Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Lilo & Stitch arrived from Walt Disney Feature Animation in 2002, a hand-painted departure from the studio's late-nineties output, trading castles and princesses for a Hawaiian coastline and a genetically engineered outcast. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, it revived traditional animation's warmth at a moment when computer graphics were beginning to dominate the medium, and it introduced a design sensibility, rounded, blue, feral, that became one of Disney's most merchandised characters of the decade.
This cell isolates Experiment 626 alone, the chaotic alien later renamed Stitch, in his surfing capacity, one of the defining activities tying him to the film's island setting and its ohana theme. Collectors prize Stitch material for the character's crossover popularity well beyond the film itself, and a surfing moment situates him within the movie's recreational, sunlit interludes rather than its destructive or emotional beats. As a single 35mm frame, it represents raw theatrical printing stock, not a reproduction, a physical artifact from the film's actual projection history.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Lilo & Stitch (2002).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched holes appear clean and regularly shaped with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a Dolby Digital data-block region visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge; a DTS timecode line also appears present as a thin dashed line along the lower edge.
Edge print
Edge print reads: '1 23 KOD·AK 28 2002 S'
Base & colour
Base shows a light blue-cyan tint consistent with a dyed safety base; the dye image appears well-saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
No visible splices, cue marks, or heavy scratching are apparent; minor surface marks consistent with a projected print are present.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the animated content is consistent with the film on record.
Era check
The Kodak stock edge code referencing 2002, cyan-tinted safety base, combined optical and Dolby Digital soundtrack configuration, and positive colour image are all consistent with a theatrical release print from 2002.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063457
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
