Breea Milburn has been a Sew fan because the starting.
As a baby, she bought hooked after seeing the mischievous blue alien crash the fourth wall and disrupt scenes from basic Disney movies corresponding to “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” within the trailers for the unique 2002 animated film, “Lilo & Stitch.”
Now at 32 years outdated, the South Carolina resident has amassed a group of Sew merchandise — together with pins, plush dolls and a handbag that makes it appear like he’s hooked up to her hip — largely given to her by household and associates.
Though Milburn loves Sew’s troublemaking methods, she mentioned she additionally appreciates the intense themes the film tackles by following a younger lady’s adventures and struggles in Hawaii together with her sister after their mother and father’ demise.
Sew is thrown in because the “humor element in what’s really a dark story, but also a more realistic story that I think can resonate more with people,” she mentioned. “This is more than just a character that’s pure chaos.”
Milburn, and the legions of Sew aficionados like her, are why Walt Disney Co. could also be about to have its subsequent $1-billion blockbuster film.
The brand new live-action remake, out this weekend, is anticipated to haul in $120 million to $150 million by means of Monday on the home field workplace, in response to analysts’ estimates. That might be a unprecedented success, particularly coming after Disney’s newest redo of an animated basic, “Snow White,” flopped badly.
It’s all of the extra stunning as a result of the 2002 “Lilo & Stitch” was solely a modest box-office performer, grossing a complete of $273 million worldwide.
That film got here throughout a fallow interval after the so-called Disney renaissance that created acclaimed animated movies corresponding to “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Tarzan.” There are not any everlasting rides in Disney’s theme parks targeted on Sew to maintain him continually within the public eye.
The viewers for the brand new film, which value an estimated $100 million to provide, is anticipated to be multi-generational, with youngsters well-represented alongside millennials who have been youngsters when the 2002 movie got here out, mentioned Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Leisure. Though the character has its strongest enchantment amongst women, Disney is banking on boys exhibiting up too.
“We do believe with this movie, we have the opportunity to get everybody,” he mentioned. “To do the kind of box office that I think we’re going to do, you need to get everybody, and I do believe we will.”
Sew has turn out to be an unlikely star amongst Disney‘s characters. The blue alien is so popular that he ranks in the top 10 best-selling Disney franchises, alongside stalwarts such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the princesses, Star Wars and Marvel, the company said.
The “Lilo & Stitch” franchise, which includes some animated series, TV films and direct-to-video movies, has driven 546 million hours of global viewership on Disney+, with the original 2002 movie accounting for more than half of that. Viewership of the “Lilo & Stitch” catalog also has gone up significantly every year, based on the hours streamed, Disney said.
On the retail side, sales of Stitch-themed merchandise totaled about $2.6 billion last year. Some current highlights are collectible Spam cans, a more than 4-foot-tall remote controlled inflatable, Stitch dog costumes and “Lilo & Stitch”-inspired makeup sets.
Lilo and Stitch dance in a still from the 2002 animated film.
(Disney)
Bergman said Stitch’s enduring recognition “definitely” performed a job in green-lighting the live-action movie. And there could possibly be extra to come back.
“This property lends itself to more, and we’re figuring out exactly what that is,” Bergman mentioned. “Clearly, the characters have stood the test of time, and this [film] is going to reinvigorate the franchise yet again.”
So what’s it about this koala-esque alien who picks his nostril along with his personal tongue that has resonated with customers for greater than twenty years?
Though Sew is usually described as a fun-loving agent of chaos, his deeper traits make him not so completely different from different Disney heroes, mentioned Lindsay Hahn, an assistant professor of communication on the College at Buffalo, State College of New York.
As a media psychologist who focuses on morality and has researched greater than 730 Disney films, Hahn discovered that the Disney hero prototype is usually keen to interrupt the foundations if that’s what’s obligatory to assist others. (Consider Mulan, who flouts authority and enlists within the military to save lots of her father.)
Sew’s dedication to household and take care of others — along with his commotion-making methods — places him squarely in that mould, she mentioned.
“In many ways, he checks all of those boxes quite perfectly,” Hahn mentioned. “He just tends to do it in a way that seems maybe a little more outside the typical Disney hero because he’s seemingly unpredictable and cute.”
Sew’s emphasis on discovering his place on this planet additionally could also be a think about his oddly relatable enchantment, mentioned Tamar Rimmon, vp of analysis and analytics technique at Fandom, which hosts data pages on leisure matters.
“There’s this emotional connection. The whole theme of finding your own family, I think, is something that really resonates in our current culture, especially with millennials and Gen Z,” she mentioned.
Out of almost 2,000 Disney franchise communities, “Lilo & Stitch” has ranked within the prime 20 for the final 5 years, in response to information from Fandom. Sew, particularly, was the eleventh hottest Disney character on Fandom within the final 12 months, and the twenty first hottest character during the last 5 years, the corporate mentioned. (Rankings are primarily based on web page views on Fandom’s website.)
In 2024, Sew was largely surpassed solely by characters who have been featured in latest films, together with the feelings from Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Scar and Mufasa from “The Lion King” and Moana. The one three older characters that beat Sew have been Mickey Mouse, Sew’s feminine counterpart Angel, and Elsa from the animated hit “Frozen.”
“There are constantly new [intellectual properties] that will come and unseat characters who come from older movies,” Rimmon mentioned. “But that’s what I think speaks even more strongly to the staying power of Stitch.”
That kind of lasting recognition reminds Milburn, the Sew fan, of one other outstanding and extremely merchandiseable character who isn’t tied to present movie or TV — Hey Kitty.
“It’s that familiar face,” she mentioned. “Just by his name and his cuteness alone, he has been able to capture generations and generations.”
