Disney Facts!

Facts 1800-1830: Lilo & Stitch Themed Page

She's touching me!

I'm not touching you!

You're touching!

Not touching!

AH YOU'RE TOUCHING ME! 

..... Nuff said :3

Fact #1800 

Stitch is big in Japan – although the little blue fella is popular in the U.S., he’s especially beloved in Japan. Not only can you find oodles of cute Stitch cell-phone charms and other paraphernalia, but he’s earned himself an anime (the distinctive Japanese animation style) remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” set on a fictional Japanese island rather than Hawai’i – plus two Japanese animated TV series. In Japan, Stitch is still called Stitch, but his little-girl best buddy is named Yuna and she’s a karate whiz instead of a surfer.

Fact #1801 

The voice for Stitch is none other than his creator and the co-director of “Lilo & Stitch,” the multitalented Chris Sanders.

Fact #1802 

In the first draft of the script, the story took place in Kansas.

Fact #1803 

A lot of the aliens in the film were inspired by Disney characters, including Tigger and Piglet.

Fact #1804 

The sign on Lilo's bedroom door loosely translates as "keep out."

Fact #1805 

Towards the end of the film, when Captain Gantu is tracking the location of Stitch, the tracking image he uses is Spaceship Earth, from Epcot.

Fact #1806 

Pleakley's first name is Wendy, but on his planet, it's a masculine name that means "brave warrior."

Fact #1807 

When Lilo explains about how she desperately needed to give Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich because he controls the weather, it seems that she is just being random, but there is reason behind it: Lilo's parents died in a rainstorm.

Fact #1808 

Disney promoted this movie with a series of trailers inserting Stitch into some of its "classic" titles. These include The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

Fact #1809 

After Lilo throws her doll on the ground and then runs back and carries it away, it begins to smile.

Fact #1810 

The long text on Stitch's adoption certificate actually has nothing to do with information about the actual adoption. It is actually a letter of thanks from the directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and producer Clark Spencer thanking the entire team for their work on the project.

Fact #1811 

This was the first animated feature film to be set in Hawaii.

Fact #1812 

Near the beginning of the film, during the trial, Stich is asked by the council woman to provide some sign that he understands what's going on. Stitch responds by licking the inside of his glass cage. The saliva trail is in the shape of the famous 'D' in the Walt Disney logo.

Fact #1813 

The original version of the flying chase scene at the end of the film involved Stitch and Jumba hijacking an airplane and chasing Gantu's spaceship through Honolulu, crashing into buildings. The sequence was already animated and completed, but the whole chase was cut following the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001. The chase had to be re-written and drawn again, this time with spaceships flying through mountains and less populated vegetation, and the second version of the chase was is what is seen in the theatrical version.

Fact #1814 

Chris Sanders first created Stitch back in 1985.

Fact #1815 

Stitch was never really conceived to talk.

Fact #1816 

Originally, Stitch was going to be an intergalactic gangster, Jumba was going to be a disgruntled member of his gang who was left behind during a heist and was going after him as revenge, and the other members of the gang would have been the ones who came to get him in the third act. The filmmakers felt that Stitch was more sympathetic when the audience thought of him as younger, and so was changed from a hardened criminal to a genetic experiment, and Jumba became the scientist who created him.

Fact #1817 

Lilo is 6 in the film.

Fact #1818 

In the hotel scene, Stich carrying a rose was inspired by an animation student that was known to give flowers to the animators, and other animation students, at the annual Disney Institute animation classes.

Fact #1819 

The surfer statue featured in the end credits is a real Hawaiian landmark on Waikiki Beach. It is of Duke Kahanamoku, a native Hawaiian considered the father of modern surfing and an Olympic gold medal winner. Nani also has a Duke poster in her bedroom.

Fact #1820 

When Pleakley and the Grand Councilwoman go to the prison to visit Jumba, in the cell to the right of the elevator is Dr. Jacques Von Hamsterviel, who went on to become a recurring villain in Lilo & Stitch: The Series in 2003.

Fact #1821 

After completing this film, director Chris Sanders's next project for Disney was Bolt in 2008. When John Lasseter took over as head of animation at Disney, he dismissed Sanders who then moved on to DreamWorks where he made How to Train Your Dragon in 2010.

Fact #1822 

The grocery store Nani tries to get a job at is owned by a "Mrs. Hasegawa", a reference to the famous "Hasegawa's General Store" in the town of Hana on Maui.

Fact #1823 

The AC/DC song "Back in Black" was used in previews and trailers but does not appear on the soundtrack.

Fact #1824 

When Lilo shows Stitch his bed, a picture of Mickey's head can be seen on the wall in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Fact #1825 

The cities featured on the postcards during the scene when Lilo and Stitch are having a snow cone include New York, Honolulu, San Fransisco, Toronto, Orlando with a picture of the Walt Disney World Resort on the front, Dallas, Chicago, and Hong Kong.

Fact #1826 

Lilo & Stitch received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, one of three Disney films nominated in the category that year. The others were Spirited Away and Treasure Planet. 

Fact #1827 

Earth is referred to as being in Section 17, Area “51” in the Galactic charts, one of several references to Area 51. 

Fact #1828 

One of the hardest parts about Stitch’s characterization was that it’s very difficult to read what kind of emotion he is feeling, mainly because his eyes don’t have pupils. The animators largely got round this problem by making Stitch very physical. 

Fact #1829 

Chris Sanders also helped write Mulan.

Fact #1830 

Right after Stitch leaves, outside the house there is a Pizza Planet rocket leaning against the trash can.

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I hope you all enjoyed these facts as much as I did!