Lilo returns to Stitch! the Japanese animated series! The new series has been controversial from the start because Lilo supposedly “ditched” Stitch for her new BF. On the upcoming season 3 episode “Zutto Saiko no Tomodachi”, Lilo makes her way overseas for a reunion with Stitch. And Jess Winfield himself tells us that Save Disney Shows played a part in making it happen.
Hi Laramie,
So the cat is out of the bag about the Lilo episode! I didn’t respond to your last e-mail because I’ve known about it for some time, but I really couldn’t really talk about it until it was “public.”
A return of Lilo, and explanation of where she is and what happened with her and Stitch, is something I’ve been pushing for since I first became involved in the project. I can be very persistent, and I got my wish. I haven’t had much involvement yet with Season Three, but I did consult with Japanese team about this story. I’ll warn you that not all of my suggestions were necessarily followed (I haven’t seen the final episode yet); this is their show. But I was able to give some input, I know some details of the story, and I think you and your crew will find it compelling and controversial (in a good way).
I hope you feel some pride in the progress of the Stitch story. It was fans’ concern (back on TV Tome) about the “missing experiments” in the US series that led me to personally write “Snafu” to try and address them. And I sent copies of some “What happened to Lilo?” posts from your “shout-out” page to executives at Disney Channel here and in Japan to help convince them that fans desperately wanted Lilo to make an appearance in “Stitch!”
In short: you and your community are ohana; and you’ve totally rung up a good deed!
Aloha and ichariba chodei,
Jess
Many congratulations to the Save our Stitch movement on this hard fought victory.
I’d like to take this opportunity to share a few words from the leader of the movement.
This really doesn’t change much for us, as far as out mission goes. It’s still business as usual. Two big things that we should already be fighting for, and will continue to fight for: First, as you are well aware Disney has basically put every pre-2005 cartoon in the vault, so they can show repeat after repeat of the same sitcoms. Can you believe there are only 2 cartoons in active production?! Lilo & Stitch the Series needs to get back on air. Morning slot, it doesn’t matter. It needs to come back. As do many others, such as Kim Possible, ADJL, etc. And second, the English translated Stitch! needs to be released in the US. While I’m glad for YouTube, I’m ticked (to say the least) that every other country except for us have been able to watch this series. Those are our main goals, and will continue to be. But of course we will still continue to fight for another season of Lilo & Stitch the Series, more DVDs, more merchandise etc. The usual stuff. Business as usual. But we can bask a bit too and enjoy this victory for Save Lilo & Stitch and Lilo & Stitch fans everywhere. Lilo is not a bad person. We always knew that. And hopefully everyone else will know now too. 🙂
Wayne
AND, here’s the promo for the episode! 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQebweuD-U