Lilo & Stitch (2025)

Score: 4 / 5

Of the live-action remakes of Disney films, Lilo & Stitch was not an expected one, if only due to its comparatively recent original. The runaway 2002 hit has certainly made its mark on fan culture; Stitch is ubiquitous in any Disney store or park. And though the original film has its downsides -- after a truly magical first hour or so, it devolves into mindless chases that eschew the smarts setting it up -- it clearly inspired a generation with several sequels and multiple television series. Dean Fleischer Camp's new film effectively captures the magic of the original, making it more grounded and less frenetic, providing more of what made it memorable and less of what made it irritating for an audience perhaps older than its target.

Clearly offering fan service, at least for those in the know, the film's cast includes returning members who voiced the original Nani, David, and others. Chris Sanders himself returns, not as writer or director, but as Stitch's iconic voice; perhaps an unpopular take, but I have always liked Stitch better when he does not use actual words, relying instead on loose mimicry and vulgar vocalizations. And, of course, we get more Elvis music. To add to the pleasant melange, we get stunning photography in Hawaii and while surfing, sincere and compelling emotional performances from excellent actors, earnest and earned sentimentality with updated themes (more on this presently), and its signature chaotic comedy, often slapstick in form. 

Though there aren't many changes to the plot, a few should be mentioned and considered here. Gantu, the giant hunter tasked with apprehending the runaway Stitch, is wholly absent here, and I personally found that choice brilliant. We already have Jumba and Pleakley chasing him, and we don't need more chaos on that front, and an enormous gray alien stalking around would subtract from the live-action premise of this film. To that point, I also found the switch from the heavy CGI in the film's inciting scene to live action when Stitch makes landfall as welcome and exciting as the flip in Enchanted, or, to be frank, in The Wizard of Oz. Cold and dark animation in space among aliens is fine, but the refreshing color and light and tactile pleasures of Kauai (actually, I think it was mostly filmed on Oahu?) feel revelatory. Additionally, Jumba and Pleakley are a delight here, brought to hilarious life by a morose Zach Galifinakis and a sweetly naive Billy Magnussen; some will decry the lack of drag in Pleakley's human presentation, but I'm not sure there was going to be a controversy-less decision on that front. Would it be better for bad drag, as in the animated original, in an era of fears around men in dresses (which are statistically unfounded, to be clear)? Could Magnussen and his designers have pulled off good drag, and what might that have felt like to genderqueer and drag performers in the biz?

Lilo Pelekai herself is charming and less monstrous than in the original, which could incite anger from fans who need her to be as "bad" as her adopted alien pet. Newcomer Maia Kealoha imbues Lilo with a believable sense of lonely duckling syndrome (there is nothing ugly about the beautiful child, which I think helps explain the mysterious lack of attention to the "ugly duckling" motif in the original), and her drifting identity here is slightly less eccentric, which helps us love her more. That said, I did miss her iconic moment in the original of attempting voodoo against her bullies with frog legs and pickle brine. Most importantly, this is arguably a film more about Nani than the original, and she gets hers and then some. Sydney Elizabeth Agudong is a fully-realized young woman here, not just a capable caretaker for her sister but an ambitious and eager professional whose career and entire life have been stymied by the loss of their parents. Many audiences are upset by the film's denouement, which dramatically changes Nani's arc (don't worry, I won't spoil it here), but I found it significantly more feminist and realistic than the original, and it palpably reinforces the entire franchise's primary theme of the virtues of found family.

Building on that point, for those of you in the know, we also get a new character who rounds out the realism and comfort of the film's melodrama in Amy Hill as Tutu, David's grandmother and the Pelekais' longtime neighbor. David himself (Kaipo Dudoit) is charming and winsome, and together, they provide much-needed thematic warmth to this film. Hannah Waddingham doesn't have much to do, but her stilted inflection as the alien Grand Councilwoman is fabulous. Oh, and Courtney B. Vance is a delicious Cobra Bubbles, and that's all I'll say about that. There's a new social worker from a significant actress, and a few cool updates to the source material, and it's all really lovely in emphasizing the "found family" aspect of ohana, especially as Lilo (and, by extension, the audience) learns what caretaking fully requires. And under this director's thoughtful and humble guidance, this movie generously provides exactly what I hoped for in a remake of this material: faithfulness in all aspects with a few intentional and measured deviations for increased emotional and aesthetic impact.