Movie Review: Lilo & Stitch

It’s a classic film that has become one of Disney’s most popular titles. Forget the princesses, forget the fairy tales or any of the new acquisition franchises, Lilo and Stitch beats them all. A film about love, loss and the importance of family, it has become my go-to film whenever I need to escape and feel, and is a story that is now simply my favourite.

Lilo and Stitch was released in June 2002 and tells the story of Experiment 626, a rogue creation of disgraced scientist, Dr Jumba Jookiba, who escapes to the Hawaiian archipelago, pursued by agents of the Galactic Alliance. There he meets Lilo, a lonely girl living with her sister, Nani, who is engaged in a precarious custody battle for her little sister. Lilo nicknames 626 ‘Stitch’  teaches him how to be a good citizen, with their friendship blossoming along the way, as the two realise they might be just what the other needs.

This film is genuinely my favourite film of all time. A childhood memory, my comfort film, one that makes me laugh, cry, feel and let go of everything else for 85 blissful minutes. I watch a young girl learn to express who she is; an intergalactic experiment learn how to live in brand new world; Nani work tirelessly out of love to protect her little sister; Jumba and Pleakley learn to become friends and guardians – it truly is a film that pulls at your heart strings like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

I also love the classic animated art style, a hand-drawn picture with soft watercolour-painted backgrounds, that is no less than a charming celebration of one of my favourite animation styles. It also does a great job at featuring & platforming Hawaiian locations, culture and language, most distinctly during Nani’s rendition of ‘Aloha ‘Oe’, a beautifully heartbreaking moment between sisters when their parting seems almost inevitable. The role of ‘ohana plays a core part in this story, and watching their ‘ohana being broken in this moment genuinely breaks me every single time.

Despite being a charmingly-animated kids movie, it does an incredible job at exploring so many difficult subjects and themes; in just an hour and a half, it explores the breakdown of friendship, loneliness, mental health, citizenship, parental death, abandonment, parentification, bullying, family, adoption and social services, and more. Yet its mastery is being able to weave this into an understandable and engaging story that broaches these issues with the youngest kids in a way that exposes them without becoming preachy. In the same way that Sesame Street is praised for tackling tough and complex subjects, Lilo and Stitch manages to weave reality with fiction with expertise and a measured approach that puts heart into its every word.

Ever since I first watched Lilo and Stitch on VHS over two decades ago, I have been in love with a beautiful story about a young girl facing the world, and a strange, lonely creature learning what it’s like to have a family. It is one of the most incredibly beautiful stories of all time. Seeing the popularity of Stitch as a character in recent years spur a renewed love of the film, and even a live-action adaptation, is like reliving a core part of my childhood once again. If you have not watched this film, grab your bestie, your sister, mum, grandmother or anyone else you love, and hold them close; ‘nobody gets left behind or forgotten’.

On June 16^th 2026, exactly 24 years after Lilo and Stitch was released, the world bade a heartbreaking goodbye to Daveigh Chase, the actress who voiced Lilo in this timeless classic, after her battle with AIDS. She may be gone, but the ‘ohana she helped to create will live on forever.

Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe E ke onaona noho i ka lipo One fond embrace A hoʻi aʻe au Until we meet again

Written by, Sophie Layton (she/her)