National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Walt Disney Animation Studios released Lilo & Stitch in June 2002, a deliberately smaller-scale production that returned the studio to hand-drawn character work with a loose, expressive line. Set in Hawaii and built around themes of family and belonging, the film became a genuine cultural touchstone and a commercial surprise. Its promotional materials leaned into Disney's broader legacy, including a series of trailers that placed Stitch alongside classic characters.

This cell, titled Ariel, captures a sequence from that crossover trailer in which Ariel launches from the ocean surface in a sustained upward leap, arms raised, a clamshell and breaking wave framing the moment below her. Stitch appears elsewhere in the promotional context, but these frames belong entirely to Ariel at the height of her arc against an open sky.