Draft:Lilo&Stich

Stitch, who was designed to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses Lilo to avoid recapture by an intergalactic federation. They develop a close bond through the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, or extended family, causing Stitch to reconsider his intended destructive purpose in order to keep his newfound family together.

The film is based on an idea by Sanders, who originally conceived Stitch in 1985, and the film's design and aesthetics are based on his personal art style. Stitch was initially at the center of a children's book Sanders had conceptualized, but later abandoned. A feature-length film starring the character entered development in 1997 when Thomas Schumacher, then the president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, approached Sanders with the objective of "producing the Dumbo for our generation." The use of watercolor backgrounds hearkened back to early Disney productions such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The film and its accompanying soundtrack made extensive use of the music of Elvis Presley, while Alan Silvestri composed the film's score.

Lilo & Stitch premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 16, 2002, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 21. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, humor, charm, and originality. Produced on an $80 million budget and promoted with a marketing campaign that played up its oddities, it was a box-office success, grossing over $273 million worldwide. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards but lost to Spirited Away.[6][7] The film's success made it a highlight of Disney's post-animation renaissance era in the 2000s, spawning a franchise that includes three direct-to-video film sequels and three television series. A live-action adaptation is set to be released in 2025.

Plot On planet Turo, the United Galactic Federation convicts scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba of illegal genetic experimentation; he has created Experiment 626, an aggressive and near-indestructible creature with great learning capabilities. 626 is sentenced to exile on a desert asteroid, but he escapes and hijacks a space cruiser that crash-lands on Kauaʻi, Hawaii, on the planet Earth. Shortly after landing on Earth, 626 is hit by three passing trucks and taken to an animal shelter. The Federation's Grand Councilwoman offers Jumba an early release if he retrieves 626 with the assistance of the council's Earth expert, Agent Pleakley.

On Kauaʻi, orphaned teenager Nani Pelekai struggles to take care of her lonely, rambunctious younger sister, Lilo, following their parents' death in a car crash. Social worker Cobra Bubbles doubts Nani can be an adequate guardian for Lilo and threatens to place Lilo in foster care if the Pelekais' situation fails to improve. After overhearing Lilo wishing to have a friend, Nani brings her to the animal shelter to adopt a dog. Lilo adopts 626, who is impersonating a dog, and names him "Stitch". That night, Stitch causes chaos at the lūʻau where Nani works while trying to avoid capture by Jumba and Pleakley. Nani's boss blames Nani for the chaos, and she is fired. The news of Nani's unemployment reaches Bubbles, who orders Nani to find a new job and tells Lilo to teach Stitch to be a "model citizen".

Despite Lilo's attempts to domesticate Stitch, his antics repeatedly ruin Nani's efforts to find a new job. While Nani, Lilo, and Stitch go surfing with Nani's former co-worker and friend David, Jumba and Pleakley again attempt to capture Stitch and unintentionally drag Lilo underwater in the process. David rescues Lilo and Stitch, but Bubbles, having observed the mishap, tells Nani he will retrieve Lilo the following morning. Feeling guilty for causing so much trouble, Stitch runs away. The Grand Councilwoman fires Jumba and Pleakley and tasks her second-in-command, Captain Gantu, with capturing Stitch, while Jumba begins hunting Stitch using less covert methods. When David informs Nani of another job opportunity, Nani leaves Lilo at home alone. Jumba and Pleakley chase Stitch back to the Pelekais' house. The ensuing fight between Jumba and Stitch culminates in an explosion that destroys the house.

Nani gets the job but frantically returns home after seeing a fire engine driving toward her house. Bubbles arrives to retrieve Lilo. While Bubbles and Nani argue about Lilo's well-being, Lilo runs away into the woods and encounters Stitch, who reveals his alien identity just moments before Gantu captures them both. Stitch manages to escape just as Gantu's ship takes off. Nani confronts Stitch, but Jumba and Pleakley immediately capture him. Nani asks them to save Lilo, but they insist they only have legal authority to capture Stitch. After Nani bursts into tears, Stitch remembers ʻohana, a term for "family" he learned from Lilo, and convinces Jumba to help rescue her. Jumba, Pleakley, Stitch, and Nani board Jumba's spaceship, pursue Gantu and rescue Lilo.

The Grand Councilwoman arrives to retrieve Stitch herself. She fires Gantu for endangering Lilo and failing to capture Stitch. However, after observing Stitch's civilized behavior and being informed that Lilo legally owns Stitch because she bought him at the animal shelter, the Grand Councilwoman decrees that Stitch will live out his exile on Earth and that the Pelekai family has the protection of the United Galactic Federation. Bubbles reveals he is a former CIA agent who had previously met the Grand Councilwoman in Roswell, New Mexico in 1973. Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley, having joined Lilo and Nani's family, rebuild their house with David and Bubbles' help.

Voice cast Main article: List of Lilo & Stitch characters Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai, an eccentric young Hawaiian girl on the island of Kauaʻi who adopts Stitch as her pet dog. Chris Sanders[b] as Stitch, also known as Experiment 626, a blue koala-like illegal genetic experiment with the ability to create untold chaos. Tia Carrere as Nani Pelekai, Lilo's older sister and legal guardian. Jason Scott Lee as David Kawena, Nani's hapless surfer boyfriend. David Ogden Stiers as Dr. Jumba Jookiba, a Kweltikwan mad scientist employed by Galaxy Defense Industries who created Stitch. Kevin McDonald as Agent Pleakley, a Plorgonarian Galactic Federation agent who acts as the expert of Earth. Ving Rhames as Cobra Bubbles, a social worker in charge of Lilo's welfare and Nani's duties as her guardian. Kevin Michael Richardson as Captain Gantu, the respected but arrogant Shaelik second-in-command of the Galactic Federation. Zoe Caldwell as the Grand Councilwoman, the Grey leader of the Galactic Federation. Miranda Paige Walls as Mertle Edmonds, Lilo's classmate from their hālau hula who despises and derides her. Kunewa Mook as Moses Puloki, Lilo's hula teacher. Amy Hill as Mrs. Hasagawa, an elderly woman who runs a fruit stand. Susan Hegarty as Rescue Lady, who runs the animal shelter where Lilo adopts Stitch. Production Development

A 1985 concept sketch of Stitch by the character's creator Chris Sanders In 1985, after graduating from California Institute of the Arts, Chris Sanders had created the character of Stitch for an unsuccessful children's book pitch.[8] He said, "I wanted to do a children's book about this little creature that lived in a forest. It was a bit of a monster with no real explanation as to where it came from." But he found it difficult to condense the story and abandoned the project.[9] In 1987, Walt Disney Feature Animation hired him for their newly formed visual development department. His first project was The Rescuers Down Under (1990), but he soon transitioned into storyboarding.[10] After that, Sanders storyboarded sequences for Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994), and was promoted to Head of Story on Mulan (1998).[11]

In 1997, several executives at Disney Feature Animation were invited to a retreat at Michael Eisner's farm in Vermont to discuss the future animation slate beyond adapting preexisting legends, folklore or classic novels.[12] At the retreat, Thomas Schumacher, then executive vice president of Disney Feature Animation, suggested they produce a film that would be the "Dumbo for our generation", compared to the large-budget Disney animated features they had already done.[8] Schumacher approached Sanders about producing the film, telling him: "Everybody wants this next film to be you."[9]

During a karaoke dinner at the Walt Disney World Swan Resort, Schumacher asked Sanders, "Is there anything you would like to develop?" Sanders remembered the children's book project he had initially developed.[13] At his next meeting, Sanders pitched a remote, non-urban location, with Stitch crash-landing into a forest and interacting entirely with woodland animals, being ostracized by them, and living on his own at a farm in rural Kansas.[14] But Schumacher suggested that Stitch should interact with people instead: "The animal world is already alien to us. So, if you wanna get the best contrast between this monster and the place where it lives, I would recommend you set it in a human world."[13][15][16] Sanders would eventually, albeit inadvertently, revisit his idea of a creature bonding with animals in a forest years later with The Wild Robot (2024).[17]

For three straight days in his Palm Springs, Florida hotel room, Sanders created a 29-page pitch book drawing conceptual sketches and outlining the film's general story.[13] He initially revised it by adding a boy character.[18] But as the character of Stitch evolved, Sanders decided he needed to be contrasted with a female character: "I think Stitch represented a male character so the balance would be to put him with a little girl. We wanted someone who was going to be in conflict with Stitch, and we realized a little boy might be a comrade."[19] Sanders then glanced at a map of Hawaii on his wall, and recalling he had recently vacationed there, he relocated the story there.[8] Not well versed in Hawaiian culture, Sanders turned to a vacation roadmap and found the names "Lilo Lane" and "Nani" there.[9] After finishing the booklet, he shipped it to Burbank, and Schumacher approved the pitch with one condition: "it has to look like you drew it."[13]

Writing "Animation has been set so much in ancient, medieval Europe — so many fairy tales find their roots there, that to place it in Hawaii was kind of a big leap. But that choice went to color the entire movie, and rewrite the story for us."

—Chris Sanders, reflecting on the location change to Hawaii[15]

Dean DeBlois, who had served as "story co-head" for Mulan, was brought on to co-write and co-direct Lilo & Stitch after Thomas Schumacher allowed him to leave production on Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).[20] Meanwhile, Disney executive Clark Spencer was assigned as the film's producer. Unlike several previous and concurrent Disney Feature Animation productions, the film's pre-production team remained relatively small and isolated from upper management until the film went into full production.[21]

Originally, Stitch was the leader of an intergalactic gang, and Jumba was one of his former cronies summoned by the Intergalactic Council to capture Stitch.[8] Test audience response to early versions of the film led to changing Stitch and Jumba into creation and creator.[8]

While the animation team visited Kauaʻi to research the locale, their tour guide explained the meaning of ʻohana as it applies to extended families. This concept of ʻohana became an important part of the movie. DeBlois recalls:

No matter where we went, our tour guide seemed to know somebody. He was really the one who explained to us the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, a sense of family that extends far beyond your immediate relatives. That idea so influenced the story that it became the foundation theme, the thing that causes Stitch to evolve despite what he was created to do, which is destroy.

The island of Kauaʻi had also been featured in such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the Jurassic Park trilogy (1993–2001). Disney's animators faced the daunting task of meshing the film's plot, which showed the impoverished and dysfunctional life that many Hawaiians lived during the then-recent economic downturn, with the island's serene beauty. The actors voicing the film's young adults, Nani and David, were Tia Carrere, a local of Honolulu, and Jason Scott Lee, who is of Hawaiian descent and grew up in Hawaii. Both Carrere and Lee assisted with rewriting their characters' dialogue in proper colloquial dialect, and with adding Hawaiian slang terms.[22]

One innovative and unique aspect of the film is its strong focus on the relationship between two sisters. At the time, a central relationship between sisters as a major plot element was rare in American animated films.[23]

Casting Daveigh Chase earned the role of Lilo in the fall of 1998 against 150 other candidates.[24]

Stitch was initially intended to be a non-verbal character, but Sanders said he realized "he'd have to say a few things, so we made sure that we kept it to a minimum." Instead of hiring a professional actor to voice Stitch, DeBlois suggested Sanders take the role. According to Sanders, Stitch's voice was the one he regularly used "just to bother people at the studio. I'd call people on the phone and do that voice and annoy them."[25]

Tia Carrere was originally considered for the title character in Mulan (1998), but lost the role to Ming-Na Wen.[26] After learning Disney was doing a Hawaii-set film, Carrere sought a voice role and was hired to voice Nani.[26] She spent two years recording her part in Los Angeles, Paris, and Toronto.[27] Jason Scott Lee was cast as David after Carrere recommended him for the film.[26]

Chris Williams, then a storyboard artist, suggested Kevin McDonald for the part of Agent Pleakley. After McDonald read for the part, he was cast.[9] Cobra Bubbles was initially envisioned as more of a nebbish, with Jeff Goldblum in mind for the role. Goldblum declined the role, and Bubbles was reconceived as a more intimidating character. Sanders and DeBlois recalled Ving Rhames's performance in Pulp Fiction (1994) and cast him.[9]

During the film's early development, Ricardo Montalbán was cast as one of the villains, with his vocal performance based on the voice he used for Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.[9] However, all the lines he recorded were removed and his character was cut after the meeting that lead to the removal of Stitch's gang from the story. Eventually the villainous role in the film would be Gantu voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson who is best known for playing villain roles in shows and movies. David Ogden Stiers (who had previously done voices for Disney in past films) was chosen to be the voice of Jumba. Australian actress Zoe Caldwell got the role of voicing the Grand Councilwoman, the leader of the United Galactic Federation.[9]

Design and animation

The original scene (top) and the one used in the release (bottom); the Boeing 747 and the spaceship are both flying in a sideways position In a deviation from several decades' worth of Disney features, Sanders and DeBlois chose to use watercolor painted backgrounds for Lilo & Stitch, as opposed to the traditional gouache technique.[8] Watercolors had been used for the early Disney animated shorts, as well as the early Disney features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and Dumbo (1941), but the technique had been largely abandoned by the mid-1940s in favor of less complicated media such as gouache. Sanders preferred that watercolors be used for Lilo & Stitch to evoke both the bright look of a storybook and the art direction of Dumbo, requiring the background artists to be trained in working with the medium.[8][21]

The animation itself was all based on 2D work since the budget was too small for computer-generated imagery.[20] The character designs were based on Sanders's personal drawing style, rather than the traditional Disney in-house style.[8] To assist the animators with adapting Sanders's style, Sue C. Nichols, the film's visual development supervisor, created a manual, Surfing the Sanders Style.[13] Because of the limited budget, details like pockets or designs on clothing were avoided in the animation process, and since they could not afford to do shadows throughout much of the film, many of the scenes took place in shaded areas, saving shadows for more pivotal scenes.[20]

The film's extraterrestrial elements, such as the spaceships, were designed to resemble marine life, such as whales and crabs.[28] One altered scene in the film involved Stitch, Nani, Jumba, and Pleakley hijacking a Boeing 747 jet from Lihue Airport that scrapes against buildings through downtown Honolulu. But after the September 11 attacks, with only a few weeks left in production, the climax was completely reworked to have them use Jumba's spacecraft instead. The location was also shifted to have them fly through the mountains of Kauaʻi.[29][30] Regardless, the final design still has engines that resembled the 747's jet engines, according to Sanders.[20]

Even after this adjustment, the team had enough budget for about two additional minutes of animation, which was used to create the epilogue montage of Lilo, Nani, and Stitch becoming a new family.[20][31]

Release On June 16, 2002, Lilo & Stitch premiered at the El Capitan Theatre. Alongside the filmmakers and Disney studio executives, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, Wynonna Judd, Phil Collins, Gregory Hines, and Jodie Foster were also in attendance.[32]

Marketing Wanting Stitch to be a central part of the film's marketing campaign, Sanders pitched a subversive idea: "what if Stitch invaded other Disney properties?" Dick Cook, then chairman of Walt Disney Studios, loved the idea and allowed for four parody teaser trailers to be made (nicknamed "Inter-stitch-als"), in which Stitch crashes memorable moments of four films from the Disney Renaissance (three of which Sanders had worked on): The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).[25] Most of the original actors reprised their roles in the trailers, but they were shocked when asked to act negatively toward Stitch.[citation needed] The trailers also include the AC/DC song "Back in Black."

The marketing campaign also included several tie-in promotions, like Lilo & Stitch toys being offered as part of McDonald's Happy Meals.[33] In the United Kingdom, Lilo & Stitch trailers and television ads featured a cover of Elvis's song "Suspicious Minds", performed by Gareth Gates, who became famous on the UK TV program Pop Idol. In the U.S., "Hound Dog" was used for both theatrical and television trailers. The marketing campaign presented Stitch as the sort of "Disney Family Black Sheep". As a promotional campaign, comics of Lilo & Stitch ran in Disney Adventures before the film's release. The comics detailed events leading up to the film for both title characters, including Stitch's creation and escape. These events were later contradicted by the sequel Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, rendering the comics non-canonical, but the comics are notable for introducing Experiment 625, Reuben, who was a main character in the subsequent movies and TV series.[citation needed] Most of the comic series have been released as a collective volume, Comic Zone Volume 1: Lilo & Stitch.

Home media Lilo & Stitch was released on VHS and DVD on December 3, 2002.[34] During the first day of release, more than 3 million DVD copies were sold, earning $45 million in retail sales.[35][36] This THX-certified DVD release features various bonus features, including a "Build An Alien Experiment" game, an audio commentary, music videos, deleted scenes, teaser trailers, and DVD-ROM.[37] In 2003, a 2-disc DVD version was announced to come out along with Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Pocahontas (1995), which were released in 2004 and 2005.

A 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of the film was released in Australia on November 10, 2004 and the UK on August 22, 2005, along with the UK release of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005), but a release in the US was affected by many delays. On March 24, 2009, Disney finally released the special edition DVD, called the "Big Wave Edition". This DVD edition retained the original supplemental features, along with an audio commentary, a two-hour documentary, more deleted scenes, a number of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and some games.

On June 11, 2013, Lilo & Stitch was released on Blu-ray and re-released on DVD alongside Lilo & Stitch 2 in a "2-Movie Collection", which included a single Blu-ray with both films but without bonus features, a reprint of disc one of the "Big Wave Edition" DVD, and a reprint of the Lilo & Stitch 2 DVD.[38] The "2-Movie Collection" has since seen two re-releases; one on January 31, 2017, containing only the Blu-ray and a code to redeem a digital download of the two films,[39] and another on August 9, 2022, which places both films on separate Blu-ray discs that also contain most of their original DVD bonus features, the two DVDs from the first Blu-ray collection, and a digital download code as with the second Blu-ray collection.[40]

Altered scene A scene where Nani chases Lilo was modified for the UK home video release.[41] In the original, Lilo hid in a clothes dryer, which was changed to a commode with a cabinet and pizza box used as a "door" to avoid influencing children to hide in dryers.[42] The UK edit was later used for the film's Disney+ release[42] and the 2022 Blu-ray release.