issue.  As a critic, you walk into the theater every time with a certain number of preset biases.  If you know they are influencing your review, your duty to your readers is to admit as much.  Even if I agreed with Film Threat’s take on Ebert, I think that trying to put him down for being the age that he is and saying that he is best known “for popularizing the simplified binary review system – thumbs up/thumbs down” is cheap enough to call for Ebert to stick his Pulitzer Prize where the sun don’t shine on Film Threat.  (You can read the Film Threat story here–  

READER OF THE DAY:  Upchuck wites:  “We are currently casting for Chinese and African people of all ages to be extras in Tomb Raider 2, filming in the UK this summer. If you or someone you know would be interested, please send us photographs and contact details as soon as possible marked for the attention of Chuck to the addresses below! 2020 Casting, Hopgood Street, London W12 7JU   Email: chuck@2020casting.com

E ME:  What does it take to get you into a Disney film?   Tell me about everything you see this weekend!!!  Does Minority Report live up to the THB hype?  Do you wanna, man?  Get it off your chest!