By It’s been over a decade since Disney decided to start pumping out live-action remakes of its animated films, and by this point, I honestly have very little to say about the trend. 90% of these films are inferior to the original, and they’re the embodiment of modern corporate greed. Outside of movies like The Jungle Book, I don’t see any ingenuity or creativity in these films. I just see a blatant attempt to recycle its catalogue with a newer and more grounded coat of paint, usually to detrimental results. And, shock of all shocks, Lilo & Stitch is no different.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lilo & Stitch growing up. It’s a good movie, but when compared to early 2000s Disney movies like The Emperor’s New Groove and Treasure Planet, I found myself being drawn to those movies far more. A part of that is probably because those movies were definitely marketed more towards boys than Lilo & Stitch ever was, but most people were really drawn to the film to the point it got a TV series, multiple made-for-TV movies, and still endures over 20 years later. So, of course, it’s getting the live-action remake treatment.
Look, I know arguments will be made that I, a 30-year-old man, am not the target audience for this film. Fair, but that doesn’t excuse this remake from feeling like a hollow replication of the original that is obviously inferior to the 2002 version.
Lilo & Stitch
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Release Date: May 23, 2025 (Theatrical)
Rating: PG
If you’ve never seen the original Lilo & Stitch, the plot, on the surface, is an exact recreation of the original. Experiment 626 (Chris Sanders), a feral monster created by the arrogant Dr. Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), escapes his captivity by the Galactic Federation and inadvertently ends up on Earth, specifically on Hawaii. Outraged by his escape, the Grand Councilwoman (Hannah Waddingham) strikes a deal with the imprisoned Dr. Jumba that if he’s able to capture 626, he’ll be granted his freedom. Of course, she doesn’t fully trust him, so she also assigns the energetic Earth expert Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) to keep him in check and report back to her.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, we begin to follow Lilo (Maia Kealoha), a young girl who’s a bit of a social outcast. She says and does weird things, and because of that, she’s ostracized by her classmates. This makes life even more difficult for her older sister Nani (Sydney Elizabeth Agudong), who has also been taking care of Lilo after their parents’ deaths. She’s trying to hold things together, but Child Protective Services is looking to take Lilo away and gives Nani a week to get things in shape.
The two plots eventually converge when 626 hides in an animal shelter after getting hit by a truck. Later the next day, Lilo goes to the animal shelter and decides to adopt 626, whom she names Stitch, which works for both of them. Lilo can get a friend, and Stitch gets a patsy to use as a human meat shield to avoid Jumba and Pleakley. Over time, though, Stitch’s malevolent exterior begins to crack as he sees the trouble that Lilo and Nani are in and grows to genuinely care for them, even learning how to be better himself, and becomes a part of their family.
Copyright: Disney
If this is your first time ever seeing the story of Lilo & Stitch, then nothing will seem wrong to you. The plot is pretty straightforward, it hits all of the requisite heartfelt moments, and given that it’s a Disney movie, you can expect a happy ending. However, if you’re at all familiar with the original film, then you’ll start to notice plenty of odd changes and a general feeling of disingenuousness that permeates throughout the film. Some of these are minor, but others are so large that you’ll begin to wonder how the film even functions properly.
I know the biggest response to my criticism will be the tried and true claim that this is a movie meant for kids and I’m not the target audience, but I’ll keep on saying it until the cows come home; that’s not a valid excuse. If this is a remake of a film, then comparing it to the original is fair, especially when Disney is blatantly advertising the original animated film alongside the remake on Disney+. Not only that, but as we all know, there’s a key difference between kids’ movies and family movies. Kids’ movies are exactly that – movies primarily made for children and nobody else. Family movies, like Lilo & Stitch, are intended for all ages, and if adults who are watching the remake loved the original, their voices matter a lot in the equation, too.
Anyway, like I said, some of the issues at first are minor. Lilo not quite being as brash is somewhat excusable, given the shift from animation to live-action, and the omission of some iconic lines from the original, while missed, don’t harm the film at large. But then you start to look at some of the unnecessary changes that mess with key characters and relationships, as well as completely altering thematic arcs and the film’s core message.
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As far as characters are concerned, while most of the core cast members pale in comparison to their animated counterparts, special mention needs to be made for the treatment of Dr. Jumba and the CPS social worker, Mr. Bubbles. Jumba doesn’t have his iconic bad Russian accent and instead sounds like a generic white guy. The film doesn’t even utilize Galifianakis’s strange sense of humor. He’s just a stock mad scientist with a chip on his shoulder over his creation. He lacks any of the subtlety and humor the original had and feels like all of his rougher edges have been sanded off.
The same can be said for Mr. Bubbles, whose role is now divided between two characters. There’s still a character named Mr. Bubbles, played by Courtney B. Vance, but he’s just a CIA agent and not a CPS social worker. That responsibility falls onto a new character, Mrs. Kekoa, played by Nani’s original voice actor, Tia Carrere. On one hand, I do like how the remake intentionally tries to include as many of the original voice actors as possible in both small and large roles, but at the same time, it ruins a lot of the dynamic that Bubbles had with the family and raises several questions about how certain events unfold towards the end of the film.
By and large, the characters all feel like hollow versions of their original selves. Again, on the surface, they’re hitting all the same beats, but there’s none of the charm or personality. We don’t see Jumba and Pleakley bond as they watch Stitch’s numerous attempts to flee Hawaii. We don’t see Bubbles look on as Nani tries and fails to find a job. We don’t see these little character moments, leading each character, by and large, to feel flat. It’s a Flanderization of the core cast. People remember Dr. Jumba as a mad scientist, so that’s all he is. People remember Mr. Bubbles as this shady government agent, so that’s all he is. Any greater depth and characterization are ignored in favor of simply being what an uneducated audience expects them to be.
Copyright: Disney
This also applies to the core cast of Lilo, Stitch, and Nani, but they have their own unique set of problems. A lot of Stitch’s development feels rushed. In the original film, one of the leading metaphors that helped connect him with Lilo was the story of the ugly duckling, which worked twofold. For Lilo, it represented the alienation she felt for being a bit of an oddball, while for Stitch, it represented his status as an outsider and how he wanted to find a family of his own. It’s gone in the remake. Why? I can’t say it was cut for time, given that the film runs around an hour and 45 minutes, but most likely from a lack of understanding of their relationship. Now, their only real bonding experience is being troublemakers and causing problems for Nani, which was true in the original, but not to the extent the remake seems to think it is.
Speaking of, let’s talk about the core theme of the film – family. It’s said plenty of times in both the original as well as the remake, but Lilo & Stitch is all about ohana, the Hawaiian word for family, and how families are always there for each other. It’s a fundamental part of the original film as we watch Nani do everything in her power to try and get a job to keep taking care of Lilo, even after they have heated arguments. You can tell the two genuinely care for each other, and Nani will fight to keep her family together.
The Nani of the remake is not that kind of sister. The dynamic she and Lilo share feels awkward at best, with Nani acting more like a clueless teen than before, forgetting basic things like having food in their house and making stupid and careless mistakes that wouldn’t be out of place in a low-brow comedy. The moments she has with Lilo feel hollow and don’t feel deserved, like the scene where the two of them are sitting in a hammock singing. What’s meant to be a poignant and melancholic scene misses that emotional punch because we simply don’t see the bond the two of them share. Don’t even get me started on the ending where Nani just gives up and intentionally breaks apart their family. No, I don’t care if it makes the film feel more “grounded.” It intentionally undermines the core theme of the film that families always stick together. Except, you know, when it’s convenient for the family to break up when it suits the needs of one person.
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That desire to make their live-action films feel more grounded and realistic is a frequent thorn in Disney’s remakes. They can’t just beat-for-beat replicate their animated original (except for The Lion King, I guess). They have to add some element of realism to appeal to a modern mindset. The whimsy and wonder of earlier Disney movies have been replaced by a need to present its characters as actual people, but these characters were never written as actual people. They were cartoons, and Disney’s frequent attempts to add depth to their characters by making them and their decisions more realistic usually come at the cost of the original film’s message. Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, and ESPECIALLY Snow White are all victims of this, as is Lilo & Stitch. Sure, what Nani does feels more realistic, but it comes at the cost of what ohana has always meant for the series.
This is just one of the reasons why the thrid act feels so sloppy, but it goes beyond just screwing with the film’s central theme. Key character moments are ignored in favor of getting to an action-packed climax, but it’s a climax that itself feels neutered because of the complete lack of the original film’s antagonist, Captain Gantu. Why is he completely gone from this remake? Because it makes Lilo & Stitch more realistic, according to the director. Camp claims that removing Gantu makes the film more realistic from an emotional perspective (which it doesn’t) and from a practical perspective (because a movie starring a little blue alien was already so realistic).
This, in turn, makes the climax exceptionally dull, since now Jumba steps into the role of the film’s antagonist, but given Galifianakis’ poor direction, he doesn’t fill Gantu’s gigantic shoes. Plus, now there’s no excuse for any major action set pieces, since Gantu was actively hostile towards Stitch and wanted any and every excuse to vaporize him. Instead, we watch Jumba’s spaceship fly around for a little bit, crash, and then we watch as everyone has all of their problems solved. It’s all just so convenient and simple. I’m not against simple, but there’s a difference between a simple execution that is emotionally stimulating and a simple execution that feels like no one really knows how to end this thing.
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Now, you may think, after all of that vitriol, that I hate Lilo & Stitch with a burning passion, but I honestly don’t. Like I said, I didn’t grow up with the movie as much as other people, so I’m not exactly a diehard Stitch fan. Like I’ve been saying throughout this review, if you’re just seeing Lilo & Stitch from a surface-level examination, it functions. It’s not mindblowing, but it doesn’t actively make any poor narrative choices outside of Nani’s role within her family. Even then, I can’t hate Lilo & Stitch because it’s coming off the heels of Snow White, another Disney live-action remake with FAR more problems that is a terrible movie from the bottom up.
It’s like comparing wearing your socks inside out for a day versus walking around with wet socks for a day. One is inconvenient, but you’ll live with it, and you probably won’t even notice how uncomfortable it actually is until you realize what’s happening, as opposed to an active feeling of disgust that you want to end as soon as possible. Lilo & Stitch isn’t a good remake, but at this point, it’s to be expected of a Disney live-action remake. Make a soulless and Flanderized version of the original, change a few things in the name of “realism,” and reap off the nostalgia of adults looking to recapture that magic of their youth. It’s a tried and true formula, and Disney will ride it until it dies. It won’t make any good movies anymore, but since when has modern Disney cared about creative integrity and quality filmmaking, am I right?
