By: Campbell Petschke
The Issue We All Have
Addressing the elephant in the room… I am not a fan of Disney doing all these love action remakes. I’ve given more than a handful a chance with very limited payoff. Jungle Book being the rare exception where it might actually be better than the original. On the other hand though, Lady and the Tramp absolutely stunk and I wasn’t a huge fan of The Little Mermaid (although not horrendous). The others I am too wary of my time to bother checking out, not even for so bad it’s good fun. They seem lifeless from the story telling to the color grading, which they still can’t seem to get right.
While Lilo & Stitch did many things better than nearly every other remake Disney has attempted, it still has a glaring issue that every other one suffers from. My expectation and I think most people’s worry with these remakes is that they’re shot for shot, lack an interesting way to tell the story, and have seriously shitty CGI. Luckily, Lilo & Stitch succeeds in combatting those issues… kind of.
A handful of times there will be near exact recreations of certain scenes trying to capture an emotion that the original source material executed so well. Thankfully, the writers/director decided to go a new direction with many choices. Choices that I know not everyone was pleased with because of how beloved this story is to people of all ages. If it’s done differently and still makes sense for the story, why get upset? I would go as far to say that 75% of the differences felt welcomed and worked pretty well. I like that the differences mostly still stuck to the strong family themes from the original, but then introduced another about learning to let go. That family is still there for you even when they’re physically not.
Growth of Character
Speaking of family, Maia Kealoha IS Lilo. This was the best casting choice I’ve seen for any of these remakes. She understood how this character is supposed to act. She’s free spirited, gets overly enthusiastic about certain things, sometimes says things too bluntly, but loves her family with all her heart even when it feels broken. Sydney Agudong was a great Nani too. There was such a natural chemistry that existed between her and Lilo. I believed their relationship every second.
Not all casting choices were great though, as I have no clue why they thought Zach Galifianakis when looking at Jumba’s design. His voice isn’t menacing at all when he’s clearly supposed to have a large presence. This has nothing against his performance as he did fine with what he was given, but design wise and vocally it was a big miss
This is just once example of where these changes don’t work. In an interview with the director, he stated that they wrote around the character of Gantu because it just didn’t mesh well with the live action. That leads to a big flaw that the OG movie covered so well. Jumba didn’t want to kill Stitch ever, he was more interested in what he would do if not in a large city scale area and studying him. While kind of the bad guy, he redeems himself in spurts and just wants Stitch to be well. In turn, Gantu was the replacement jerk who wanted him captured for selfish reasons. Without him there, it makes Jumba’s villainous presence really flat and dull.
Pleakley’s changes were honestly fine except I’m always gonna miss him dressing as a woman. It added personality to the character. Instead we get a can-do attitude replacement who is played pretty charmingly by Billy Magnussen. The reoccurring theme here is that these two changes aren’t really awful, but they’re opted out for less interesting alternatives.
The Problem is Not the Issue
The biggest crime this movie commits though is the same one that all the other remakes do. Not that anyone from Disney will read this, but STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE SAME MOVIE! For a movie that has differences that mostly pay off positively, why bother wasting time trying to recreate others, but with half the spirit?
The first social worker scene in particular pissed me off with how it wrapped up. The original scene was super emotional and impactful. The score was intense, the tensions were super high, and illustrated how difficult this situation is that Lilo and Nani exist in so perfectly. It’s the turning point in the beginning where the two got on the same level with each other and came to an understanding of how things needed to go down. Nani stepped up being emotionally there for her sister and Lilo met her in the middle by saying that she likes her better as a sister than a mom. It’s a really beautiful moment.
So you can imagine one’s frustration when this pretty serious scene is made out to be a silly little chase with the same intention, but has lighthearted, fun music playing in the background. Objectively without comparison of the original, this is just a totally miss of an opportunity. A very serious threat is being posed to their relationship and living situation and instead it’s opted out for silliness.
The opening sequence in space was executed horribly too. Even without reference to the original, this is an extremely rushed moment that wastes time in trying to get to know these characters at all. It’s all so quick in execution that it honestly made me dizzy. All the rehash quotes being spat were super irritating too. You don’t need to do that to make old fans interested. It was interesting to see what parts of dialogue they thought the old fans would want to see.
For example, in Stitch’s escape scene in the beginning, we are wondering where he went after he maneuvers out of his trap. We find out he takes an escape ship, but while wondering which one he took, they highlight how he took the big red ship which is supposed to be cool and exciting to see. A character on the control deck says, “oh he took the red one.” That’s supposed to be cool! Instead in this film, we see Stitch escape immediately and there’s no buildup of mystery of emphasis of why him taking the red ship was cool. The same character says the same line, but we don’t even get a highlight of that ship being the cool one. So why bother saying it?
Lilo & Stitch does so well when it doesn’t try super hard to be like the original and falls flat on its face when it does try way too hard to please the older crowd that grew up with it. The usage of Elvis ultimately serves no purpose being there now since it was played into the story of the first one. Stitch was taught to be a model citizen through Lilo’s interpretation of The King. Here it just is seen as a reference to the original.
The way they handled Cobra Bubbles is pretty lame too. That’s one replacement I did not understand why it had to be changed if they were going to include him anyways. The new social worker character wanted good for Nani, but not in the same way Cobra did. He did a great job in letting her know what she needed to do to keep Lilo with her. It was same message in both movies, just one delivered with urgency and the other being not as impactful. She just came off as a nothing character that easily could’ve been performed by the Cobra character despite this new role of his.
Don’t Take Anyone’s Word For It
While it probably comes off as me complaining throughout this review as a lover of the original Lilo and Stitch, I am only pointing out what objectively did not work in the film’s favor. Believe it or not, I could probably write an even longer review about everything I did like and didn’t like bit by bit. For what this remake is though, it’s harmless. The emotional climax of this film really does work well and got me misty eyed. The Stitch character is still really cool and animated incredibly well shockingly. Despite some color grading issues at times, the Hawaiian setting still looks gorgeous and nails the island vibe that the original did so well too.
For those points alone, I understand that many people will still avoid the Disney remakes like the plague. A decision that I fully respect and mostly follow the same route myself. If you are the least bit curious about checking it out though, please do. Hell, wait until it’s on Disney+. This is the rare instance of the remake being worth checking out as most of the changes in direction pay off and maybe you might even like more. Even if you swear by the original, remove how it’s upsetting the climax is not the same as the original and enjoy this alternate ending.
For the first time since Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book adaptation, I really do feel some confidence in these remakes if they go about it correctly. Hit the correct notes you need to when telling the story, not all of them. If they decide to not be on the nose with their callbacks to the original and point themselves in contributing their new, unique take on the story… go for it! The best parts of this film are when they took new directions. It felt like less of wasting my time and money since it wasn’t the same note for note as the original and had new things to say.
Money Talks (If You Decide to Listen)
Side note/critique: The marketing of this film I found very annoying in a bittersweet way. Back when the animated original was first being promoted, they inserted Stitch into classic Disney moments like the Whole New World scene in Aladdin and the ballroom dance in Beauty and the Beast. He was highlighted to be a menace and troublemaker. It was a really cool promotional tactic to get people interested.
Disney decided to try and repeat that success and put all their marketing into that basket. They had robotic Stitches popping out of movie theater popcorn buckets, popping into other Disney trailers, TikTok profiles… it worked as it got a lot of people excited thinking that if Disney was really promoting it THAT heavily, it must mean they cooked up something special.
That to me speaks volumes. Disney has abandoned so many projects this decade so far and done a terrible job in promoting other features that are original stories. Elemental underperformed here because they did a shitty job promoting it. An original story about immigration and falling in love. Pixar’s upcoming Elio is receiving the same treatment. Barely any coverage and it comes out in a few weeks. Another original that is being pushed to the side. Rant aside, I hope that in some capacity they learn their lesson and see that if you believe in your movies and stories to tell that you can get a lot of people excited. Original stories deserve every ounce of spotlight as a beloved story that we’re all familiar with. Future classics are being deprived to the mainstream by their greed and it’s very disappointing.
The Art of Vibing 