The reimagined Disney story, Lilo & Stitch, released in theatres on May 22, is a retelling of the original animated film from a modern lens with an enhanced focus on cultural authenticity.
Lilo & Stitch made its debut in 2002, introducing the world to a lonely, orphaned 6-year-old Hawaiian girl, Lilo Pelekai, living with her 18-year-old sister and guardian, Nani. After Lilo wishes on a shooting star and asks for a friend, she encounters a strange blue creature called Stitch which she adopts, thinking it is a dog.
Stich turns out to be a fugitive from an alien planet – the product of a genetic experiment (known by his creators as Experiment 626).
The original film included some elements of Native Hawaiian culture (such as the importance of ʻohana) that had never previously been represented in an animated film. However, Native Hawaiian involvement in the making of the original film was minimal.
As Disney executives moved forward with plans to revive Lilo & Stitch, this time as a live-action movie, they were committed to greater Native Hawaiian representation in the production and tapped Chris Kekaniokalani Bright to write the screenplay.
Bright, a photographer and filmmaker from Oʻahu, comes from a musical family.
His grandfather was Ron Bright – the renowned musical theatre director – and his father, Clark Bright, is the bandmaster for the Royal Hawaiian Band. And the young screenwriter already had a special relationship to the film – his mother, Lynell Bright, is the director of the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Choir which was featured on the soundtrack for the original film.
Bright said that it was important, in the making of the movie, to do things right and be authentic to our culture, noting that everyone involved in the project, from producers to the director, was committed to including people from Hawaiʻi in the production – not only as part of the cast and crew – but as cultural consultants.
“Being able to represent contemporary Hawaiʻi on the big screen, I don’t think it’s ever been done,” Bright said. “We’ve seen [Hawaiʻi] from outsider perspectives. So even though there’s aliens, a crazy third act, and spaceships – at its core, this is still a Hawaiʻi movie and you feel it.”
The opportunity to show a glimpse of his “backyard” to the world excited Bright who hopes the characters in the movie will feel familiar to local audiences. “I hope people from Hawaiʻi will feel like ʻthat’s my tūtū, that’s my little cousin,’ because I did while I was on the set and writing it.”
The new Lilo & Stitch dives deeper into Nani’s backstory than the original, showing how taxing it would be for an 18-year-old to take care of a 6-year-old in Hawaiʻi without any help.
“I wanted to do right by that and really honor the original. So, you start by figuring out what is truly the heart of the story – and of course it’s about ʻohana – but it’s also about being broken, but still being good,” Bright said.
“There’s that central relationship between Lilo and Stitch, but also between Lilo and Nani. And you just have to figure out, okay how do we preserve that and then how do we also deepen it in ways that you just can’t do in animation?”
The movie stars Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, and Kaipo Dudoit – all of whom were born and raised in Hawaiʻi.
Kealoha, who plays Lilo, is an 8-year-old Native Hawaiian from Hawaiʻi Island who the cast and crew members say embodies every part of Lilo. Kealoha said that she had an amazing time filming the movie and has always been a fan.
“It was amazing working with Sydney and my director Dean was creative – he made the movie a great Hawaiian roller coaster ride,” Kealoha laughed. “And yes, I love it! Just because it came out before I was born, I had like 5,000 plushies of Stitch!”
Dudoit, a Kanaka ʻŌiwi model, actor, and mea hula born and raised in Honoʻuliʻuli, Oʻahu, plays David Kawena – the boyfriend of Lilo’s older sister, Nani. He said he felt blessed and honored to be part of the project.
“It has been an absolute gift,” Dudoit said. “As a little Hawaiian boy, I didn’t really see [people like] myself on the big screen very much, especially when I was growing up. Thankfully, times have changed. It’s been an absolute honor to be given this opportunity to showcase not only my home, but my family as well.”
Dudoit credits Bright for incorporating a Hawaiian cultural identity into the movie’s characters through his screenwriting.
“I think our film really brought out both [Hawaiʻi’s] beauty and differences. Hawaiʻi people are used to understanding that we like to celebrate our own differences as people and in our own cultures and in our own families, so I think that was a beautiful thing we were able to share among each other,” Dudoit said.
“I hope everyone enjoys Lilo & Stitch. And I hope people that are from Hawaiʻi – or are no longer in Hawaiʻi but live somewhere else – are able to see their home again and remember that ʻohana will always carry us through tough times.”
