LILO & STITCH -- The Loss of Life

Review by Adam Donato

The 2025 box office is about to do a hesitation move on Disney. First Snow White bombs both critically and financially prompting the studio to reconsider all further live action remakes. Now Lilo & Stitch is poised to be a hit with a prime Memorial Day release date. It also helps that Lilo & Stitch isn’t littered with controversy. People love Stitch. The vibe is fun. The destination is beautiful. The themes about family are universal. This is a layup of a live action remake. They’ve just copied everything, right down to the crossover ads where Stitch interacts with other Disney properties. Box office aside, how does this live action remake shape up?

The problem with most of these live action remakes is that these characters and this story were specifically designed to be represented in animation. The Princess entries kind of get away with that as most of their central characters are human so they’re not as jarring of an interpretation. Anything that focuses on fully cgi lead characters loses a lot of personality and charm in contrast to the animated version. It often looks wrong. 

The way Pleakley looks in this movie is one of the ugliest character designs in recent memory. No wonder they felt like they couldn’t make Pleakley in a dress work. With Gantu being absent from this remake, Jumbaa is given an extended and more antagonistic leaning role. His design is also disgusting. These two characters are the most changed from the original animated movie. While the animated version of the character is better, the interpretation in this film by Billy Magnussen does feel distinct and succeeds in its own way. Jumbaa on the other hand becomes less interesting and more annoying. Constant lame assertions about his own genius and a total lack of dominating presence in comparison to the animated version. It works having the aliens cosplay as humans in the animated version because it’s a cartoon and the suspension of disbelief is higher. 

That being said, Stitch looks fine. Nothing great, but nothing that torpedos the movie. There’s not a lot of new bits with Stitch. He’s mostly just doing the exact same thing he did before. There’s a whole liar revealed cliche added into this version’s climax. There’s no ugly duckling storybook relatable appeal. Stitch was intended to be portrayed in animation and just telling the exact same story only twenty years later is underwhelming and a waste of one of Disney’s most iconic characters.

Child actors are usually not good. Maia Kealoha does not buck this trend. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what she’s saying in the movie. It’s easier in animation because all you need is the voice of the child which can be done by an adult. It would've been nice to see Lilo remain a brat if she wasn’t so annoying. Kealoha fails to land many of the classic jokes. For most people it will just be enough that she just a cute little kid who loves her dog thing. 

It wouldn’t be a Disney live action remake if we didn’t need to beef up some of the female roles. In this adaptation, Nani is a genius who is being offered full ride scholarships to colleges for marine biology. The main struggle of the film is Nani trying to keep their family together with the social workers breathing down her neck. It’s understandable to want to take care of your sibling at all costs, but this unnecessary change in her situation makes her conflict less interesting. How is she smart enough to be offered a full ride, but ignorant enough to force herself to stay home to poorly raise her sister while she financially drowns. The performance by Sydney Agudong is solid. 

Courtney B. Vance as Cobra Bubbles is a much smaller and more mustachioed this time around. His role in the script is kind of minimized here too as there’s multiple social workers on their case. Tia Carrere is the initial social worker who acts as a mentor figure for Nani helping her set goals to maintain her guardianship. This role feels redundant as there’s another new character who has a similar female role model vibe to her as well. 

Amy Hill plays Tutu who is an old lady character from the original. Nobody is more beefed up as a character here than her. She’s also the funniest character in the movie. The jokes she makes aren’t incredibly funny, but in contrast to the rest of the jokes in the movie her jokes are new. Every other joke is straight out of the original so it’s refreshing to see something I haven’t already seen in a better movie before. She’s also made into the parent of David, Nani’s romantic interest. David is made dumber here because it’s important for these live action remakes that the men are dumber and the women are smarter than they were before. Take that, patriarchy!

It’s impossible to watch this live action remake and not compare it to the original. Especially when the movie is so desperately trying to recreate the original as opposed to making it their own. Families will enjoy this because the parents like the original and the kids will enjoy the little blue alien guy. It just feels like a lifeless adaptation that is a complete waste of time. Luckily there’s a Mission Impossible movie out this weekend so if you have a brain then you should go see that instead. Save this one for a lazy at home Disney plus half watch while you’re on your phone. That’s what it was made for. 

Lilo & Stitch will be in theaters on May 23. 

Rating: 1/5