Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Lilo & Stitch (2002) Directed By: * Chris Sanders Dean DeBlois Produced By: Clark Spencer Story writer: Chris Sanders Written By: * Chris Sanders Dean DeBlois Starring: * Daveigh Chase Chris SandersTemplate:Efn Tia Carrere Ving Rhames David Ogden Stiers Kevin McDonald Jason Scott Lee Zoe Caldwell Kevin Michael Richardson Music composer: Alan Silvestri Production studio: Walt Disney Feature Animation Distributed By: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Release Date: June 21, 2002 Runtime: 85 minutes Country: United States Language: English Budget: $80 million Box Office: $273.1 million

Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. It was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois in their directorial debuts, and produced by Clark Spencer, based on an original story created by Sanders. It stars Daveigh Chase and Sanders as the voices of the title characters, respectively, with the voices of Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, Zoe Caldwell, and Kevin Michael Richardson in supporting roles. It was the second of three Disney animated feature films produced primarily at the Florida animation studio in Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.

Plot

On planet Turo, the United Galactic Federation convicts Dr. Jumba Jookiba of illegal genetic experimentation; he has created Experiment 626, an aggressive and near-indestructible creature with advanced learning capabilities. Experiment 626 is escorted by Captain Gantu for exile, but 626 escapes and hijacks a space cruiser that crash-lands on Kauaʻi, Hawaii, on the planet Earth. Shortly after landing on Earth, 626 is run over 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.

Cast

• Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai
• Chris Sanders as Stitch
• Tia Carrere as Nani Pelekai
• Jason Scott Lee as David Kawena.
• David Ogden Stiers as Dr. Jumba Jookiba
• Kevin McDonald as Agent Pleakley
• Ving Rhames as Cobra Bubbles
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Captain Gantu
• Zoe Caldwell as the Grand Councilwoman
• Miranda Paige Walls as Mertle Edmonds
• Kunewa Mook as Moses Puloki
• Amy Hill as Mrs. Hasagawa
• Susan Hegarty as Rescue Lady

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." He found condensing the story to be difficult, though, 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 created storyboard 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 pre-existing 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, nonurban 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 want to get the best contrast between this monster and the place where it lives, I would recommend you set it in a human world." Sanders eventually, albeit inadvertently, revisited his idea of a creature bonding with animals in a forest years later with DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot (2024).

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

"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."

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). 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.