Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with Lilo & Stitch director Dean Fleischer Camp and producer Jonathan Eirich.

Camp discusses the lessons he learned making Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and how the Lilo & Stitch team found the right balance between what to keep from the animated original and what to change.

Eirich shares how his work on the live-action adaptations of Aladdin and Haunted Mansion helped prepare him for Lilo & Stitch and the pending Space Mountain movie.

The live-action adaptation of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is set to crash-land in theaters later this week, bringing the animated 2002 film to an entirely new dimension. Taking the director’s seat for the film is Dean Fleischer Camp, who once again blends live-action and animation to bring beloved characters to the screen after previously working on Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Producing Lilo & Stitch is Jonathan Eirich, who returns from previous Disney live-action adaptations Aladdin and Haunted Mansion.
Lilo & Stitch stars first-time feature breakout Maia Kealoha and Sydney Adugong as sisters, Lilo and Nani, with Chris Sanders returning to voice the adorably chaotic Stitch. Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen step in as fan-favorite aliens, Jumba and Pleakley, with Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles, and Hannah Waddingham as Grand Councilwoman.
In an interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Fleischer Camp discusses the differences between working on an indie live-action/animation project like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and a major Disney production like Lilo & Stitch, and why a meeting between Stitch and Marcel probably wouldn’t last very long. Fleischer Camp and Eirich also talk about upholding the heart of the original Lilo & Stitch to deliver on fan expectations, and how Eirich’s previous work on live-action Disney adaptations was utilized in the upcoming film.
‘Lilo & Stitch’ vs. ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’

Stitch would probably make lunch of Marcel.

PERRI NEMIROFF: Dean, I can’t help myself. I have to ask a Marcel question. Have you ever imagined how a scene between Stitch and Marcel might play out?
DEAN FLEISCHER CAMP: [Laughs] We have! I think it would be short, depending on how hungry Stitch was.
I would very much believe that. In all seriousness, you are behind two movies where different styles of animation are brought into the live-action world. Of the two, which did you find more challenging to pull off?
FLEISCHER CAMP: Oh, interesting! Honestly, this sounds crazy, probably, because it’s such a difference in scale, but I think Marcel was because it was a very small team making a film independently for a real shoestring budget, but also just the exploration of it. Figuring out how to do that for the first time is always harder than once you’ve done it successfully. You’ve learned from all those lessons.
That makes all the sense in the world. I was wondering if the minutia of stop-motion would make that a little more difficult versus having the tools available for this kind of effects work?
FLEISCHER CAMP: That part of the process was so similar, but also so different. Obviously, stop-motion is a physical process for the animation, and 3D animation is not, but I think you, in essence, are basically doing the same job where you’re trying to create a real reality in front of the camera so that the human actors and everyone, the cast and crew, can react to something to inform their performance. Then, afterwards, comes the whole thing of trying to integrate it and make it look integrated. Then doing that while also maintaining all the charm and expressiveness is, they’re similar creative tasks.
You make it sound so easy.
FLEISCHER CAMP: It was nothing! [Laughs]
Holding Onto the Heart of ‘Lilo & Stitch’

Stitch’s capacity for destruction presents a unique challenge in live-action.

Whenever we see these iconic animated movies adapted into live-action form, there’s sky-high pressure. There are so many people out there who want this movie to be exactly what the original was, but that is not possible when you’re showing it in a different format. Can you give me an example of both, something from the original that you knew was important to honor and hold tight to, but also something that had to change to suit the live-action format?
FLEISCHER CAMP: There are a thousand of those examples. Anytime you’re doing an adaptation of something you love, there’s going to be heartbreaks, things that you’ve really wanted to get in there that just didn’t work for one reason or another. But we were trying to be thoughtful the whole time. That sort of questioning, gut-checky process started on day one, and then really only finished up two weeks ago. We were basically saying to ourselves, “We love this movie.” Animation is a very different medium, like you say, from live-action. They’re good at different things. So, really, it was a process of taking every piece of that and asking ourselves, “Why does this work in animation? Could it work in live-action? If not, how do we find something that basically rhymes with or kind of embodies the essence of what that older element did, but is more achievable or will just play better in live-action?”
Mostly, what was guiding us was that the opportunity of live-action is that you can dig deeper into the emotional realities, into the emotional story arcs, and especially the human characters. So, I think it was also a process of figuring out, “Well, how do we do that, ground everything so that we can do that, but also not lose all of the fun, whimsy, expressiveness of Stitch and the other animated elements?”

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

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In terms of examples, I would say one that we kind of struggled with but is ultimately in the film is Stitch’s capacity for destruction. We found out pretty early on that things like destruction and violence, those things can be very funny in animation, but when you depict them in live-action, sometimes they can feel mean. Sometimes it can feel scary. I always use the example of, like, you can imagine there being a really dopey, funny car crash on a highway in animation. That could be a funny gag in animation. I would challenge any live-action director to show me a funny 10-car pileup on a highway.
Someone’s got Final Destination on the brain!
CAMP: [Laughs] So, we had to figure out how to really motivate Stitch’s destructive streak in a way that made it always about curiosity or reacting to a stimulus and not just being a jerk.
Learning From Previous Disney Live-Action Adaptations

Working on Aladdin and Haunted Mansion helped prepare Eirich for Lilo & Stitch.

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Jonathan, I’m wondering if your experience producing Aladdin came in handy here. Was there any particular lesson you learned adapting that movie that you found influencing your approach to doing it here with Stitch?
JONATHAN EIRICH: One was: don’t mess it up. [Laughs] That was a piece of advice you got from a lot of people. So, I sort of waded into that territory again, which is always terrifying. But it’s wanting to honor the thing you love, and in both cases, these were classic animated movies and seminal movies of my life, and wanting to make sure that we did get it right. We talked a lot about being fans. Every choice you make has to be from a place of a fan, and what would you be mad about if it wasn’t in the movie? So, there are things, like “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride.” I don’t think there was ever a time we talked about that sequence not being in the movie. Then, it’s a little bit like, “But how do you shoot it? How is Dean going to tackle this? What’s going to be different about it?” So, there are those things.
Then, themes. The theme of “ohana,” “little and broken, but still good,” you knew those were going to be in this movie because it meant so much to you, but is there a way to nuance it or change it a little bit? There’s the moment where Nani says to Lilo, “But we were left behind.” It is a slightly different take on “ohana,” and it wasn’t just all rose-colored glasses. It’s what was happening to this family, and how does she learn that, yes, that happened, but there is actually room for a broader ohana, and I can let other people into my life? So, I think it’s just making all these decisions throughout as a fan and as someone who loves the material, and then hopefully the audience will feel that love in it, and they’ll understand where all these decisions came from.
There’s a Specific Challenge in Making a ‘Space Mountain’ Movie

The Lilo & Stitch producer weighs in on the mountainous task.

Image via Disney

I have an unrelated follow-up that popped up in my mind because of how I connected Aladdin to this. I’m going to do the same thing with Haunted Mansion. Is there anything you learned making Haunted Mansion that you think might influence your Space Mountain movie?
EIRICH: Well, it’s interesting. In both cases of Aladdin and Lilo & Stitch, you sort of had these stories that you knew worked in animation, so it was trying to figure out, “Well, what works in live-action and then what needs to change?” With Haunted Mansion and with Space Mountain, if we do end up making that movie, there is no narrative to follow, so you are tasked with the challenge of, “How do you embody the spirit of a ride and the thing that you love, but it’s a very short experience? How do you turn that into an original narrative?” So, there are two very different things to tackle, and each comes with different expectations, too.
Lilo & Stitch hits theaters on May 23.

Lilo & Stitch

Release Date

May 21, 2025

Runtime

108 Minutes

Director

Dean Fleischer Camp

Writers

Chris Kekaniokalani Bright, Mike Van Waes, Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois

Producers

Tom C. Peitzman, Dan Lin, Ryan Halprin

Chris Sanders

Stitch (voice)

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