Lilo & Stich

While its themes fit quite easily into the Disney canon, from a story perspective Lilo & Stitch was a major departure from your typical Disney film during the studio's more experimental period of the early 2000s. The film focuses on an escaped alien creation of mass destruction who finds acceptance and family on Earth. Renamed Stitch (Chris Sanders) by a lonely young Hawaiian girl named Lilo (Daveigh Chase) who mistakes him for a dog, the concept by co-writer/co-director Chris Sanders explores friendship and family through their unlikely pairing.

Separately, both Lilo and Stitch are both a bit of a mess. However, despite the destruction he causes (sometimes consciously, sometimes accidentally) Stitch's arrival brings Lilo and her older sister Nani (Tia Carrere) closer together as threats loom from agents of the United Galactic Federation sent to retrieve the intergalactic menace and from a disapproving social worker (Ving Rhames) concerned Nani may not be able to offer Lilo a stable enough environment after the death of their parents. And through his experiences with Lilo, Stitch learns more about life and love, growing into something more than his mad scientist creator (David Ogden Stiers) ever thought possible capable of understanding and desiring ʻohana.

'Ohana is certainly at the center of the wacky heartfelt story that also explores unconventional families (such as Nani attempting to raise her sister), the destructive pet your kids love without reservation, and a struggle with fitting in (for both Lilo and Stitch), all with a heaping of sci-fi elements including spaceships, lasers, and a variety of aliens. Oh, and there's surfing, a tie-in to the classic fairy tale The Ugly Duckling, and Elvis Presley as well.

Although, for a Disney film, Lilo & Stitch feels a bit like a fever dream complete with an Elvis Presley soundtrack, the film was immensely popular on release (spawning multiple direct-to-DVD sequels and TV-series) and certainly lived up to the early marketing playing on how different it was by having Stitch invade moments of other Disney films in a series of "Inter-Stitch-als." The new 4K release has some of the previously released DVD speical features and upgraded visual and audio compared to earlier releases.

Watch the Inter-Stich-als teasers

• Title: Lilo & Stitch
• IMDb: link