Lilo & Stitch
From The Unofficial DisneyWiki
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Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 animated feature about a young Hawaiian girl who befriends Stitch, a mischievous blue alien that crash-landed on Earth. Stitch comes to understand the concept of 'ohana (family) and has great adventures with Lilo.
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[edit] Plot
Lilo is an orphan who lives with her nineteen-year-old sister Nani. She enjoys taking photographs (especially of corpulent tourists), listening to Elvis, and playing with voodoo dolls. Lilo and Nani fight a bit as siblings sometimes do. They truly love each other, though, and are determined to stay together as family.
Seeing that Lilo is lonely, Nani suggests that they adopt a puppy. Lilo chooses Stitch when she sees that he can talk. Stitch is actually a blue alien who can retract some of his body parts and make himself look more like an animal, a cross between a koala and a puppy. Stitch was created by Jumba, a mad scientist who had made 625 other experiments. When Stitch is considered dangerous and is to be exiled on an asteroid, he steals the big red battleship and escapes to Earth, eventually landing in Hawaii. Jumba and Pleakley are sent to capture Stitch. They fail to do so, and Gantu finally arrives in his spaceship to take Stitch. The Grand Councilwoman, who originally ordered him exiled, says that Stitch has found his family.
[edit] Voice Cast
[edit] Production
Originally, Chris Sanders, Director and the voice of Stitch, began work in 1985, going so far as sketching what his vision of Stitch would look like. This was around the same time he was working with the Jim Hensons' Muppet Babies.
At first, Lilo & Stitch was planned to be set in Kansas, allowing Stitch to interact with other characters without devastating major civilization around him[1]. The decision to make the setting on the Hawaiian Islands was ground-breaking, as no other animated feature had been set there before. It is also only the sixth Disney animated feature to be set in the modern times, the last being Oliver & Company 14 years before.
While researching the landscape, the animation team went to Kaua'i, taking a tour around the island. While doing so, their tour guide explained the concept of 'ohana, which translates to 'extended family'. This would come to be a large part of the movie's theme.
[edit] Box Office
Domestically, Lilo & Stitch grossed $145 million, opening with $35,260,212 at second place, less than half a million dollars behind the number one Minority Report.[2]
| Weekend | Gross | Rank | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $35,260,212 | 2 | $35,260,212 |
| 2 | $21,515,886 | 3 | $77,086,002 |
| 3 | $12,636,421 | 3 | $103,018,879 |
| 4 | $8,024,738 | 7 | $118,411,367 |
| 5 | $4,973,660 | 9 | $128,431,916 |
[edit] Awards
At the 2003 Academy Awards, Lilo & Stitch was nominated for Best Animated Feature, losing the Oscar to Spirited Away. At the Annie Awards (Animation Awards), Lilo and Stitch was nominated for 10 Annie's, with the only winner being Daveigh Chase for her Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production.
[edit] Sequels & TV Series
The success of Lilo & Stitch paved the way for the direct-to-DVD sequels as well as a TV series.
- Stitch! The Movie (2003) gave much of the exposition for the TV show that was to follow. It tells how Dr. Jumba and Dr. Hämsterviel created Experiment 626, as well as the 625 mishaps before him. After a fiasco, started by Dr. Hämsterviel wanting to collect his remaining experiments, Experiment 625 is activated from the dehydrated pod he'd been stored in. While having the same powers and strength, this experiment has a strange fascination with sandwiches. The 57 minute film ends with Dr. Hämsterviel arrested, the other pods falling into water and the start of Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
- Lilo & Stitch: The Series ran from 2003 to 2006, for a total of 65 episodes. In each episode, Lilo and Stitch searched for other experiments Dr. Jumba had created, now having turned into a live Experiment. Keeping the 'ohana theme, they searched for the Experiments on their Hawaiian island, turning them from good to bad by finding the place for them to belong. Searching for the experiments can only last so long, and thus begins Leroy and Stitch.
- Leroy and Stitch (2006) ended the TV Series and the franchise of Lilo & Stitch (as of 9/2009). After all the experiments have had their place found for them, Captain Gantu, who is still bitter from his inability to capture the other Experiments and Stitch, decides to free Dr. Hämsterviel from prison. They go to Dr. Jumba, who has his laboratory in working order again, and order him to create Leroy. Dr. Hämsterviel and Leroy, plus many other Leroy clones, proceed to attempt to kidnap and destroy the other experiments. In a fabulous Deus Ex Machina, Dr. Jumba remembers he installed a shut-down command when the Elvis Presley song Aloha 'Oe is played. It works, and Dr. Hästerviel and Leroy, plus many other Leroy clones, are sent back to prison. This leaves no other sequels to be made, so Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch is made.
- Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) served as a interquel to Lilo & Stitch and Stitch! The Movie. Unfortunately, Stitch has missed a much needed molecular charge when he was created, thus creating a glitch where he goes on a hapless rampage at odd times. Straining the relationship between Lilo, who's sounding much more like Dakota Fanning and less like Daveigh Chase, and nearly suffering an unhappy ending, this movie was much more grave than comedic.
[edit] Advertising
[edit] Trivia
[edit] References
- ↑ Hana Hou - The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines. Disney Goes Hawaiian. Retrieved on 4 September, 2009.
- ↑ Lilo & Stitch Box Office Results. Box Office Gross.
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