and now I’m wondering how in the hell Lilo came to the conclusion that there’s a peanut butter loving fish god who demands tribute or else he’ll murder your family.
When massive trauma hits, some people try to find any way to make sense of what seems senseless. Find any semblance of control, of responsibility.
Lilo may be blaming herself (unfairly) for her parents’ death. This was the only connection she could make, the only thing she could have had any control over, so to her it must have been her fault. If only she was a good girl. If only she did the right thing. Then maybe…
It’s very very hard to lose a mindset like that even when it’s the most irrational thing, even when it hurts you, because then you’re left with nothing.
And when you’re six your pattern recognition skills are a work in progress. Lilo sees that type of fish one day and as it swims away it starts to rain; connection made.
“Lilo may be blaming herself (unfairly) for her parents’ death. This was the only connection she could make, the only thing she could have had any control over, so to her it must have been her fault. If only she was a good girl. If only she did the right thing. Then maybe… “
This movie had some of the best scenes cut out of it.
This is one of my favourite movies yet somehow I never saw this deleted scene…. Excuse me a second…
And he didn’t even go on some fantastic adventure with Nani or anything; he just stuck around through her lowest point in life because he wanted to be there for her and help her out. David is the real Disney Prince.
GIVE DAVID THE APPRECIATION HE DESERVES
He also had a cute butt according to Nani
David didn’t abandon her, need to be coddled by her or outright lie to get her into a relationship.
He has a cute butt and fancy hair and he fire twirls. No contest, next.
I really like this gif because Stitch does that little squinty thing that animals do when they’re really happy and relaxed and you can tell that he’s having such a superb time playing that little ukulele
The best line in Lilo and Stitch is, “No! Don’t touch that! It’s from my blue period!”
Like not only is Lilo familiar with goddamn Picasso despite being maybe 8, but she’s made enough serious art of her own that she can divide it into similar periods.
Lilo is a goddamn prodigy. She is an eccentric genius on par with Tesla or Van Gogh.
Like those pictures she took were both dismissals of beauty standards (she mostly photographed fat people who were not conventionally attractive and she referred to them in awe as beautiful) and subversions of the dehumanization tourists subjected her to as a native Hawaiian (she photographed tourists like they were simply part of the landscape, just as they did to her).
Let’s not credit just Chris Sanders for this. This happened because they cast actual Hawaiian Actors like Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee to play Hawaiian characters, and allowed the actors to have input into writing the characters’ lines.
This sort of authenticity comes from accuracy and authenticity in casting choices. The fact that Chris Sanders as direct/writer facilitated that does not mean he gets credit for the actors’ experience.
This is why diversity and representation in media matters.
Dude as a hawaiian, this is like straight up what my life as a kid was. My mom worked at those fakey luaus full time to pay rent. My mom is someone who is absolutely passionate and proud about being a hawaiian, living and teaching the ways our ancestors lived and taught.
See, we Hawaiians, we live by the way of aloha. And not by the way of “hello” “goodbye”, let me educate you. As Pono Shim, CEO and President of Enterprise Honolulu, the Oahu Economic Development Board, states absolutely perfectly “aloha is to be in the presence of life, to share the essence of one’s being with openness, honesty, and humility. It is a way of being, a way of behaving, a way of life. It is a commitment to accepting others and giving dignity to who they are and what they have to offer.” Aloha is more than hello and goodbye. Think of aloha as an abbreviation.
Akahai: meaning kindness
Lokahi: meaning unity
Olu’Olu’: meaning agreeableness
Ha’aha’a: meaning humility
Ahonui: meaning patience
This is something we all need to live by, seriously, we all should
the dropped sub-plot was that lilo hated tourists, which is why she goes around taking pictures of them like they were attractions instead of people; like how they took photos of locals
similarly there was a deleted scene where she scares tourists off of a beach by sounding a false tsunami siren to watch them run screaming
deeper in the lore that kid thats a prick to her, mertyle, is the daughter of the person who runs the megamart and crushed a lot of other local businesses- when they have to do a hula to tell a story mertyle actually uses it to describe the low prices, where lilo does a hula about a traditional creation myth that was important to her mother. you may notice both lilo and nani are on first name basis with both the coffee shop owner and the fruitseller, there is big disparity between the locals and foreign interest businesses relegating them to just be tourist industry
friendly reminder that lilo & stitch is indisputably the best disney film
I want to write a fic where Lilo goes to college and her roommate is Boo from Monsters Inc. Boo is the first person to think Stitch is adorable and cuddly, and Lilo is the first person not to act like “Mike Wazowski” was a weird name for a goldfish. They get on like a house on fire which is kind of bad for Nani’s blood pressure.
But then one night they wake up in the middle of the night because something is in their closet. And the door starts to creak open so Stitch tackles whoever (whatever) is in there. They fall back into the closet, the door slams shut… and when Lilo runs over and opens it there’s nothing but an empty closet.
Then Boo tells Lilo all about this weird thing that happened to her when she was a kid, and how no one ever believed her but she knows it was real.
And cue Lilo and Boo busting into the Monster world to rescue Stitch and wreaking mad havoc in the process.
SEE THIS IS A WORTHY SEQUEL
This needs to happen
Petition for the movie to be hand-drawn in Lilo and Stitch’s style when they’re in the human world, and computer animated once they go through the door into the monster world.
OOPS MY HAND SLIPPED – I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF
I love the artwork, this is so cute!
The fic was written and I don’t see the link attached! Anyways, it’s a fantastic fic & definitely worth a read.
How is it that I’ve lived in Hawaii for nine years, been learning Hawaiian words and speaking pidgin back to my local friends for nine years, know how to say significantly more complex Hawaiian phrases, and yet I had to turn over a Puna Brewing Company bottle cap to find out that Lilo means “lost”?
And now my heart is busted.
I just added this to my queue and then I had to go in and find it again cause I had a thought.
Lilo and Stitch.
Lost and pulled together.
THIS HAS JUST MADE MY LOVE FOR THIS MOVIE SO MUCH STRONGER AND LET’S BE HONEST IT WAS PRETTY INDESTRUCTIBLE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
He is such an underrated character. He was a cinnamon role and just wanted to help the entire movie. No Hans bullshit, no pressuring her into a relationship, just love.
He gave support, he was patient, he was unconditionally kind, he accepted all the difficulties with child services and all the weird alien visitors with barely a blink. He dove into the ocean to rescue Stitch because Lilo was worried. And through it all, he proved that he was more than willing to do everything in his power to help these girls and make them smile, without any thought of a reward or being “owed” for his friendship.
Even his line at the end, when Nani thanks him for helping her find a job (”That’s okay. You can just date me and we’ll call it even.”), is delivered with a certain amount of humor, and his behavior throughout the rest of the film shows that he would still accept it if she turned him down. Because more than just liking Nani, he RESPECTS her.