Before his Oscar-nominated Marcel the Shell with Shoes On had even been released, he was approached by the Mouse House to reinvent Lilo & Stitch for a new generation. Instinctively, he realised that the two stories had far more in common than it might initially appear.
He told Zavvi: “Disney have been synonymous with quality throughout their history, and I don’t think any director can escape being influenced by their favourite Disney films. I’ve always loved the original Lilo & Stitch, and when this project came my way, I instinctually knew it shared some DNA with Marcel.
“Stitch and Marcel are both characters who are looking for family in a world that wasn’t made for them. Because of that, even though they’re funny and cute, they have this simmering emotionality to them – my favourite kind of character is the funny one that has so much pathos.”
Producer Jonathan Eirich, who previously helped get Guy Ritchie’s billion-dollar grossing remake of Aladdin off the ground, has a skill for matching classic Disney properties with the most unlikely of directors. After being shown a very early cut of Marcel, he was convinced that there was no other choice to reinvent Lilo.
Eirich told Zavvi: “Disney is known for dealing with loss, and asking that question of how somebody can get over that loss and continue to grow? That's certainly what resonated with Marcel, and I think it's the case with Lilo as well.
“We knew from that film that he could master the balance of heart and humour, and when he came in for his initial meeting, his pitch was simply “jokes plus tears”! That was exactly what we wanted, those were the two essential ingredients.”
Even though the film pivots from hand-drawn animation to a blend of live-action filmmaking and CGI, a director with a background in the world of animation was still essential for Eirich. Fleischer Camp’s previous film was a mockumentary combining live-action and stop-motion, so he had the desired skill of merging two worlds without crossing over into the uncanny valley.
The Producer explained: “Someone with that animation background was critical for a movie like this, as we couldn’t simply copy his design from the earlier movie. It’s much harder than it’s given credit for to recreate an animated character in this environment, and you need somebody with an animator’s eye who is attuned to crafting a character, and drawing on the real-world references that inform their design and movements.
“From his previous film, I knew he had the background needed in both live-action and animation to meld those two worlds together beautifully.”
Of course, the biggest responsibility was finding young actors who could embody Lilo and her older sister Nani in live action. Whilst finding a child who could play the force-of-nature lead character was a challenge, arguably an even bigger responsibility was discovering an actress to play her older sister, who could develop a realistic familial bond with a much younger co-star.
The team found their Nani in Sydney Agudong, a Hawaiian native who has grown up in the shadow of the original movie, which was first released when she was just two years old. Naturally, with it being the rare film set on the island focused on native characters, Agudong felt the pressure of not just living up to the original but representing an underexposed community on the big screen.
She told Zavvi: “The Hawaiian community takes Lilo and Stitch to heart so deeply, it was a huge film for us, so even though making this was a dream come true that I’m incredibly grateful for, it was a daunting experience. It’s an iconic film and you don’t want to mess it up in live action, and in this case, it wasn’t just effectively paying tribute to that, but to the community it’s representing.
“When you’re doing a reimagination of any story, you want to find more depth in it. The animation had the duality of the chaotic roller coaster ride adventure with a heartwarming family story, and I think bringing real humans into this makes those themes of family struggles shine even brighter next to the light-hearted moments.
“The iconic line that “Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten” is still at the heart of this story, and the relationship between Lilo and Stitch has resonated for so long because it shows you don’t need to be related by blood to be family. I’ve always felt that’s why this story was based in Hawaii, and why we needed to make this version there, because there’s no truer way of familial love than that in Hawaii.”
As for the boisterous Lilo, Fleischer Camp found his young lead in Maia Kealoha, who was every bit as energetic as her character.
“Not only do they say don’t work with children or animals, they also say don’t work with water, and we’ve used all three!” the director laughed. “We knew we needed to cast a wide net, and we knew Maia would be perfect almost immediately, as she had such a spark and creativity, and was willing to throw herself into the process like an older performer would.
“But most importantly, of all the kids we saw, she was the only one dragging her parents to the audition rather than the other way around!”
So, we’ve heard how the team aimed to pay effective tribute to the original – but how did they aim to make this Lilo & Stitch its own beast? Fleischer Camp didn’t get his wish to “restore the original 9/11 ending” of the animation, where a plane was hastily changed to a spaceship very late in postproduction to not upset audiences after September 11th, but the story kept deviating further from the original during production in ways that caught everybody off guard.
Producer Eirich explained: “When you make small tweaks, they can eventually add up to bigger differences; we have a different villain compared to the original movie, for example, and that wasn’t something we ever consciously decided to switch. Navigating an adaptation means making bold choices, but never just doing something different from the source material for the sake of being different.
“Little differences that can bring something new and exciting are worth chasing and pursing, as they can help the story evolve. One of my favourite sequences is an underwater scene with Nani and Stitch, which is new for this adaptation but feels organic to the story; our goal was to make audiences not know which part was from the animated film and which was new for ours.”
However, there is one very specific difference that has caused a lot of controversy; switching the unnamed “Ice Cream Guy's” desert of choice from a cone to a scoop in a cup. He still functions as a sight gag, his ice cream falling to the floor whenever he witnesses insane alien activity, but removing the cone – and, to a lesser extent, giving him hair – has caused surprise uproar amongst Disney fans.
The explanation behind this switch is a surprisingly simple one.
“When we were looking around Hawaii and location scouting, we noticed there were more snow cone scoops being sold than actual ice cream cones”, Fleischer Camp explained. “They were everywhere, and we wanted to do what felt more authentic – so that’s why we’ve changed the ice cream!”
Lilo & Stitch is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday, 21st May.
