Lilo & Stitch, 2025.
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp.
Starring Maia Kealoha, Sydney Agudong, Chris Sanders, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance, Amy Hill, Tia Carrere, Kaipo Dudoit, Hannah Waddingham, Jason Scott Lee, Celia Kenney, Brutus LaBenz, Skyler Bible, Judy Nguyen, Christian Yeung, Courtney Coleman, Christina Souza, Emery Ho‘okano-Briel, Justin Martin, and Isabelle Du.
SYNOPSIS:
A lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family.
In a catalog that mostly amounts to emotionless, soulless recreation, it is pleasant to report that the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake from director Dean Fleischer Camp successfully tugs at the heartstrings while simultaneously deepening its central Hawaiian family dynamics and characterizations. The problem is that Disney still doesn’t seem to understand that animation is a medium, not a genre (one would think they of all people would firmly know this), and didn’t account that no matter which brilliant filmmaker they plucked to helm this project (Dean Fleischer Camp was responsible for the outstanding Marcel the Shell With Shoes On), translating the humor, jokes, and general plot would come across awkward, even if fugly blue koala-looking alien Stitch himself is better suited for a CGI take rather than, say, lions.
When hand-drawn animated, it’s organic to laugh and handwave away humans questioning whether Stitch is a dog, or passing as one without suspicion. In live-action, it’s harder to get away with, especially when that alien is regularly causing chaos that occasionally becomes hazardous, whether it’s toward his owner, young Lilo (here played with wide-eyed optimism, kindness, and spirited enthusiasm by Maia Kealoha), or outdoor dining civilians during a fire mishap.
At a certain point, the realness factor of the live-action element kicks in, and one wants someone to take the ensuing destruction and alien presence a bit more seriously instead of playing it off as harmless hijinks. There are still laughs here, with the bond between Lilo and Stitch still coming across as sweet, but much of it simply isn’t funny. The live-action component feels primarily to blame since, during the all-CGI opening on Stitch’s home planet, the jokes are effective, including a cutaway to a hilarious chess gag.
It’s also reasonable that someone might be reading this and wondering if this critic knows how to have fun or suspend disbelief. The counterpoint would easily be a reminder that something is always off about these Disney live-action remakes, whether uncanniness, dead expressions, flat musical arrangements, muted colors, or lifeless performances. Lilo & Stitch is no exception.
It’s almost an indescribable feeling, but the blunt truth is that, as with most Disney live-action remakes, something was lost in translation, the point was lost on me, and I wished I were watching the animated version. That’s also frustrating since Stitch, as a CGI creation, is not the problem, here rendered with a lovable, mischievous charm, and the original film’s director, Chris Sanders, returns to voice him.
However, in this version, the human dynamics are more compelling than the human/alien bonding. Working with a screenplay from Chris Kekaniokalani Bright and Mike Van Waes (based on the 2003 original by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois), there is a bit more about these characters fleshed out, which is reflected in a running time almost 25 minutes longer than its animated counterpart.
Notably, the sisterhood between Lilo and her guardian sister Nani (Sydney Agudong) is given more time not solely to expand on the latter’s struggles at presenting herself as a responsible parental figure, their hobbies, hopes, and dreams, and how their bond has changed from sister to mother in the years following the death of their parents. Anyone who has seen the original knows “Ohana” means “family” and that no one gets left behind. However, this version smartly suggests that, while that is essential, it also shouldn’t come at the expense of personal fulfillment.
They are visited by social care worker Mrs. Kekoa (Tia Carrere, who voiced Nani in the original), understanding of the situation, and that Nani is trying her best. Most of that effort is undone by the rambunctious Lilo and Stitch duo, who are either inadvertently getting her fired or jamming to Elvis Presley. Lilo is also considered an outcast by the girls in her hula classes, meaning she is naturally drawn to the otherworldly and hyperactive Stitch.
Lilo wished for a best friend, and Stitch initially uses her interest to hide from a pair of aliens looking to bring him back to his home planet. They would be egotistical scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba and Agent Pleakley, who try to blend in as humans by taking the form of vacationers played by Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen, under the assumption that giving off a best friend vibe will work in their favor. Mostly, it amounts to cheap fish-out-of-water humor and annoying performances leaning too far into cartoonish expressions. Everything from Stitch’s crash landing to these dimwits brings in a government agent played by Courtney B. Vance to investigate.
While the comedy rarely works in this translation from animation to live-action, Lilo & Stitch has heart that bursts through in a moving, reworked third act. That’s also not enough to compensate for an hour that flails tonally, partially because much of this material was never intended for live-action, and it shows.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
