Lilo & Stitch (2025)
Directed by: Dean Fleischer Camp
Premise: A live action remake of the 2002 animated film. An extraterrestrial on the run lands on a Hawaiian island and is befriended by a little girl (Maia Kealoha). Other aliens follow.
What Works: 2025’s Lilo & Stitch is yet another live action remake of a Disney animated film. However, unlike The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, or The Little Mermaid, the original Lilo & Stitch was not a classic. That film came out of a wobbly period for Walt Disney Animation Studios (then called Walt Disney Feature Animation), and although it was one of the studio’s better releases from that time the animation was not as high quality and the story was less cohesive. Perhaps as a result, the remake of Lilo & Stich inherently comes across in better faith than Disney’s cash grab exploitations of its animated classics. This version improves the story. A few new characters are added and established ones are reconceived in ways that allow everything to make a little more sense. Unlike some of Disney’s other remakes, Lilo & Stitch does not lose charm in the transition from animation to live action. In fact, the emotional impact of the 2025 version is considerably stronger. That largely owes to the cast especially Maia Kealoha as Lilo and Sydney Agudong as her older sister Nani. Lilo & Stitch is essentially a pet story like Beethoven, in which the family is brought together by their furry friend. That’s done pretty well and the sister relationship is credible. Lilo & Stitch is funny and it hits most of the right emotional beats. Stitch is created as a digital character but he is seamlessly integrated into the live action and the creature’s visual texture and the emotion in his performance is impressive.
What Doesn’t: Despite some innovations, 2025’s Lilo & Stitch is fundamentally the same movie as its predecessor. It follows the same overall plot, repeats a few of the jokes, and generally has the same appeals. The remake is justified insofar as it does many things better but the movie never escapes the feeling that we’ve seen this before. The editing and pacing of Lilo & Stitch is sometimes clunky. The opening on the extraterrestrial spacecraft feels rushed while other parts of the movie drag out. The very end of Lilo & Stitch is overextended. The movie lacks a feel of surprise. That’s partly a result of the retreaded material but the characters act unphased when encountering an extraterrestrial and all the implications that come with it.
Bottom Line: The original Lilo & Stitch was a cute trifle and so is the remake. The 2025 version smooths out some of the plotting while delivering the cuddly and funny emotional appeals that made the original so entertaining.
Episode: #1050 (June 1, 2025)