When you talk about the classic Disney movies, Lilo & Stitch is generally forgotten about. Most Disney fans don’t it on the same level as the other Disney movies we watched while growing up like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Mulan, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, etc. But I believe Lilo & Stitch was just as important as those movies, if not mor🅠e so. It was an original idea that Disney developed instead of being a retelling of a fairy tale or some other story, which all of those other movies are. It was also set in a place that does not have a lot of mainstream stories to call its own. Hawaii is almost a forgotten state in the United States, due to the fact that it is not on the “mainland.” To see a story set there was reaꦑlly interesting and different to me.
Not only was the story very unique and different, but the music was different as well. The movie used native Hawaiian music, which was som♛ething that I had never heard before. The animation also almost looked like a cross between standard 2D animation that had been so popular in previous Disney movies, as well as the 3D animation that was beginning to take over. I couldn’t get enough of it.
In this list, I thought it would be fun to look at the many interesting secrets in Lilo & Stitch that most fans missed, and to educat🥃e the readers on one of my favorite Disney films.
25 ꦡ Boeing 747 ꦡ
In the climax of the movie, Jumba can be seen flying around in a huge red spaceship that looks very similar to an airplane. This is because in the original edit of the film, it WAS an airplane! In the original edit, the writers and animators had Jumba hijacking a Boeing 747 from the Lihue airport and crashing it into build♌ings throughout Honolulu.
Unfortunately, the movie came out right after 9/11/2001. The animators felt this was much too close to the attacks that happened on September 11th, so they remodeled Jumba’s spaceship to look a bit different than a Boeing 747, and also changed the buildings to mountains. Can you imagine the backlash if this scene was allowed to remain in its 🦹original version? Changing it was definitely a good idea.
24 👍 Travelling To Hawaii
Since Lilo & Stitch had a𒐪 very unique setting in Hawaii, it makes perfect sense that the animators would want to showcase this as much🅺 as they could. In doing this, they used real life Hawaiian backgrounds during the movie that can be easily recognized by people in the know.
All of the landscapes in the movie are recognizable locations in Hawaii!
The animators also included a scene of Lilo and Stitch riding a bicycle around the island in the beginning of the movie, and during this scene is one of the best ins🙈tances of viewers being able to see all the beautiful Hawaiian landscapes that were used as inspiration for the movie. You can also see many recognizable locations during the closing sequence of the film.
23 Pulp Fiction 🔯
In the movie, there is a very intimidating CIA agent named Cobra Bubbles. Cobra Bubbles is assigned to Lilo as a social worker, since her older sister is the only one who can look after her. Cobra Bubbles also has the backstory of being involved in the Roswell alien incident when he was in the CIA, which definitely makes sense for Lilo & Stitch. The voice actor for🌠 Cobra Bubble🅺s is none other than Ving Rhames.
You may know Ving Rhames from a small film called Pulp Fiction in which he played a hardened gangster named Marsellus Wallace. You may also realize that Cobra Bubbles bears a striking resemblance to Marsellus Wallace. This was done on purpose! Cobra Bubbles was modeled after the character that Ving Rhames played in Pulp Fiction, even down to both c💞haracters having the same earring, in the same place!
22 🦩 Classic Trailers
Not only was the setting and plot of the movie unique, Lilo & Stitch was also very unique in the way that Disney promoted the movie. Disney released a set of trailers in which they inserted the character of Stitch into some of their more “cla🦋ssic” films.
I remember seeing these trailers as a kid and absolutely loving them!
Some examples of the movies they inserted Stitch into, are as follows: The Little Mermaid; Stitch surfs on a wave that crashes down onto Ariel. Beauty and the Beast; Stitch can be seen loosening the chandelier during the ballroom dance scene and it almost lands on Beast and Belle. Aladdin; he steals Jasmine away during their magic carpet ride. The Lion King; Stitch is on Pride Rock ﷽instead of Simba. Now that’s cle♍ver marketing!
21 ꦿ The Disney D
We all know that Disney loves hiding “easter eggs” in their movies, and of course Lilo & Stitch is no different. In the beginning of the ꦫfilm, Stitch is taken to a trial because his creator is arrested for illegal genetic experimentation in creating hi♕m. It is during this trial that we can see a hidden Disney logo!
Disney just loves hiding their own logo in their movies, don’t they? During the trial, when the main council woman asks Stitch if he knows what is going on, and to provide a sign that he does, Sti💝tch responds by licking the inside of his glass cage. The saliva trail that he leaves behind on the glass cage is in the shape of the “D” in the world famous Disney logo!
20 No Pupils? 🐻
The character design of Stitch actually made it hard for the animators of Lilo & Stitch, because he was designed without pupils. ౠThis caused Stitch to be hard to read. You could not ꦉtell what emotions he was feeling because you could not read it in his eyes.
The way the animators fixed this problem was very creative.
They decided to make Stitch a very physical character. And to express himself through his slapstick style of comedy. This largely got around the problem of Stitch not having pupils, because you could now tell what emotions he was feeling through his body language and physical characterization. I ha♒ve to say it worked perfectly! It’s never good to have a character, especially a main one, to which people can’t relate.
19 🔯 Life In The Mob 🎀
Stitch originally had a much different role in the first edit of the script of Lilo & Stitch. Stitch was planned 𝄹to be an intergalactic gangstꦿer who flees to Earth, and Jumba was planned to be a disgruntled member of Stitch’s crew who chases after him after being left behind during a heist gone wrong! The movie would have been vastly different had this been the case.
The writers, however, felt that Stitch was not a very sympathetic character as a hardened gangster. So they changed him to be much younger, and also changed him into an experiment instead of a criminal. They also changed Jumba from a disgruntled gang member into the scient𝄹ist who created ♔Stitch. I think the movie is much better because of these changes.
18 The Childrenꦫ's Book
Did you know that the character of Stitch was actually created way back in 1985? It’s true! Most people think Lilo & Stitch was created all at one time by Disney, just for the 2002 film, but that’s not the case. St𒁏itch was created by one of the directors of the film named Chris Sanders for a childr🌃en’s book he was writing.
The children’s book was never published, and Stitch was made into a movie 17 years later.
Chris Sanders was not only one of the directors of Lilo & Stitch, but he was also a co-screenwriter, a co-character designer, and also provided the voice acting for Stitc🌞h. I think it’s amazing that a character Sanders created in 1985 made it all the way to 2002 and had a movie made about him! It just goes to show, never give up!
17 🐼 Trying Something New
After the classic Disney movies had released, Disney found themselves in a downturn as far as successful films go. They released large budget movies like The Emperor’s New Groove, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which now are basically seen ♈as cult classics. But when they were released, they were not very popular. Disney decided to try a much different tactic.
They decided to try a lower budget film with a much smaller scale. This film was Lilo & Stitch. They had actually already done this before with the movie, Dumbo, and it worked flawlessly. Dumbo was released with a smaller budget and smaller scale than previous movies, Pinocchio and Fantasia. The idea was very successful and Lilo & Stitch has been a popular movie ever since.
16 Leaไrning The Hula
Since Lilo & Stitch is set in Hawaii, the animators wanted to use native Hawaiian dances in the movie. The native Hawaiian dance is called the hula, and it is a very complex dance form with many hand motions, hip sways, and chants. The animators had trouble getting the dance right, so they decided to travel to a hulau, a hula sch🌼ool in Hawaii.
The animators studied the hula dancers closely at the hulau.
They then animated the dances in the movie based on the sequences they captured at the hulau. I think this made the mo𝔉vie much more authentic.♓ Rather than just trying to animate it the best they could, they actually filmed native Hawaiians for the film, which made it look much more realistic.