By Sarah Opdahl

As the new live-action Lilo & Stitch, currently only in theaters, nears $1 billion in ticket sales, Disney is celebrating a great success and so is New Fairfield-native Mike Van Waes. A screenwriter with a wide range of projects in his wake, Lilo & Stitch was a labor of love, and he could not be more pleased with its outcome.

Lilo & Stitch is a heartwarming tale that follows a sweet Hawaiian girl and an alien who become close friends. With hilarious storylines (Stitch is on the run) and touching ones (Lilo is a lonely child), the characters have now found a much wider audience, and a new generation of fans, through this film. Though the original Lilo & Stitch had its own devoted fanbase—Mike was always a member!—the first  movie was less of a commercial success, so this win is being celebrated at many levels. Originally destined to go straight to Disney+, Mike is understandably so happy with the decision to open in theaters, “It feels amazing! This film was seven years in the making…I always believed it belonged on the big screen, so I was thrilled when they made that switch. And the result is above and beyond what I expected. It’s been great to see the positive response it’s gotten and to see a resurgence in love for these wonderful characters.” 

For Mike, working with Disney was always a dream. Growing up in New Fairfield, he was a creative kid, “I had a knack for art, and drawing in particular, which is why I thought animation would be in my future,” though writing would become an even bigger passion. He is grateful to his parents, Pat and Carol Van Waes, who still live in New Fairfield, for supporting his pursuit of a career in the arts. After graduating from New Fairfield High School, he went on to college and then landed in West Hollywood, where he has written for the last two plus decades. He explained, “My first job was as an assistant at The Jim Henson Company, followed by work as a story analyst,” in which he read, evaluated, and gave creative notes on all submitted projects, “I did that for DreamWorks and Paramount, back and forth, for the better part of a decade before I became a working writer. It was the best screenwriting education I could have ever gotten.”

Mike shared that he approached Lilo & Stitch “as a fan first, so that was always at the front of my mind. I love the original and respect the creators, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, so much that I just felt honored to be a part of it. And writing new interpretations of these iconic characters was really special.” Though he explained that working with any studio has its challenges, his time on this project with Disney was fun. “This started in 2018. They were not looking to do anything with Lilo & Stitch at the time, but the producers at Rideback and I developed a pitch and won them over. Fun fact: one of the producers saw a picture of me online in a Stitch onesie and reached out to me to see if I’d like to work on the project with them. So… dress for the job you want!”

Approaching the live-action film as a writer and an artist, Mike shared, “Lilo & Stitch has been my favorite since I saw it opening weekend in 2002.” He went on, “It was important to keep as much of what we loved from the original film as we could, but also expand and flesh out other areas to give this new version a reason to exist. Some things that work in animation, like Jumba and Pleakley wearing simple disguises when they’re clearly aliens, just would not feel plausible in live action. So there were a lot of adjustments for things like that. And we really wanted to dig deeper into the relationship between the Pelekai sisters to ground the live action story in reality.”

With the dream of working with Disney now a reality, it was a happily surreal experience for Mike to stand on the red carpet—which happened to be blue this time—saying, “I’ve been to premieres before but this was the first premiere I attended for a movie I actually worked on. And it was so gratifying to see all of the people who worked so hard to make this movie come together to celebrate the final product.”  

Mike has a host of writing projects finalized, including his first novel, Peeves, which is a middle grade book about a boy with severe anxiety disorder whose worries come to life as annoying little monsters. And, with Lilo & Stitch continuing on its successful path, and many more new creative works in progress—most are secret!—there’s clearly a lot more excitement ahead for Mike and his family.