"We begin the flick in the headquarters of the Galactic federation, where the Grand Councilwoman (sketched by Jim Jackson voiced by Zoe Caldwell) is passing judgement on Jumba (Ian White & David Ogden Stiers), the evil mad scientist, and his latest (Alex Kupershmidt & Chris Sanders).

"Having been found guilty of the crime of existence, the creation is sent to an isolated asteroid, but being the perfect killing machine, he escapes, taking a hyperspace vehicle to the obscure planet we happen to live on.

"Meanwhile, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a screwed up little orphan named Lilo (Andreas Deja & Daveigh Chase) is having a bad day. She�s late for dance class and gets into a fight with another kid. When told to wait for her sister and guardian Nani (Stephane Sainte Foi &Tia Carrere) to pick her up, she just heads off home. Nani isn�t the ideal 'mother.' It�s quite clear that while the two love each other dearly, they don�t like each other all that much.

"To make things worse, the Hawaiian department of social services is sending the scariest social worker in the entire state, one Cobra Bubbles (Byron Howard & Ving Rhames) to take the situation in hand and possibly send Lilo to a foster home.

"A perfect time for the creature from outer space to crash the spaceship nearby.

"The monster finds it�s way to an animal shelter, where the next day Lilo and Nani are looking for a dog. She names him 'Stitch.'

"The gags work to a point. The problem is that when Stitch isn�t in the picture, this is actually a pretty deep 'indie-type' drama. The characters are fully realized and pretty sympathetic.

"The aliens are all cartoon characters [Piglet from Winnie the Pooh is an officer on one of the starships, or at least one of the characters looks like him], and they act like it. The problem is that they don�t mesh as well as they could. But they come pretty close. The story is effecting. The characters grow and so do the conflicts. Jumba has been given a pardon in exchange for finding Stitch and finds him surprisingly quick. Between that, Nani�s quest for employment and the problems with the Department of social services, this makes for one of the more mature films of the Disney oauve.

"The film is lots of fun and the climax surprisingly exiting. See it."