National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Walt Disney Animation Studios released Lilo & Stitch in June 2002, a film that marked a deliberate return to character-driven storytelling after a period of grand spectacle. Set in Hawaii and built around themes of family and belonging, it became one of the studio's most beloved features of the decade. This particular cell originates from the promotional trailer that cleverly recut scenes from The Little Mermaid with Stitch inserted as an uninvited guest, a campaign that generated considerable anticipation ahead of the film's release.

The cell captures Stitch mid-surf, grinning broadly as he rides a wave with surfboard in hand against an open ocean backdrop. Spanning three frames of continuous action, the sequence shows slight positional shifts that convey the fluid motion of the shot. Under the confirmed title Stitch Surfing, this cell distills one of the character's most recognizable and enduring visual associations into a compact, self-contained piece of animation history.