Disney Animation goes behind the scenes of Lilo & Scratch, its first theatrical short in five years, playing before Hexed
From Disney Newspaper · 9:11
Show by Disney Newspaper
It is Saturday, November 14, 2026. On Friday, Walt Disney Animation Studios shared a behind-the-scenes look at Lilo & Scratch, its first theatrical short in five years. The short plays exclusively in theaters before Hexed, the studio's 65th animated feature, which opens Wednesday, November 25, and there is no standalone release planned. It is also the first Lilo & Stitch project from Disney Animation since the original 2002 feature. The short was announced June 26, 2026, on 626 Day, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Chris Sanders returns as the voice of Stitch, and Maia Kealoha returns as Lilo from the 2025 live-action film. Written and directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and Malcon Pierce, and produced by Nathan Curtis, the short follows Lilo as she brings home a mischievous rescue cat named Scratch, then leaves Stitch in charge "for approximately six hours." Alex Kupershmidt, Stitch's supervising animator on the original film, is back as character animation lead. About 25 percent of the backgrounds are reused from the 2002 film, and the studio built a new pipeline that blends hand-drawn and CG animation, an approach VFX supervisor Jeremy Sikorski said the studio had earlier tastes of on Paperman and Once Upon a Studio. Haim Mazar and Grace Fisher composed the score with a nine-piece Hawaiian ensemble and a 70-piece orchestra in Los Angeles. Sources: The Walt Disney Company, Variety, Fantasyland News, The Disney Scoop. Cover photo: an aerial view of the Nā Pali Coast on Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, by Paul Bica, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0), cropped and resized. Lilo & Stitch is set on Kauaʻi. Read today's stories and sign up for free email alerts at disneynewspaper.com.
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