by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
Lilo & Stitch is the latest live action remake from Disney Studios. Taking an underrated animated classic and reimagining it with a real people and CGI. Cards on the table, Lilo & Stitch (2002) is my favorite Disney animated movie of all time. When it came out, it instantly shot to the number-two spot after Aladdin, and stayed there for quite some time, but after having more time with it and then becoming a parent, it tipped the scale into all-time favorite. The themes of family, combined with being an outcast which leads to creating your own found family, were incredibly powerful to me. But then weave in the ugly duckling metaphor, the dark comedy, and the Elvis and Hawaiian music, and “You’ve got a stew going,” as Carl Weathers would say!
Regarding live action remakes of Disney classics, cards on the table again, I don’t love them. However, I have been more willing to give them a chance than most, with some caveats. A lifeless shot-for-shot remake like the Lion King is not what I want, but I don’t prefer a complete reimagining like Mulaneither. When a beloved classic is remade, it needs to be free to do its own thing while not forgetting or ignoring what made the original special. So for a movie like Lilo & Stitch, I need to see that the filmmakers understand why the original is so beloved, understand the importance of the dark humor, and the emotion that pulls on the heartstrings. If they just try to recreate moments, tweak the story to fit their new material, and squeeze in some extra laughs to avoid rehashing decades-old jokes, then we are in trouble. And for the record, I enjoyed the Aladdin remake from 2019, so I was hopeful going into Lilo & Stitch that they could hit a similar high.
When I saw the first trailer for Lilo & Stitch (2025), I knew there was a disconnect between the original filmmakers and the new ones. From the decisions around Jumba and Pleakley’s disguises, to changing the overweight sunburned tourist with an ice cream cone to a local with a snow cone. And then as soon as the movie started, I knew my fears were confirmed. We jump into the opening at a breakneck pace. The original movie is only 85 minutes long, and it spends more time on this opening than the remake does. After speed-running the completely CGI opening which deletes Captain Gantu, has Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) flatly deliver his lines, removes the prison sequence entirely, and turns Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) into an Earth-loving cosplayer, we are culture shocked by the sudden live action portion of the proceedings.
We meet Lilo (Maia Kealoha) who is very true to the original. This young actress was exactly the right fit for the role because she feels like an actual child and not the typical Disney movie kid. There are moments that are reminiscent of Brooklynn Prince in the Florida Project with how natural she feels running through the town, reenacting the events of Chicken Run with the neighbors’ chickens, and sneaking into the local resort to chill in the hot tub.
However, if you thought maybe I was being too harsh on the movie for not understanding the assignment with the opening, you will no longer feel that way regarding Pudge the fish and his sandwich. It was this change that yelled to me, “We didn’t understand the assignment!” One of the most quotable and beloved parts of the original is Lilo’s explanation as to why she needed to bring Pudge a peanut butter sandwich. Not only is this line and explanation cut, but she brings him what appears to be some kind of turkey sandwich. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if the writers had her bring him a tuna sandwich… like an abomination. The importance of this small scene can’t be overstated; it informs the audience on why Lilo is so special and sets the audience up for an emotional punch later in the film. Pudge controls the weather because as we come to learn, her parents were killed in a car accident during a bad rainstorm. By removing this element of the movie, it leads to problems in later scenes regarding her connection to a picture of her family photo. This photo is important for multiple reasons — we see that it is one of the last photos of her Ohana together, it is used to show Stitch what a family is and looks like. At the end, a picture of Stitch is placed within the damaged portion of the photo to signify that he is now a part of their family, and is the emotional conclusion of the story. Only the remake doesn’t emphasize its importance, bother to show the audience what the picture is until the end, and it is never used to progress Stitch’s arc. The story of Lilo’s parents is left out almost entirely. But then the movie tries at the end to make the picture important by having Stitch save it for her. All in all, this feels as though the writers are saying, “We have to hurry past or ignore these parts because we aren’t interested in telling this story again.” Which has me wondering, why, other than liking money, did you make this movie?
We get to meet Nani (Sydney Agudong) next, and she is given a much larger role than in the original. Her surfing career and schooling goals are present in the original, but only if you look in the background animation for the clues. Now that we have an extra 25 minutes to play with, Nani gets more of a story, which I liked a lot… at first. Unfortunately, her characterization is changed. She goes from a struggling older sister with no support, trying her best to keep a broken family together at all costs, to someone with a solid support system who jumps at the first chance to put Lilo into foster care (but she’s really broken up about it, so close enough). Part of the problem is the aforementioned support system. Nani is unable to be the hero of this story because Tutu (Amy Hill) lives next door, and is the unintentional villain. This new character exists merely to enrage me. She is a lovely older woman who treats Nani and Lilo like family, she tells them she is their Ohana, and she encourages Nani to follow her dreams of going to school, but she never once offers to take Lilo or Nani in or to help out financially, and is the person in this movie who lets Lilo adopt Stitch without even checking with Nani first. This woman who is very much a support system does everything counterintuitive to the entire plot of the movie. And then the solution for the social worker is to just ask Tutu to be Lilo’s foster parent, and the day is saved?! WHAT IS HAPPENING? Make it make sense! And the reason it doesn’t make sense is because the movie tries so hard to stick to all the major plot points of the original. This is the worst kind of remake. It leaves story logic at the door because it wants to have it’s cake and eat it too!
Speaking of cake, we get a brand new sequence when Stitch lands on Earth, and rather than being run over by an 18-wheeler, he crashes a wedding on a mission to eat their wedding cake. I have to say, all of the newly added Stitch scenes work for me. One thing that I have always loved about the character is his chaotic nature, so seeing it in new and exciting ways is very fun! Ultimately, Stitch is cute, fluffy, and great at getting into mischief, so when he does that it works like gangbusters for young and old alike. But then, after being described as “indestructible,” Stitch is run over by a regular bus with only four wheels, and this knocks him out cold. Small changes like this make no sense to me. Why change it from an 18-wheeler unless it would have cost more than a bus? I keep returning to “quick cash grab” as a reason that this movie was even made.
And speaking of cash grabs, that is exactly what Galifianakis did when accepting this role. His performance, or the lack thereof, is horrendous. I have seen people show up to cash a paycheck in movies, but this is ridiculous. Flat line readings aside, when he is “in disguise” as himself, it is appalling. He doesn’t put on any kind of voice affectation to even try to replicate Jumba from the original, and his body language reads as though he isn’t into the material. It gets even worse when you compare him to Magnussen, with whom he shares almost every scene. The contrast between their two effort levels is staggering. Magnussen CRUSHES it as Pleakley — absolutely crushes it. Say what you will regarding Disney’s very real, recent, fear of trans-coded characters, with respect to Pleakley (that’s a conversation better left to members of the LGBTQ community, and not me, a cis white man), but from my perspective, unjustly removing that element of Pleakley’s character is only saved by Magnussen’s performance. I also really hated that the film removes the element of Pleakley and Jumba dressing up in disguises where it was very clear they were aliens wearing wigs, because that is part of the humor. By making them wear holographic disguises and just be humans is a lazy way to, again, save money.
If you’re thinking I forgot about Cobra Bubbles (Courtney Vance), don’t worry, the movie does too! Rather than giving him a significant role, it splits his job duties into two characters. Now there is a different social worker (Tia Carrere), and Bubbles is an actual CIA agent who shows up midway through to simply ride backseat on an unnecessary and eventually dropped C story about the CIA wanting to figure out what is happening. Oh, and the movie completely gets rid of the joke regarding his involvement in past alien landings, and the whole “mosquitos being endangered” running joke. Which wouldn’t be a problem, but the mosquito thing IS mentioned in passing twice, but with no hint of comedy tied to it. I would rather you cut out the mosquito mentions completely than simply make one reference as if they didn’t get the purpose of the joke.
Lastly, I will let you know that if you were hoping to see the thrilling finale of Lilo and Stich (2002) brought to life on the big screen with two spaceships on a grand chase flying through Hawaii, I have bad news for you. Because with Captain Gantu being removed from the movie completely, it is forced to make Jumba the primary villain. Though, if I’m being honest, after an hour of Galifianakis’ uninterested voice performance, I didn’t need help hating Jumba. And because there’s now only one spaceship, you can’t have a chase, so it just becomes a boring scene on the ship where Jumba is eventually defeated. No chase, no rescue mission, no dramatic breakdown from Nani. In fact, in the original, when Nani loses her temper on both Cobra Bubbles and Jumba because her love of Lilo and keeping their already broken family from shattering completely, it is the emotional gut punch that tips the movie from good to great. So naturally, the 2025 remake decides that Nani is a little sad, but ultimately that giving Lilo away is for the best. And I know, “Nick! Will you forget the original and judge this movie for what it is?” and my answer is, “I would if this movie did the same!” It just wouldn’t stop using the original to further the story, but then contradict those elements with the new story to fill in the time.
Lilo & Stitch (2025) is not a bad movie — it is competently made, well acted and cast, and the animated characters are fine, with Stitch looking fantastic. But I am left scratching my head as to why Disney would remake this underrated, all-time classic with the strict intention of removing everything that made the original so special. Not only that, but they shoved all those moments of family and being an outcast to the side to replace them with the most generic story beats. Lilo & Stitch (2025) was made with less care and attention than it deserved, and I can only hope that next month’s How to Train Your Dragon remake won’t suffer the same fate. However, How to Train Your Dragon has Lilo and Stitch (2002)’s original writer/director working on it, so maybe it will be better off. Lastly, on the kid approval scale, my 10-year-old liked it fine, my 12-year-old didn’t like it and was incensed by the lack of peanut butter sandwiches, and my seven-year-old wouldn’t sit still the whole movie unless Stitch was on the screen. That’s a 1/3 success rate, so I ask again, “What are we doing here, Disney? Make it make sense!”
Rating: Didn’t Like It
Lilo & Stitch is currently playing in theaters
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