Disney's magic carpet ride

We are the Disney generation. Weaned on the classics and spoon-fed the spinoffs, we lived and died by the annual summer injection of fresh animania. We knew the songs, we loved the characters, and for a few golden, glorious years, Disney was King. Roundabout the birth of Pocahontas, something went wrong; Disney hit a slump. Did we grow up? Or did Disney change? A little of both, it seems. Disney is for kids, and it made the mistake of trying to grow up with its audience.

Sex and Disney--unlikely bedfellows? Not so fast. Oh, we've all been there: bored adolescents, fingers poised on 'pause,' perusing stacks of the old classics. Unlikely cloud formations and phallic architecture aside, early Disney is a study in subdued sexuality. Every heroine is shadowed by the ghost of a Lolita complex; but somewhere, somehow, things began to change. Heroines are now more Lara Croft than Sleeping Beauty; we're talking heaving bosoms, sultry eyes and lots of leg. The timid pretty-boys of animation past have beefed up, stripped down, and found attitude as well. And the innuendos are spectacular. Skeptical? Watch Tarzan with 20 friends and a case of Busch Light. These things have a way of coming out.

And there are more questions: What of language and violence, remaining twin pillars of the entertainment trinity? The standards that compel Disney adaptations to adhere so closely to literature, do they also grant Disney the creative license to bastardize classics with talking gargoyles?

These flicks are relatively harmless, but from their beheadings, hangings and mock executions to their occasional high-speed underwater spaceship firefight, we can't shake the feeling that Disney ought to ditch the drama and work on the little things. Like plot.

Props to Lilo and Stitch, however, for going back to the basics this summer. You've got your clichés--the broken family, the misunderstood heroine, the gentle, chiding morality. But Lilo has other elements in its favor: It's crazy, but coherent. Characters are proportionate, in personality and in appearance; dialogue is smart and snappy, but tasteful. Disney toys just a bit with the death-doom-and-destruction scenario--we suppose they couldn't resist--but keeps it light. Lilo isn't watered down; it's just intelligently made. What's next for Disney is anyone's guess, but if there's more Lilo and less Mulan in its future, this deposed despot of the animation underworld just might be clambering its way back to the top of the heap.