Lilo & Stitch: Film Review
It’s only been a few months since the release of the Snow White but Disney is already back with its next live-action remake, Lilo & Stitch.
Much like the 2002 original, this film follows Lilo (Maia Kealoha), a six-year-old Hawaiian girl who is cared for by her older sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong) following the death of their parents. Nani is struggling to adjust to being a parent and the troublesome Lilo isn’t helping matters. Their lives are complicated further when Lilo adopts what she thinks is a dog, but is actually a genetically engineered alien, Experiment 626 (voiced by returning Stitch voice Chris Sanders), who has crash-landed on Earth.
At first, I thought it was going to be a word-for-word, scene-for-scene remake. Some scenes are literal replications of the original but there are also plenty of changes. This version focuses more on the human story and the sisters’ struggle to stay together as social services consider what is best for Lilo. The Cobra Bubbles character has been split into two people, with Tia Carrere (the original voice of Nani) playing a traditional social services worker, Mrs. Kekoa, and Courtney B. Vance portraying Bubbles as a CIA agent.
Because the film focuses so much on the sisters, Stitch’s emotional arc isn’t as powerful as it was in the original. I’m surprised that director Dean Fleisher Camp removed the scene where Stitch realises he’s lost and has no family of his own. That was just an important heart-wrenching moment! The adorable blue rascal still hit me in the feels later on but that particular emotional scene is a replica of the original so the praise belongs to that version.
There were a few changes I appreciated. Giving aliens Agent Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) and Dr. Jumba (Zach Galifianakis) human disguises makes a lot of visual sense in the live-action version. Magnussen throws himself into the silliness and brings the laughs with his slapstick physical comedy. He’s not the only funny one – both Stitch and the adorably precocious Kealoha cracked me up too. The well-cast Agudong offers a good counterbalance as the stressed Nani.
The Disney live-action remakes have been a mixed bag so I’m pleased that this is one of the better ones. I don’t have a nostalgic connection to the original but I’d still probably gravitate towards that over this update because the animation feels more magical and fun.
In cinemas from Wednesday 21st May and Disney+ from Wednesday 3rd September