Lilo & Scratch, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ first theatrical short in five years, plays in theaters before Hexed starting Wednesday, November 25, and Disney just shared how it was made. The short brings back Stitch’s original supervising animator, reuses about a quarter of its backgrounds from the 2002 Lilo & Stitch and blends hand-drawn and CG animation in a new way.
We first told you about the short when Disney announced it on 626 Day. Lilo leaves Stitch in charge of Scratch, a mysterious new cat, while she runs errands for “approximately six hours,” and Stitch’s world gets turned upside down. Chris Sanders, who co-created Stitch, voices him again, and Maia Kealoha returns as Lilo from the 2025 live-action film.
The idea came out of a brainstorm. Directors Fawn Veerasunthorn and Malcon Pierce came up with about 18 ideas and pitched two to Disney Animation chief creative officer Jared Bush. “As soon as we said the word ‘cat,’ he was like, ‘That one!'” Veerasunthorn said. She also directs Hexed with Jason Hand, so she has two films on the same bill this Thanksgiving.
The crew is full of familiar names. Alex Kupershmidt, Stitch’s supervising animator on the 2002 film, is the character animation lead, and Byron Howard, the original film’s character designer, helped punch up the comedy. “We wanted to bring the anarchy back into Stitch, which was great,” Pierce said.
To match the 2002 look, the studio built a new pipeline that mixes hand-drawn 2D animation with CG. In one scene, a hand-drawn truck driver gets pulled out of a CG truck by a CG Scratch. About 25 percent of the backgrounds come straight from the original film, and the team made more than a dozen new background paintings, some digitally painted in Photoshop to look like watercolor and some painted by hand on paper.
The music got the same care. Composers Haim Mazar and Grace Fisher wrote a score played by a nine-piece Hawaiian ensemble and a 70-piece orchestra in Los Angeles, designed to run almost wall to wall. “Being a part of this, continuing the legacies of these characters, is a dream come true,” Fisher said.
If you are seeing it at Walt Disney World, check out the Hexed takeover at AMC Disney Springs. D23 Gold Members can see Hexed early at the November 23 advance screenings, and you can plan your snack run with our Hexed popcorn bucket guide.
