Lilo & Stitch (2002 film) (A Brighter Millennium Dawn)

Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film was set in Hawaii. The film's story is about two highly eccentric and mischievous individuals: a Hawaiian human girl named Lilo Pelekai, whose parents died in a car accident, and an extraterrestrial creature originally named Experiment 626, who gets adopted by Lilo as her "dog" called "Stitch". Stitch, who is genetically engineered by his creator to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses her to avoid being captured by an intergalactic federation, but the two individuals develop a close bond through ʻohana, a Hawaiian concept of extended family. This bond causes him to reconsider and later defy his intended destructive purpose in order to keep his newfound family together. 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. 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. that were produced primarily at the Walt Disney Animation Florida studio in Disney's Hollywood Studios (then named "Disney-MGM Studios" during its production) at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States. It was released on June 21, 2002 (it is not pulled from the movies on September 11, 2001 nor altered post release).

## **Plot**

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.

## **Production**

Production Started Date: August 5, 1999. Production End Date: May 2001 to late Summer/Fall 2001.

### **Development**

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. 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 had to now develop a concept that featured the character in an animated film.[6] The storyline required a remote, non-urban location, so the movie was originally intended to take place in Kansas. Sanders's 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. In Sanders's words:

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.

### **Writing**

Dean DeBlois, who had served as "story co-head" in Mulan (1998), 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 film's pre-production team remained relatively small and isolated from upper management until the film went into full production.

The character and set designs were based upon Sanders's personal artistic style.

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 those from 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, were Tia Carrere, a local of Honolulu, and Jason Scott Lee, who is of Hawaiian descent and was raised in Hawaii. The voice actors assisted with rewriting the Hawaiian characters' dialogue in the proper colloquial dialect, and also with the task of adding Hawaiian slang terms.

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

### **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. 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), Pinocchio (1940), and Dumbo (1941), 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 lacked funds to incorporate computer generated imagery. The character designs were based around Sanders's personal drawing style, eschewing the traditional Disney house 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 the use of shadows for more pivotal scenes.

The film's extraterrestrial elements, Act III of Lilo and Stitch involved the commandeering of a Boeing 747 jet as part of the attempt to rescue Lilo.  It also involved a chase that had the Boeing 747 jet flying on a wingtip between the buildings in Honolulu, and the use of the landing gear down against a curved glass hotel to turn the plane. 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. This chase sequence was fully into color as production, and the production was animated and completed. the business is never closed on September 10, 2001. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center Continue to Exist, Michael Jordan returned to basketball. Today, 2,977 people continue their lives as normal. The Pentagon finds the missing $2.3 trillion in transactions after a day of searching. Flights 11, 175 and 77 reach Los Angeles International Airport on time and Flight 93 reaches San Francisco Int'l Airport early on September 11, 2001.