Lilo & Stitch Guide - Production Notes
"Lilo & Stitch" Production Information
There’s trouble – and plenty of laughter – in paradise when a lonely Hawaiian girl named Lilo wishes upon a falling star for someone to be her friend and the galaxy’s most mischievous alien answers her call in Walt Disney Pictures’ delightful new animated comedy, “Lilo & Stitch. ” Combining unforgettable characters, an imaginative and offbeat story, and colorful artistry (including the Studio’s first major use of watercolor backgrounds in a feature in six decades), the film follows Lilo’s close encounter with Stitch, an out-ofcontrol genetic experiment who has escaped from an alien planet and crash-landed on Earth. Posing as a small strange-looking “dog,” Stitch is adopted by Lilo and leaves a wide path of chaos in his wake. Through her love, faith and unwavering belief in ‘ohana (the Hawaiian word and concept for family), Lilo helps unlock Stitch’s heart and give him the one thing he was never designed to have – a family. With its lush tropical settings, quirky sense of humor, and classic songs by Elvis Presley, “Lilo & Stitch” takes moviegoers on an entertaining excursion across an animated universe. This is the second feature film to be produced at Disney’s Florida Feature Animation facility, which had previously created the 1998 animated favorite, “Mulan.”
Adding a unique and entertaining element to “Lilo & Stitch” is a rocking soundtrack fit for a “King” – Elvis Presley, that is. Included in the film are six of Elvis’ biggest hits, sung by Elvis himself, as well as an exciting new recording of the Elvis hit “Burning Love,” newly recorded by Grammy Award-nominated country singer Wynonna. Another Elvis favorite, “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” is heard over the end credits in a new rendition performed by popular Swedish vocal group A*Teens. Acclaimed composer Alan Silvestri (an Oscar® nominee for “Forrest Gump”) added to the fun and fantasy of the film’s wild and unpredictable proceedings with his original score, and collaborated with renowned hula master/performer Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu on two Hawaiian-themed songs. The latter are performed by members of the Kamehameha School Children’s Chorus.
Guiding “Lilo & Stitch” from inception through production was the writing/directing team of Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois. Sanders, a multi-talented contributor to Disney Feature Animation since 1987, who had previously storyboarded key sequences in “Beauty and the Beast,” served as production designer on “The Lion King” and was head of story on “Mulan,” came up with the original idea for the film. DeBlois, who had previously teamed with Sanders as co-head of story on “Mulan,” brought his story and layout expertise to this project. Sanders and DeBlois had the distinction of storyboarding their own screenplay, instead of the more common practice of turning that task over to a story team. In this way, the filmmakers’ vision for the project remained constant and provided the animators and creative team with clear direction every step of the way.
The film’s producer was Clark Spencer, a 12-year Disney veteran who joined the Studio in the planning and finance area and had most recently served as senior vice president and general manager of Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. Lisa Poole served as associate producer. Artistic coordinator Jeff Dutton lent his creative and managerial skills to help the production maximize its resources and realize the greatest results on screen.
According to Thomas Schumacher, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, “We are as proud of ‘Lilo & Stitch’ as any movie we have ever made. It is a completely original story that is enormous fun, emotionally involving, and consistently gorgeous to watch. Chris and Dean have crafted a wonderfully entertaining movie and conveyed their enthusiasm and vision to the entire team at our Florida studio. The level of artistry and animation is nothing short of fantastic and the hand-drawn animation by Andreas Deja, Alex Kupershmidt, Byron Howard and the others is a great accomplishment for the art form. The film’s lush watercolor backgrounds paint a stylized image of Hawaii that is beautiful to look at and underscores the uniqueness of this great medium.”
Key to the emotional appeal and charm of the film is a first-rate vocal cast. Daveigh Chase (now eleven years old) was cast in the pivotal role of Lilo. She auditioned for the role at an open casting call (which included 100 young girls) and gave a reading that captured the imaginations of the directors. Sanders recalls, “She had this unusual quality about her and she instinctively belted out certain lines to hit the high points. I think we knew immediately that we had found our Lilo.”
Hawaii-native Tia Carrere’s warm, sweet reading for the part of Nani also impressed the directors and landed her the role of Lilo’s beleaguered sister. Ving Rhames provided the right blend of authority and mystery that was required for the part of social worker Cobra Bubbles. David Ogden Stiers, one of Hollywood’s most versatile and talented performers and a favorite among Disney animators, expands his repertoire with his lively delivery as the evil genius, Jumba Jookiba. Kevin McDonald, of “Kids in the Hall” and “That ’70s Show” fame, speaks for the enthusiastic Earth expert, Pleakley. Jason Scott Lee (who played Mowgli in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “The Jungle Book”), also a native of Hawaii, provides the voice of Nani’s former boyfriend and surfing companion, David Kawena. Four-time Tony Award-winning actress Zoe Caldwell lends presence to the voice of the Grand Councilwoman.
Schumacher notes, “One of the central themes inside all of our animated movies is truth. And when our films are at their best, they have certain truths inside them that can come from many places. In ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ one of the great truths came from our actors Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee, who are both from Hawaii. They brought an authenticity and credibility to their characters. Their voices are fantastic and the characters are appealing, but they were also able to coach Chris and Dean as to what would be said or what might happen from a native perspective. It brought a real richness to the film.”
“Lilo & Stitch” is the second feature film to be produced at Disney’s Florida animation facility. All aspects of the production, with the exception of digital painting using the Academy Award®-winning CAPS system, were handled by a team of 300 artists, animators and technicians based at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida.
According to producer Clark Spencer, “The Florida Studio took tremendous pride in this project and provided the talent and enthusiasm that it took to get the job done. There is a great spirit there and they were very excited to prove what they could do. From the moment the production began, the artists and technicians here nurtured the project and made it their own. When we decided on short notice to create an ending montage to give a glimpse into what the future holds for the central characters, the entire team rolled up their sleeves and brought it to life.”
Helping the directors to realize their artistic vision on screen were production designer Paul Felix, art director Ric Sluiter, and background supervisor Bob Stanton. Sanders’ original drawings suggested a watercolor approach and Sluiter was quick to realize that the loose style of this medium would best capture the lush organic, overgrown and luminous feeling of the island. Working together, the artistic team experimented with watercolors and discovered new ways to make the method practical and possible for this film. The watercolor medium was commonly used in the early days at Disney on such films as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Bambi,” but the painters eventually turned to the more forgiving oil-based gouache (an opaque paint treatment) as the preferred choice. With “Lilo &Stitch,” the background team rediscovered this virtually lost art (as it related to animation) and applied it in new and exciting ways.
Among the film’s other key artistic supervisors were Arden Chan (Layout), Joe Gilland (Visual Effects), Eric Guaglione (Computer Animation), with Phillip Boyd and Christine Lawrence-Finney overseeing Clean- Up. Gilland and Guaglione found ways to seamlessly incorporate a wide range of exciting state-of-the-art CG (computer generated) elements and effects into the hand-painted watercolor world of “Lilo & Stitch.” Florida’s Digital Production and Effects team modeled and animated such diverse objects as space cruisers, ray guns, surfboards, sugar cane trucks and the imposing mothership seen in the film’s opening sequence. The effects team also came up with some amazing underwater effects and even managed to show moviegoers something that no live-action film could approximate – the inside view from the tube of a wave. Other spectacular effects in the film include lava flows, explosions and the striking imagery of Stitch’s stolen space cruiser going into hyper-drive and punching through the time/space continuum.
Set against the magnificent colorful backdrop of Hawaii, the filmmakers and a group of artistic supervisors had a field day capturing the natural beauty and incredible tropical settings of this island paradise. Sanders, DeBlois, art director Sluiter, background supervisor Stanton, animator Andreas Deja and several others packed their cameras, paintbrushes and sketchbooks and headed to Hawaii for a two-week study session. Most of the trip was spent on the island of Kauai, where the team snorkeled, scuba-dived, surfed and visited such places as Hanalei, Hanapepe, the Napali Coast, Princeville and Ke’e Beach. Days were spent at the beach and at national parks observing foliage and vegetation, lava rocks, orange sand, turquoise seascapes, vermillion mountains and incredible sunsets. Deja visited a native Hawaiian school where the language and culture of the island was emphasized.
Perhaps the most important thing that the filmmakers took away with them from this field trip was the concept of ‘ohana – the sense of family and unity that is shared by the native population. Sanders recalls, “Before we went to Hawaii, we knew about ‘ohana, but we didn’t really experience the depth of it until we went there. Wherever we went, there was a sense of community and family that extends far beyond the immediate family. Everyone was super friendly and that seemed to be a part of the native mentality. We needed a reason in our story for Stitch’s transformation from bad to good and we began to think that he would be affected by ‘ohana. This was a major revelation for us. It soaked into every aspect of the film. We began to see Stitch as the ultimate orphan and when Lilo introduces him to this idea of an extended family, he latches onto it in an extreme way. The decision we made early on to set the story in Hawaii really laid out the destiny of the film and ‘ohana was just waiting for us to discover and incorporate.”
Schumacher adds, “One of the things I love about ‘Lilo & Stitch’ is the notion that no matter who you are – a genetic experiment from another galaxy or a little girl who’s been left all alone in the world – you can find your place and make a family. You can tend to, nurture and take care of each other. I love the idea that you can go to this movie and have a really fun time but, at the same time, come away with a fantastic message like that. Chris and Dean have really gotten the values right in this film and combined it with a great fresh and fun piece of entertainment.”
Origins of the Project: A "Stitch" in Time
Chris Sanders first began thinking about a Stitchlike character nearly 17 years ago when he was just out of school and working on his first animation assignment. He drew a monstrous-looking creature and began toying with a wide range of plots to go with it. The character stayed with him over the years as he continued to search for the appropriate vehicle.
Sanders recalls, “Back in 1985, I made one drawing of Stitch in which I had partially constructed his head. After working on the story for a while, I got stuck and put it aside. Years later, while working on the story for ‘Mulan,’ I started thinking about him again. In the early versions, there was no Lilo and Stitch wasn’t an alien but rather a monstrosity that didn’t know where he came from. He was an anomaly who lived in the forest all by himself. That evolved into him being marooned on Earth for having done something really bad. Then the setting became Kansas and the story took place completely in the animal world. When I pitched it to Tom Schumacher, he suggested we should put Stitch in the human world to get more of a contrast. It was pretty much at that point that the story took off and I hooked up with Dean.”
Producer Clark Spencer remembers, “The film was originally going to take place in Kansas because it is sparsely populated and suited that aspect of the story. It happened to be around the time in the story development that Chris was planning a trip to Hawaii. As he studied the map of Hawaii, he saw all the islands spread out and surrounded by an ocean of blue. And he thought, ‘Hawaii is a very isolated location and would make a fantastic place to set the film.’ As he began to learn more about the wonderful rich culture and the history of the islands, it all began to take shape. The choice of Hawaii as a location informed a lot of different things. There’s hula dancing and surfing. There’s great native music. And there’s a spectrum of colors that you don’t get anywhere else in the world. In our film, audiences who haven’t been to the islands will also get to experience and understand a culture that is quite different than in other parts of the United States.”
DeBlois recalls, “When I first read Chris’ book presentation, I fell in love with Lilo because she was eternally forgiving and full of love. She was just looking for someone to give it to. Nani and Lilo were on this crash course destiny and barely holding it together when Stitch comes in and accelerates the destruction of the family. In so doing, he is affected by Lilo and is the only one who can pull it back together. So these two very unlikely characters end up affecting each other’s lives in ways they wouldn’t have seen coming.”
Sanders notes, “Most of the action in the film rests on Nani. She’s like the Gregory Peck character in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Everything pivots on her,storywise. All the pressure is on her. The other characters have a lot to lose but she’s the one who’s aware of it. The scene where she’s about to tell Lilo that she’s going to go away for good is a perfect example of the burden that she faces.”
From Storyboard to Screen: Directors / Screenwriters Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois Share Their Vision
Typically in creating a Disney animated feature, a story is selected, a first-draft screenplay is written and a team of story artists begin adapting the script for the visual medium as rewrites continue. Concurrently, another team of visual development artists design the characters and set pieces, while a wide variety of other artistic decisions are made concerning the production.
One of the things that help to make “Lilo &Stitch” special is the shared vision of Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. Not only did Sanders come up with the original idea for the film but he worked in close collaboration with DeBlois to write the screenplay, storyboard virtually all the scenes and dialogue, and direct the film. The duo functioned as their own heads of story, expanding on a creative partnership that had begun with “Mulan.” This process ensured that the filmmakers’ vision would remain constant throughout the many stages of production.
DeBlois explains, “We wanted to make a film that focused on the simplicity and warmth of the relationships. ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Bambi’ were our two biggest influences because of the focused story and simplistic art direction. They had a purity and nostalgia that we loved. Some recent films have pushed to achieve technical marvels and emphasize dimension. We liked the idea of abandoning some of that in favor of emphasis on the character development. We wanted to slow down the world a little bit and do away with the epic set pieces and the throngs of people so that we could deal with two characters and how they interact with one another.”
Sanders adds, “We also wanted to break some of the storytelling conventions. One of the things we set out to do from the very beginning was to let go of the idea of good and evil. That’s great if you’re doing a fairy tale, but we wanted this film to have a different feel. Our characters have more shades of gray; they aren’t all black and white. They embody human frailties. Lilo, Stitch and Nani are neither good nor bad. They’re a mixture of those things like every human being. As a result of that, we got a more subtle and interesting mix of character relationships. Our characters may say and do things that they regret, but nobody’s really bad. Cobra Bubbles is a great example of a character who is complex. He represents a major threat to what’s left of Lilo’s family, but the audience realizes that he isn’t trying to separate them out of bad or evil intentions. He’s simply doing what he’s supposed to be doing. We’re very proud of the fact that the film has a powerful emotional impact beneath its deceptively friendly look. In a sense it’s very much like ‘Bambi,’ where you don’t suspect that its going to be as powerful as it is when you first look at it.
“Lilo’s personality is a really good melding of both Dean and myself,” explains Sanders. “She’s believable because we never make her smarter than anybody else in the film. We wanted to avoid that convention too. She’s not hyper-intelligent. She is a bright little girl and very, very strange. I think she has sort of a darkness that the other little girls and characters in the film don’t really have. She’s also very sweet because she tries really hard to see where she’s making her mistakes. You can’t help but love her. Her intentions are very honest and good most of the time.”
DeBlois concludes, “Lilo is, in a way, the constant that other things bend around. She’s the one that doesn’t swerve no matter what happens to her. She always believes in family and holds on to that belief. She knows better than any of the other characters that family isn’t so much a thing as it is an idea. We embraced the idea that nothing is perfect. Relationships aren’t perfect and families aren’t always ideal. The end result is actually far from perfect in that this is always going to be a problematic family with an alien, a young guardian and an out-of-control little girl. But in the end, they’re all fused together as a family.”
Because they were devoting so much time to storyboarding the film, Sanders and DeBlois realized they were going to have to empower the various artistic supervisors to take on additional responsibilities within their areas. With the help of the film’s artistic coordinator, Jeff Dutton, the various department heads were able to work out many of their own solutions and free up the directing/screenwriting duo to concentrate on creating the story. “Jeff was like a Studio magician,” says DeBlois. “He had the weight of getting the film done on him and had to deal with the constraints of time and budget. He managed to keep everybody on track and not sacrifice anything that was important to the look of the film.”
An Animator's Dream: Bringing the Characters to Life
“Lilo & Stitch” represents the latest achievement in Disney’s rich legacy of traditional hand-drawn films. All of the characters in the film are drawn one frame at a time by Disney’s expert animation team and it presents a spectacular showcase for this great art form. For the animators working on this film, the rich characters and fantastic situations made it a dream assignment.
According to Sanders, “This film would have looked radically different had we decided to use computer animation. It wouldn’t have been as relaxing or as happy. The surfing wouldn’t be as stylized and soothing. And Lilo’s head would have had to be radically changed to work in 3D. We wanted the dimension to come out of the story and the warmth and charm of the characters.”
Overseeing the animation for the title character, Lilo, was 20-year Disney veteran Andreas Deja. Considered one of the world’s top animators, Deja has previously served as supervising animator for such favorite characters as Gaston (“Beauty and the Beast”), Jafar (“Aladdin”), Scar (“The Lion King”), Hercules (“Hercules”), and Mickey Mouse (“Runaway Brain” and “Fantasia/2000”).
“My first exposure to this film was when I saw some storyboards in the hallway,” recalls Deja. “And then I saw the illustrated book presentation that Chris had done. I thought that this would really be a fun project to work on. By the time they had pitched me on the outline, I was head over heels in love with this movie. It had heart and an unusual quirkiness; was very sweet and genuine without ever being syrupy; and it was very fresh. It reawakened for me the charm of the Disney films from the ’30s and ’40s, yet it added new sensibilities to it. I really wanted to work on this film.” Prior to relocating to Florida for almost two years to work on the film, Deja joined several of his fellow filmmakers on a field trip to Hawaii. Among the highlights of that trip was a visit to a local elementary school where the Hawaiian language and native culture were emphasized. Although usually off-limits to visitors, for Deja, the ice was broken when the children learned he had worked on “The Little Mermaid.” There was an exchange of drawings and the children sang several songs in their native tongue. Deja was moved to tears. He also had a chance to observe children in a classroom situation and the kind of fidgety movements they made when the teacher addressed them. This all proved very helpful.
“Animating Lilo was the most fun assignment I’ve ever had,” observes Deja. “It was also the most complex. She is a character who has big issues. She thinks, she plots, she has deep emotions and you don’t express those things with big-action poses. There is a tremendous degree of subtlety. My first drawings were very active so I had to learn how to scale them down. I spent a lot of time getting just the right expressions or looking for that one pose that could tell the story. That’s hard to do in animation because our medium is about motion and movement. It’s always trickier to animate the more subtle characters and Lilo is super subtle. “The reason why ‘Lilo & Stitch’ is such a unique project is the depth of emotions that the characters have and the rich, interesting, unconventional and quirky relationships between them,” adds Deja. “It’s different from other material and has a very spontaneous feel to it. I have two sisters, a younger and an older one, and the relationship between Lilo and Nani rang true for me. I remember back home how the two of them were always yelling at each other even though they loved each other. These are real characters.”
Deja has nothing but praise for the performance of Daveigh Chase, the voice of Lilo. He says, “I couldn’t even imagine any other voice than hers for Lilo. We tested a lot of girls and she was the one who not only had the right voice, tone and feel but her delivery had a matter-of-fact quality that seemed to say, ‘Don’t you understand my world?’ At the recording sessions, she would sometimes yell her line and then sit back and be kind of shy. She was able to snap into and out of the character in a very broad way. I was just in awe of her natural quality. A lot of times, when you get young kids in to read lines, they have a hard time finishing one sentence. She would go through a whole pass and really seem to understand it.”
Deja concludes, “This was a great animator’s film because it was so fanciful and rules of logic didn’t always apply. You have basically a logical world where Lilo and Nani live and then there’s this whole weird science fiction side of the story where the fantasy really takes off. Chris and Dean were great because they allowed quite a few moments to just explore the personalities instead of rushing ahead with the next sequence. The scene where Lilo borrows money from Nani to buy Stitch at the animal shelter is a good example of a moment that is so kid-like and charming and which adds to the overall emotion.”
Director DeBlois observes, “We were lucky to have Andreas take an interest in our film. He loved the story and as we started doing the storyboards, he would visit frequently and want to be a part of the process. His work on Lilo is really a breakthrough performance. In the beginning, Chris and I were a bit intimidated to be giving direction to such an incredible animator. He really picked up on the sensibility and honesty we were going for and worked hard to make Lilo as sincere and believable as possible. He is truly one of the great artists working in the medium and he did an amazing job on his character.”
Stitch’s hilarious and often unpredictable performance was supervised by Alex Kupershmidt, another 20-year Disney veteran artist/animator who has been with the Florida studio since its inception in 1989 (he was one of the first three animators brought on board). Born in the Ukraine and educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Kupershmidt’s previous credits include the horse Khan in “Mulan” and the hyenas in “The Lion King.”
“Stitch is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of character,” observes the animator. “I had heard about the character from Ric Sluiter, who kept teasing me that this character was tailor-made for me. When the directors finally called to tell me that I had the assignment, I did a little victory dance with my wife.
“He is a character with very little hesitation,” continues Kupershmidt. “He’s a thinking character but the thinking is very rapid and once he makes up his mind, he just takes off like a shot. He reacts with his whole body. Chris and Dean wanted him to be unpredictable and not telegraph what was going to happen. So the audience is constantly surprised by his reactions. He has these solid black impenetrable eyes with no pupils. Usually the eyes give away what the character is thinking, but if you look in Stitch’s eyes you have no clue. Anything can happen.
“I have a dog and a couple of cats at home so I’m well stocked on animals. I found studying the movements of lizards to be very helpful. There was a quality of movement where they could be sitting still on a rock and within a second, they’d be gone. Stitch’s outward appearance had nothing to do with how he moved. He also delights in chaos and loud noises. In that respect, he’s very much like a child who doesn’t do bad things intentionally but likes lots of commotion.”
Kupershmidt observes that Stitch was a pretty friendly character to animate. “He has practically the same proportions as Mickey Mouse,” he explains. “The big difference is he doesn’t have big feet and the style is curvier. Chris described him to me as a fire-plug. He’s really heavy and solid. I tended to think of him more like a sack filled with cement, pliable yet rather stout and indestructible.”
“Chris did a great job providing the voice of Stitch and gave a very funny and charming performance,” concludes Kupershmidt. “Every once in a while during a meeting, he would suddenly start talking like Stitch and it was kind of creepy how he would throw his voice and become that character. Stitch basically came full-born right out of his head. This film was a great boost for the Florida animation studio. It was the perfect follow-up to ‘Mulan’ and really gave us a chance to demonstrate what we can do.”
Director Sanders notes, “Alex is an amazing draftsman who knows anatomy better than just about any animator. He was our first choice to animate Stitch. He’s super funny and has a kind of bizarre view of things in a good way. He always wanted to know what Stitch was thinking or what he would do in certain situations. He would ask things like; ‘Does Stitch like asparagus or would he prefer to have hardboiled eggs?’ We would answer him and he would disappear and we’d be thinking why did he need to know that. Alex was great working with the other animators on his team. He also has an incredible depth of knowledge about film. You can reference a film from 1962 made in Italy and he would know every single line from the film.”
Regarding the voice of Stitch, Sanders says, “Stitch was never intended to talk. While we were pitching the outline, I would make these horrible little voices from time to time. It seemed to go so well with the drawings that we decided to stick with it. As the story developed, we decided to have him speak a couple of times including a little speech at the end of the film. We worked very hard on that area to be sure the performance was honest.”
The character of Lilo’s long-suffering sister, Nani, was entrusted to French animator Stéphane Sainte Foi. Sante Foi had worked for many years in Disney’s Parisbased animation studio and relocated to Florida for this assignment. Among his previous credits, he had animated some key scenes of Jane in the 1999 Disney animated feature, “Tarzan.”
Sanders notes, “We were very lucky to have Stéphane on our team. He’s an incredible artist with a very delicate style. He has an amazing facility with the female figure and is able to outdraw just about anybody. He was very caring and passionate about his work and put everything he had into his scenes.”
Another veteran of Disney’s Paris animation studio, Bolhem Bouchiba, also joined the Florida team in his role as supervising animator on Jumba. The directors praised him as a perfectionist who contributed some incredible animation. That character was voiced by the versatile David Ogden Stiers, whose vast vocal repertoire has made him a favorite at Disney.
Supervising the animation of two very diverse characters in the film – Earth enthusiast Pleakley and Nani’s former boyfriend David Kawena – was another veteran Disney animation superstar, Ruben Aquino. Aquino joined Disney in 1982 and has been responsible for such memorable characters as the villainous Ursula in “The Little Mermaid,” Adult Simba in “The Lion King” and the heroic Shang in “Mulan.”
“Pleakley is right up there alongside Ursula in terms of being the most fun character I’ve ever animated,” says Aquino. “He has three legs, which is a few less than Ursula, so we had to invent a pattern for his locomotion since there is nothing in nature to imitate. He also has one eye, which meant drawing an invisible line in the middle of his single eyebrow so we could give him proper expression. In addition to that, his body is all cartilage, which gave us a lot of opportunities to do some wobbly animation. He’s not used to gravity so we could make him extra-wobbly.
He’s a bit like Barney Fife, a by-the-book, no-nonsense voice of authority who thinks he knows it all. There’s lots of room for humor when he tries to impose his authority on Jumba, who’s much bigger than he is. Kevin McDonald provides the character with a very high pitched falsetto kind of voice and gave us lots of great material to work with.
“David Kawena is voiced by Jason Scott Lee, who is a Hawaiian native and gives the character an authentic accent,” adds Aquino. “David is a surfer dude and we were lucky to have a few animators on our team who were surfers so that we could capture that activity in a realistic manner. The character is slim and athletic, but he’s also a bit of a klutz. He almost sets the luau on fire with his firetorch routine. He’s got a great heart and he cares about Nani and Lilo. David is a true friend and always there when you need him.”
DeBlois observes, “Ruben is one of the best animators working today. He can be very quiet but he is very calculating about his art. We were talking about a scene with David where he appeared to be too small. Ruben asked me to show him how much bigger I wanted him. I drew a little line and he began to calculate. He did the math for a second and came up with the figure 107%. We blew it up to 107% and it was exactly right. That gave me an interesting insight into his head. I don’t think he draws things over and over again. I think he draws it one time and puts a lot of thought into that drawing.”
Byron Howard supervised the animation of Cobra Bubbles, the imposing “special classification” social worker who gets called when things go wrong. Additionally, Howard did character design work on many of the miscellaneous characters in the film from the alien council members to the hula girls.
“Chris’ style is very round and friendly with no hard edges and few straight lines,” explains Howard. “My job was to take what he and Dean created for their storyboards and refine them a bit for the film. Even an adversarial character like Cobra has very soft lines. That really lets the audience know that there’s something beyond what they’re seeing. It helps to make him a more dimensional character. In the beginning of the film, Cobra wears dark sunglasses that hide his eyes and keeps you guessing what he’s really thinking. He’s very inaccessible at first. As the story progresses, he starts taking off his glasses and dropping that wall a bit so you can start to identify with him as a human being. We had to be careful not to over-animate him because that would have weakened the character. Ving Rhames gave us a somber, very strong performance that played perfectly against the other characters. He was very concerned about getting Cobra right and took a lot of time and effort to get the best results.”
Sanders comments, “We can’t say enough good things about Byron Howard and his contribution to this film. He did scenes with many of the characters because his style matched the style of the film so perfectly. He has a really natural, appealing drawing sense, fantastic timing, and he knew when NOT to move a character. He was a very important part of our animation team and a great talent.”
Art Direction and Production Design: Disney Artists Rediscover the Art of Watercolor
In presenting his original idea for “Lilo & Stitch,” Chris Sanders created a 15-page illustrated book to introduce the characters and the basic story. His illustrations were done in a simple, watercolor style and laid the groundwork for the art direction of the entire film. Art director Ric Sluiter was the first to pick up on Sanders’ unique style and run with it. Background supervisor Bob Stanton and his team of 15 painters launched into an intensive training program to learn the lost art and make it work for animation.
According to Thomas Schumacher, “I’ve been a Chris Sanders fan since the day I arrived here almost 15 years ago. His designs were the first ones I ever looked at seriously. His story sketches and design work on ‘The Lion King’ were completely fantastic and his stylistic approach, which is rounded, a little weighted towards the bottom and with unusual hands, is unbelievably charming. When Chris came in with his first sketches on this film and showed some Stitch and a little bit of Lilo, I fell in love with the project and wanted us to make a movie that looked like his drawings.”
“The sketches in my original presentation were watercolor because that’s a medium I usually work in,” explains Sanders. “When I need to color something, I grab my watercolors and do it exactly like I did when I was in third grade. I get a big glass of water, dip my brush in and just go back and forth. Ric Sluiter saw my illustrations and said why don’t we do watercolor backgrounds for the film. After suggesting it, he tried to retreat a bit because he realized that it hadn’t been done since the 1940s. But once we saw the sample he produced, we knew the direction we wanted to go. Through extraordinary dedication, Ric and his team revived the whole art form. It definitely lends the film a great atmosphere and makes you feel very refreshed just watching it.”
Sluiter explains, “When we went on our field trip to Hawaii, the thing that we really noticed from the moment we stepped off the plane was that the colors were so bright and the air was so clear. It was like the island had been pressure-washed everyday. Everything was so clean and the color palette seemed to be kicked up a notch. We realized immediately that watercolor would be great for capturing Hawaii because the paper acts like stained glass. You paint the colors by laying pure tints down and building them up on top of each other. The result is you’re using pure color illuminated from the paper below. The light is reflecting back at you from the paper underneath and it somehow makes things feel more luminous.
“When we first suggested using watercolor backgrounds, there was some resistance,” adds Sluiter. “The background artists were used to painting with opaque wash and acrylics. Painting with watercolors was practically a lost art. We brought in several watercolor experts from around the country and held different workshops for the background painters. We also had legendary Disney and Warner Bros. art director Maurice Noble, who had worked on ‘Snow White,’ come to the Studio and share his wisdom on the subject. He told us that watercolor was like building something out of a mist. You have to slowly build it up and watch the values come out.”
Background supervisor Bob Stanton recalls, “Our first reaction when they told us they wanted watercolor backgrounds was terror. After about six months of intense experimenting and R&D, that terror subsided. We had to go through two processes – scientifically figure out the materials to use and then develop a technique for getting the job done. We were committed to bringing this incredible craft back to the screen. We were trying to emulate a style. Just like a composer trying to sound like Mozart, we were trying to paint like the artists on ‘Snow White’ and ‘Pinocchio.’” Stanton adds, “We wanted to capture that rich storybook quality that the old Disney classics had and at the same time portray the bright, tasteful colors of Hawaii. We looked at Hawaiian shirts as an inspiration and studied lots of vintage tropical drink menus from the ’40s. The menus from that period were done by incredible artists and had beautiful warm colors often with sepia backdrops. The opening scene in the film where we cut from Lilo in the green outdoors to the hula dancers – warm red interiors and nice skin tones – was directly inspired by that artwork.”
Stanton and his team came up with a simplistic approach to the backgrounds. Simple, colorful areas of bushes, clouds, skies and ground plains suggested detail without getting too busy. They found that the characters didn’t read as well when the backgrounds were overdetailed. In the end, the background team rose to the occasion and mastered the art of watercolor painting. Sluiter notes, “The painters did an incredible job and really came to love working in this medium. I think they’re all better painters for having worked on this film. Working in watercolor makes you think about your subject. It doesn’t require as much brush mileage or manual labor, but you have to really concentrate on what you’re trying to get across. We discovered that it was actually quicker to paint in watercolor than it was in opaque.”
DeBlois adds, “There’s a lot of happy accidents when you’re working in watercolor. It’s the nature of the medium. A lot of texture comes from the looseness of the brush strokes and there’s never really a final polish to the paintings. We searched around to get the right paper. The texture had to grab the paint but not be so evident that the paint would puddle. The sky washes and water washes had to be fairly smooth or the effect could be ruined.”
With regard to the overall design of the film, Sluiter observes, ‘Dumbo’ became a real role model for the look of the movie with its round shapes and simple backgrounds. We also studied the look and style of some of the older Disney shorts like ‘Elmer the Elephant’ and ‘Hawaiian Holiday.’ Chris and Dean’s story sketches were amazing and provided all the answers. They’re such good artists and their drawings suggested everything we needed for the layout team to move forward with the camera angles and staging.”
Production designer Paul Felix, who helped establish the look for such Disney features as “Mulan,” “Tarzan” and “The Emperor’s New Groove,” describes his assignment on “Lilo & Stitch” as “the most fun I’ve ever had with an animated film. It was a blast. We got to design about 30 different sets for the film that run the gamut from massive spaceships to the plantation style house where Lilo and Nani live. Everyone at the Studio was in love with Chris’ drawing style and it became a personal challenge to capture the terrific sense of form and solidity that was in his art. It has a strong sense of calligraphy about it. I tend to draw with a lot of detail and tonal changes, so for this film I had to concentrate on making simpler statements that would work in watercolor.
“After analyzing Chris’ drawing style, we discovered that it is very triangular with characters and objects weighted more heavily at the bottom,” adds Felix. “It has the same feel as some of the early Disney shorts with a kind of slightly inflated look about them. It gives such a pleasant look and a sense that there is air in the background. We incorporated this design concept into everything in the film from tables and chairs to palm trees. We came up with the expression ‘chubbing things up’ to describe Chris’ round, curvy style.”
The Sanders style carried over into all aspects of the production. Visual Effects supervisor Joe Gilland says, “All of the effects in the film from the water and smoke to the lasers and explosions had a Chris Sanders kind of warm, friendly, no-sharp-edges design sensibility. Explosions were rounded off and given a kind of marshmallowy look to keep with the overall design of the movie. This film has some element of effects animation (anything that’s animated that isn’t a character) in 90% of the scenes. Although some of the effects are created with CG, we’re very proud of the way they integrate with the hand-drawn elements. Even CG experts will be hard-pressed to spot them. This is a real breakthrough for us in terms of integrating handdrawn and computer generated effects.”
One particular scene that shows this integration to best advantage is in the film’s opening where Lilo swims with the dolphins. A CG grid of the water surface was created to give the directors a sense of how the water would move. This became a reference point for the traditional effects animators to lay paper on top of that grid and draw it by hand. In this way, the film has the dynamic motion of CG water but is drawn in a style consistent with the rest of the film. The water splashes are elegant in their simplicity and have a distinct graphic style to them.
Gilland is particularly proud of a surfing scene that involves the cresting of a six-foot wave. He explains, “The directors wanted camera angles that a live-action film could never show such as inside the tube of a wave in front of a surfer. There is footage like that but it’s usually just before a cameraman has to get out of the way or be clobbered by the surfer. In our medium, we can travel with the surfer and visualize something that no one has ever seen.”
All Shook Up: Elvis Presley & Hula Music Strike All The Right Chords
What kind of music do you choose for a film that’s set in Hawaii and combines such disparate elements as surfing and a mischievous alien character? That was the question facing the filmmakers as they began fleshing out the screenplay and storyboards for “Lilo & Stitch.” Thomas Schumacher recalls, “It was early on in the process when Chris and Dean were pitching a scene where they had Lilo playing an Elvis record and I thought that it was hilarious to have this little girl who loves Elvis. It gave her an edge because it’s such a sophisticated thing to like. We found that having songs like ‘Suspicious Minds’ and ‘Hound Dog’ added so much character to the film and seemed oddly Hawaiian at the same time. A lot of us remember the Hawaii Elvis period. I remember the first time I came to Kauai and thought; ‘Ooh, this is kind of Elvisland.’
“Music is so organic to our movies,” he adds. “The Elvis music gave us some humor and also a nostalgic charm. But being in Hawaii, there’s also a fantastic sound of native music. At first, you think of steel drums and a ukulele. But there’s also a native sound that involves chanting. It’s a rhythmic sound of hope and it has a real purity to it. We found a fantastic children’s choir to sing for us and their angelic voices leap off the screen and represent a hope and innocence that is there on the islands. It gives a purity that rises up and carries you through the story.”
During the course of the film, Elvis is heard singing six of his biggest hits: “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Stuck on You,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Devil in Disguise” and “Hound Dog.” The songs add comedy, commentary and entertainment to the plot while helping to define the characters. The soundtrack for the 1961 film “Blue Hawaii” was one of the most successful in Elvis’ incredible career and landed in the #1 spot on the charts for 20 weeks.
In keeping with the Elvis music theme, the filmmakers decided to enlist two of today’s top talents to create new versions of Elvis hits. Country superstar Wynonna recorded a new version of “Burning Love” for the film. She first came on the music scene as part of the mother-daughter duo The Judds in 1984, and in six short years sold more than 20 million records worldwide and won over sixty industry awards including five Grammys, nine Country Music Association Awards and eight Billboard Music Awards. In 1991, Naomi Judd retired due to health reasons and the following year, Wynonna began the second amazing success story of her life. She signed her first solo record deal in 1992 and her critically acclaimed album, Wynonna, sold over five million units to become the highest-selling debut album by a female artist at the time. This was followed by such other wildly successful releases as Tell Me Why, Revelations, Collection, The Other Side, and New Day Dawning. Her new album will debut in the fall of 2002. She has accumulated sales totals in excess of nine million units as well as over seventeen major industry awards, including the coveted Female Vocalist of the Year in 1994 by the Academy of Country Music, and thirteen top-ten hits on the charts.
Schumacher recalls, “We talked a lot about how the movie would end and we came up with a montage that takes the story forward into a new day. The idea of having Wynonna record the song came from our executive music supervisor Chris Montan. He really wanted a new recording by a contemporary star who could dig into that Elvis classic and make it rip. And Wynonna came up with a version that just romps. She gave the ending of the movie a real punch and provided just the energy and excitement that was needed.” Wynonna says, “Recording an Elvis song for ‘Lilo &Stitch’ is one of the highlights of my career. The end song is a moment of love and celebration and who wouldn’t want to record an Elvis song? And the fact that I get to be involved in a Disney film is big time. ‘Bambi’ was the first Disney movie I ever saw and I remember my dad taking me to see ‘Fantasia.’ It changed my life.
“If I had to pick one Elvis song to record, ‘Burning Love’ would be the one,” she adds. “I’ve always loved Elvis because he was so unique and authentic in his art. He wasn’t like anyone else. He came from a very pure place and I think he loved music with all his being. I think he would be thrilled to know that the next generation is receiving his music. And that the King is still King.”
In preparing to record “Burning Love” for the film, Wynonna says she “studied every note in the Elvis version. I definitely pay tribute to him in my recording. It’s the kind of thing that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I believe that his music is so raw at times and has an innocence to it that is really cool. It was like he was setting the tone for the rest of us. I definitely tried to channel Elvis when I was in the Studio.”
Regarding the film itself, Wynonna observes, “There is something for everyone in this movie because the parent watching it will identify with what they have to go through to keep the family together. My mom would always say, ‘We don’t have it all together, but together we have it all.’ And then if the child doesn’t know Elvis music, what a wonderful way for the parent and child to celebrate together. It’ll take the child into the parent’s world and give them something in common. It’s a great way to re-introduce Elvis and bring his music to the world. I’m so proud to be part of something that celebrates joy and to have my work in ‘Lilo & Stitch.’ We need more movies like this.”
One final Elvis favorite, “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” is heard over the end credits and performed by the popular Swedish singing group, A*Teens. With their first two albums (The Abba Generation and Teen Spirit) reaching sales of 1.5 million units in the United States alone, this talented quartet has emerged as one of the most popular teen groups over the past four years. Their new album, Pop ‘Til You Drop, was released in June, 2002.
In addition to the Elvis Presley music, “Lilo &Stitch” features two new songs written in the traditional Hawaiian-chant style.
Clark Spencer explains, “We were searching all over to find a great piece of existing Hawaiian music that would be perfect for the film. Around that time we filmed some live-action reference footage of hula dancers and we met this gentleman named Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu, who had recorded several ancient Hawaiian chants. We realized that this was exactly the kind of music we wanted for our film. We picked two chants and combined them with a piece of music. Mark then connected us with an amazing children’s choir in Hawaii at the Kamehameha School with a choir of 40 singers. We recorded two songs – ‘He Mele No Lilo’ and a completely original song, ‘Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride.’ Mark and Alan Silvestri worked together on the songs and they make a fantastic addition, bringing the spirit of Hawaii to life. There is such a purity about the children’s voices.”
As for the hula dance itself, the filmmakers wanted the movements to be as realistic as possible. Spencer notes, “We wanted people who know hula and Hawaiian natives to see it as real and not just some interpretation of what it was supposed to be. From the music, the hula, the fire dance, the luau and the surfing, we wanted this film to be a great representation of the culture and the spirit of the islands.”
<<SPOILER ALERT>>
THE STORY:
Life has its challenges for Lilo, a lonely little Hawaiian girl who lives with her nineteen-year-old sister/guardian, Nani. The two girls have been struggling to make it on their own and things aren’t going particularly well. When Cobra Bubbles, a no-nonsense social worker, drops by for a home visit, he finds the sisters in the middle of an argument and the house in a shambles. He warns Nani that she has three days to prove that she’s an appropriate guardian for Lilo or the situation will have to change. That evening, Lilo sees a falling star soar past her bedroom window and wishes for “someone to be her friend, someone who won’t run away.” She adds, “Maybe send me an angel – the nicest angel you have.”
In reality, the falling star is a spaceship belonging to Stitch, a mischief-making creature (officially known as “Experiment 626”) who has escaped from the planet Turo. His creator, a mad scientist named Jumba, explains that Stitch is “bulletproof, fireproof, and can think faster than a supercomputer. He can see in the dark and move objects three thousand times his size. His only instinct…to destroy everything he touches.” The Grand Councilwoman of the Galactic Federation is not impressed and sentences Jumba to prison and decrees that Stitch be transported to a distant desert asteroid. Before Stitch’s sentence can be carried out by Captain Gantu, he steals a police cruiser and uses its hyper-drive to reach Earth. Completely out of options, the Grand Coucilwoman offers Jumba his freedom if he will help capture Stitch. To keep him in check, she also sends Pleakley, an enthusiastic, three-legged, one-eyed Earth hobbyist (whose entire knowledge of the planet comes from his study of View-master® images). Instead of being met by a welcome wagon, Stitch is immediately run down by a sugar cane truck. He awakes in an animal shelter, where he “charms” Lilo into adopting him (she names him Stitch). His advanced skills allow him to hide his extra limbs (going from six to four), antennae and back spikes to give the appearance of being an odd-looking dog. To the horror of her sister and the animal shelter employee, Lilo is enamored with Stitch and insists on adopting him. Realizing that Lilo and Nani provide a perfect safety shield against Jumba and Pleakley, Stitch welcomes the adoption and “sticks like glue” to his new family.
But all is not well on the homefront. Stitch proceeds to behave badly and create chaos while proving to be perhaps the least affectionate pet on the planet. When Lilo brings him to visit Nani at the luau restaurant where she works, Stitch wreaks havoc and Nani ends up getting fired. Still, Lilo takes him under her wing and encourages him to be a model citizen like her hero Elvis Presley. To lift their spirits, Nani’s former boyfriend and co-worker, David Kawena, suggests that an afternoon of surfing might cheer them. Stitch overcomes his initial aversion to surfing and eventually gets the hang of it. When Jumba and Pleakley arrive on the scene, they pull Stitch underwater and he has to be rescued by David.
Cobra Bubbles witnesses this disastrous scene at the beach and informs Nani that he has no choice but to take Lilo away. Stitch realizes that he is breaking up the family and that Lilo’s desire for ‘ohana (the Hawaiian word and concept for family where no one gets left behind or forgotten) is fading fast. When the Grand Councilwoman fires Jumba and Pleakley for their ineptitude, the duo make a last stand by going after Stitch at Lilo and Nani’s house. They end up destroying the house, but fail to get Stitch.
Just when things seem like they can’t get any worse, Captain Gantu arrives in a giant spacecraft to capture Stitch. Stitch escapes but Lilo is taken on board. Stitch, realizing at last that he is part of Lilo and Nani’s family, convinces Jumba and Pleakley to help him rescue Lilo. A wild chase through the Hawaiian island chain ensues and Stitch helps to rescue Lilo. When the Grand Councilwoman herself shows up to take Stitch into custody, the game appears to be over. But the rules of this game are anything but predictable.
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