Lilo & Stitch Promotional Poster for Lilo & Stitch Directed by Dean DeBlois Chris Sanders Produced by Clark Spencer Written by Dean DeBlois Chris Sanders Starring Daveigh Chase Chris Sanders Tia Carrere Kevin McDonald Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures Release date June 21, 2002 Running time 85 minutes Awards 2002 Oscar for Best Animated Feature (Nominated) Language English Budget $80,000,000 Preceded by Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) Followed by Treasure Planet (2002) IMDb profile Lilo & Stitch is an animated film and the forty-first film in the Disney animated features canon. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on June 21, 2002. Lilo & Stitch was also the second of three Disney animated features produced primarily at its animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. The film was rated PG for mild sci-fi action. Contents 1 Plot 2 Parodies and references 3 Setting 4 Soundtrack 5 Box office, spin-offs, and sequels 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links Plot Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. An extra-terrestrial mad scientist named Dr. Jumba Jookiba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers) is imprisoned for illegally experimenting and creating creatures to cause chaos and destruction. His latest experiment is Number 626: a cute, little, blue alien who is deceptively strong, fast, intelligent, and destructive. On his way to a penal colony, 626 escapes and crash lands on a small Hawaiian island on Earth. Masquerading as a dog, 626 is adopted by a little girl named Lilo Pelekai (voiced by Daveigh Chase) who is living with her sister Nani (voiced by Tia Carrere) after their parents died in a car accident. Lilo is lonely and a bit of an outcast until she finds a new friend in 626, whom she names "Stitch" (voiced by Chris Sanders). She treasures a doll (which she made herself) named Scrump and a photo of her family. Lilo tries to teach Stitch to behave using Elvis Presley and his music as a model for good behavior. Despite Lilo's somewhat successful attempts to modify Stitch's behavior, his destructive tendencies makes life especially difficult for everyone, especially Nani. Since they are constantly being monitored by social worker Cobra Bubbles (voiced by Ving Rhames), Lilo is at risk of being placed in foster care if their living conditions do not improve. Nani is attempting to provide a stable home environment for Lilo by finding steady employment Making matters even more difficult for Lilo and Nani are Jumba and Galactic Agent Pleakley (voiced by Kevin McDonald) attempts to capture Stitch. After their failure and subsequent dismissal, a whale-like alien named Captain Gantu (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) is assigned to capture Stitch. Throughout the movie, the message provided tells the audience that family must stick together in all cases, however difficult. It also stresses the importance of Lilo and Nani's Hawaiian culture and how it must be kept alive. Furthermore, it is also meant to remind children of the importance of good behavior as well as adults that not all children are "rotten to the core", and that every child has some goodness deep inside. Early in the film, Disney decided that "Stitch" had absolutely no goodness in him because of his destructive tendencies and is labeled "Public Nuisance No.1", a pun on "Public Enemy No.1" which may or may not be an exaggeration of the way some parents (and other adults) think of their or any children because of their "tendencies" to "misbehave" and "cause trouble" (as Stitch does in this movie), leading to the possibility that the film may have also been conceived as a metaphor for domestic family life with the intention of presenting a moral to both child and adult viewers (previously stated). Parodies and references A 1985 concept sketch of Stitch by creator Chris Sanders. The teaser trailers for this film parody trailers for other recent Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King (two of these were animated by Sanders). They begin like actual scenes from the movies they parody, until Stitch comes in and disrupts the action. These are called "Inter-Stitch-als" and are featured on the official site. The Little Mermaid trailer, in particular, was the most difficult to parody as it wasn't animated in the CAPS system and had to be cleaned up by hand. The original actors were brought back to reprise their roles and were shocked when asked to act negatively towards Stitch. Social Worker Cobra Bubbles, formerly of the CIA, is obviously one of the mysterious "Men in Black" (of urban legends and a couple of hit movies) who work to prevent an alien takeover of Earth and to persuade humans that aliens do not exist. Some of the aliens on the Federation spaceship bear resemblances to classic Disney characters, including Piglet and Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh series of films and television programs. Agent Pleakley, for instance, appears to have been patterned after the walking brooms from the Fantasia sequence, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Others resemble Earth animals, such as the Grand Councilwoman, who resembles a kind of Hadrosaur, Stitch's "warden," who looks like a hammerhead shark, and an unnamed crewmember with a Y-shaped horn resembling that of a prehistoric Brontotherium. Items in the backgrounds of both Lilo and Nani's room reference other Disney movies. Lilo has a stuffed Dumbo doll on her art easel while Nani has a movie poster for Mulan in her room. In addition to these items, a restaurant called "Mulan Wok" can be seen during the scene where Stitch sees the black and white footage of a spider destroying a city in a shop-window television. The directors previously worked on Mulan beforehand. Famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and his film Kiki's Delivery Service is given a nod by the appearance of a "Kiki's Coffee House." At the end of the movie, snapshots of the future "family" life of Stitch with Lilo and the others are presented, with each of the still pictures being variations of classic images like famous Norman Rockwell illustrations. Spoilers end here. Setting The hula sequence in Lilo & Stitch plays a key role in establishing the movie's Hawaiian setting. 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. A decision to change the film's setting to the Hawaiian island of Kauai was an important choice in defining the plot more clearly. No other feature-length animated movie had ever taken place on any of the Hawaiian islands before. In Sanders' words: "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." While the animation team visited Kauai to research the locale, their tour guide explained the meaning of ohana as it applies to extended families. This concept of ohana 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 ohana, 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 Kauai 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 and other Westerners lived during the recent economic downturn, with the island's serene beauty. To give a brighter image to the film, the studio used watercolors to paint the backgrounds. This technique had not been used since Dumbo in 1941. Due to the production schedules, which have continuously tightened since Dumbo, watercolors were risky; one wrong stroke could ruin a piece, and with some 1,200 backgrounds for this movie, there was no time available to waste. Opaque gouache and acrylic paint, the current industry standards, are much more forgiving than watercolor because they let an artist paint over his mistakes. Using watercolors, the Disney artists had to carefully plan a background before they began working on it so as to avoid mistakes. Sanders and the studio's Backgrounds Department searched for easier ways to get the bright look, but finally decided that traditional watercolors were the proper way to go, and had the Orlando crew trained in the technique. Soundtrack Lilo & Stitch draws largely from Hawaiian culture and makes extensive use of typical features of Hawaiian music such as the slack-key guitar and hula dancing. Because of Lilo's infatuation with Elvis Presley, some of the songs used in the movie (such as "Hound Dog" and "Suspicious Minds") were also included on the soundtrack. Hawaiian hula teacher and chanter Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu wrote and sang two songs especially for this film, "Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride" and "He Mele No Lilo", which he performed together with The Kamehameha Schools Children's Chorus. The score material was composed by Alan Silvestri. Box office, spin-offs, and sequels The film debuted at number two in the box office (behind Minority Report) grossing $35 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross a total of $140 million, making it one of the most successful Disney film openings since The Lion King. The film also was a spark of hope in the twilight of a series of early 2000's Disney traditional animation flops (The Emperor's New Groove and Atlantis: The Lost Empire). Due to its financial success, Disney created a franchise from the Lilo & Stitch film. Following the release of a direct-to-video feature titled Stitch! The Movie, the Disney Channel began airing Lilo & Stitch: The Series as a weekly series starting in the autumn of 2003. A second direct-to-video feature, titled Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, was released in 2005. This movie features a trailer for another spin-off film called Leroy & Stitch. The movie will come out in summer 2006 after the remaining episodes of Lilo and Stitch air and will wrap up the entire franchise. The timeline of the franchise: Lilo and Stitch (The discovery of Stitch and his decision to live with Lilo along with Pleakly and Jumba), Stitch Has a Glitch (A more personal story involving Stitchs malfunction), Stitch The Movie! (The discovery and release of the other 625 experiments), Lilo and Stitch the series (The capturing of the missing experiments), Leroy and Stitch (Parting ways and the capture of 629). Trivia Sora and Stitch in Kingdom Hearts II. Lilo & Sttich is one of the few animated feature films to use watercolor paintings for its backgrounds. Stitch is featured as a summon character in Kingdom Hearts II, appearing in Hollow Bastion and participates in the war scene. This film was originally scheduled for release in 2003. Disney Adventures originally ran comics predating the movie, and gave a little information on Lilo's character and Stitch's history. Mertle Edmonds was either mistakenly called Jenny or renamed from Jenny during the film's production. Experiment 625 was exactly in the comics as he was in the series, with the exception the fur color. This may have been because the Lilo and Stitch series was planned, but it is more likely that the character was pulled into the TV series once it was put into production. In the comics, the experiments were completely harmless and beared little/no resemblence to Stitch. This was changed to add some decent conflict to the series. In comics created after the series, new experiments were added but not numbered to lessen the chance of continuity mistakes. The original plan for the ending of Lilo & Stitch was completely changed due to the September 11, 2001 attacks. [1][2] The original ending featured Stitch stealing a 747 then joyriding among the office and hotel towers of Honolulu; the revised ending uses a spaceship racing through clouds and through a tight valley with Dr. Jumba (the gradually friendlier mad scientist) at the controls while Stitch steals a full tanker truck and rides it down the crater of a volcano. This original un-edited version is set to be included on the upcoming special edition DVD release. Lilo and Stitch is the sixth Disney animated feature to take place in the present day, following Oliver & Company. In the movie, Jumba says that Stitch was programmed to, among other things, "Steal everyone's left shoe." In Lilo and Stitch: The Series, it is revealed what he was programmed to do with them when Keoni finds Stitch eating one of his tennis shoes and Lilo reassures him, "Don't worry, he only eats the left ones." At one point, the Lilo and Stitch promotional poster was lenticular. One image had Stitch in his dog form, the other has Stitch in his experiment form. See also Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lilo & Stitch Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu - singer prominently featured on the soundtrack Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 - a video game Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch Stitch! The Movie Lilo & Stitch: The Series Leroy & Stitch List of experiments from Lilo & Stitch: The Series Stitch's Great Escape! - A Disney theme park ride starring Stitch Leroy (Lilo and Stitch character) Elvis Presley - Lilo's idol and frequently mentioned person. References Drawn and Quartered, from Star Bulletin Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories From the Film's Creators, 2002. Disney Editions. ISBN 0786853824. This book consists of a series of essays by the film's makers, an unusual format for a book in this genre. External links Lilo And Stitch at the SaveDisneyShows.org Forums Lilo & Stitch at the Big Cartoon DataBase Lilo & Stitch at the Keyframe - the Animation Resource Lilo & Stitch at the Internet Movie Database Lilo & Stitch Lilo & Stitch | Stitch! The Movie | The Series (episodes) | Stitch Has a Glitch | Leroy & Stitch Characters: Human: Lilo Pelekai | Nani | David Kawena | Mertle Edmonds | Cobra Bubbles Alien: Jumba Jookiba | Pleakley | Gantu | Dr. Hämsterviel | Grand Councilwoman Experiments: Sparky | Angel | Reuben | Stitch | 627| Leroy | all experiments Disney theatrical animated features Official canon (Walt Disney Animated Classics) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) • Pinocchio (1940) • Fantasia (1940) • Dumbo (1941) • Bambi (1942) • Saludos Amigos (1942) • The Three Caballeros (1944) • Make Mine Music (1946) • Fun and Fancy Free (1947) • Melody Time (1948) • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) • Cinderella (1950) • Alice in Wonderland (1951) • Peter Pan (1953) • Lady and the Tramp (1955) • Sleeping Beauty (1959) • One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) • The Sword in the Stone (1963) • The Jungle Book (1967) • The Aristocats (1970) • Robin Hood (1973) • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) • The Rescuers (1977) • The Fox and the Hound (1981) • The Black Cauldron (1985) • The Great Mouse Detective (1986) • Oliver & Company (1988) • The Little Mermaid (1989) • The Rescuers Down Under (1990) • Beauty and the Beast (1991) • Aladdin (1992) • The Lion King (1994) • Pocahontas (1995) • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) • Hercules (1997) • Mulan (1998) • Tarzan (1999) • Fantasia 2000 (1999) • The Emperor's New Groove (2000) • Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) • Lilo & Stitch (2002) • Treasure Planet (2002) • Brother Bear (2003) • Home on the Range (2004) • Chicken Little (2005) • Meet the Robinsons (2007) • American Dog (2008) • Rapunzel Unbraided (2009) Live-action films with animation The Reluctant Dragon (1941) • Victory Through Air Power (1943) • Song of the South (1946) • So Dear to My Heart (1949) • Mary Poppins (1964) • Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) • Pete's Dragon (1977) • Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) • Enchanted (2007) DisneyToons Studio animated features DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) • A Goofy Movie (1995) • Doug's 1st Movie (1999) • The Tigger Movie (2000) • Recess: School's Out (2001) • Return to Never Land (2002) • The Jungle Book 2 (2003) • Piglet's Big Movie (2003) • Teacher's Pet (2004) • Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005) Other theatrical animated features Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons (1937) • The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) • James and the Giant Peach (1996) • Dinosaur (2000)  See also: Kingdom Hearts series, Pixar, and Don Bluth Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilo_%26_Stitch" Categories: Lilo & Stitch | 2002 films | Animated comedy films | Comedy science fiction films | Disney animated features canon