With Lilo & Stitch, Disney continues a recent trend of releasing animated features quite different from its past successes. For most of the ‘90s, Disney efforts were G-rated musicals populated with a coming-of-age hero or heroine, an unscrupulous villain, and a vast array of comic-relief sidekicks. Then, in 2000, The Emperor's New Groove, an unapologetically zany comedy with four likeable major characters representing both good and evil, broke out of the mold. Atlantis, the Lost Empire, a relatively mature and violent adventure devoid of musical numbers, took an even different approach in 2001.

Lilo & Stitch appears at first to be another routine exploration of finding acceptance. But the difference is in the details. For example, the story takes place in Hawaii and features characters that haven't felt this non-Caucasian since Mulan. Its three major human players – Lilo, Nani, and David (voiced by Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, and Jason Scott Lee, respectively) – have large noses, dark skin, and refreshingly round-looking bodies. The story, about a lonely kid befriending an alien, could have taken place anywhere, and just a few years ago it probably would have been set blandly in white suburbia. Disney's colorful choice of locale here is decidedly welcome.

Reducing focus on the alien angle distinguishes Lilo & Stitch from its obvious predecessors E.T. and The Iron Giant. Those movies spent considerable time showing protagonists find ways to hide their other-worldly friends. Here, everyone mistakes Stitch (voice of screenwriter Chris Sanders) for a very ugly dog, thus eliminating the need for him to hide in closets or stow away in garages. This tale concentrates on Lilo's growing attachment to Stitch and Stitch's own discovery of an urge to care for another being. The movie downplays the alien angle even further when Stitch's extra-terrestrial pursuers don comical human disguises and fool the general populace, even though the creatures are still so obviously non-human.

By the time Lilo & Stitch reaches its frantic climax, the fact that a bunch of aliens have invaded Hawaii seems insignificant compared to the goals of evoking laughter from the audience and re-defining the word "family" for a young millennium. In this regard, Disney pulls off its most wily maneuver yet – using the tried-and-true formula of outcasts overcoming alienation to disintegrate the old-fashioned concept of the nuclear family. Nani plays older sister and acting mother to Lilo – and watching them in their scenes together is one of the highlights of the film. After pulling no punches in portraying a wickedly hilarious screaming match between the two, filmmakers go for the gut when showing their reconciliation. Later on, Stitch, who is programmed to be destructive, learns about the meaning of "family," and it’s not necessarily Dad-plus-Mom-plus-kids. The end of the movie emphasizes this point with photos depicting a family grown from two to a motley six – a group that doesn’t look like any family we’ve ever seen.

Lilo & Stitch offers other elements to help it stand out among Disney’s animated features. The mischievous youngsters are more realistic; the soundtrack boogies not to pop kings Phil Collins or Sting but to the hip-gyrating sounds of Elvis; and the humor, while effective and often wacky, is not sugar-coated. Lilo's actions are often mean-spirited in a little-kid kind of way, and Stitch at one point gets run over by a truck. With all this, plus its eye-popping colors and lazy tropical paradise sequences (during surfing scenes, I could swear I smelled sea air!), Disney's 2002 entry provides solid entertainment while making a bold and progressive statement about "family."

(Complete review at www.windowtothemovies.com)

Released by Walt Disney Pictures and rated "PG" for mild sci-fi action.