Ahh, hand-drawn animation. Sometimes you just want to settle in and enjoy the beauty of artists at work, who bring stories and characters to life with pencils and paints, and imbue them with a life that completely enraptures you.

Lilo & Stitch, the now classic and arguably iconic Disney film, does exactly that. It’s an incredibly fun film, has a fully realized universe in which it exists and features some fantastic Elvis Presley tunes.

We’re introduced to a galaxy of life beyond Earth, and a scientist, Jumba (David Ogden Stiers) and his illegal experiment, 626 (Chris Sanders). A highly intelligent, strong and occasionally very destructive creation.

Scheduled for termination, 626 makes an escape to a remote watery world known as… Earth. He crash lands in the Hawaiian islands.

It’s here that we are introduced to little Lilo (Daveigh Chase), who is a little lonely, outspoken, and delightfully eccentric. She lives with her older sister, Nani (Tia Carrere), who also has to pull double duty by trying to be Lilo’s mother as well as hold down a job to keep she and Lilo afloat, and out of the crosshairs of Social Services, who sends an imposing figure, Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames) to keep an eye on them. He may be more than he seems.

626 ends up getting hit by a truck and wakes up in a dog pound. That is convenient, because Nani and Lilo are off to get a dog, someone to keep Lilo company, and give her a friend. 626, being clever, sees the benefit of hiding out with Lilo and Nani, Jumba and Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) are after him. So he poses as a dog, and is named Stitch by Lilo.

As Lilo tries to teach and train her new ‘dog,’ she introduces Stitch to Elvis’ music, and this features a great sequence with Stitch as an Elvis impersonator. She also teaches him the importance of ohana or family.

And that will play out brilliantly across the film, as Stitch slowly becomes a member of the family, and works to avoid the alien forces coming to reclaim him.

Stitch isn’t the only one who wants to become a member of the family, so does David (Jason Scott Lee) who has fallen hard for Nani.

The art is gorgeous, the story is a lot of fun, and everything in this animated film still works.

This one got played a lot when I was working in video stores, but I never really paid attention, though I loved the music. So some twenty-odd years later, I finally saw it. And I absolutely feel this is a modern Disney classic.

This one was a joy to watch, and is already on my rewatch list.