"Lilo & Stitch" is unlike any Disney cartoon you will ever see. Sure, there are plenty of critters, some song and dance numbers, and cute kids. And it is definitely aimed at youngsters.

But that's where the similarities between this and the Mouse House's other fluffy outings end.

One of the most daring things about the movie is the choice of characters. Lilo (Chase) is a disaffected Hawaiian girl, living with her overworked sister (Carrere) and having problems at school.

She dreams of stability, but instead she gets Stitch (Sanders), an inter-galactic genetic experiment.

Created for evil purposes, Stitch (or Experiment 626) has managed to escape a death sentence on his home planet and crash-landed on Earth.

Thinking he is some kind of mutt, lonely Lilo adopts him, but their relationship is far from typical Disney territory - it's spiky.

Stitch - who's mute for most of the movie - has been programmed with the natural instinct to maim everyone he comes into contact with, and this causes considerable mayhem.

As the unlikely pair try to appease the authorities who are trying to take Lilo into care and evade the alien hunters sent to assassinate Stitch, they come to love and respect each other. All without the customary ickiness of a Disney film.

With its unusual Hawaiian setting, use of unpleasant but not caricatured characters, and fantastic Elvis-led musical interludes, "Lilo & Stitch" is a genuinely original offering.

Touching, funny and strange, the film is a more than successful response to the increasing power of rival studios making creative films like "Shrek" and "Ice Age".