Disney's "Lilo & Scratch" Gets a Score Mixing Hawaiian Ensemble and Full Symphony

Disney's animated short "Lilo & Scratch" has its music, and the mix is unusual. A nine-piece Hawaiian ensemble plays alongside a 70-piece symphony orchestra. Composers Haim Mazar and Grace Fisher wrote the score, according to Variety, which published the news on 10 November 2026.

The short follows Stitch, who is left in charge of Scratch, a mischievous cat. Lilo has brought Scratch home and introduced the cat as the newest member of their 'ohana, the Hawaiian word for family. Lilo then heads out to run errands, and Stitch is left to babysit.

Mazar conducted the 70-piece orchestra himself. Together, he and Fisher wrote a new original theme that suits both the Hawaiian ensemble and the symphony, so the two groups share the same melody rather than taking turns.

The short was written and directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and Malcon Pierce. Nathan Curtis produced it. Jared Bush, chief creative officer of Disney Animation, served as executive producer, a role that usually means overseeing the project on the studio's behalf and guiding its creative direction.

"Lilo & Scratch" will play ahead of Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Hexed." Attaching a short to a feature film is a common way for the studio to introduce new work to audiences before the main event.

Mazar has worked on other Disney shorts. He composed and conducted "Versa," also an animated short from the studio. For this project, he and Fisher were working on a score that had to balance two very different sounds, a small island band and a full concert orchestra.

At 17, she developed acute flaccid myelitis, a rare condition that affects the spinal cord, and it left her paralysed from the neck down. She has gone on to become a composer on a Disney short, working alongside Mazar on a score that brings a traditional Hawaiian sound into a symphonic setting.