Aloha *Lilo & Stitch* fans,

If you’ve ever tried to read a full-length book adaptation of *Lilo & Stitch*, you’ve probably hit the same frustrating wall I have.

Disney recently reprinted Kiki Thorpe’s original 2002 junior novelization for the live-action movie's theatrical run. But instead of giving us a fresh adaptation for the 2025 script or making legacy books accessible digitally, Disney has left the literary side of the *Lilo & Stitch* universe completely abandoned.

Here is a breakdown of why this hurts the franchise, how other major series do it better, and why the entire *Lilo & Stitch* saga deserved full novelizations.

1. The 2002 Original *Still* Isn't on Kindle

Kiki Thorpe's original 2002 junior novelization is a fantastic little companion to the original movie. But unless you own a decaying physical paperback from twenty years ago or read digitized scans through library archives, you're out of luck.

Disney maintains a massive digital footprint on Kindle and Apple Books for almost all their franchises, yet converting a simple 128-page middle-grade chapter book to e-readers is something they still haven't bothered to do.

2. The 2025 Live-Action Remake Deserved Its Own Book

When you look up the "2025 *Lilo & Stitch* Junior Novelization" on book retailers, it lists a recent publication date. But don't be fooled—it's literally just the 2002 animated film text reprinted under a new print run.

Live-action remakes introduce altered character dynamics, deleted scenes, updated pacing, and new visual world-building. Skipping a dedicated 2025 novelization robs fans of getting a deeper look inside this specific version's character monologues and background lore.

3. How Other Franchises Handle Novelizations vs. Disney

Movie novelizations aren't just cash grabs—they're storytelling expansions. Other major film franchises treat them with genuine respect:

Star Wars & Marvel (Lucasfilm/Disney Publishing): Star Wars novelizations regularly expand on film scripts with deleted scenes, inner monologues, and lore additions (e.g., The Force Awakens or Rogue One novels). Even Marvel releases dedicated YA prose books and expanded adaptations.

Universal & Legendary (Jurassic World, Dune, Godzilla): Major sci-fi and monster franchises regularly publish detailed tie-in novels alongside their films to explain creature biology, character histories, and off-screen events.

Disney Animation & Remakes: Disney, by contrast, frequently treats animation/remake publishing as an afterthought—either commissioning bare-minimum 100-page picturebooks or simply re-issuing 20-year-old texts without making them digitally accessible.

4. Why the Entire Franchise Sequels Deserved Full Novelizations

The Lilo & Stitch universe expanded into one of the richest sci-fi lore systems in Disney history. It is a crime that the sequels and TV series never got proper chapter book novelizations:

Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch: The emotional core of this film is heavy—Stitch's internal molecules breaking down, his panic as he turns bad against his will, and Lilo trying to follow her late mother's hula legacy. A novelization could have explored Lilo's memories of her mother and Stitch’s internal terror in deep, emotional prose that a 68-minute movie didn't have time to fully unpack.

Stitch! The Movie: As the bridge between the original film and the TV series, this movie set up the entire premise of Jumba's 625 pods, Reuben, Gantu's employment under Hamsterviel, and the Galactic Federation's involvement. A novelization could have given us a complete "Experiment Catalog" breakdown and fleshed out Jumba's backstory.

Lilo & Stitch: The Series: Imagine an omnibus chapter book series or episodic YA collection covering key experiment captures! Books dedicated to Angel (624), Sparky (221), Slushy (523), or Sample (258) would have allowed for deeper lore into Jumba's creation process and how each experiment affected Hawaiian island life.

Leroy & Stitch: The grand finale of the original franchise—the massive battle between 625 redeemed experiments and the Leroy clone army, Pleakley's college teaching job, and Lilo learning to let her family grow up and move on. A full-length finale novelization would have given this epic conclusion the cinematic scale it deserved on paper.

TL;DR: Disney re-printed the 2002 animated book for the 2025 live-action release instead of writing a new one, still refuses to put the original on Kindle, and missed out on turning L&S 2, Stitch! The Movie, The Series, and Leroy & Stitch into an iconic sci-fi chapter book franchise.

The IHOP commercial with everyone dressed in full 18th-century Rococo powdered wigs and silk gowns sitting in a standard diner booth got me thinking: why aren't people writing unhinged, high-literary prose adaptations of TV ads?

There is something inherently hilarious about taking a 30-second breakfast campaign and treating it with the weight of a dramatic period novel—treating vinyl booths like royal courts, building theatrical tension over syrup, and writing tragic monologues about cream cheese filling.

With IHOP's own Stuffed French Toast ad, I would especially love to see that given a high-literary prose adaptation.

...does anyone know where I can find a scan of the official movie novelization?

TL;DR: Lionsgate and Viz Media should use Destin Daniel Cretton’s live-action movie momentum to launch an official prose light-novel adaptation of the original 700-chapter manga—paired with collector Gaiden novels for the best anime filler (yes, including the ramen dough Rasengan in Episode 168 and the Curry of Life arc).

This is my attempt to get this out there to Lionsgate, Viz Media, Shueisha, Masashi Kishimoto, Destin Daniel Cretton, and the greater Naruto fan community.

Look, with Destin Daniel Cretton directing the live-action movie, I think we can breathe a collective sigh of relief that this won't be Dragon Ball Evolution 2.0. But if Lionsgate and Viz Media want this film launch to be a massive global event, they should take a page from franchises like Star Wars or Dune and bring prose into the mix.

Except I’m not asking for a novelization of the movie.

I’m talking about using the film's hype to launch a full-blown, multi-volume light novel adaptation of the original 700-chapter manga.

...And—hear me out—a companion Gaiden series dedicated entirely to fan-favorite anime filler.

Look, I know filler is about as canon to Naruto as Minecraft is to William Shakespeare. But some of those arcs were unironically great, and prose fantasy readers have never gotten a definitive, main-line book series for this franchise.

Why this actually makes strategic sense:

• It taps into the epic fantasy market: People who love massive, world-spanning book series like The Wheel of Time or Stormlight Archive don't always read manga. A prose adaptation opens Naruto to a huge demographic of traditional fantasy readers.
• Inner monologues hit harder than manga panels: Prose gives an author room to really explore character heads—Sasuke’s isolation, Kakashi’s grief, Naruto’s sheer stubbornness—while detailing the actual mechanics of chakra and jutsu weaving.
• It prints money off nostalgic anime lore: Decades of original anime filler are just sitting on streaming servers. Packaging the best standalone arcs into physical collector books turns old animation investments into actual publishing gold.

The filler arcs that deserve full Gaiden book adaptations:

• Episode 168 (Mix It, Stretch It, Boil It Up! Burn, Copper Pot, Burn!): The ultimate culinary ninja thriller. Naruto using a Rasengan to knead noodle dough, Sakura using monster strength to tenderize it, and Chōji pulling noodles with Expansion Jutsu while fighting off Cooking-Nin to save Ayame. It’s basically Food Wars set in the Leaf Village.
• The Curry of Life Arc (Episodes 152–157): A total cult classic. Beyond Lee getting revived by Karashi’s nuclear-spicy curry, the dynamic between Raiga (Seven Swordsmen) and Ranmaru is genuinely dark fantasy material.
• Guren & Yukimaru / Three-Tails (Shippuden 91–112): Easily the gold standard of Shippuden filler. Guren’s redemption arc, her tragic motherly bond with Yukimaru, and Crystal Release (Shōton) carry deep emotional weight for a proper drama novel.
• Utakata & Hotaru / Six-Tails (Shippuden 144–151): Expands non-Leaf Jinchūriki lore. The master-student tragedy combined with the Tsuchigumo clan's forbidden jutsu reads like a standalone fantasy novella.
• The Chikara / Power Arc (Episodes 290–295): It was animated like a movie anyway. Clone experiments, Tonaguri Village, and massive elemental clashes make this an easy action-novel conversion.
• Episode 101 (Kakashi-Sensei's True Face!): Publish this as a short, slice-of-life comedic prelude. Every book series needs a lighthearted palette cleanser.

Hi everyone!

Every time I rewatch Smallville or reread the Season 11 comics, I can’t help but think about how incredible a comprehensive, serialized novelization series would be.

Imagine having all 10 TV seasons—plus the Season 11 comic continuation—adapted into a cohesive, prose-driven book series. Novels would allow for so much deeper character depth, internal monologues, lore expansion, and a seamless transition into the Season 11 arcs (like Bryan Q. Miller's work bringing in Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern) without the visual constraints or budget limits of the original show.

I don't have the creative writing skills to execute a project of this scale myself—if I had the writing chops, I’d already be working on it!—so I wanted to throw this concept out to the community:

• Existing Projects: Are there any long-form, multi-book Smallville novelizations already in progress on AO3, FFN, or Wattpad that I might have missed?
• Community Interest: Are there any talented fanfic writers out there looking for an epic, massive DC project who would ever consider taking this on?
• Adaptation Ideas: If someone were to tackle this, which storylines, character perspectives, or comic arcs do you think would translate best into full-length prose?

If any writers in the community are inspired by this idea, please feel free to take it and run with it!

I've been thinking about this for a while, especially after only recently getting hooked on the show, and the more I think about it, the more I'm surprised Megas XLR never got a novelization.

Not just a tie-in book, either. I mean a full prose adaptation of the entire original series—every episode, collected into one big omnibus. With each episode being its own book.

Think about how much room prose would give the show to breathe.

We could actually spend time inside Kiva's head as she tries to make sense of 21st-century Earth. She arrives as a battle-hardened soldier from the future, but after being stranded with Coop and Jamie, she gradually starts absorbing their culture. At first she's studying the present because she needs to understand it. Eventually she's watching movies, playing games, learning slang, developing opinions about science fiction, and generally becoming the very sort of sci-fi nerd she's pretending to be for Coop's mom.

And speaking of Coop's mom: where does Kiva actually sleep? Does the house have a guest room? Does she just get given one because Coop tells his mother that this weird futuristic-looking woman is a down-on-her-luck sci-fi nerd who needs somewhere to stay? These are the important questions.

A novelization could also expand all the stuff the show only had time to hint at:

• More of Kiva's life and military background.
• More of Jamie's relationship with Coop and Kiva.
• More details about the Glorft and the future war.
• More of Coop actually modifying and experimenting with Megas.
• The mundane downtime between alien invasions.
• What these three actually do when they're just hanging around the house.
• Kiva gradually adopting Coop and Jamie's habits without even realizing it.
• The sheer absurdity of someone from the future discovering that 21st-century science fiction is sometimes weirdly accurate.

And I'd want the prose to take the world completely seriously while still understanding that Coop is Coop.

The Glorft invasion can be genuinely terrifying. Megas can be described as an absolutely staggering piece of future technology. Kiva can have very real trauma from growing up in a war.

And then Coop can replace Megas's head with something ridiculous because he thought it would look cool.

That's the balance I'd want.

Obviously, a project using Megas XLR characters and setting would have to navigate copyright and the rights situation, so I'm talking about this as a fan-driven dream project, not pretending anybody can just publish an official book without permission. If something like this were ever made as an authorized or otherwise properly permitted fan project, I'd personally love the digital edition to be straightforward and accessible rather than tied to a proprietary reader or filled with restrictive DRM. And, obviously, due to the show being a tax write-off, these would not be able to be sold and would have to be given away for free.

But regardless of whether it could ever actually happen: Would you read a full-series prose novelization of Megas XLR?

Because I would absolutely demolish a 500+ page omnibus of this ridiculous show. 🤖

#MegasXLR #novelization #Kiva #Coop #Jamie

I know this is probably an extremely niche thing to want, but after reading Kari Sutherland's Dumbo novelization, I genuinely think she would be the perfect writer to novelize both of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film adaptations.

Sutherland has already done something that makes her particularly suited to this: she has experience taking a Tim Burton movie and translating it into prose. And Dumbo proved to me that a Burton film can work really well as a novelization when the writer understands that they're not just converting a screenplay into paragraphs—they're adapting the film's experience into a different medium.

That's exactly what I want from novelizations of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

I'd especially love to see Sutherland tackle the 2005 film. There's so much in that movie that could benefit from being expanded through prose: Charlie's thoughts, the atmosphere of the factory, Wonka's bizarre thought process, the reactions of the other children, and all the little pieces of character business that an actor can communicate visually but that a novel can actually get inside.

And honestly, I'd love to see her do the 1971 movie too. That version has such a distinctive atmosphere and characterization that I'd be fascinated to see it translated into prose rather than simply rereading Dahl's original book.

I know what some people are going to say, though: "But why novelize the movies when Roald Dahl's original book already exists?"

That's actually the easiest problem to solve.

The original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could simply be included at the back of the novelization as an advertisement for the original book alongside a QR code that takes readers to a legitimate free sample of Dahl's book that can be downloaded to a Kindle or other e-reader.

That way, the film novelization isn't replacing Dahl's book. It's pointing readers toward it.

These things can coexist:

Roald Dahl's novel: the original story.

1971 novelization: the Gene Wilder film as a prose experience.

2005 novelization: the Tim Burton film as a prose experience.

They're three different interpretations of essentially the same starting point, and I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with wanting all three represented.

And if Kari Sutherland has already demonstrated that she can handle a Burton adaptation in novel form, why not let her take a crack at Wonka?

I know this is going to be an uphill battle with Liccy Dahl and the Roald Dahl Story Company, but I really, REALLY want this to happen. 🍫

Kari Sutherland's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novelization. Please, I want the two films themselves preserved as prose adaptations, and I think Kari Sutherland has already demonstrated the particular skill set to do it.

#Discussion #Fan Campaign #Books #Movies #Novelization

Hi, relatively new TCM fan here with a pitch for A24's new TCM era to expand the franchise through a massive literary and novelization push. I mean, talk about missed opportunities—I firmly believe that Echo On Publications and A24 should bring back and reprint Stephen Hand’s rare TCM novels.

Like a lot of you, I’m beyond hyped to see what A24, JT Mollner, and Curry Barker are cooking up for the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie and TV series.

But looking at the big picture of the franchise, I’ve been thinking about how much untapped potential there is on the literary side. Imagine if A24 and a horror-focused publisher like Echo On Publications gave us a comprehensive novelization push for the entire history of the series—giving every previous timeline and sequel proper, modern print editions.

Even bigger than that: Can we talk about Stephen Hand’s hard-to-find work?

For years, horror fans have hunted for copies of his novelization for The Beginning as well as the legendary novel-only sequel Skinfreak (which came out via Black Flame years ago but are now expensive out-of-print grails). Officially reissuing these books and keeping them in print would instantly be a massive win for the horror community.

I know getting publishers to release things DRM-free or take a chance on niche horror publishing is a long shot, but as a fan wishlist item, it would be incredible.

What do you guys think? Would you read official novelizations of the older movies, and how cool would it be to see books like Skinfreak easily accessible again?

Anyway, here is a letter I had written up that goes into a bit more detail about this:

To the Creative and Publishing Teams at A24 and Echo On Publications,

First, congratulations on taking the reins of one of horror history's most iconic franchises. As a passionate fan of the genre and a follower of your work, I am beyond thrilled to see A24 breathe fresh, uncompromising life into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With your upcoming slate—including the newly announced television series and feature reimagining—you have an incredible opportunity to shape not just the future of Leatherface on screen, but across multiple forms of media.

I am writing to pitch a comprehensive, fan-focused multimedia strategy that could deeply enrich your new era: a definitive literary expansion of the franchise's history.

1. Novelizing the Legacy

To truly build anticipation and give fans a deeply immersive experience leading up to your new iteration, consider commissioning official, high-quality novelizations for everything that came before. Providing cohesive, modernized print editions for the previous timelines would allow fans to re-engage with the lore, while offering newcomers a structured way to dive into the complete, sprawling history of the Sawyer/Hewitt mythos.

2. Recovering Lost Treasures: Stephen Hand’s The Beginning and Skinfreak

As part of this publishing push, I strongly encourage you to reach out to author Stephen Hand (who penned the brilliant novelization for the 2003 remake). For years, horror fans have yearned for the official release of his unreleased novelization for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, as well as the legendary, unreleased novel-only sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Skinfreak. Bringing these lost manuscripts to light through Echo On Publications would instantly capture the horror community's attention, turning a long-standing piece of franchise folklore into a celebrated reality.

3. Maximizing Accessibility (A Fan's Dream)

While I know this might be an ambitious stretch for modern publishing, it would be an absolute dream for the community if these titles—especially any digital editions—could be released completely DRM-free (free of even social DRM). Removing digital restrictions allows communities to share, discuss, and build grassroots excitement organically. Of course, simply having these stories officially bound, released, and placed on bookshelves would be a massive victory in its own right, so consider this a heartfelt wishlist item from a dedicated supporter.

Thank you for your time, your creative vision, and your dedication to horror cinema. I cannot wait to see what you carve out next.

Sincerely,

A Dedicated Fan of the Franchise

Discuss in the comment section down below and fingers crossed this comes to fruition!