During the trial at the beginning of the movie, Jumba claimed that he would never make more than one of 626, when in fact, he had already made 625 experiments before 626. Though it is most likely that he was lying to save his skin, since he also referred to Stitch as "the first of a new species," implying that he may actually have intended to create more if 626 was successful. Another scene that was deleted was one of Lilo's attempts to make Stitch into a model citizen by notifying tourists on the beach about the tsunami warning sirens. Prior to the production of "Lilo and Stitch", long research was conducted on the mentality of the inhabitants of Hawaii. To this end, the director and a team of various animators travelled to the island to experience the way of life and traditions of the islanders at first hand. During their stay, the creative minds were particularly inspired by the Hawaiian proverb "Ohana", which stands for the bond and cohesion of the family.

When Nani is telling David on the phone about how Stitch is scary and walks into the kitchen, Stitch's shadow on the wall has four arms, but when the shot switches to Stitch raiding the refrigerator, he only has two arms. This is because he noticed Nani and instantly retracted his lower pair of arms to hide his alien nature. Although initially, at the shelter, he did that with difficulty, but then obviously learned to do it extremely fast. This is explicitly shown after the house is destroyed; he retracts his lower arms in 0.3 seconds when Nani runs past him. Her poor attitude and bullying behavior could possibly and partially be attributed to her reaction to her parents' separation and her inability to see her father all the time. Her spoiled personality could also be from her mother spoiling her daughter to keep her happy and mask the struggles they endure as a family. Another likely reason that she is so mean to Lilo is that she is jealous of the love and happiness her rival has with her family, something she cannot get with her father away. Throughout the final parts of the film, Jumba's head keeps switching from big to medium size to big again. Animation has been set so much in ancient, medieval Europe — so many fairy tales find their roots there, that to place it in Hawaii was kind of a big leap. But that choice went to color the entire movie, and rewrite the story for us. Halloween: Halloween Pop'n LIVE • Re-Villains! Halloween Parade • Scream and Shout Halloween ParadeThe film was released on VHS and DVD on December 3, 2002. In 2003, a 2-disc DVD version was announced alongside special edition DVDs of Alice in Wonderland and Pocahontas, which were released in 2004 in Australia and 2005 in the UK respectively. A 2-disc special edition DVD of Lilo & Stitch was released in the UK on August 22, 2005, alongside the UK release of Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, but a release in the US suffered from continuous delays. Beauty and the Beast: The Beauty and the Beast ballroom dance sequence begins as normal. However, as the camera pans to the angels on the ceiling, Stitch is seen crawling across the painting. Watching Belle and the Beast, he crawls onto the chandelier, which breaks. The Beast dives and pulls Belle with him out of harm's way while the chandelier smashes on the ballroom floor behind them. The moment ruined, Belle announces she will be in her room. As she departs Stitch wolf whistles after her, to which she replies indignantly, "Get your own movie!". Originally, "Lilo and Stitch" was to be set in Kansas, but after much deliberation, Chris Sanders, the film's initiator, decided on Hawaii. Until now, Disney had never dealt with the sunny Pacific island, but Sanders was convinced that the dreamy beaches and fantastic landscapes would guarantee a unique film experience. Lilo & Stitch is an American animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002. The 42nd animated feature in the Disney Animated Canon, it was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois and features the voices of Chris Sanders, Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. Lilo & Stitch was the second of three Disney animated features produced primarily at the Florida animation studio located at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Lilo & Stitch was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, which ultimately went to Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away, which was also distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, and featured a voice-over performance by Chase and Stiers in the English dub. It is one of the few Disney Animated Canon films to have an original story. In the junior novelization, Captain Gantu's hammerhead subordinate officer is known as Lieutenant Sledge.

While chaos is perfect in space, Lilo has completely different problems: after the death of her parents, she tries to cope with her everyday life together with her sister Nani, who lovingly takes care of her. Nani, however, lives with the constant fear that Lilo will be taken away from her and placed in a foster family, as her supervising social worker doubts that she can take over Lilo's upbringing. To please her little sister, Nani decides to let Lilo choose a dog from the shelter. When Lilo is running from the beach to dance class, she is wearing a striped bathing suit, over which she puts on her grass skirt before entering the building. When she joins the other children on stage she is still wearing her grass skirt, but she is now wearing a tube top. Evidently, she pulled off her bathing suit from under the skirt (in a typical manner for small children) after entering the building, and put on the tube top.The island of Kauai had previously been featured in such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Jurassic Park trilogy. The Disney animators faced the daunting task of meshing the film's plot, which showed the impoverished and dysfunctional life that many Hawaiians lived during the then-recent economic downturn, with the island's serene beauty. The actors voicing the film's young adults Nani and David, Tia Carrere, a native of Honolulu, and Jason Scott Lee, who was raised in Hawaii, assisted with rewriting the Hawaiian characters' dialogue in the proper colloquial dialect and adding Hawaiian slang. When Lilo, Stitch, and Nani are walking towards the electronics store, the Chinese place next to the electronics store is called Mulan Wok, a possible homage to Disney's Mulan. Nani's friend, David, invites Nani and Lilo to take a break and enjoy a day of surfing. While Nani, Lilo and Stitch ride on a huge wave, Jumba makes one final effort to capture Stitch from underwater knowing Stitch's biggest weakness is his inability to float in water, causing Nani to wipe out, and Stitch unintentionally pulls Lilo down with him. Although everyone gets safely to shore, Cobra witnesses this unfortunate event, telling Nani that although she means well, Lilo will have to be taken away. After seeing how much trouble he has caused, a remorseful Stitch runs off brokenhearted. When David pulls Stitch out of the water after he appears to have drowned, Stitch is facing out, but when you see him again he is facing in. One of the surfboards that David carries during the surfing sequence has a red and blue taegeuk like the one on the South Korean flag.

Elena the blonde girl (unnamed in the film) was not seen riding her bike with Mertle and the other girls. Fireworks: Celebrate the Magic • Illuminate! A Nighttime Celebration • Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland • Momentous • Wonderful World of Animation • Wondrous Journeys An unruly, blue alien with big ears and a little girl who has just lost her parents meet by chance on a paradise island and become inseparable friends. That sounds pretty crazy at first? It is: but the mixture of Hawaiian culture, exciting space action and the collision of two worlds is what makes "Lilo and Stitch" so incredibly endearing and exciting. Stitch!: Yuna Kamihara • Gramma • Penny • Kenny • Taro • Sasha • Hiroman • Jessica • Tigerlily Sakai • Dolores • Ani Pelekai • BooGoo • Kijimunaa • Delia Several major elements of the film changed during production. Originally, Stitch was the leader of an intergalactic gang, and Jumba was one of his former cronies sent after Stitch by the Intergalactic Council to capture him. Test audience response to early versions of the film resulted in the change of Stitch and Jumba's relationship to that of creation and creator, respectively.This is the third Disney hand-drawn animated film to feature Skywalker Sound. The first two are Hercules and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

An anime series titled Stitch! ran from 2008 to 2011 in Japan, with two TV specials broadcast there in 2012 and 2015. Taking place years after the events of Leroy & Stitch, Stitch has left Lilo, and he ends up on an island off the coast of Okinawa where he meets a Japanese girl named Yuna.During the battle sequence where Stitch hits Jumba with a "punch buggy", a Mulan poster is seen in Nani's room. Peter M. Nichols states that through the character of Nani Pelekai and her struggles the film appeals to older children better than such attempts by the studio to do so as Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and The Emperor's New Groove. To please her little sister, Nani decides that Lilo can choose a dog from the shelter. However, Lilo does not want a cute dog. She wants Stitch, an alien who has crash landed and been mistaken for an animal. Meanwhile, Stitch already has some hunters from space and even Dr. Jumba Jookiba on his heels.