"Will you please stay still?"
Always a bit of an oddity in the Disney canon, this warped take on E.T. is Disney's latest live-action re-mounting of one of its popular animated movies. It is a remarkably faithful recycling of the 2002 hit, re-telling the story of a young Hawaiian girl who 'adopts' a lively furry alien from the dog pound which - being designated a dangerous genetic experiment on its homeworld - is being pursued by its creator and a self-styled 'earth-expert' comic-relief duo in human form. The film offers a sunny surfing/island vibe along with a cheerful modern-Disney-style singalong soundtrack and a few Elvis numbers for good measure. With both the feisty young outsider Lilo and the mischievous Stitch providing identification points for the very-young target audience, the film offers a deft combination of gentle drama and rambunctious silliness that will appeal to the youngsters. The CG elements and sequences blend effortlessly with the live action, with a nicely-judged performance from Sydney Agudong as Lilo's older sister trying to hold the family together in an expanded role here, and the film has a fun streak of daftness perhaps a little lacking in most recent Disney offerings. The mayhem may get a little wearing over its unnecessarily-longer run-time, but the film has enough heart and chuckles to win through.
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