Disney+ Viewers Notice Glaring Change Made to ‘Lilo & Stitch’

Disney+ viewers have been noticing a small change made to the version of Lilo & Stitch made available on the streaming service. In an early scene, there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it change that has actually been a part of the film for years. To keep children from getting any bad ideas, a scene was tweaked to show Lilo hiding behind a pizza box instead of inside a clothes dryer.

The moment happens during Lilo and Nani’s fight, which started after Nani told Lilo she had to stay in school. While her big sister chases her around the house, Lilo hides in a clothes dryer, at least in the version American viewers are familiar with. This was also how the scene looked in the film’s original 2002 theatrical and DVD releases. In the U.K., the film was edited slightly for its DVD release, with the dryer replaced by a commode with a pizza box, which Lilo uses to hide behind. Screenshots of the edit were posted on Movie-Censorship.com back in 2010.

American audiences are just seeing this change now because Disney+ inexplicably published the U.K. edit on the streaming platform instead of the familiar American version. This is the only change made to the film, and it does not alter the story of a young Hawaiian girl finding an unlikely connection with a homicidal maniac alien creature she names Stitch.

Of course, this is not the only tweak to films fans have noticed on Disney+. The UHD stream was the first time people noticed the bizarre change George Lucas made to the Han Solo and Greedo scene in Star Wars: A New Hope just before Disney bought Lucasfilm. Disney also used the previously-censored DVD version of 1942’s Saludos Amigos so fans would not see Goofy smoking a cigarette. The company also digitally altered Tom Hanks’ Splash because the PG-rated movie showed bare behinds.

Dissey has released several projects on Disney+ early to help families stay entertained during the coronavirus pandemic. Frozen 2 was made available to stream in March, several months before it was originally planned to be available. Pixar’s Onward, which hit theaters in the last weekend before theaters were closed, was added to Disney+ on April 3.

“Frozen 2 has captivated audiences around the world through its powerful themes of perseverance and the importance of family, messages that are incredibly relevant during this time, and we are pleased to be able to share this heartwarming story early with our Disney+ subscribers to enjoy at home on any device,” new Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a statement last month.