Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated adventure science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Disney's 42nd animated feature film, it was written and directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (who is the voice of Stitch), and features the voices of Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson. It was the second of three Disney animated features (the others being Mulan and Brother Bear) produced primarily at the Florida animation studio located at Disney's Hollywood Studios (known as "Disney-MGM Studios" during production) in Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. It was released on June 21, 2002, to positive reviews and was nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. That Academy Award was won by Studio Ghibli's 2001 film Spirited Away, which was also distributed in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures, and also starred Chase and Stiers in the English version.

The film's story revolves around two eccentric and mischievous individuals: a young Hawaiian girl named Lilo Pelekai, who is raised by her older sister Nani after their parents died in a car accident, and a blue extraterrestrial animal-like creature named Experiment 626, who gets adopted by Lilo as her "dog" and is given the name "Stitch". Stitch, who is genetically engineered by his scientist creator to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses Lilo to avoid being captured by an intergalactic federation, but the two individuals develop a close bond through the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, or extended family. This bond causes Stitch to reconsider, and later defy, his intended destructive purpose in order to keep his family together.

The success of the film spawned a franchise. A direct-to-video sequel called Stitch! The Movie was released on August 26, 2003. This was followed by a television series, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which ran from September 20, 2003, to July 29, 2006. A second direct-to-video sequel, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, was released on August 30, 2005. A third sequel, a television film titled Leroy & Stitch, was released on June 23, 2006, as the conclusion to the TV series. An anime series that succeeded the original television series called Stitch! ran in Japan from October 8, 2008, to June 19, 2011, with TV specials broadcast in 2012 and 2015. A Chinese animated series succeeding the Stitch! anime, Stitch & Ai, ran from March 27 to April 6, 2017.

Other animation studios produced the sequel films and series: Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and Leroy & Stitch were all produced by Walt Disney Television Animation; Stitch Has a Glitch was produced by Disneytoon Studios; Stitch! was produced by Madhouse for its first two seasons, and then Shin-Ei Animation for its third season (and two post-series specials); and Stitch & Ai was produced by Anhui Xinhua Media and Panimation Hwakai Media.