Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories From the Film's Creators
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(c) Disney

Disney has not been alone in the preferred use of screenwriters over story artists. Naturally, Katzenberg brought this tradition to DreamWorks where he hired creative development executives for Feature Animation who came solely from live action. It could be argued that DreamWorks’ "Spirit" would have been a far more satisfying venture had the film’s co-director Lorna Cook -- a great story artist who cut her teeth at Disney and spent considerable time at Don Bluth before being recruited to DreamWorks - been given full reign on the film’s story and all screenwriters kept at bay.

Then first significant break from this pattern occurred when Brad Bird was trusted with both writing and directing Warner’s "The Iron Giant." And now, at long last, as if taking a page from Bill Peet’s amazing career, Disney has broken their pattern with what promises to be the most powerfully imaginative new film audiences have seen in twenty years - "Lilo & Stitch." Conceived by Chris Sanders, and directed and written by Sanders and Dean DeBlois, "Lilo & Stitch" represents the promise of an entire generation of animation story artists realized. The significance of Sanders and DeBlois helming this story without screenwriters can not be over-stated. And some of the best evidence of the value of returning this medium to those who know it and love it best, outside of the film itself, is found in a visually stunning and thoroughly original new book from Disney Editions, Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories From the Film’s Creators.

So visually and spiritually beautiful is this book that everyone should splurge and buy three copies; one to read until it’s dog-eared to death, one to cut up and frame, and one to give away as a gift to inspire any artist you know and love. It’s an entirely affordable proposition as the book is soft-bound and priced at approximately one-third of the hard-cover "art of" books for previous Disney animated features, yet equally if not exceedingly as lush.

Beautifully designed and edited by H. Clark Wakabayashi, Collected Stories follows a very simple format: seventeen personal stories over 127 pages from each of a select group of artists and creative executives responsible for the production of the film. I could quote something from each and every story - but it would honestly ruin the fun of reading this book. And yes, reading this book is great fun, and very informative. Previous "art of" or "making of" books have been well written (I’m particularly fond of the book for "Hercules," From Chaos to Creation and Atlantis: The Lost Empire - The Illustrated Script) but mostly a rehashing of the process of making an animated feature film, without nearly enough of the candid reflections that give readers real insight into the vitality unique to each film making experience. Wakabayashi and Disney Editions’ Wendy Lefkon (who is proving herself a very original thinker in publishing) have shepherded through to completion a book equal to its subject. "Lilo & Stitch" is repeatedly referred to by the contributing authors as a unique departure for its reduced scale, simplicity and return to basics. The book mirrors this philosophy without ever skimping on the kind of visual magic and heart that are at the core of this very exciting feature.