This Disney Movie Looked Very Different Before 9/11

“Lilo & Stitch” was the feel-good film the country needed when Disney released it in 2002.

The animated hit features Hawaii’s beautiful scenery and explores themes of loss and unity ― which particularly resonated after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But Disney made one major change to the film between the 9/11 attacks and the film’s release date.

“Lilo & Stitch” originally was supposed to end with an action-packed scene featuring Stitch and Jumba hijacking a commercial airplane to rescue Lilo from evil Gantu ― something that’s visible in a side-by-side video produced by Vox. The protagonists take over a passenger-filled Boeing 747 and go on a high-speed chase through a dense city, brushing the sides of skyscrapers and coming close to pedestrians on the ground.

Deleted Scene:

Final Scene:

The original scene is still chilling to watch.

The filmmakers rewrote the film’s denouement after 9/11 to feature Jumba’s red, white and blue spaceship instead of an airplane, according to the film’s Wikia page. They also changed the scene’s setting, sending their characters over Hawaii’s picturesque mountains and volcanoes rather than a city skyline.

The original ending wasn’t made public until 2009, when Disney released a version of the DVD featuring an audio commentary track in which the filmmakers explain recreating the scene.

Watch the original and deleted scenes in Vox’s video below.