Hard to believe, but this year marks the 20th anniversary of 'Lilo & Stitch', a touching animated film about a lonely girl and a lonely alien who found each other in a big, big galaxy. In honor of this event, we've gathered all the interesting and fun facts about the film in one article. Enjoy!

About the Plot

Few people know that the original plot of the beloved 'Lilo & Stitch' was supposed to be completely different. As originally conceived, Stitch was a hardened intergalactic gangster who, during one of his raids, abandoned a member of his gang, Jumba. Throughout the film, Jumba was supposed to try to get revenge on his former leader, and in the third act, the climax was that it was the accomplices who arrived on Earth in search of Stitch.

Moreover, the location for all this mayhem was planned to be a small, remote town in Texas, not the island of Kauai that audiences came to love. One of the directors, Chris Sanders, decided to move the setting for a very sentimental reason – no feature-length animated film had ever before showcased the Hawaiian Islands. Plus, he himself had visited the islands and simply fell in love with them.

And then the whole concept was reworked – the creators felt it would be easier for audiences to establish an emotional connection with someone younger than a hardened gangster. Thus, Stitch turned into a newly created artificial life form, Experiment 626, and Jumbo became his scientist-creator.

About Development and Animation

It is extremely interesting that 'Lilo & Stitch' became the first feature-length animated film from Disney Studios since 'Dumbo' in 1941 to use watercolor-painted backgrounds. This made the visuals more reminiscent of bright book illustrations and created a warmer, even pleasantly old-fashioned atmosphere, unlike the more modern-looking films from the studio at the time. By the way, a plush Dumbo can be seen in Lilo's room.

While watching 'Lilo & Stitch', you might unconsciously feel a sense of nostalgia for the studio's old films, because the design of most of the episodic aliens here was inspired by characters from Disney's 'Winnie the Pooh', including Piglet, Tigger, and Roo.

The film also features other unconventional solutions – for example, using actual footage from a live-action film in the scene where Stitch watches a movie on TV about a giant spider monster destroying a city. Or photographs of Elvis Presley, whom Lilo admired so much.

About Hawaii

The vast majority of street scenes take place in real, quite recognizable Hawaiian locations – this is especially noticeable in the shots where Stitch rides Lilo around the island of Kauai on a tricycle, as well as during the end credits.

To realistically depict the traditional Hawaiian hula dance, Disney arranged for the production team to visit one of the most famous hālau, schools of hula instruction. The scene from the very beginning of 'Lilo & Stitch' was modeled on the dances the creators observed and filmed during the trip. Interestingly, they did without the rotoscoping (tracing over footage of real dancers) popular among animators.

The team was also lucky that among the actors were two native Hawaiians, Tia Carrere (Nani, Lilo's sister) and Jason Scott Lee (David, Nani's romantic interest), who helped the screenwriters with dialogue and accents.

About Stitch

Already mentioned Chris Sanders, one of the two directors of 'Lilo & Stitch' (the other was his partner on other films, Dean DeBlois), also participated in writing the script, creating the characters, and... voiced Stitch himself. He also said that he came up with Stitch back in 1985, while sketching ideas for a children's book.

The process of bringing Stitch to life on screen was quite challenging. The thing is, the character completely lacks pupils, making it very difficult to convey his emotions. The creators tried to compensate for this feature with very expressive movements and gestures. And the wild popularity of the character is further proof that it all worked out!

Just Interesting and Fun Facts about 'Lilo & Stitch'

The name 'Lilo' translates from Hawaiian as 'Lost'. You'll agree that this beautifully echoes the themes of the film itself – let's recall at least the scene where Stitch reads about a lost duckling and waits to be found. And the title of one of the songs, 'He Mele No Lilo', can be loosely translated as 'Lullaby for Those Who Are Lost'. 'Nani', by the way, translates as 'Beautiful'.

When Stitch appears against the backdrop of the wreckage of a starship after crashing to Earth, he utters a dramatic phrase in an incomprehensible alien language. Incomprehensible in everything except one word: 'Chewbacca'.

One of the film's running gags is that the alien 'Earth expert' Pleakley constantly illustrates his knowledge using the 'View-Master' stereoscope, popular in the USA and Western Europe (during Soviet times, similar ones could be found, but made in the GDR). These stereoscopes create the illusion of a 3D image because each eye sees a slightly different picture. However, Pleakley is a representative of a one-eyed race, so he certainly cannot appreciate any 3D effect. Particularly funny is the moment when Pleakley hands the stereoscope to Jumba, who has four eyes. It's a subtle joke, but those who notice it will certainly appreciate it.