USE THE EMOJIS FOR THE VOTE TO COUNT FROM NOW ON. THEY'RE THERE FOR A REASON.

And the winner is...

Lilo & Stitch

It all began during the height of the Disney Renaissance in the middle of the 1990's, when then CEO Michael Eisner started to notice that, while they were successful, the films they were making at the time were starting to get real expensive, and I mean the budgets were averaging around $100 MILLION. So, in order to balance that out, he wanted a movie similar to Dumbo, a film with a smaller budget but could still deliver alot of heart.

When newly-appointed Disney Animation president Thomas Schumacher was looking for that potential project, he first asked storyboard artist and story supervisor of Mulan, Chris Sanders, and at that moment, he knew he kept this one idea for years that would be PERFECT for this occasion.

Back in 1994, Sanders had a failed children's book pitch about this alien named Stitch, and while it didn't work for a book, he figured that maybe it could work as a movie. In Sanders' original pitch to Schumacher, it was originally just about Stitch, where he tries to figure out who he truly is while living in a forest on Earth.

It was......something, but it obviously needed a bit more. By time, a few more elements were added or switched to give the idea more layers, including a little kid for Stitch to interact with, and changed the forest setting to a small rural town in Kansas.

But the story didn't fully take shape until Sanders thought of a unique idea for the location that had never fully been done in an animated feature. Instead of taking place in Kansas, why not have the movie set in Hawaii?

And so, after Chris brought his head of story partner for Mulan, Dean Deblois to be his co-writer and co-director, the new Disney team first set off to the island of Kauai, where they researched the aesthetics and lifestyle of the area along with learning the meaning of "ohana", which later became an important theme to the feature.

They also made a vow after that trip to stay authentically true to the state's culture, making sure that parts like the music and the hula dances were as accurate to how they were performed in real-life.

Originally, Stitch was supposed to be a fully mute character, only able to communicate through pantomime. However, the crew knew he would need a voice and make sounds to communicate to properly present how he went from a mischievous maniac to a member of a loving family. Sanders himself recorded Stitch's lines as a temporary track using a funny little voice he used at work for the role, but the team were so used to it throughout production that Chris became the official voice of the character.

Also, Stitch was meant to be the leader of an intergalactic gang and Jumba was one of his crew members that got caught, now sent by the council to catch his former boss in exchange for his freedom. After a test screening where the audience wasn't fond of having a crime boss as the lead of a family film, the team switched up Stitch and Jumba's relationship to creator and creation where Stitch was invented by Jumba by the name of "Experiment 626".

While the film went through MANY changes throughout its production, the biggest change occurred to the climax where Stitch, Nani, Jumba and Pleakley hijack a Boeing 747 to fly through downtown Honolulu in order to stop Gantu and save Lilo. The scene itself was already fully animated and got some praise from the team, hyping it up as this great big finale of the picture.

However, the scene ultimately didn't stay for long.

After the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11th, 2001, they all knew they had to change the climax immediately. It didn't technically go through a complex do-over, but the CGI models of the plane was altered and turned into Jumba's ship and the setting was changed to the mountains of Kauai.

For the music, on top of hiring Alan Silvestri to be the composer, the directors also brought in Hawaiian chanter Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu to add that authentic Hawaiian feeling to the music. The soundtrack may mostly consist of Elvis Presley songs Disney had to continuously ask permission to use alot of his likeness in the film, but they did create two new Hawaiian-style songs for the movie, Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride and He Mele No Lilo.

To introduce audiences to Stitch as a crazy rebel of the Disney family, the team created a set of trailers that parody some iconic Disney moments like in The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King where Stitch would come in to crash the party, sometimes even literally...

They even brought back in some of the original voice actors to reprise their roles.

When Stitch crash landed into theaters on June 21st, 2002, Disney was hoping they could make another Dumbo and they GOT another Dumbo.

While it may have been a bit pricier than they hoped with $80 million, it did turn out to be a box office hit with a domestic earning of $145.8 million and a worldwide total of $273.1 million. As for the critics, they consider this one of Disney's most charming stories by saying:

"Edgier than traditional Disney fare, Lilo and Stitch explores issues of family while providing a fun and charming story."

On top of winning a good deal of awards.

Following afterwards, Stitch would become far BIGGER than what he was intended for the first movie and his presence would go beyond his time on the big screen. A year later, Disney released the direct-to-video sequel Stitch! The Movie, which was meant to be the pilot for the series that went on for 2 seasons and 65 episodes, concluding in 2006 with the TV movie, Leroy & Stitch. Some of the episodes included crossovers with other Disney Channel animated series' like American Dragon Jake Long, The Proud Family, Kim Possible, and Recess.

That is still so weird to see...

The year prior to the show's conclusion, Disney released a more official direct-to-video sequel not related to the series with Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, but that's just regarding his time he spent with Lilo...

After those follow-ups, Stitch was also hanging out with other people in Asia with a few additional spin-offs including Stitch, a 2008 Japanese anime series that lasted 3 seasons, 83 episodes and 5 specials, there's Stitch and I, a 2017 Chinese series that went on for 13 episodes, and then there's Tono & Stitch, a 2020 manga where Stitch finds himself in feudal Japan and teams up with a WAR LORD.

Quite the contrast to the little girls he usually hangs out with...

And yet, that is only the tip of the iceberg of Stitch's world domination as he quickly became a highly prominent Disney franchise with tons of merchandising, video games, and several attractions at the parks.

While the film may not have been as entirely cost-effective as Dumbo, it did manage to help the studio in their time of need exactly like the 1941 film.

He may be a bit uncontrollable and even quite rebellious, but there's always that one in every family that they can't help but love and include them in their ohana.

And for our next poll:

Toy Story =

OR

James & the Giant Peach =

stitch is the best

Me & my sister used to watch this all the freaking time

So many great memories of my earlier years

BTW Toy Story next

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Stitch is not just one of my all-time favorite Disney characters, but also one of my all-time favorite animated characters in general.

Also,

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Ohana means family...

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There's an interesting character change from Woody, from his original idea of being a marionette, to being a stuffed cowboy and being a bad person. You might want to find and watch some of those terrifying original pieces.

7369027
Ah yes the infamous black Friday reel. Thank god they got a negative response.

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I can't wait to get to that 😈

Okay, seriously. Why use this emoji for a stop-motion animation masterpiece like James and the Giant Peach.

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'Cuz bugs, lol

Still a goodish movie 🙃

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But they're cute and friendly bugs, especially the Spider.

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I love Stitch! That cute little monster was my favourite star after the film released that I started to collecting the merchandise.

It took me a while to grow into this movie, but it proved to be one of those guilty pleasure movies for me. True Lilo comes off as a bit of an oddball but she's a likeable one. Plus, we as an audience can feel for her especially given how difficult the loss of her parents were. Even her own sister, Nani, struggles with trying to be a sister for Lilo and be supportive even though she tends to act like a second mother. Whereas for Stitch, while we initially see him as a science experiment created to be a weapon of sorts... we see that deep within him is a soul, a curiosity to 'understand' more than what he is programmed for and realizing there is something he longs for more than the destruction of another party.

In a way, it's two social outcasts coming together and finding common ground, discovering how their own inner struggles are near similar and combine that bone through the spirit of 'Ohana'. Appropriate given part of my family is from Hawaii.

TOY STORY!!!!!

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A little late there, lol

Already up

You know... I've heard about those spin-offs where Stitch meets those other girls who are 'kind of' different from Lilo. But I had no idea there was this series about him working with a Feudal lord. Sounds a bit more interesting than those rumors of a 'live action' adaptation that's been discussed over in a recent period of time.