The tone of "Lilo & Stitch" is a little different to regular Disney movies, a little more mischievous. Does that make it easier or harder for your animation team?
The subtlety we were trying to communicate emotionally with "Lilo & Stitch" meant that we were requiring something from the animators that perhaps they hadn't done before. This was never going to be a traditional Disney musical and the songs weren't going to portray the emotions of the characters. That took the 'acting' that was required from them to a new level.
One of the chief differences is that there is no traditional villain of the piece, and even the heroes of the story occasionally behave badly...
What we wanted to do quite consciously with all the characters was to do away with the idea of villains and heroes, and get a little bit more into the subtleties of human nature. So although the situation is largely ridiculous, there are some real life themes being dealt with there, like separation and loss. Our aim was to take our cast of characters out of those archetypes, and place them more in the accessible realm where every character has moments of failings and nobility.
Were there long discussions with the Presley estate about getting the rights to the songs and to his image, which you use in the film?
I think they realised that the film was not making a mockery of Elvis at all, it's Lilo's idolatry of him and his music. It's just a whimsical backdrop. It's Elvis in the right spirit. They saw that and they saw the film. And in a sense it gets Elvis' music out to a new generation as well.
