Lilo & Stitch team share behind the scenes secret to filming beloved alien

Yahoo

21-05-2025

Lilo and Stitch has been brought to life in live-action, which proved an interesting challenge for the creative team when it came to the Disney film's loveable blue alien Stitch.
The remake tells a familiar story. Exiled to Earth, the unruly alien forms an unlikely bond with lonely Hawaiian girl Lilo (Maia Kealoha) while also contending with the alien forces sent to retrieve him. Director Dean Fleischer Camp shared with Yahoo UK the innovative ways that they created the character on set, which ranged from a puppet to a real-life dog.
"Actually, there's a really funny story [about Stitch on set]," the director says. "So to answer your question: we had a ton of different solutions to that. I think each shot is kind of its own problem to solve so we had a plushie, we had this amazing puppet. Seth Hayes, who would be operating it. Sometimes it was Maia's acting coach Sarah Errington would be in a Luma key hoodie in a corner or whatever. Sometimes Stitch was a dog named Dale, a Frenchie.
"But the puppet, which is the most lifelike one of those options, Maia actually grew such an attachment to this Stitch that even in scenes where they were not acting together at the end of the night Maia would insist on giving him a kiss goodnight.
"We'd have to go to the truck, the puppeteers would get him out and she'd say goodnight to him."
Sydney Agudong, who plays Lilo's sister Nani, said it was a real "collaboration" on set when it came to Stitch's recreation.
At the end of the night Maia would insist on giving [Stitch] a kiss goodnight.Dean Fleischer Camp
"From the start, Dean and the VFX team were all like, 'OK, so look, this is going to be a collaboration. We also don't know what we're going to be using and what stuff because everything was so chaotic.'
"There's so many different dynamics that went into it. We had a puppeteer and Seth was incredible, and then we had my acting coach, who wore a grey suit sometimes, and Maia's acting coach, and then we had the tennis ball and the X, and then there was a bulldog at some point in time, so we could get the chaos of running back and forth with our eyeline.
"Which is funny, it was a whole bunch of different things so it's hilarious. But it worked out really well, I hope."
When the original came out in 2002 it helped redefine what it means to be a family, showing that not only is family not perfect but it can also mean more than just being linked together by blood. This sentiment is reflected in the remake because for the creative team it felt just as relevant now as it did two decades ago.
"The original sets such a beautiful theme with that," Agudong says. "And I think that because we're doing a live action we get to go deeper because there's humans involved. So we're having this human connection between Stitch and Maia, and they really, really do love each other.
"I think that the family that we created on set and everybody, cast and crew, we all were a family and I think it showed through the film in that sort of way. It's just the through line with Lilo and Stitch, that nobody gets forgotten whether you're by blood or you're not, everybody's family if you want it to be. And that's Hawaii in general."
Producer Jonathan Eirich shared this sentiment, as he adds: "The most beautiful story [is] this idea of Ohana and the family you're born with and the family you choose.
"I think this notion of a found family, and that they can get you through anything and can accept you with your flaws and everything else [is beautiful]. In this lonely world that we're in, you want to believe that there's someone out here that can accept you for who you are, and I think that's a beautiful message.
"And in some ways, I think the original animated movie was almost ahead of its time and it was so progressive at that moment, so it's so nice to be able to bring this back for a new generation right now and sort of find a way to explore that message even further in a live action environment."
"I think with [live-action] actors you kind of create even more of that empathy," he adds. "I think you can really feel that and that notion of how much everyone in the story is longing for something and how beautiful it is when they find each other at the end."
What helped them recreate this magic was, of course, Maia Kealoha who plays the live-action half of Lilo and Stitch. The actor was five when she was cast, but even at such a young age she led the production in impressive ways.
"She was a dream," Agudong says of her co-star. "She really was a pro and she was always open to imagining everything. She kept me on my toes, this was her first job and she was consistently excited, open and ready to just imagine and create. You can't ask for a better partner than that.
"And to know that she loves what she does so much and has worked hard to grow that way, she was teaching me a lot too, so it was wonderful."
"Our hearts melted from the second we met her," Camp adds. "She really did add so much to this with her enthusiasm and imagination.
"I feel like a lot of times movies that have a really young kid in the cast, they're often playing themselves, Maia actually crafted a performance — she's not Lilo. Even though she's an amazing Lilo, she doesn't share anything in common, they'd be like pals but from across the cafeteria. It's a real crafted performance, and she's actually using the acting tools that we helped her refine in preparation, and she's incredible."
Eirich went on: "I do think Maia is just so herself. Like she is more confident in herself than I am as an adult, and I do think that's what Lilo is too.
"Lilo so singularly herself, and I just think that's such a beautiful thing and it was that thing that we felt the first time we saw her. She sent us her casting tape when she was five years old, we cast her when she was 6, so it's incredible to find someone that young who could do what she did in this movie.
"I do remember my first impression was like 'oh it's so clear that this kid is dragging her parents to the audition, and not the other way around.'"
Lilo & Stitch is out now in cinemas.