Disney Lessons // Lilo and Stitch

Justin and I absolutely love Lilo and Stitch. We love singing the Hawaiian songs, and we love the cuteness of the movie. It is one of our favorites!
Lilo and Stitch is about about an evil alien experiment called Experiment 626, created by the evil scientist, Jumba. After being captured, it escaped and crash landed on Hawaii. Jumba and Earth Specialist, Pleakly, are sent to retrieve him. Experiment 626 ends up being adopted by Lilo and Nani from a dog pound. Lilo and Nani are sisters whose parents have recently died. Nani works at a luao restaurant and Lilo is very young and a little different. She doesn't have friends and Nani is always stressed about taking care of Lilo, especially after getting fired. Social Services comes and threatens to take Lilo away from Nani unless she can find a stable job and train Stitch.
I don't want to really give any more away in case you haven't seen it...but here is the trailer

But, there are so many lessons to learn from Lilo and Stitch which is why we love it so much.

Cultural Heritage is Important

I love that this movie is diverse. It takes place in Hawaii, with a native Hawaiian as its protagonist. But more than that, this movie tries to intentionally add in as much Hawaiian culture as possible. All the songs that aren't Elvis songs, are in Hawaiian. The first song, He Mele No Lilo talks about the beauty of Hawaii, as well as some of it's religious history. Lilo participates in hulu class. Lilo and Nani both are Hawaiian names. They use Hawaiian phrases in daily life, such as "lolo", "mahalo", and "ohana". I think it is very important to keep your cultural heritage alive and to learn from it, which is one of the reasons that I am so obsessed with the Welsh culture.

The Significance of Family 

The premise of this movie is that Lilo and her older sister, Nani, have recently been orphaned. As is typical, especially in siblings that have a wide age gap between them, Lilo and Nani often fight. Nani has a hard role in trying to be both sister and parent to Lilo, and Lilo sometimes finds that exasperating. The threat of Lilo being taken away by Child Care Services because of Nani being an inadequate care provider constantly looms over them. The fact that their parents are gone also haunts their house. But, throughout the movie, they remind each other of the concept of "ohana". Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. Their parents had instilled this concept in them. They are to look after each other and protect each other. They are to love and care for each other. Such is the importance of family. As a Mormon, I believe that family is the foundation of society--"whatever wounds and breaks the family, wounds and break the world. Whatever lifts and saves the family, lifts and saves the world."

Broken Families Can Still Be Strong

Lilo and Nani are orphans constantly at each other's throats. Child services threatens to take Lilo away. Nani has no time for a love life with David. They have a wild alien "dog" that almost tore the family apart for good. But, it is still a strong family. Stitch helps bring Lilo and Nani back together. Nani will do whatever she can to protect Lilo. David, although he loves Nani, will be patient and willing to help in whatever way he can. I honestly love David. Nani says she has more important things to worry about than to date him (which is 100% true), but when David sees Nani and Lilo having a bad day, he takes them surfing. He cares for Lilo because he loves Nani. Families don't have to be the perfect dynamic of mother and father and children. Families today come in all shapes and sizes and look vastly different. That doesn't mean they are dysfunctional or broken. Families that have issues can still be strong.

There is Good in Everyone

Stitch was created as an evil experiment. But, Lilo saw good in him. She was determined to teach him how to be a proper behaving citizen. She never gave up on Stitch, even when Nani threatened to take him back to the pound. And, Lilo's determination helped turn Stitch from evil experiment to protective, loving member of her family.

Have you ever seen this movie? What do you love about it?