Lilo and Stitch presenting an accurate representation of Hawaiians perspective on luaus held by tourists.
#what’s sad about this is that this is actually what Hawaiians had to do when the western culture took over #a luau was a sacred practice #until the westerners took the concept and had the audacity to change it into a time to stuff your face with food and put on grass skirts and coconut bras and dance the hula #and when they had these events, they didn’t even let actual Hawaiian people in #so to make money to take care of themselves, the Hawaiians were hired to work in these disgraceful events to clean up after the tourists like slaves only to make less than a buck #so good job disney for doing your fucking research and educating these people #sadly, this still goes on even until today and it makes me sick
“good job disney” my ass, good job CHRIS SANDERS
Let’s not credit just Chris Sanders for this. This happened because they cast actual Hawaiian Actors like Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee to play Hawaiian characters, and allowed the actors to have input into writing the characters’ lines.
This sort of authenticity comes from accuracy and authenticity in casting choices. The fact that Chris Sanders as direct/writer facilitated that does not mean he gets credit for the actors’ experience.
This is why diversity and representation in media matters.
Dude as a hawaiian, this is like straight up what my life as a kid was. My mom worked at those fakey luaus full time to pay rent. My mom is someone who is absolutely passionate and proud about being a hawaiian, living and teaching the ways our ancestors lived and taught. See, we Hawaiians, we live by the way of aloha. And not by the way of “hello” “goodbye”, let me educate you. As Pono Shim, CEO and President of Enterprise Honolulu, the Oahu Economic Development Board, states absolutely perfectly “aloha is to be in the presence of life, to share the essence of one’s being with openness, honesty, and humility. It is a way of being, a way of behaving, a way of life. It is a commitment to accepting others and giving dignity to who they are and what they have to offer.” Aloha is more than hello and goodbye. Think of aloha as an abbreviation. Akahai: meaning kindness Lokahi: meaning unity Olu’Olu’: meaning agreeableness Ha’aha’a: meaning humility Ahonui: meaning patience This is something we all need to live by, seriously, we all should
the dropped sub-plot was that lilo hated tourists, which is why she goes around taking pictures of them like they were attractions instead of people; like how they took photos of locals
similarly there was a deleted scene where she scares tourists off of a beach by sounding a false tsunami siren to watch them run screaming deeper in the lore that kid thats a prick to her, mertyle, is the daughter of the person who runs the megamart and crushed a lot of other local businesses- when they have to do a hula to tell a story mertyle actually uses it to describe the low prices, where lilo does a hula about a traditional creation myth that was important to her mother. you may notice both lilo and nani are on first name basis with both the coffee shop owner and the fruitseller, there is big disparity between the locals and foreign interest businesses relegating them to just be tourist industry
friendly reminder that lilo & stitch is indisputably the best disney film
