Lilo & Stitch is an 2002 American animated science-fiction/comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002. The 42nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, and features the voices of Sanders, Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. Lilo & Stitch was the second of three Disney animated features produced primarily at the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida studio located at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Lilo & Stitch was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, which ultimately went to Hayao Miyazaki's film, Spirited Away, which was also distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, and featured a voice-over performance by Chase.
A direct-to-video sequel, Stitch! The Movie, was released on August 26, 2003. This was followed by a television series, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which ran from September 20, 2003 to July 29, 2006. A second direct-to-video sequel, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, was released on August 30, 2005. A third and final direct-to-video sequel, Leroy & Stitch, was released on June 27, 2006 as the conclusion to the TV series.
Dr. Jumba Jookiba is put on trial by the galactic governing body for illegal genetic experiments, including his latest creation, Experiment 626: an aggressive and cunning creature that is nearly indestructible. Jumba is imprisoned while Experiment 626 is set to be exiled on a desert asteroid. However, during transport on Captain Gantu's ship, 626 manages to escape to the Planet Earth (despite having guns that are encoded with his DNA and designed to only shoot while pointed at him). The Grand Councilwoman orders Jumba to work with Agent Pleakley to recover 626 discreetly. 626 survives his escape attempt to Earth, landing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, but is knocked unconscious by a passing truck, and is taken to an animal shelter because he is believed by the truck drivers to be a breed of dog.
After the recent death of their parents in a car accident, 19-year-old Nani Pelekai is looking after her younger, more rambunctious sister, Lilo. They are visited by Cobra Bubbles, a social worker, who is concerned that Nani cannot take adequate care of Lilo. He considers putting Lilo into foster care, but Nani is very much against this idea, as Lilo and she are the only remaining members of her family; Lilo does not help as she does not understand what may happen. After hearing Lilo in her room pray to be given a friend (Lilo has no "real" friends because every girl in her class mocks her), Nani agrees to allow Lilo to adopt a dog. At the shelter, Lilo immediately takes a keen interest in Experiment 626, despite serious misgivings that Nani and the shelter worker have about him being a dog. Lilo names 626 "Stitch," and shows him around Hawaii; Stitch quickly discovers escape is impossible as he would sink and drown past the island to the sea.
As Nani attempts to find a good job, she is forced to bring Lilo and Stitch with her. Lilo uses the time to try to curb Stitch's aggressiveness by encouraging him to behave like Elvis Presley, whom she calls a "model citizen." Stitch's antics, although at times foiling Jumba and Pleakley's attempts to capture him, also ruin Nani's chances of getting a job. David, a friend of Nani's, sees her at the beach, where she was trying to get a job as a lifeguard. David suggests they go surfing to improve her mood. While Nani, Lilo and Stitch ride on a huge wave, Jumba makes one more effort to capture Stitch from underwater; as a result, it appears as if Stitch attempted to drown Lilo. Although everyone gets safely to shore, Cobra saw the whole thing and tells Nani he will come by in the morning to take Lilo away from her and leaves feeling sorry for her. After Stitch sees how much trouble he has caused, he leaves.
The next morning, as Nani waits for Cobra to arrive, David tells Nani of a job offer that she must respond to. Nani tells Lilo to stay at home while she goes to secure the job. Stitch, hiding in the nearby woods, encounters Jumba, who reveals that Stitch can never have a family or "belong" because he was just built to destroy. Stitch races to Lilo's house, followed by Jumba firing at Stitch with his gun. The two fight, Lilo quickly phoning Cobra for help. The house is ultimately destroyed by the end of the fight, with Nani and Cobra returning shortly after.
As Nani and Cobra argue over Lilo's well-being, Lilo slips away to hide in the forest and finds Stitch, who reveals his true alien form to her. While she says how he ruined everything, they are both captured by Captain Gantu, who had been sent to capture Stitch after Jumba and Pleakley failed to do so, and he makes to leave Earth. Nani is shocked to see Gantu putting Lilo and Stitch in a container pod and taking off in the ship. Stitch, however, escapes from the container before the ship takes off. Nani then realizes that Stitch isn't what she thought he was, and demands he speak, just as Lilo always said he did. While once again trying to capture Stitch, both Jumba and Pleakley are revealed to Nani, and tell her that they do know Lilo, and they can both get her back. Stitch, with help from Jumba's ship and by launching a gas tanker truck out of a volcano, is able to free Lilo and stop Gantu. After they land, they find that the Grand Councilwoman has arrived nearby, in order to capture Stitch personally. However, when she sees Stitch has learned to talk and bonded with Nani and Lilo, she realizes he has become a civilized creature. Using Lilo's certificate of Stitch's ownership as proof, which is also provided the fact that she would be stealing Stitch from Lilo, the Councilwoman asserts that Stitch is now a part of Nani and Lilo's family, and lets him live his exile on Earth with the humans as his warders. As her guards take Gantu away, she doesn't let Pleakley or Jumba return on her ship, and orders Cobra, a former CIA agent who previously met the Councilwoman at Roswell, to keep an eye on the new family. Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley become integrated into Lilo's family, and the house is rebuilt with the help of the three, David and Cobra.
Lilo & Stitch is one of the few Disney animated features to take place in the present day; others include One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Rescuers (1977) and its sequel The Rescuers Down Under (1990), and Oliver & Company (1988).
Production of Lilo & Stitch began with then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner deciding that, in the wake of a number of high-profile and large-budget Disney animated features during the mid-1990s, the studio might try its hand at a smaller and less expensive film.[2] The idea was inspired by the production of Dumbo, an economically-made 1941 Walt Disney film produced in the wake of the more expensive Pinocchio and Fantasia. Chris Sanders, a head storyboard artist at Disney Feature Animation, was approached to pitch an idea. Sanders had created the character of Stitch in 1985 for an unsuccessful children's book pitch, and developed a treatment for an animated feature featuring the character.[2] The movie was originally intended to take place in rural Kansas so that Stitch could interact with other characters while still being isolated from wreaking greater havoc.[3] A decision to change the film's setting to the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi was an important choice in defining the plot more clearly. No other animated feature had ever taken place on any of the Hawaiian islands before.[3] In Sanders' words:
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Animation has been set so much in ancient, medieval Europe — so many fairy tales find their roots there, that to place it in Hawaiʻi was kind of a big leap. But that choice went to color the entire movie, and rewrite the story for us. |
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Dean DeBlois, who had co-written Mulan (1998) with Sanders, was brought on to co-write and co-direct Lilo & Stitch, while Disney executive Clark Spencer was assigned to produce. Unlike several previous and concurrent Disney Feature Animation productions, the Lilo & Stitch pre-production team remained relatively small and isolated from upper management until the film went into full production.[4] The character and set designs were based upon Chris Sanders' personal artistic style.[2]
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:
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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. |
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The island of Kauaʻi had previously been featured in such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Jurassic Park trilogy. The Disney 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, Tia Carrere, a native of Honolulu, and Jason Scott Lee, who was raised in Hawaii, assisted with rewriting the Hawaiian characters' dialogue in the proper colloquial dialect and adding Hawaiian slang.
In a deviation from several decades' worth of Disney features, Sanders and DuBlois chose to use watercolor-painted backgrounds for Lilo & Stitch, as opposed to the traditional gouache technique.[2] While watercolors had been used for the early Disney animated shorts, as well as the early Disney features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Dumbo, the techique had been largely abandoned by the mid 1940s in favor of less complicated media such as gouache. Sanders, however, preferred that watercolors be used for Lilo 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.[2] The character designs were based around Sanders' personal drawing style, eschewing the traditional Disney house style.[2] The film's extraterrestrial elements, such as the spaceships, were designed to resemble marine life, such as whales and crabs.[5]
Teaser trailers for this film parody trailers for other Disney films (two of these were animated by Sanders) from recent years. These are called "Inter-Stitch-als" and are featured on Disney's official site as well as on the film's respective DVD release. The original actors were brought back to reprise their roles and were shocked when asked to act negatively towards Stitch. The trailers also include the AC/DC song track "Back in Black".
- Beauty and the Beast: The Beauty and the Beast ballroom dance sequence begins as normal. However as the camera pans to the angels on the ceiling, Stitch is seen crawling across the painting. Watching Belle and the Beast, he crawls onto the chandelier, which breaks. The Beast dives and pulls Belle with him out of harm's way while the chandelier smashes on the ballroom floor behind them. The moment ruined, Belle announces she will be in her room. As she departs Stitch wolf whistles after her, to which she replies indignantly, "Get your own movie!"
- The Little Mermaid: Ariel is singing the reprise of "Part of Your World", when a huge wave, which is being ridden by Stitch, dumps on her. As the ocean settles, Ariel angrily pops up and throws a starfish at Stitch, saying "I was singing here!" This trailer was the most difficult to parody, as the film had been painted using traditional cel animation rather than using the digital CAPS system and had to be cleaned up by hand.
- Aladdin: Aladdin and Jasmine are interrupted in the middle of the "A Whole New World" sequence by Stitch. Stitch flirts with Jasmine and she drives off with him in his cruiser, leaving Aladdin sitting alone on the carpet, yelling "Hey! You get your own movie..."
- The Lion King: There are two versions of this commercial. In one of them, clips of past Disney classics are shown, with a voice over saying "For over seventy years, the Walt Disney studios has won the hearts of audiences with the most enchanting, delightful and lovable characters the world had ever known. On June 21st, the tradition...", and is suddenly cut off as Rafiki thrusts Stitch into the air in the manner of the presentation ceremony in the original film. A warthog (not Pumbaa) cries out "Hey, that's not Simba!" All the animals flee, leaving Stitch alone on Pride Rock. Stitch clears his throat and roars unconvincingly. In the other commercial, the end of the song "Circle of Life" plays, Rafiki raising Stitch into the air on the last note. The rest of the parody plays out as the previous one, except that in this commercial, Timon (sitting on Pumbaa's back) is the one who yells "Hey, that's not Simba!"
In the United Kingdom, Lilo & Stitch trailers and TV ads featured a cover of Elvis' song "Suspicious Minds", performed by Gareth Gates, who became famous on the UK TV program Pop Idol.
As a promotional campaign comics of Lilo & Stitch were run in Disney Adventures prior to the films release. The comics detailed events leading up to the film for both title characters, including the creation and escape of Stitch. These events were later contradicted by the sequel Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch rendering the comics non-canonical, but is notable to the series as introducing Experiment 625, Reuben, who was made a main character in the subsequent movies and TV series.
The comic series has been released as a collective volume titled Comic Zone Volume 1: Lilo and Stitch.
Several major elements of the film changed during production. Originally, Stitch was the leader of an intergalactic gang, and Jumba was one of his former cronies sent after Stitch by the Intergalactic Council to capture him.[2] Test audience response to early versions of the film resulted in the change of Stitch and Jumba's relationship to that of creation and creator, respectively.[2]
The biggest change came to the film's third act, which had Stitch flying a Boeing 747 jet through downtown Honolulu to save Lilo. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, this sequence was revised so that Stitch instead flew a spaceship through the mountains of Kauaʻi. This revision was done primarily by replacing the CGI model of the 747 with that of Jumba's spaceship, with only a few shots in the sequence fully re-animated.[2]
Another scene that was deleted was one of Lilo's attempts to make Stitch into a model citizen by warning tourists on the beach about the tsunami warning sirens. Finally, the original version of Jumba attacking Stitch in Lilo's home was found to be too violent by test audiences, and was revised to make it more comedic. There was also a particular scene where Lilo introduces Stitch to "Pudge" the fish, which ultimately leads to the character's death. Lilo then took the fish's body to the same graveyard where her parents were buried, and thus Stitch learns the consequences of his actions, and gains a more sombre view of death and mortality.
The film opening at #2 with $35,260,212 in its first weekend, less than $500,000 behind the film Minority Report. In its second week, fell to #3, again behind the Spielberg film at #2. The film raked in $145,794,338 in the United States and Canada, and $127,349,813 internationally, finishing with $273,144,151 in the world.[1]
Lilo & Stitch received highly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, and along with The Emperors New Groove, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog and Tangled was one of only five Walt Disney Feature Animation/Walt Disney Animation Studios productions released during the 2000s to meet with critical approval and make its cost back during its original theatrical run. The film's success at the box office and on home video formats led to a franchise, with four direct-to-video sequels and a television series spanning two seasons. The film has received 145 critical reviews on the site Rotten Tomatoes, 124 "Fresh" and 21 "Rotten", giving it a positive total rating of 86%.[6] The film has also earned a score of 73 on Metacritic.[7]
Peter M. Nichols states that through the character of Nani and her struggles the film appeals to older children better than such attempts by the studio to do so as Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Emperor's New Groove.[8]
The film was released on VHS and DVD December 3, 2002. In 2003, a 2-disc DVD version was announced alongside special edition DVDs of Alice in Wonderland and Pocahontas, which were released in 2004 and 2005 respectively. A 2-disc special edition DVD of Lilo & Stitch was released in the UK on August 22, 2005, alongside the UK release of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, but a release in the US suffered from continuous delays.
On March 24, 2009, Disney finally re-released the DVD, which they dubbed a 2-Disc "Big Wave Edition". This set includes most of the bonus features from the original DVD and adds an audio commentary, a 2-hour making-of documentary, more deleted scenes including the original climax with the plane hijacking, a number of behind-the-scenes featurettes, and some games.[9] It is currently unknown if Disney will release the film onto Blu-Ray.
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Lilo & Stitch: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the soundtrack to Disney's 2002, forty-second animated feature Lilo & Stitch. It contains original two songs from the film written by Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu and Alan Silvestri (the film composer), and performed by Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu and the Kamehameha Schools children's chorus. Also contains five songs by American singer Elvis Presley (the soundtrack, along with the film, features more Presley singles than any of his own feature films [11]), and two of his songs re-recorded by American singer Wynonna ("Burning Love"), British singer Gareth Gates (UK version) and Swedish group A*Teens ("Can't Help Falling in Love"). It was released by Walt Disney Records on June 11, 2002.
On August 26, 2003, Disney released a direct-to-video sequel, Stitch! The Movie, which served as the pilot to a TV series titled Lilo & Stitch: The Series. This series ran for 65 episodes between September 20, 2003 and July 29, 2006. The series carried on where the film left off and charted Lilo's efforts to capture and re-home Jumba's remaining experiments. This series ended with TV movie Leroy & Stitch, which was released on June 27, 2006.
On August 30, 2005, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, the "official" direct-to-video sequel to the film, was released. In this film (set between the first and second films), Stitch has a glitch because his molecules were never fully charged (this is contrary to an alternate opening, "Stitch's trial", which was seen on the DVD release of Lilo & Stitch). Lilo wants to win the May Day hula contest like her Mom did in the 1970s, but Stitch continues to have outbursts. Lilo gets increasingly mad at Stitch as his glitch causes more problems for her and ruins her chances of winning the competition. She thinks Stitch is not cooperating properly, until she finds out that Stitch is dying.
In March 2008, Disney announced a reimagined version of Lilo & Stitch, titled Stitch!, aimed at the Japanese market. The show, which began in October 2008, features a Japanese girl named Yuna (formerly referred to as Hanako) in place of Lilo, and is set on a fictional island in Okinawa prefecture instead of Hawaii. The series is produced by the Japanese animation house Madhouse LTD.
There were two official games released to coincide with the film, Disney's Lilo & Stitch for the PlayStation and Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 for the PlayStation 2. Stitch is also a summonable character in Kingdom Hearts II, and appears along with his homeworld in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep for the PlayStation Portable.
- ^ a b c "Lilo & Stitch". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lilostitch.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i The Story Room: The Making of 'Lilo & Stitch' (DVD). Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 2005.
- ^ a b Davis, Pat (April/May 2002). "Disney Goes Hawaiian". Hana Hou! 5 (2). http://www.hanahou.com/pages/magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=389&MagazineID=24.
- ^ Moore, Roger (2009-04-01). "Lilo & Stitch, Disney Feature Animation Florida's finest hour--remembered (originally published as "For Disney's Orlando animators, it's show time!" on 2002-06-16)". Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Florida: Tribune Company). http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/2009/04/lilo-stitch-disney-feature-animation-floridas-finest-hourremembered.html.
- ^ Gilland, Joseph (2009). Elemental Magic: The Art of Special Effects Animation. Focal Press (Elsevier, Inc.). pp. 256. ISBN 978-0-240-81163-5.
- ^ "Lilo & Stitch (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lilo_and_stitch/. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
- ^ "Lilo & Stitch Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/lilo-stitch. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
- ^ Nichols, Peter M. (2003). The New York Times Essential Library: Children's Movies. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 152–154. ISBN 0-8050-7198-9.
- ^ Lilo & Stitch DVD Review
- ^ Lilo & Stitch at Allmusic
- ^ Lilo and Stitch Trivia
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