Lilo & Stitch (2002 film) (Better 2000s)

Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 42nd Disney animated feature film, it was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (in their directorial debuts) and produced by Clark Spencer. It features Daveigh Chase and Sanders as the voices of the title characters, and also features the voices of Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. It was the second of three Disney animated feature films (the first being Mulan, and the third Brother Bear) produced primarily at the Florida animation studio in Disney's Hollywood Studios (named "Disney-MGM Studios" during its production) at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.

The film's story revolves around two individuals: a Hawaiian girl named Lilo Pelekai, who is raised by her older sister Nani after their parents' deaths, and the extraterrestrial creature Experiment 626, who is adopted by Lilo as her "dog" and renamed "Stitch". Stitch, who was genetically engineered to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses Lilo to avoid recapture by the intergalactic federation, but 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 the character Stitch in the 1980s, and the film's design and aesthetics are based on his personal art style. Lilo & Stitch premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 16, 2002, and was released worldwide on June 21, 2002. 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.

The film's success made it one of Disney's few successes during its post-animation renaissance era in the 2000s, spawning a franchise that includes three direct-to-video sequels, starting with Stitch! The Movie, and three television series, including the sequel series Lilo & Stitch: The Series and spin-offs Stitch! and Stitch & Ai. A live-action adaptation is in development.

## **Plot**

Dr. Jumba Jookiba is convicted by the United Galactic Federation of illegal genetic experimentation; he has created Experiment 626, an aggressive and near-indestructible creature with great learning capabilities. Before 626 is to be exiled to an unpopulated asteroid, he escapes and crash-lands on Kauaʻi, Hawaii where he is hit by passing trucks and placed in an animal shelter. The Federation's Grand Councilwoman offers Jumba an early release if he assists the council's Earth expert, Agent Pleakley, in capturing the experiment.

On the island, Nani Pelekai struggles to take care of her rambunctious but lonely younger sister, Lilo, after their parents died in a car crash. Social worker Cobra Bubbles expresses concern over whether Nani can take adequate care of Lilo, and threatens to place Lilo in foster care if their situation fails to improve. After overhearing Lilo praying for a friend, Nani decides to let her adopt a dog. At the animal shelter, Lilo takes an interest in 626, who impersonates a dog to avoid Jumba and Pleakley, who have already landed on Earth. Despite Nani's doubts, Lilo adopts 626 and renames him "Stitch". That evening, at the restaurant where Nani works, Jumba and Pleakley attempt to capture Stitch while in disguise. The owner blames the ensuing destructive chaos on Stitch and fires Nani. The next day, Bubbles repeats his earlier warning and tasks Nani with finding a new job. Stitch's antics while evading his two pursuers persistently ruin Nani's chances of finding work.

Nani's friend David Kawena invites her, Lilo, and Stitch to enjoy a day of surfing to improve their mood. While Nani, Lilo, and Stitch ride a huge wave, Jumba and Pleakley try to capture Stitch, causing Stitch to unintentionally pull Lilo underwater. They survive, but Bubbles witnesses this event and decides to retrieve Lilo the following morning. Feeling guilty over how much trouble he has caused, Stitch runs off into the night. The next morning, the Grand Councilwoman fires Jumba and Pleakley and gives the assignment to Captain Gantu, incidentally freeing them both to pursue Stitch using less covert methods. Meanwhile, David informs Nani of a job opportunity, which she rushes off to pursue. Hiding in the nearby woods, Stitch encounters Jumba and Pleakley, who chase him back to Nani's house. A fight between Stitch and Jumba culminates in an explosion that destroys the house. Nani sees the chaos and rushes back home to see Bubbles arrive to collect Lilo.

As Nani and Bubbles argue over Lilo's well-being, Lilo runs away into the woods and finds Stitch, who, in shame, reveals his alien identity before Gantu captures them. Stitch escapes from Gantu's ship but fails to rescue Lilo. Nani confronts him, having witnessed Lilo's kidnapping. Before he can explain, Jumba and Pleakley capture Stitch themselves. Nani demands that they help her rescue Lilo, but Jumba and Pleakley insist they only came for Stitch. When Nani breaks down, Stitch reminds her about ʻohana, a term for "family" he learned from her. Stitch convinces Jumba to help rescue Lilo. Jumba, Pleakley, Stitch, and Nani board Jumba's personal spaceship and pursue Gantu, rescuing Lilo.

Back on the shore, the Grand Councilwoman arrives to take Stitch into custody personally, and she fires Gantu for endangering Lilo and failing to capture Stitch. However, she realizes that Stitch is now civilized when he displays his newfound respect and compassion, and recognizes that Stitch is Lilo's legal property. The Grand Councilwoman decrees that Stitch will live out his exile on Earth and that his family will be under the care of Bubbles, a former CIA agent who had previously met the Grand Councilwoman during the Roswell incident. Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley, having joined Lilo and Nani's family, rebuild their house with David and Bubbles' help.

## **Voice cast**

* Chris Sanders as Stitch/Experiment 626, a blue koala-like illegal genetic experiment with the ability to create untold chaos.
* Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai, an eccentric young Hawaiian girl on the island of Kaua'i who adopts Stitch as her pet dog.
* Tia Carrere as Nani Pelekai, Lilo's stressed-out older sister and legal guardian after the death of their parents in a car accident.
* Jason Scott Lee as David Kawena, Nani's hapless surfer boyfriend and love interest.
* 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**

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. 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. 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. 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).

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. 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. Schumacher approached Sanders about producing the film, telling him: "Everybody wants this next film to be you."

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. 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. 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."

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. He initially revised it by adding a boy character. 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." Sanders then glanced at a map of Hawaii on his wall, and recalling he had recently vacationed there, he relocated the story there. Not well versed in Hawaiian culture, Sanders turned to a vacation roadmap and found the names "Lilo Lane" and "Nani" there. 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."

### **Writing**

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, while Disney executive Clark Spencer was assigned to produce. 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.

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. Test audience response to early versions of the film led to changing Stitch and Jumba into creation and creator.

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 and the Jurassic Park trilogy. 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. The voice actors assisted with rewriting the Hawaiian characters' dialogue in proper colloquial dialect, and with adding Hawaiian slang terms.

One innovative and unique aspect of the film is its strong focus on the relationship between two sisters. Making the relationship between sisters into a major plot element is very rare in American animated films.

### **Casting**

Chase earned the role of Lilo in the fall of 1998 against 150 other candidates.

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."

Carrere was originally considered for the title character in Mulan (1998), but lost the role to Ming-Na Wen. After learning Disney was doing a Hawaii-set film, Carrere sought a voice role and was hired to voice Nani. She spent two years recording her part in Los Angeles, Paris, and Toronto.

Chris Williams, then a storyboard artist, suggested McDonald for the part of Agent Pleakley. After McDonald read for the part, he was cast.

Cobra Bubbles was initially envisioned as more of a nebbish, with Jeff Goldblum in mind for the role. But Goldblum declined the role, and Bubbles was reconceived as a more intimidating character. Sanders and DeBlois recalled Rhames's performance in Pulp Fiction (1994) and cast him.

### **Design and animation**

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. 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.

The animation itself was all based on 2D work, as the budget was too small for computer generated imagery. The character designs were based on Sanders's personal drawing style, rather than the traditional Disney in-house style. 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. Because of the limited budget, details like pockets or designs on clothing were avoided in the animation process, and as 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.

The film's extraterrestrial elements, such as the spaceships, were designed to resemble marine life, such as whales and crabs. 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 reworked to have them use Jumba's spacecraft instead. The location was also shifted to have them fly through the mountains of Kauaʻi. Regardless, the final design still has engines that resembled the 747's jet engines, according to Sanders.

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.

## **Production Timeline**

* January 9, 1998 - The pitch book for the film is created
* Fall 1998 - Chase earned the role of Lilo in the fall of 1998 against 150 other candidates
* April 1999 - An impromptu story meeting takes place in Hawaii. The production team goes to Kauai for a research trip
* August 5, 1999 - Production begins on Disney's animated feature Lilo & Stitch
* September 15, 1999 - Zoe Caldwell records her lines as the Grand Councilwoman
* October 1999 - The story is pitched to Disney
* August 2000 - Animation work on the film begins
* September 2000 - Daveigh Chase records her lines as Lilo. The storyboards are reviewed
* October 2000 - David Ogden Stiers has his scratch session as Jumba
* January 2001 - Art from Lilo and Stitch was unveiled in the Disney Animation building of the new Disney's California Adventure in January 2001.
* January 16, 2001 - Ving Rhames records his lines as Cobra Bubbles
* March 2001 - David Ogden Stiers records his lines as Jumba
* April 2001 - Chris Sanders uses his dog Theodore to record the vocal effects for Stitch
* May 2001 - Tia Carrere records her lines as Nani. Production on this project was supposed to wrap in May 2001, but due to budget cuts was reportedly only completed in late summer/fall 2001.
* May-June 2001 - The crew claims that the whole film was "Yadda, Yadda, Yadda"
* Summer 2001 - Production ends on Disney's animated feature Lilo & Stitch (pushed back from May 2001 to late Summer/Fall 2001 due to budget cuts)
* July 5, 2001 - The music for the opening scene was composed at Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California in late November 2001.
* July 2001 - The 747 scene was animated
* August 2001 - The scene where Lilo, Stitch and Nani come home after Nani loses her job is animated.
* September 2001 - Jumba's ship was rendered. The crew had to rework the 747 sequence
* September 20, 2001 - the Orlando Weekly reported on September 20, 2001 that "Disney's extraterrestrial animated feature, Lilo & Stitch, also may get a makeover. After all, the climax of this feature-length 'toon, produced entirely at the backstage animation facility at Disney/MGM Studios, was built around the then-comical notion that a cute little alien would sneak on board a Boeing 747 jet, then take the Boeing 747 jet for a joy ride through the towers of Honolulu. Stitch is the launched out of Boeing 747 jet and lands on Gantu’s ship but he is blown off and lands on the road. Gantu is able to find Stitch by using his computer. He tries to shoot the alien but misses. A truck comes close to Stitch and he commandeers it. Stitch drives over a volcano and dumps the fuel into it. This shoots Stitch up like a rocket and he lands on Gantu’s ship. Crashes through the windshield into the cockpit, Furiously trying to pound Stitch with his fist, Grabs Gantu's hand. and throws him through the windshield onto the wing of Boeing 747 jet below, Gantu tries to shoot Stitch, Stitch breaks the capsule with his head and takes Lilo out. Lilo kisses Stitch’s nose as he jumps off, When Stitch saves Lilo and they jump back onto Boeing 747 jet and destroy Gantu's ship. Boeing 747 jet falls into the ocean, knocking David off his surfboard. David: (swims up to the surface) Auwe! (goes to his surfboard) David: (notices the Boeing 747 jet) Hey, Lilo. Lilo: Can you give the rest of us a ride to shore? David: Uh... (looks at the aliens) Sure! But I have to make two trips. That sequence, which had gone over great with test audiences, now may be sacrificed." Disney supposedly asked screenwriters to rewrite the last scenes and find a twist that would affect neither the movie's continuity nor the designer's work. Nevertheless, it was confirmed in November 2001 that "the climax with the airplane has not been removed from the film... they replaced the airplane with a spaceship which Stitch takes for a joyride."
* October 2001 - Kevin McDonald records his lines as Pleakley
* November 2001 - The 747 is transformed into Gantu's ship
* November 26, 2001 - Some of the music is composed at Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California. Alan Silvestri completed the recording of the score at Todd-AO Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, California in late November 2001.
* November 30, 2001 - The scene where the ship flies off is animated
* December 2001 - The Kamehameha Schools Children's Chorus records "He Mele No Lilo"
* May 2002 - The film premieres at the Cannes International Film Festival

## **Director's Cut**

The Director's Cut of Lilo & Stitch and include all the sequences was originally intended fully reintegrated and restored, The Scenes I'd added are the completed fully animated parts that were cut (The original jet plane/and the original Jumba's attack with the original coloring). Lilo & Stitch is an American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002. The 42nd animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon, it was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and features the voices of Chris Sanders, Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. A Director's Cut DVD of the film was released in the US on December 22, 2002.

### **Director's Cut Plot on DVD**

The trial of Stitch as the defendant, and Jumba is not present. while Experiment 626 is sentenced to exile on a desert asteroid. 626 manages to steal a spaceship and activates the hyperdrive, causing its guidance systems to malfunction and randomly set a course for Earth. 626 crash-lands on Kauaʻi, Hawai'i only to be knocked unconscious by passing trucks and taken to an animal shelter. The Grand Councilwoman dispatches Jumba and Agent Pleakley, the Council's expert on Earth, to the planet to have 626 captured discreetly.

On Kauaʻi, a young woman named Nani has been struggling with caring for her rambunctious, disobedient, and lonely younger sister, Lilo, following the death of their parents. A social worker named Cobra Bubbles expresses increasing concern that Nani is unable to take adequate care of Lilo. To reduce Lilo's grief of not having any friends, Nani decides to let Lilo adopt a dog. At the shelter, Lilo immediately takes a keen interest in Experiment 626, who is impersonating a dog. Despite Nani's doubts, Lilo names 626 "Stitch" and shows him around the island.

That evening, at the restaurant where Nani works, Jumba and Pleakley try but fail to capture Stitch. The resulting chaos is blamed on Stitch, causing Nani to be fired. The next day, Cobra warns Nani that if she does not find another job, Cobra will have to place Lilo with a foster family. However, Stitch's antics, including evading Jumba and Pleakley, ruin Nani's chances of finding work.

Lilo tries to teach Stitch civility by informing people of the Tsunami Sirens on the beach. Nani's boyfriend, David, invites her, Lilo, and Stitch to take a break and enjoy a day of surfing. While Nani, Lilo and Stitch ride a huge wave, Jumba makes one final effort to capture Stitch from underwater, causing Nani to wipe out, and Stitch unintentionally pulls Lilo down with him. Although everyone survives, Cobra witnesses this event and tells Nani that although she means well, Lilo will have to be taken away. Seeing how much trouble he has caused, Stitch runs off.

The next morning, the Councilwoman relieves Jumba and Pleakley of their assignment and gives it to the galaxy's militant captain, Gantu, instead, freeing Jumba to pursue Stitch using less covert methods. Meanwhile, David informs Nani of a job opportunity, which Nani rushes to pursue. Stitch, hiding in the nearby woods, encounters Jumba, Jumba attacking Stitch in Lilo's home. Cobra arrives to collect Lilo and take her away. As Nani and Cobra argue, Lilo runs away and encounters Stitch, who reveals his alien identity moments before Captain Gantu captures both of them. Stitch manages to escape before Gantu's ship takes off and is confronted by Nani. Before he can explain, Jumba and Pleakley capture Stitch themselves. Nani demands that they help her rescue Lilo, but Jumba insists they only came for Stitch. When Nani breaks down, Stitch reminds Nani about ʻohana, a term for "family" he learned from Lilo, and convinces Jumba to help rescue Lilo. Stitch, Nani, Jumba and Pleakley hijack a Boeing 747 jet from Lihue Airport and flying it through downtown Honolulu rescue Lilo. Stitch is the launched out of Boeing 747 jet and lands on Gantu’s ship but he is blown off and lands on the road. Gantu is able to find Stitch by using his computer. He tries to shoot the alien but misses. A truck comes close to Stitch and he commandeers it. Stitch drives over a volcano and dumps the fuel into it. This shoots Stitch up like a rocket and he lands on Gantu’s ship. Crashes through the windshield into the cockpit, Furiously trying to pound Stitch with his fist, Grabs Gantu's hand. and throws him through the windshield onto the wing of Boeing 747 jet below, Gantu tries to shoot Stitch, Stitch breaks the capsule with his head and takes Lilo out. Lilo kisses Stitch’s nose as he jumps off, When Stitch saves Lilo and they jump back onto Boeing 747 jet and destroy Gantu's ship. The Boeing 747 jet then crashes into the ocean near David on his surfboard. Lilo asks if he will give them all rides back to shore.

The Grand Councilwoman appears and prepares to take Stitch into custody and retire Gantu for kidnapping Lilo, but Lilo insists that, as Stitch is her pet under local law, he cannot be taken away. Impressed with Stitch's newfound civility and empathy, the Councilwoman decrees that Stitch will live in exile on Earth and be entrusted into the care of Lilo and Nani, and asks Cobra, who is revealed to be a former CIA agent whom she met in 1973, to watch over them. Together, they rebuild the house, and Jumba and Pleakley become members of Lilo and Stitch's family. The film ends with various footage and pictures of Stitch and his new family's life together.

## **Music**

Lilo & Stitch: Complete Isolated DVD Score

## **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.

### **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). 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 track "Back in Black."

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. 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. During the first day of release, more than 3 million DVD copies were sold, earning $45 million in retail sales. The 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. A Director's Cut DVD of the film was released in the US on December 22, 2002.

## **Reception**

### **Box office**

Lilo & Stitch opened in second place earning $35.3 million in its first weekend, ranking narrowly below Minority Report. During its second weekend, it fell to third place, behind Minority Report and Mr. Deeds. Despite the opening of Men in Black II the week after, Lilo & Stitch remained in third place.

Meanwhile, the film continued to draw in families while other major summer blockbusters like Spider-Man and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones were still in wide release. Additionally, it went on to compete against the Warner Bros. live-action/computer-animated hybrid film Scooby-Doo. The film earned $145.8 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $127.3 million internationally, totaling $273.1 million worldwide.

At the end of its theatrical run, Lilo & Stitch became the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2002, behind 20th Century Fox's Ice Age. They were the only two animated films to approach the $100 million mark that year. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 25 million tickets during its original run.

### **Critical reaction**

Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 149 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Edgier than traditional Disney fare, Lilo and Stitch explores issues of family while providing a fun and charming story." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3+1⁄2 stars out of 4, writing: "It's one of the most charming feature-length cartoons of recent years—funny, sassy, startling, original and with six songs by Elvis. It doesn't get sickeningly sweet at the end, it has as much stuff in it for grown-ups as for kids, and it has a bright offbeat look to it." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Looser and less obviously formulaic in its fresh approach to our hearts, the brash [film] has an unleashed, subversive sense of humor that's less corporate and more uninhibited than any non-Pixar Disney film has been in time out of mind. With its hand-drawn characters and its use of watercolors for backgrounds (the first time the studio's done that since the 1940s), this is a happy throwback to the time when cartoons were cinema's most idiosyncratic form instead of one of its most predictable." Richard Corliss of Time magazine felt the film is "a bright, engaging bauble with half a dozen Elvis Presley songs for Mom and Dad, and just enough sass. Stitch sticks his tongue into his nose and eats his snot to keep the tweeners giggling ...after a lag in the early sister scenes, Lilo reveals its own very American verve and wit, along with a smart story sense that marks the best animated features, traditional or computerized."

Claudia Puig of USA Today noted the colors "are ultra-vibrant and rich, appropriate to the Hawaiian setting. Best of all, the movie has an endearingly cheeky attitude sometimes missing from more earnest Disney tales. Witty, touching and well paced, Lilo & Stitch is ideal family fare, but little more." Desson Howe of The Washington Post also praised the film's use of watercolors, writing it is "appealing. It's easy, rather than flashy, on the eyes. And there's some sort of relief in that, in this world of hyper-powerful computer-generated imagery." Owen Gleiberman, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, argued the "animation in Lilo & Stitch has an engaging retro-simple vivacity, and it's nice to see a movie for tots make use of Elvis Presley, but the story is witless and oddly defanged. Stitch gets discovered by Lilo, a temperamental Hawaiian girl who's the whiniest of whiny brats. These two become friends in theory only: There’s so little connection between them that just about the only thing sustaining the movie is its vague E.T. outline."

Todd McCarthy of Variety felt Sanders and DeBlois "keep things moving briskly while commendably avoiding any special sentimental 'We Are a Village' point-making, despite the obvious opportunity. Character designs are familiar enough, but backgrounds possess an unusual pastel quality that gives the film an inviting atmosphere all its own." In contrast, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Gate felt Lilo & Stitch was more appropriate for a television series, writing the directors "find themselves locked into the structure of a feature film. They're forced to tell the story of Lilo and Stitch's relationship, to give it shape and a sense of arrival. Since this is a kid's movie, the relationship can only head in the direction of schmaltz. So the promising anarchy of the first 10 or 15 minutes is suppressed."

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 The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet.

## **Legacy**

### **Spin-off media**

Main article: Lilo & Stitch (franchise)

On August 26, 2003, Disney released a direct-to-video sequel, Stitch! The Movie, which served as the pilot to a television 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 and Stitch's efforts to capture and rehabilitate Jumba's remaining experiments. The series, as well as the original parts of the franchise that focused on Lilo Pelekai and were set in Hawaii, ended with the television film Leroy & Stitch, which aired on June 23, 2006.

On August 30, 2005, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, another direct-to-video sequel to the film, was released. In this film (set between Lilo & Stitch and Stitch! The Movie), Stitch has a glitch because his molecules were never fully charged (this is contrary to an original 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 mother 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. The Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch DVD also contained a short film, The Origin of Stitch, that served as a bridge between Stitch Has a Glitch and Stitch! The Movie.

In March 2008, Disney announced an anime based on the Lilo & Stitch franchise aimed at the Japanese market titled Stitch!. The anime, which ran as a series from October 2008 to March 2011, features a Japanese girl named Yuna Kamihara in place of Lilo, and is set on a fictional island in Okinawa Prefecture instead of Hawaii. This series was produced by Madhouse for its first two seasons, and Shin-Ei Animation for its third season and two post-series specials in 2012 and 2015.

From March 27 to April 6, 2017, an English-language Chinese animated television series based on the franchise titled Stitch & Ai aired in China with a Mandarin Chinese dub. It was produced by Anhui Xinhua Media and Panimation Hwakai Media. Like with the Stitch! anime, it features a local girl named Wang Ai Ling instead of Lilo, and is set in the Huangshan mountains. Unlike Stitch!, however, this series was originally produced in English in co-operation with American animators (including those who worked on Lilo & Stitch: The Series) and then dubbed into Mandarin Chinese; the original English production aired in Southeast Asia during February 2018.

## **2002 DVD Menu**

Scene Selection: 1. Jumba's Trial

2. Stitch Escapes

3. "Where Is He?"

4. Jumba's Deal

5. Main Title ("He Mele No Lilo")

6. Cobra's Visit

7. Fight

8. Bedtime Wish

9. Stitch Meets Truck

10. Lilo Adopts Stitch

11. Island Escape

12. Dysfunctional Angel

13. Luau Dinner

14. New Puppy Comes Home

15. Bedtime

16. Ugly Duckling

17. Model Citizen

18. Surfing ("Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride")

19. Stitch Drowns

20. Aftermath On The Beach

21. Aloha 'Oe

22. "I'm Lost"

23. "We're Fired"

24. Jumba Attacks

25. Nani Loses Custody

26. Gantu Captures Lilo

27. 'Ohana Means Family

28. Rescue

29. "This Is My Family"

30. Hawaii Forever/End Credits

Set-Up: AUDIO OPTIONS:

English 5.1 Dolby Digital

French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

CAPTIONS:

English for the Hearing Impaired

DisneyPedia: Hawaii - The Islands of Aloha: Big Island of Hawai'i

Moloka'i

Lana'i

Kauai

Maui

Oahu

Games and Activities: Create Your Own Alien Experiment Game

Backstage Disney: Hula Lesson

Young Voices of Hawaii

Music and More: "Burning Love" Behind the Scenes with Wynonna

Music Video: "Can't Help Falling in Love" by A\*Teens

Bonus Features: Music Score & Songs Only Track (presented in Dolby Digital 5.1)

Dialogue and Sound Effects Only Track (presented in Dolby Digital 5.1)

Audio Commentary

Behind the Scenes: The Look of Lilo and Stitch

Animating the Hula

On Set with the Directors

Deleted Scenes: Stitch's Trial (Fully Restored)

Gantu's Challenge

Bedtime Story (Fully Restored)

The Untimely Death of Pudge the Fish

Model Citizen: Mayhem on the Beach (Fully Restored)

Jumba Attacks (Fully Restored)

The 747 Sequence with Stitch's Gang

The 747 Sequence (Fully Restored)

Theatrical Teaser Trailers: Beauty and the Beast

Aladdin

The Little Mermaid

The Lion King

Sneak Peeks: Jungle Book II

Country Bears

Atlantis: Milo's Return

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure

Inspector Gadget II

Stitch's New Movie

Sleeping Beauty

Walt Disney World

Kim Possible