| Lilo Pelekai | |
|---|---|
 Lilo Pelekai in her hula outfit, one of her regular outfits in the franchise | |
| First Episode Appearance | Lilo & Stitch (2002) |
| Created by | Chris Sanders |
| Character played by | English
Japanese
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| Nicknames |
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| Occupation |
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| Family |
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Lilo Pelekai (/ˈliːloʊ/ LEE-loh) (literally, "lost" in Hawaiian[1]) is the star of the Disney animated film Lilo & Stitch and its subsequent sequels and animated series. Lilo (literally, "lost" in Hawaiian[2]) is a young Hawaiian girl who lives on the island of Kauaʻi with her older sister Nani and her extended family of alien visitors marooned on Earth.
Her spirited and highly eccentric personality, especially in light of her parents' death, has alienated her from her fellow children, yet Lilo makes the perfect best friend for Stitch, an alien experiment whom she adopts as her dog. Lilo attends Hula school and her hobbies include the photography of obese people, talking about creatures from horror/sci-fi movies, and capturing and rehabilitating Jumba's evil genetic experiments. She idolizes Elvis Presley. She appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for meet and greets.
Description[]
is a young Native Hawaiian girl who lives on the island of Kauaʻi with her older sister Nani and her extended family of alien visitors marooned on Earth. She is voiced by Daveigh Chase in all the films and Lilo & Stitch: The Series, except Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch where she was voiced by Dakota Fanning.
Lilo is a young girl with long, straight black hair and brown eyes. She is most often seen wearing a muʻumuʻu and sandals, but also wears other warm-weather clothing as well as traditional hula costumes. In Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch; her reflection in a mirror is compared to a picture of her young mother, suggesting that they look similar. In the episode "Skip" where an experiment (Experiment 089) is used to skip time ten then another ten years, it is mentioned that older Lilo looks a lot like her sister Nani.
Her spirited and highly eccentric personality, especially in light of her parents' death, has alienated her from her fellow children, yet Lilo makes the perfect best friend for Stitch, an alien experiment whom she adopts as her dog. Lilo attends hula school and her hobbies include the photography of tourists (especially obese people), talking about creatures from horror/sci-fi movies, and capturing and rehabilitating Jumba's evil genetic experiments. In "Swapper", she meets Victoria, who turns out to have similar personalities to her and she becomes Lilo's only human friend, she also attends Lilo's hula school. In "Spooky", it is revealed that Lilo is afraid of broccoli, clowns, and the scary/haunted house on the hill nearby where she lives. It is also revealed in this episode that Lilo, like her father, plays guitar. While frequently shown to be a strong swimmer like many Hawaiians, Lilo is also a strong free diver, shown when she swam from the stalled x-buggy in sub-mode and carrying Rufus, to Drakken's lair on the bottom of the ocean to rescue Kim Possible and Stitch.
Lilo is also known for being a passionate fan of Elvis Presley; this trait of hers is based on Lilo & Stitch director/writer Chris Sanders being a fan of Presley himself.[3]
Lilo's parents died in a car accident some time before Lilo & Stitch (it is suggested that rain made road conditions treacherous), and they have not appeared in the series apart from three photographs: one of Lilo, Nani, and their parents having a picnic on the beach, a photograph of Lilo's mother winning the Hula contest at her school's May Day celebration, and a photo of Nani with her parents when she graduated to intermediate Hula.
Lilo's mother is depicted as kind and loving (and perhaps eccentric like her younger daughter), as well as an excellent hula dancer. She would placate her children by holding a family night, singing lullabies, and making up funny constellations. Lilo's father played the ukulele and was the one who coined the phrase ʻOhana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. The phrase becomes a sort of family motto for his daughters and their intergalactic adopted clan. Lilo loves and misses her parents very much; she keeps a picture of them under her pillow and initially would not allow Stitch to touch it (rejecting him when his fight with Jumba caused her house and the picture to become damaged). In the episode "Remmy", which takes place on the anniversary of the accident, Lilo is depressed and takes a nap to help deal with her sadness. The picture is used to turn Lilo's nightmares into a dream of the day the photograph was taken, which manages to make her happy again (for some strange reason, however, the picture is completely undamaged in this episode).
The development of Lilo's ʻohana (extended family) begins with the adoption of Stitch in Lilo & Stitch. Though Lilo technically owns Stitch by Hawaiian state law, the relationship between the two is more like siblings and best friends. By the end of the series, Lilo's extended ʻohana includes Nani, "Uncle" Jumba and "Aunt" Pleakley, David, Cobra Bubbles, the Grand Councilwoman, Victoria, all 627 (627 and 628 were shown dehydrated in the episode of 627, although it could be argued that they still count) of Stitch's "cousins", Gantu and finally Mertle.
Lilo does not return as a main character in the anime series Stitch!. The original version (aired in Japan) contradicts and leaves many plot holes to what had occurred in the original movies, one that is most mentioned is the separation of Lilo and Stitch. For unknown reasons, Madhouse decided to remove Lilo from the show and leave her absence open to the viewer's imagination, to replace her with their own character named Yuna. Lilo does not appear until episode 23 of the Shin-Ei Animation-produced ~Best Friends Forever~ (Season 3), where she, now a fully grown woman, visits Okinawa's Newtown with her daughter named Ani (who looks incredibly like her when she was a child and whom Stitch thought was Lilo in the beginning). As both friends reunite we learn that Lilo still truly loves and cares about Stitch and there was never any boyfriend. Lilo had gone to college and they planned to meet on the beach when she returned, but when that day came, Nani was heavily pregnant and caused Lilo to be late. Stitch, for unknown reasons was never aware of Nani's condition (although the English dub states that Stitch had been away on mission with the Galactic Armada throughout Lilo's time in college, which might provide an explanation to him being unaware of Nani's condition), and since Lilo didn't arrive at the time they planned, he thought she had forgotten about him. He leaves his tiki necklace (the one Lilo gave to him in Leroy & Stitch) on the beach before flying away in his ship. By the time Lilo arrives, he had already left. Lilo discovers this when she finds his necklace on the beach and cries. In the end, before Lilo and her daughter board the plane, Stitch arrives in time to see her again. They both have a happy reunion, she hugs him, promises to visit him again, and asks Stitch to take good care of his new family. She then gives Stitch his tiki necklace back before leaving.
Lilo is also removed as a main character in the Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai. She only appears in flashback scenes based on scenes from the Western continuity where Stitch vaguely recalls memories of him and her together. While it is not known how old she is by the events of this series, the flashback scenes in the first episode do reveal that Stitch was forcibly separated from her when he was kidnapped by space criminals.
References[]
- ↑ Pukui, Mary Kawena (1974). Place Names of Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-0524-0. https://archive.org/details/placenamesofhawa0000puku.
- ↑ Pukui, Mary Kawena. Place Names of Hawaii. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-0524-0.
- ↑ Noyer, Jérémie (2009-03-25). "Lilo & Stitch: A Little More Conversation with directors Chris Sanders & Dean De Blois!". Animated Views. Archived from the original on 2016-05-14. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
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| Lilo & Stitch | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characters | Lilo Pelekai • Stitch • Nani Pelekai • Jumba Jookiba • Wendy Pleakley • Captain Gantu | |
| Films | Lilo & Stitch (2002) • Stitch! The Movie • Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch • Leroy & Stitch • Lilo & Stitch (TBA) | |
| Television | Lilo & Stitch: The Series (episodes) • Stitch! (episodes) • Stitch & Ai | |
| Video games | Main | Disney's Lilo & Stitch • Disney's Lilo & Stitch: Trouble in Paradise • Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 |
| Related | Kingdom Hearts (II • Birth by Sleep • III) • Disney Friends • Disney Universe • Kinect: Disneyland Adventures • Disney Magical World • Disney Infinity 2.0 • Disney Magical World 2 • Disney Magic Kingdoms • Disney Mirrorverse • Disney Dreamlight Valley • Disney Speedstorm | |
| Attractions | Stitch's Great Escape! Stitch Encounter • The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha e Komo Mai! • Stitch's Supersonic Celebration | |
| Universe | Pelekai ʻohana • Galactic Armada • Kokaua Town • Experiments | |